A hybrid image restoration approach: fuzzy logic and directional weighted median based uniform impulse noise removal

In this paper, a hybrid image restoration technique based on fuzzy logic and directional weighted median is presented. The proposed technique consists of noise detection and fuzzy filtering processes to detect and remove uniform (random-valued) impulse noise while preserving the image details efficiently. In order to preserve image details such as edges and texture information, a two-stage robust noise detection is presented in this paper. Pixels detected as noisy by both the noise detection stages are considered for noise removal by the fuzzy filtering process, which utilizes the direction based weighted median to construct fuzzy membership function, which is the main contributing factor in noise removal and detail preservation. Extensive experimentation shows that the proposed technique performs significantly better than state-of-the-art filters based on peak signal-to-noise ratio, structural similarity index measure and subjective evaluation criteria.