Impulsive noise filtering based on noise detection in corrupted digital color images

This paper is an enhancement to our earlier research with grey-scale images. In this paper, we propose two new detection-estimation based image filtering algorithms that effectively remove corrupted pixels with impulsive noise in digital color images. The existing methods for enhancing corrupted color images typically possess inherent problems in computation time and smoothing out edges because all pixels are filtered. Our proposed algorithms first classify corrupted pixels in each channel or in each pixel. Because marginal or vector median filtering is only performed for the classified pixels, the process is computationally efficient, and edges are preserved well. In addition, because there is no appropriate criterion to evaluate the performance of impulsive noise detectors for color images, the objective comparison of noise detectors is difficult. Thus, we introduce a new efficiency factor for comparing the performance of noise detectors in digital color images. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms perform better than existing methods, in both objective and subjective evaluations.This work was supported by the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) under grant no. 981-0912-057-2.     

Adaptive progressive filter to remove impulse noise in highly corrupted color images

In this paper, an adaptive progressive filtering (APF) technique with low computational complexity is proposed for removing impulse noise in highly corrupted color images. Color images that are corrupted with impulse noise are generally filtered by applying a vector-based approach. Vector-based methods tend to cluster the noise and receive a lower noise reduction performance when the noise ratio is high. To improve the performance, in the proposed technique, a new reliable estimation of impulse noise intensity and noise type is made initially, and then a progressive restoration mechanism is devised, using multi-pass non-linear operations with selected processing windows adapted to the estimation. The effect of impulse detection based on geometric characteristics and features of the corrupt pixel/pixel regions and the exact estimation of impulse noise intensity and type are used in the APF to efficiently support the progressive filtering mechanism. Through experiments conducted using a range of color images, the proposed filtering technique has demonstrated superior performance to that of well-known benchmark techniques, in terms of standard objective measurements, visual image quality, and the computational complexity.     

Robust DFT-based filtering of pulse-like FM signals corrupted by impulsive noise

Filtering of pulse-like FM signals with varying amplitude corrupted by impulse noise is considered. The robust DFT calculated for overlapped intervals is used for this aim. This technique is proposed in order to decrease amplitude distortion of output signals that can be introduced by the robust DFT calculated within a wide interval including possible zero-output. The proposed algorithm is realized through the following steps. In the first stage, the robust DFT is calculated for the intervals. Filtered signals from the intervals are obtained by applying the standard inverse DFT for the robust DFTs applied to input data. In the second stage, results for different overlapped intervals are combined using the appropriate order statistics. In addition, an algorithm inspired by the intersection of the confidence intervals rule is used for adaptive selection of the interval width in the robust DFT. Algorithm accuracy is tested on numerical examples. Computational complexity analysis is also provided.     

Blind separation of impulsive noise from corrupted audio signal

The authors present a new method for separating the impulsive noise from a corrupted audio signal. It is shown that if the audio signal is assumed to be Gaussian distributed, the third-order cumulants of the impulsive noise can be separated, based upon the corrupted audio signal. The impulsive noise can then be reconstructed via the relationship between the bispectrum and the Fourier spectrum. Finally, the audio signal is restored by simply subtracting the reconstructed impulsive noise from the signal     

Denoising images corrupted by impulsive noise using projections onto the epigraph set of the total variation function (PES-TV)

In this article, a novel algorithm for denoising images corrupted by impulsive noise is presented. Impulsive noise generates pixels whose gray level values are not consistent with the neighboring pixels. The proposed denoising algorithm is a two-step procedure. In the first step, image denoising is formulated as a convex optimization problem, whose constraints are defined as limitations on local variations between neighboring pixels. We use Projections onto the Epigraph Set of the TV function (PES-TV) to solve this problem. Unlike other approaches in the literature, the PES-TV method does not require any prior information about the noise variance. It is only capable of utilizing local relations among pixels and does not fully take advantage of correlations between spatially distant areas of an image with similar appearance. In the second step, a Wiener filtering approach is cascaded to the PES-TV-based method to take advantage of global correlations in an image. In this step, the image is first divided into blocks and those with similar content are jointly denoised using a 3D Wiener filter. The denoising performance of the proposed two-step method was compared against three state-of-the-art denoising methods under various impulsive noise models.     

Restoration of speckle noise corrupted SAR images using regularization by denoising

Speckle noise removal is a well-established problem in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image processing. Among different methods focused on the reconstruction of SAR images, variational models have achieved state-of-the-art performance. In this paper, a Rayleigh based speckle reduction algorithm is developed using the variational framework. The forward model is combined with recently proposed regularization by denoising (RED) prior. However, RED has been proposed in literature for the additive noise model. Multiplicative noise in SAR images prevents the direct application of RED to variational models. Hence, logarithm transformation is applied to change the multiplicative noise model to additive model, and the forward model from Rayleigh to Fisher–Tippett distribution. The resulting optimization problem is solved using the alternating direction method of multipliers. Further, the proof of the convergence analysis is carried out for the above framework. Simulations convey that the proposed method has better despeckling performance compared to that of state-of-the-art methods.     

A hybrid neuro-fuzzy filter for edge preserving restoration of images corrupted by impulse noise.

A new operator for restoring digital images corrupted by impulse noise is presented. The proposed operator is a hybrid filter obtained by appropriately combining a median filter, an edge detector, and a neuro-fuzzy network. The internal parameters of the neuro-fuzzy network are adaptively optimized by training. The training is easily accomplished by using simple artificial images that can be generated in a computer. The most distinctive feature of the proposed operator over most other operators is that it offers excellent line, edge, detail, and texture preservation performance while, at the same time, effectively removing noise from the input image. Extensive simulation experiments show that the proposed operator may be used for efficient restoration of digital images corrupted by impulse noise without distorting the useful information in the image.     

Optimal filtering of digital binary images corrupted byunion/intersection noise

We model digital binary image data as realizations of a uniformly bounded discrete random set (or discrete random set, for short), which is a mathematical object that can be directly defined on a finite lattice. We consider the problem of estimating realizations of discrete random sets distorted by a degradation process that can be described by a union/intersection noise model. Two distinct optimal filtering approaches are pursued. The first involves a class of "mask" filters, which arises quite naturally from the set-theoretic analysis of optimal filters. The second approach involves a class of morphological filters. We prove that under i.i.d noise morphological openings, closings, unions of openings, and intersections of closings can be viewed as MAP estimators of morphologically smooth signals. Then, we show that by using an appropriate (under a given degradation model) expansion of the optimal filter, we can obtain universal characterizations of optimality that do not rely on strong assumptions regarding the spatial interaction of geometrical primitives of the signal and the noise. The results generalize to gray-level images in a fairly straightforward manner.     

Constructive action of noise for impulsive noise removal in scalar images

A nonlinear variational approach to remove impulsive noise in scalar images is proposed. Taking benefit from recent studies on the use of stochastic resonance and the constructive role of noise in nonlinear processes, the process is based on the classical restoration process of Perona-Malik in which a Gaussian noise is purposely injected. It is shown that this new process can outperform the original restoration process of Perona-Malik.     

A switching median filter with boundary discriminative noise detection for extremely corrupted images.

A novel switching median filter incorporating with a powerful impulse noise detection method, called the boundary discriminative noise detection (BDND), is proposed in this paper for effectively denoising extremely corrupted images. To determine whether the current pixel is corrupted, the proposed BDND algorithm first classifies the pixels of a localized window, centering on the current pixel, into three groups--lower intensity impulse noise, uncorrupted pixels, and higher intensity impulse noise. The center pixel will then be considered as "uncorrupted," provided that it belongs to the "uncorrupted" pixel group, or "corrupted." For that, two boundaries that discriminate these three groups require to be accurately determined for yielding a very high noise detection accuracy--in our case, achieving zero miss-detection rate while maintaining a fairly low false-alarm rate, even up to 70% noise corruption. Four noise models are considered for performance evaluation. Extensive simulation results conducted on both monochrome and color images under a wide range (from 10% to 90%) of noise corruption clearly show that our proposed switching median filter substantially outperforms all existing median-based filters, in terms of suppressing impulse noise while preserving image details, and yet, the proposed BDND is algorithmically simple, suitable for real-time implementation and application.     

A fuzzy noise reduction method for color images.

A new fuzzy filter is presented for the reduction of additive noise for digital color images. The filter consists of two subfilters. The first subfilter computes fuzzy distances between the color components of the central pixel and its neighborhood. These distances determine in what degree each component should be corrected. All performed corrections preserve the color component distances. The goal of the second subfilter is to correct the pixels where the color components differences are corrupted so much that they appear as outliers in comparison to their environment. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed approach. We compare with other noise reduction methods by numerical measures and visual observations. We also illustrate the performance of the proposed method as preprocessing step for edge detection.     

An efficient algorithm for the removal of impulse noise from corrupted images

In this letter, we propose an efficient algorithm, which can successfully remove impulse noise from corrupted images while preserving image details. It is efficient, and requires no previous training. The algorithm consists of two steps: impulse noise detection and impulse noise cancellation. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed approach significantly outperforms many other well-known techniques for image noise removal.     

Robust local similarity filter for the reduction of mixed Gaussian and impulsive noise in color digital images

In this paper, a novel technique designed for the suppression of mixed Gaussian and impulsive noise in color images is proposed. The new denoising scheme is based on a weighted averaging of pixels contained in a filtering block. The main novelty of the proposed solution lies in the new definition of the similarity between the samples of the processing block and a small window centered at the block’s central pixel. Instead of direct comparison of pixels, a measure based on the similarity between a given pixel and the samples from the neighborhood of the central pixel is utilized. This measure is defined as the sum of distances in a given color space, between a pixel of the block and a certain number of most similar samples from the filtering window. The main advantage of the proposed scheme is that the new similarity measure is not influenced by the outliers injected into the image by the impulsive noise and the averaging process ensures the effectiveness of the new filter in the reduction of Gaussian noise. The experimental results prove that the novel filtering design is capable of suppressing mixed noise of high intensity and is competitive with respect to the state-of-the-art noise filtering methods.     

MAP estimation of finite gray-scale digital images corrupted bysupremum/infimum noise

Finite gray-scale digital images are modeled as realizations of discrete random functions (DRF), and then the estimation of realizations of DRF corrupted by a supremum/infimum noise model is considered. It is proved that morphological operators such as openings, closings, supremum of openings and infimum of closings are optimal maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimators under an appropriate and minimal set of assumptions relating to the structural and statistical constraints on image DRF and noise DRF. These results are obtained for independent, identically distributed (i.i.d.) noise for single and multiframe observation scenarios. Next, the assumption of i.i.d. noise is relaxed and the MAP optimality and strong consistency of morphological filters for filtering image DRF degraded by morphologically smooth noise (i.e., colored noise) is proved. Simulations on actual image data are carried out in support of the validity of theoretical results presented.     

A new efficient approach for the removal of impulse noise fromhighly corrupted images

A new framework for removing impulse noise from images is presented in which the nature of the filtering operation is conditioned on a state variable defined as the output of a classifier that operates on the differences between the input pixel and the remaining rank-ordered pixels in a sliding window. As part of this framework, several algorithms are examined, each of which is applicable to fixed and random-valued impulse noise models. First, a simple two-state approach is described in which the algorithm switches between the output of an identity filter and a rank-ordered mean (ROM) filter. The technique achieves an excellent tradeoff between noise suppression and detail preservation with little increase in computational complexity over the simple median filter. For a small additional cost in memory, this simple strategy is easily generalized into a multistate approach using weighted combinations of the identity and ROM filter in which the weighting coefficients can be optimized using image training data. Extensive simulations indicate that these methods perform significantly better in terms of noise suppression and detail preservation than a number of existing nonlinear techniques with as much as 40% impulse noise corruption. Moreover, the method can effectively restore images corrupted with Gaussian noise and mixed Gaussian and impulse noise. Finally, the method is shown to be extremely robust with respect to the training data and the percentage of impulse noise.     

Deblurring Poissonian images by split Bregman techniques

The restoration of blurred images corrupted by Poisson noise is an important task in various applications such as astronomical imaging, electronic microscopy, single particle emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET). In this paper, we focus on solving this task by minimizing an energy functional consisting of the I-divergence as similarity term and the TV regularization term. Our minimizing algorithm uses alternating split Bregman techniques (alternating direction method of multipliers) which can be reinterpreted as Douglas-Rachford splitting applied to the dual problem. In contrast to recently developed iterative algorithms, our algorithm contains no inner iterations and produces nonnegative images. The high efficiency of our algorithm in comparison to other recently developed algorithms to minimize the same functional is demonstrated by artificial and real-world numerical examples.     

An L0 regularized cartoon-texture decomposition model for restoring images corrupted by blur and impulse noise

In this paper, we address the image restoration case that includes both blurring and impulse noise. To recover an image with abundant features, we propose an L0 regularized cartoon-texture model for the simultaneous deblurring and impulse noise removal problem. We propose an L0 regularized framelet-based sparse representation and L0 regularized discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based sparse approximation to model the cartoon and texture of images, respectively. Unlike other cartoon-texture decomposition based-restoration approaches, our method does not depend on local features but globally controls the important non-zero components of the cartoon and texture in the framelet and DCT domain. Furthermore, we develop an alternating half-quadratic splitting method to solve the proposed L0 regularized cartoon-texture deblurring and impulse noise removal model (L0_RCTDINR) by introducing an alternating algorithm into the half-quadratic method. Experiments show the effectiveness of L0_RCTDINR on deblurring and impulse noise removal compared with existing state-of-the-art methods.     

Adaptive two-pass rank order filter to remove impulse noise in highly corrupted images

In this paper, we present an adaptive two-pass rank order filter to remove impulse noise in highly corrupted images. When the noise ratio is high, rank order filters, such as the median filter for example, can produce unsatisfactory results. Better results can be obtained by applying the filter twice, which we call two-pass filtering. To further improve the performance, we develop an adaptive two-pass rank order filter. Between the passes of filtering, an adaptive process is used to detect irregularities in the spatial distribution of the estimated impulse noise. The adaptive process then selectively replaces some pixels changed by the first pass of filtering with their original observed pixel values. These pixels are then kept unchanged during the second filtering. In combination, the adaptive process and the second filter eliminate more impulse noise and restore some pixels that are mistakenly altered by the first filtering. As a final result, the reconstructed image maintains a higher degree of fidelity and has a smaller amount of noise. The idea of adaptive two-pass processing can be applied to many rank order filters, such as a center-weighted median filter (CWMF), adaptive CWMF, lower-upper-middle filter, and soft-decision rank-order-mean filter. Results from computer simulations are used to demonstrate the performance of this type of adaptation using a number of basic rank order filters.     

Characterizing filtered light waves corrupted by phase noise

The phase noise associated with single-mode semiconductor lasers must be accounted for in performance studies of lightwave communication systems. The standard phase noise model is a Brownian-motion stochastic process. Although many analyses of lightwave communication systems have been published, none, to the authors knowledge, has fully adhered to the standard model. The reason is that a proper characterization of filtered lightwave signal had not been achieved. Such a characterization, along with theoretical approaches to obtaining it, is detailed. The authors show, for example, how to generate probability density functions (PDFs) of the magnitude of a filtered laser tone (with special attention to the tail region) and how to analytically represent the characteristic function of the PDF in closed form in the small-phase-noise realm. With the characterization in place, the stage is now set for determining the bit-error rate performance of advanced detection techniques which seek to mitigate the phase noise impairment