Distance Measures for Reduced Ordering Based Vector Filters

Reduced ordering based vector filters have proved successful in removing long-tailed noise from color images while preserving edges and fine image details. These filters commonly utilize variants of the Minkowski distance to order the color vectors with the aim of distinguishing between noisy and noise-free vectors. In this paper, we review various alternative distance measures and evaluate their performance on a large and diverse set of images using several effectiveness and efficiency criteria. The results demonstrate that there are in fact strong alternatives to the popular Minkowski metrics

A Hybrid Filter with Impulse Detection for Removal of Random Valued Impulse Noise from Colour Videos

This paper presents a three dimensional hybrid filter to remove random valued impulse noise from colour video sequences. The switching median technique is utilized to protect noise free isolated pixels from filtering so as to avoid blurring of frames. The restoration of noisy pixels is done by brightness information obtained from median filtering and chromaticity information is obtained from vector directional filtering. This hybrid filter is applied in three dimensional sliding window where spatial as well as temporal information about neighbourhood is available for restoration of frame under consideration. Only noise free pixels of three dimensional sliding window are used for restoration of frame under consideration. Simulation results show that the proposed three dimensional hybrid filter yields superior performance in comparison to other filtering method

Unrestricted multivariate medians for adaptive filtering of color images

Reduction of impulse noise in color images is a fundamental task in the image processing field. A number of approaches have been proposed to solve this problem in literature, and many of them rely on some multivariate median computed on a relevant image window. However, little attention has been paid to the comparative assessment of the distinct medians that can be used for this purpose. In this paper we carry out such a study, and its conclusions lead us to design a new image denoising procedure. Quantitative and qualitative results are shown, which demonstrate the advantages of our method in terms of noise reduction, detail preservation and stability with respect to a selection of well-known proposals.Presentado en el IX Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Comparison of modern nonlinear multichannel filtering techniques using recent full-reference image quality assessment methods

In the paper the quality analysis of some modern nonlinear color image filtering methods is presented. Traditionally, many image filtering algorithms are analyzed using classical image quality assessment metrics, mainly based on the Mean Square Error (MSE). However, they are all poorly correlated with subjective evaluation of images performed by observers.Due to necessity of better image quality estimation, some other methods have been recently proposed. They are especially useful for development of new lossy image compression algorithms, as well as evaluation of images obtained after applying some image processing algorithms e.g. filtering methods.Most of image quality algorithms are based on the comparison of similarity between two images: the original (reference) one and the second one which is processed e.g. contaminated by noise, filtered or lossily compressed. Such a group of full-reference methods is actually the only existing universal solution for automatic image quality assessment. There are also some blind (no-reference) algorithms but they are specialized for some kinds of distortions e.g. blocky effects in the JPEG compressed images. The last years' state-of-the-art full-reference metrics are Structural Similarity (SSIM) and M-SVD based on the Singular Value Decomposition of two images' respective blocks.Another important aspect of color image quality assessment is the way the color information is utilized in the quality metric. The authors of two analyzed metrics generally do not consider the effects of using color information at all or limit the usage of their metrics to luminance information in YUV color model only so in this article the solutions based on RGB and CIE LAB models are compared.In the paper the results of quality assessment using the SSIM and M-SVD methods obtained for some modern median-based filters and Distance-Directional Filter for color images are presented with comparison to those obtained using classical metrics as the verification of their usefulness

Comparison of modern nonlinear multichannel filtering techniques using recent full-reference image quality assessment methods

In the paper the quality analysis of some modern nonlinear color image filtering methods is presented. Traditionally, many image filtering algorithms are analyzed using classical image quality assessment metrics, mainly based on the Mean Square Error (MSE). However, they are all poorly correlated with subjective evaluation of images performed by observers.Due to necessity of better image quality estimation, some other methods have been recently proposed. They are especially useful for development of new lossy image compression algorithms, as well as evaluation of images obtained after applying some image processing algorithms e.g. filtering methods.Most of image quality algorithms are based on the comparison of similarity between two images: the original (reference) one and the second one which is processed e.g. contaminated by noise, filtered or lossily compressed. Such a group of full-reference methods is actually the only existing universal solution for automatic image quality assessment. There are also some blind (no-reference) algorithms but they are specialized for some kinds of distortions e.g. blocky effects in the JPEG compressed images. The last years' state-of-the-art full-reference metrics are Structural Similarity (SSIM) and M-SVD based on the Singular Value Decomposition of two images' respective blocks.Another important aspect of color image quality assessment is the way the color information is utilized in the quality metric. The authors of two analyzed metrics generally do not consider the effects of using color information at all or limit the usage of their metrics to luminance information in YUV color model only so in this article the solutions based on RGB and CIE LAB models are compared.In the paper the results of quality assessment using the SSIM and M-SVD methods obtained for some modern median-based filters and Distance-Directional Filter for color images are presented with comparison to those obtained using classical metrics as the verification of their usefulness

Unrestricted multivariate medians for adaptive filtering of color images

Reduction of impulse noise in color images is a fundamental task in the image processing field. A number of approaches have been proposed to solve this problem in literature, and many of them rely on some multivariate median computed on a relevant image window. However, little attention has been paid to the comparative assessment of the distinct medians that can be used for this purpose. In this paper we carry out such a study, and its conclusions lead us to design a new image denoising procedure. Quantitative and qualitative results are shown, which demonstrate the advantages of our method in terms of noise reduction, detail preservation and stability with respect to a selection of well-known proposals.Presentado en el IX Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Decision-Based Marginal Total Variation Diffusion for Impulsive Noise Removal in Color Images

Impulsive noise removal for color images usually employs vector median filter, switching median filter, the total variation L1 method, and variants. These approaches, however, often introduce excessive smoothing and can result in extensive visual feature blurring and thus are suitable only for images with low density noise. A marginal method to reduce impulsive noise is proposed in this paper that overcomes this limitation that is based on the following facts: (i) each channel in a color image is contaminated independently, and contaminative components are independent and identically distributed; (ii) in a natural image the gradients of different components of a pixel are similar to one another. This method divides components into different categories based on different noise characteristics. If an image is corrupted by salt-and-pepper noise, the components are divided into the corrupted and the noise-free components; if the image is corrupted by random-valued impulses, the components are divided into the corrupted, noise-free, and the possibly corrupted components. Components falling into different categories are processed differently. If a component is corrupted, modified total variation diffusion is applied; if it is possibly corrupted, scaled total variation diffusion is applied; otherwise, the component is left unchanged. Simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness