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6 Enhancement
picture contains "false contours" due to inadequate quantization (see
Section 4.3), their presence may mask important information, which becomes
more readily visible when we smooth out the contours. In general, we can
use enhancement techniques to suppress selected features of a picture, or to
emphasize such features at the expense of other features. From this viewpoint,
enhancement can be regarded as selective emphasis and suppression of in-
formation in the picture, with the aim of increasing the picture's usefulness.
The enhancement methods described in this chapter are all quite basic
and simple. In practical situations ...