Histogram-Based Image Pre-processing For Machine Learning

This proposes to use some image processing methods as a data normalization method for machine learning. Conventionally, z-score normalization is widely used for pre-processing of data. In the proposed approach, in addition to z-score normalization, a number of histogram-based image processing methods such as histogram equalization are applied to training data and test data as a pre-processing method for machine learning. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by using a support vector machine algorithm and a random forest one. In experiments, the proposed scheme is applied to a face-based authentication algorithm with SVM/random forest classifiers to confirm the effectiveness. For SVM classifiers, both z-score normalization and image enhancement work well as a pre-processing method for improving the accuracy. In contrast, for random forest classifiers, a number of image enhancement methods work well, although z-score normalization is unusual for improving the accuracy. The proposed pre-processing method focuses on leveraging histogram analysis to address challenges related to contrast variations, colour distributions, and noise levels in diverse image datasets. The key objectives include the development of an adaptive contrast enhancement algorithm, colour normalization techniques, and strategies for noise reduction.