A Statistically-Switched Adaptive Vector Median Filter

This paper presents a new cost-effective, adaptive multichannel filter taking advantage of switching schemes, robust order-statistic theory and approximation of the multivariate dispersion. Introducing the statistical control of the switching between the vector median and the identity operation, the developed filter enhances the detail-preserving capability of the standard vector median filter. The analysis and experimental results reported in this paper indicate that the proposed method is capable of detecting and removing impulsive noise in multichannel images. At the same time, the method is computationally efficient and provides excellent balance between the noise attenuation and signal-detail preservation. Excellent performance of the proposed method is tested using standard test color images as well as real images related to emerging virtual restoration of artworks. Rastislav Lukac: Corresponding author e-mail: lukacr@dsp.utoronto.ca, Web: http//www.dsp.utoronto.ca/∼lukacr.