texturecontrast

Texture contrast is the perceptual difference between textures in neighboring regions of an image or scene. It describes how strongly textural properties such as granularity, pattern, orientation, and regularity vary across space. High texture contrast makes boundaries between textures more noticeable and supports figure-ground separation, while low texture contrast yields smoother transitions and can obscure boundaries.

In image processing and computer vision, texture contrast is quantified using statistical, transform-based, or model-based features. Classical measures include the contrast component of gray-level co-occurrence matrices (GLCM), defined as the weighted sum of squared intensity differences between neighboring pixels. Other approaches use local binary patterns, Gabor filter responses, or wavelet coefficients to capture how texture energy changes across scales and directions. Robust measures often combine multi-scale analysis to handle variation in scale and illumination.

Texture contrast is used for image segmentation, material and surface classification, quality control in manufacturing, and artistic evaluation. It informs algorithms that separate regions by texture, helps identify different materials, and guides automated inspection of textures such as fabrics, papers, or metals.

Challenges include dependence on scale, lighting, viewing distance, and perspective, which can alter perceived texture contrast. Methods seek scale-invariant or illumination-robust estimates and may incorporate contextual cues to improve reliability.

See also: Texture analysis, Haralick features, Local binary patterns, Gabor filter, Texture segmentation.