Total Variation Denoising and Enhancement of Color Images Based on the CB and HSV Color Models

Most denoising and enhancement methods for color images have been formulated on linear color models, namely, the channel-by-channel model and vectorial model. In this paper, we study the total variation (TV) restoration based on the two nonlinear (or nonflat) color models: the chromaticity–brightness model and hue–saturation–value model. These models are known to be closer to human perception. Recent works on the variational/PDE method for nonflat features by several authors enable us to denoise the chromaticity and hue components directly. We present both the mathematical theory and digital implementation for the TV method. Comparison to the traditional TV restorations based on linear color models is made through various experiments.