Low-contrast X-ray enhancement using a fuzzy gamma reasoning model

X-ray images play an important role in providing physicians with satisfactory information correlated to fractures and diseases; unfortunately, most of these images suffer from low contrast and poor quality. Thus, enhancement of the image will increase the accuracy of correct information on pathologies for an autonomous diagnosis system. In this paper, a new approach for low-contrast X-ray image enhancement based on brightness adjustment using a fuzzy gamma reasoning model (FGRM) is proposed. To achieve this, three phases are considered: pre-processing, Fuzzy model for adaptive gamma correction (GC), and quality assessment based on blind reference. The proposed approach's accuracy is examined through two different blind reference approaches based on statistical measures (BR-SM) and dispersion-location (BR-DL) descriptors, supported by resulting images. Experimental results of the proposed FGRM approach on three databases (cervical, lumbar, and hand radiographs) yield favorable results in terms of contrast adjustment and providing satisfactory quality images. Graphical Abstract Graphical abstract of the proposed enhancement method.