Contrast enhancement is crucial when generating high quality images for image processing applications, such as digital image or video photography, liquid crystal display processing, and medical image analysis. In order to achieve real-time performance for high-definition video applications, it is necessary to design efficient contrast enhancement hardware architecture to meet the needs of real-time processing. In this paper, we propose a novel hardware-oriented contrast enhancement algorithm which can be implemented effectively for hardware design. In order to be considered for hardware implementation, approximation techniques are proposed to reduce these complex computations during performance of the contrast enhancement algorithm. The proposed hardware-oriented contrast enhancement algorithm achieves good image quality by measuring the results of qualitative and quantitative analyzes. To decrease hardware cost and improve hardware utilization for real-time performance, a reduction in circuit area is proposed through use of parameter-controlled reconfigurable architecture. The experiment results show that the proposed hardware-oriented contrast enhancement algorithm can provide an average frame rate of 48.23 frames/s at high definition resolution 1920 × 1080.