A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF IMAGE FILTERING ON VARIOUS NOISY PIXELS

This paper deals with the comparative study of research work done in the field of Image Filtering. Different noises can affect the image in different ways. Although various solutions are available for denoising them, a detail study of the research is required in order to design a filter which will fulfill the desire aspects along with handling most of the image filtering issues. An output image should be judged on the basis of Image Quality Metrics for ex-: Peak-Signal-to-Noise ratio (PSNR), Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Execution Time

An Approach to Improve the Quality of Infrared Images of Vein-Patterns

This study develops an approach to improve the quality of infrared (IR) images of vein-patterns, which usually have noise, low contrast, low brightness and small objects of interest, thus requiring preprocessing to improve their quality. The main characteristics of the proposed approach are that no prior knowledge about the IR image is necessary and no parameters must be preset. Two main goals are sought: impulse noise reduction and adaptive contrast enhancement technologies. In our study, a fast median-based filter (FMBF) is developed as a noise reduction method. It is based on an IR imaging mechanism to detect the noisy pixels and on a modified median-based filter to remove the noisy pixels in IR images. FMBF has the advantage of a low computation load. In addition, FMBF can retain reasonably good edges and texture information when the size of the filter window increases. The most important advantage is that the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) caused by FMBF is higher than the PSNR caused by the median filter. A hybrid cumulative histogram equalization (HCHE) is proposed for adaptive contrast enhancement. HCHE can automatically generate a hybrid cumulative histogram (HCH) based on two different pieces of information about the image histogram. HCHE can improve the enhancement effect on hot objects rather than background. The experimental results are addressed and demonstrate that the proposed approach is feasible for use as an effective and adaptive process for enhancing the quality of IR vein-pattern images

Novel Restoration Techniques for Images Corrupted with High Density Impulsive Noise

Impulse noise is a most common noise which affects the image quality during acquisition or transmission, reception or storage and retrieval process. Impulse noise comes under two categories: (1) fixed-valued impulse noise, also known as salt-and-pepper noise (SPN) due to its appearance, where the noise value may be either the minimum or maximum value of the dynamic gray-scale range of image and (2) random-valued impulse noise (RVIN), where the noisy pixel value is bounded by the range of the dynamic gray-scale of the image. In literature, many efficient filters are proposed to suppress the impulse noise. But their performance is not good under moderate and high noise conditions. Hence, there is sufficient scope to explore and develop efficient filters for suppressing the impulse noise at high noise densities. In the present research work, efforts are made to propose efficient filters that suppress the impulse noise and preserve the edges and fine details of an image in wide range of noise densities. It is clear from the literature that detection followed by filtering achieves better performance than filtering without detection. Hence, the proposed filters in this thesis are based on detection followed by filtering techniques. The filters which are proposed to suppress the SPN in this thesis are: Adaptive Noise Detection and Suppression (ANDS) Filter Robust Estimator based Impulse-Noise Reduction (REIR) Algorithm Impulse Denoising Using Improved Progressive Switching Median Filter (IDPSM) Impulse-Noise Removal by Impulse Classification (IRIC) A Novel Adaptive Switching Filter-I (ASF-I) for Suppression of High Density SPN A Novel Adaptive Switching Filter-II (ASF-II) for Suppression of High Density SPN Impulse Denoising Using Iterative Adaptive Switching Filter (IASF) In the first method, ANDS, neighborhood difference is employed for pixel classification. Controlled by binary image, the noise is filtered by estimating the value of a pixel with an adaptive switching based median filter applied exclusively to neighborhood pixels that are labeled noise-free. The proposed filter performs better in retaining edges and fine details of an image at low-to-medium densities of fixed-valued impulse noise.The REIR method is based on robust statistic technique, where adaptive window is used for pixel classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with Lorentzian estimator or average of the previously processed pixels. Because of adaptive windowing technique, the filter is able to suppress the noise at a density as high as 90%. In the proposed method, IDPSM, the noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in an adaptive filtering window. The iterative nature of the filter makes it more efficient in noise detection and adaptive filtering window technique makes it robust enough to preserve edges and fine details of an image in wide range of noise densities. The forth proposed method is IRIC. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of processed pixels in the filtering window. At high noise densities, the median filtering may not be able to reject outliers always. Under such circumstances, the processed left neighboring pixel is considered as the estimated output. The computational complexity of this method is equivalent to that of a median filter having a 3×3 window. The proposed algorithm requires simple physical realization structures. Therefore, this algorithm may be quite useful for online and real-time applications. Two different adaptive switching filters: ASF-I and ASF-II are developed for suppressing SPN at high noise density. The noisy pixel is replaced with alpha-trimmed mean value of uncorrupted pixels in the adaptive filtering window. Depending on noise estimation, a small filtering window size is initially selected and then the scheme adaptively changes the window size based on the number of noise-free pixels. Therefore, the proposed method removes the noise much more effectively even at noise density as high as 90% and yields high image quality. In the proposed method IASF, noisy pixel is replaced with alpha-trimmed mean value of uncorrupted pixels in the adaptive filtering window. Due to its iterative structure, the performance of this filter is better than existing order-statistic filters. Further, the adaptive filtering window makes it robust enough to preserve the edges and fine details of an image. Novel Restoration Techniques for Images Corrupted with High Density Impulsive Noise x The filters which are proposed for suppressing random-valued impulse noise (RVIN) are: Adaptive Window based Pixel-Wise MAD (AW-PWMAD) Algorithm Adaptive Local Thresholding with MAD (ALT-MAD) Algorithm The proposed method, Adaptive Window based Pixel-Wise MAD (AW-PWMAD) Algorithm is a modified MAD (Median of the Absolute Deviations from the median) scheme alongwith a threshold employed for pixel-classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in adaptive filtering window. Another proposed method for denoising the random-valued and fixed-valued impulse noise is ALT-MAD. A modified MAD based algorithm alongwith a local adaptive threshold is utilized for pixel-classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in the filtering window of adaptively varied size. Three threshold functions are suggested and employed in this algorithm. Thus, three different versions, namely, ALT-MAD-1, ALT-MAD-2 and ALT-MAD-3 are developed. They are observed to be quite efficient in noise detection and filtering. In the last part of the thesis, some efforts are made to develop filters for color image denoising. The filters which perform better in denoising gray-scale images are developed for suppression of impulsive noise from color images. Since the performance of denoising filters degrades in other color spaces, efforts are made to develop color image denoising filters in RGB color space only in this research work. The developed filters are: Multi-Channel Robust Estimator based Impulse-Noise Reduction (MC-REIR) Algorithm Multi-Channel Impulse-Noise Removal by Impulse Classification (MC-IRIC) Multi-Channel Iterative Adaptive Switching Filter (MC-IASF) Multi-Channel Adaptive Local Thresholding with MAD (MC-ALT-MAD) Algorithm It is observed from the simulation results that the proposed filters perform better than the existing methods. The proposed methods: ASF-1 and IASF exhibit quite superior performance in suppressing SPN in high noise densities compared to other methods. Similarly ALT-MAD-3 exhibits much better performance in suppressing RVIN of low to medium noise densities.The REIR method is based on robust statistic technique, where adaptive window is used for pixel classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with Lorentzian estimator or average of the previously processed pixels. Because of adaptive windowing technique, the filter is able to suppress the noise at a density as high as 90%. In the proposed method, IDPSM, the noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in an adaptive filtering window. The iterative nature of the filter makes it more efficient in noise detection and adaptive filtering window technique makes it robust enough to preserve edges and fine details of an image in wide range of noise densities. The forth proposed method is IRIC. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of processed pixels in the filtering window. At high noise densities, the median filtering may not be able to reject outliers always. Under such circumstances, the processed left neighboring pixel is considered as the estimated output. The computational complexity of this method is equivalent to that of a median filter having a 3×3 window. The proposed algorithm requires simple physical realization structures. Therefore, this algorithm may be quite useful for online and real-time applications. Two different adaptive switching filters: ASF-I and ASF-II are developed for suppressing SPN at high noise density. The noisy pixel is replaced with alpha-trimmed mean value of uncorrupted pixels in the adaptive filtering window. Depending on noise estimation, a small filtering window size is initially selected and then the scheme adaptively changes the window size based on the number of noise-free pixels. Therefore, the proposed method removes the noise much more effectively even at noise density as high as 90% and yields high image quality. In the proposed method IASF, noisy pixel is replaced with alpha-trimmed mean value of uncorrupted pixels in the adaptive filtering window. Due to its iterative structure, the performance of this filter is better than existing order-statistic filters. Further, the adaptive filtering window makes it robust enough to preserve the edges and fine details of an image. Novel Restoration Techniques for Images Corrupted with High Density Impulsive Noise x The filters which are proposed for suppressing random-valued impulse noise (RVIN) are: Adaptive Window based Pixel-Wise MAD (AW-PWMAD) Algorithm Adaptive Local Thresholding with MAD (ALT-MAD) Algorithm The proposed method, Adaptive Window based Pixel-Wise MAD (AW-PWMAD) Algorithm is a modified MAD (Median of the Absolute Deviations from the median) scheme alongwith a threshold employed for pixel-classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in adaptive filtering window. Another proposed method for denoising the random-valued and fixed-valued impulse noise is ALT-MAD. A modified MAD based algorithm alongwith a local adaptive threshold is utilized for pixel-classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in the filtering window of adaptively varied size. Three threshold functions are suggested and employed in this algorithm. Thus, three different versions, namely, ALT-MAD-1, ALT-MAD-2 and ALT-MAD-3 are developed. They are observed to be quite efficient in noise detection and filtering. In the last part of the thesis, some efforts are made to develop filters for color image denoising. The filters which perform better in denoising gray-scale images are developed for suppression of impulsive noise from color images. Since the performance of denoising filters degrades in other color spaces, efforts are made to develop color image denoising filters in RGB color space only in this research work. The developed filters are: Multi-Channel Robust Estimator based Impulse-Noise Reduction (MC-REIR) Algorithm Multi-Channel Impulse-Noise Removal by Impulse Classification (MC-IRIC) Multi-Channel Iterative Adaptive Switching Filter (MC-IASF) Multi-Channel Adaptive Local Thresholding with MAD (MC-ALT-MAD) Algorithm It is observed from the simulation results that the proposed filters perform better than the existing methods. The proposed methods: ASF-1 and IASF exhibit quite superior performance in suppressing SPN in high noise densities compared to other methods. Similarly ALT-MAD-3 exhibits much better performance in suppressing RVIN of low to medium noise densities.The REIR method is based on robust statistic technique, where adaptive window is used for pixel classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with Lorentzian estimator or average of the previously processed pixels. Because of adaptive windowing technique, the filter is able to suppress the noise at a density as high as 90%. In the proposed method, IDPSM, the noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in an adaptive filtering window. The iterative nature of the filter makes it more efficient in noise detection and adaptive filtering window technique makes it robust enough to preserve edges and fine details of an image in wide range of noise densities. The forth proposed method is IRIC. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of processed pixels in the filtering window. At high noise densities, the median filtering may not be able to reject outliers always. Under such circumstances, the processed left neighboring pixel is considered as the estimated output. The computational complexity of this method is equivalent to that of a median filter having a 3×3 window. The proposed algorithm requires simple physical realization structures. Therefore, this algorithm may be quite useful for online and real-time applications. Two different adaptive switching filters: ASF-I and ASF-II are developed for suppressing SPN at high noise density. The noisy pixel is replaced with alpha-trimmed mean value of uncorrupted pixels in the adaptive filtering window. Depending on noise estimation, a small filtering window size is initially selected and then the scheme adaptively changes the window size based on the number of noise-free pixels. Therefore, the proposed method removes the noise much more effectively even at noise density as high as 90% and yields high image quality. In the proposed method IASF, noisy pixel is replaced with alpha-trimmed mean value of uncorrupted pixels in the adaptive filtering window. Due to its iterative structure, the performance of this filter is better than existing order-statistic filters. Further, the adaptive filtering window makes it robust enough to preserve the edges and fine details of an image. Novel Restoration Techniques for Images Corrupted with High Density Impulsive Noise x The filters which are proposed for suppressing random-valued impulse noise (RVIN) are: Adaptive Window based Pixel-Wise MAD (AW-PWMAD) Algorithm Adaptive Local Thresholding with MAD (ALT-MAD) Algorithm The proposed method, Adaptive Window based Pixel-Wise MAD (AW-PWMAD) Algorithm is a modified MAD (Median of the Absolute Deviations from the median) scheme alongwith a threshold employed for pixel-classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in adaptive filtering window. Another proposed method for denoising the random-valued and fixed-valued impulse noise is ALT-MAD. A modified MAD based algorithm alongwith a local adaptive threshold is utilized for pixel-classification. The noisy pixel is replaced with median of uncorrupted pixels in the filtering window of adaptively varied size. Three threshold functions are suggested and employed in this algorithm. Thus, three different versions, namely, ALT-MAD-1, ALT-MAD-2 and ALT-MAD-3 are developed. They are observed to be quite efficient in noise detection and filtering. In the last part of the thesis, some efforts are made to develop filters for color image denoising. The filters which perform better in denoising gray-scale images are developed for suppression of impulsive noise from color images. Since the performance of denoising filters degrades in other color spaces, efforts are made to develop color image denoising filters in RGB color space only in this research work. The developed filters are: Multi-Channel Robust Estimator based Impulse-Noise Reduction (MC-REIR) Algorithm Multi-Channel Impulse-Noise Removal by Impulse Classification (MC-IRIC) Multi-Channel Iterative Adaptive Switching Filter (MC-IASF) Multi-Channel Adaptive Local Thresholding with MAD (MC-ALT-MAD) Algorithm It is observed from the simulation results that the proposed filters perform better than the existing methods. The proposed methods: ASF-1 and IASF exhibit quite superior performance in suppressing SPN in high noise densities compared to other methods. Similarly ALT-MAD-3 exhibits much better performance in suppressing RVIN of low to medium noise densities

Development of Some Novel Spatial-Domain and Transform-Domain Digital Image Filters

Some spatial-domain and transform-domain digital image filtering algorithms have been developed in this thesis to suppress additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). In many occasions, noise in digital images is found to be additive in nature with uniform power in the whole bandwidth and with Gaussian probability distribution. Such a noise is referred to as Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). It is difficult to suppress AWGN since it corrupts almost all pixels in an image. The arithmetic mean filter, commonly known as Mean filter, can be employed to suppress AWGN but it introduces a blurring effect. Image denoising is usually required to be performed before display or further processing like segmentation, feature extraction, object recognition, texture analysis, etc. The purpose of denoising is to suppress the noise quite efficiently while retaining the edges and other detailed features as much as possible