The Rician inverse Gaussian distribution: a new model for non-Rayleigh signal amplitude statistics.

In this paper, we introduce a new statistical distribution for modeling non-Rayleigh amplitude statistics, which we have called the Rician inverse Gaussian (RiIG) distribution. It is a mixture of the Rice distribution and the inverse Gaussian distribution. The probability density function (pdf) is given in closed form as a function of three parameters. This makes the pdf very flexible in the sense that it may be fitted to a variety of shapes, ranging from the Rayleigh-shaped pdf to a noncentral chi2-shaped pdf. The theoretical basis of the new model is quite thoroughly discussed, and we also give two iterative algorithms for estimating its parameters from data. Finally, we include some modeling examples, where we have tested the ability of the distribution to represent locale amplitude histograms of linear medical ultrasound data and single-look synthetic aperture radar data. We compare the goodness of fit of the RiIG model with that of the K model, and, in most cases, the new model turns out as a better statistical model for the data. We also include a series of log-likelihood tests to evaluate the predictive performance of the proposed model.     

Locally adaptive wavelet domain Bayesian processor for denoising medical ultrasound images using Speckle modelling based on Rayleigh distribution

The authors present a statistical approach to speckle reduction in medical ultrasound B-scan images based on maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation in the wavelet domain. In this framework, a new class of statistical model for speckle noise is proposed to obtain a simple and tractable solution in a closed analytical form. The proposed method uses the Rayleigh distribution for speckle noise and a Gaussian distribution for modelling the statistics of wavelet coefficients in a logarithmically transformed ultrasound image. The method combines the MAP estimation with the assumption that speckle is spatially correlated within a small window and designs a locally adaptive Bayesian processor whose parameters are computed from the neighboring coefficients. Further, the locally adaptive estimator is extended to the redundant wavelet representation, which yields better results than the decimated wavelet transform. The experimental results show that the proposed method clearly outperforms the state-of-the-art medical image denoising algorithm of Pizurica et al., spatially adaptive single-resolution methods and band-adaptive multi-scale soft-thresholding techniques in terms of quantitative performance as well as in terms of visual quality of the images. The main advantage of the new method over the existing techniques is that it suppresses speckle noise well, while retaining the structure of the image, particularly the thin bright streaks, which tend to occur along boundaries between tissue layers.     

SAR image filtering based on the heavy-tailed Rayleigh model.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are inherently affected by a signal dependent noise known as speckle, which is due to the radar wave coherence. In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive despeckling filter and derive a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator for the radar cross section (RCS). We first employ a logarithmic transformation to change the multiplicative speckle into additive noise. We model the RCS using the recently introduced heavy-tailed Rayleigh density function, which was derived based on the assumption that the real and imaginary parts of the received complex signal are best described using the alpha-stable family of distribution. We estimate model parameters from noisy observations by means of second-kind statistics theory, which relies on the Mellin transform. Finally, we compare the proposed algorithm with several classical speckle filters applied on actual SAR images. Experimental results show that the homomorphic MAP filter based on the heavy-tailed Rayleigh prior for the RCS is among the best for speckle removal.     

Evaluation of four probability distribution models for speckle in clinical cardiac ultrasound images

Segmenting cardiac ultrasound images requires a model for the statistics of speckle in the images. Although the statistics of speckle are well understood for the raw transducer signal, the statistics of speckle in the image are not. This paper evaluates simple empirical models for first-order statistics for the distribution of gray levels in speckle. The models are created by analyzing over 100 images obtained from commercial ultrasound machines in clinical settings. The data in the images suggests a unimodal scalable family of distributions as a plausible model. Four families of distributions (Gamma, Weibull, Normal, and Log-normal) are compared with the data using goodness-of-fit and misclassification tests. Attention is devoted to the analysis of artifacts in images and to the choice of goodness-of-fit and misclassification tests. The distribution of parameters of one of the models is investigated and priors for the distribution are suggested.     

Segmentation of Gabor-filtered textures using deterministicrelaxation

A supervised texture segmentation scheme is proposed in this article. The texture features are extracted by filtering the given image using a filter bank consisting of a number of Gabor filters with different frequencies, resolutions, and orientations. The segmentation model consists of feature formation, partition, and competition processes. In the feature formation process, the texture features from the Gabor filter bank are modeled as a Gaussian distribution. The image partition is represented as a noncausal Markov random field (MRF) by means of the partition process. The competition process constrains the overall system to have a single label for each pixel. Using these three random processes, the a posteriori probability of each pixel label is expressed as a Gibbs distribution. The corresponding Gibbs energy function is implemented as a set of constraints on each pixel by using a neural network model based on Hopfield network. A deterministic relaxation strategy is used to evolve the minimum energy state of the network, corresponding to a maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability. This results in an optimal segmentation of the textured image. The performance of the scheme is demonstrated on a variety of images including images from remote sensing.     

Multiresolution MAP despeckling of SAR images based on locally adaptive generalized Gaussian pdf modeling.

In this paper, a new despeckling method based on undecimated wavelet decomposition and maximum a posteriori MIAP) estimation is proposed. Such a method relies on the assumption that the probability density function (pdf) of each wavelet coefficient is generalized Gaussian (GG). The major novelty of the proposed approach is that the parameters of the GG pdf are taken to be space-varying within each wavelet frame. Thus, they may be adjusted to spatial image context, not only to scale and orientation. Since the MAP equation to be solved is a function of the parameters of the assumed pdf model, the variance and shape factor of the GG function are derived from the theoretical moments, which depend on the moments and joint moments of the observed noisy signal and on the statistics of speckle. The solution of the MAP equation yields the MAP estimate of the wavelet coefficients of the noise-free image. The restored SAR image is synthesized from such coefficients. Experimental results, carried out on both synthetic speckled images and true SAR images, demonstrate that MAP filtering can be successfully applied to SAR images represented in the shift-invariant wavelet domain, without resorting to a logarithmic transformation.     

A new multiscale Bayesian algorithm for speckle reduction in medical ultrasound images

This paper introduces a new multiscale speckle reduction method based on the extraction of wavelet interscale dependencies to visually enhance the medical ultrasound images and improve clinical diagnosis. The logarithm of the image is first transformed to the oriented dual-tree complex wavelet domain. It is then shown that the adjacent subband coefficients of the log-transformed ultrasound image can be successfully modeled using the general form of bivariate isotropic stable distributions, while the speckle coefficients can be approximated using a zero-mean bivariate Gaussian model. Using these statistical models, we design a new discrete bivariate Bayesian estimator based on minimizing the mean square error (MSE). To assess the performance of the proposed method, four image quality metrics, namely signal-to-noise ratio, MSE, coefficient of correlation, and edge preservation index, were computed on 80 medical ultrasound images. Moreover, a visual evaluation was carried out by two medical experts. The numerical results indicated that the new method outperforms the standard spatial despeckling filters, homomorphic Wiener filter, and new multiscale speckle reduction methods based on generalized Gaussian and symmetric alpha-stable priors.     

Adaptive alpha-trimmed mean filters under deviations from assumed noise model

Alpha-trimmed mean filters are widely used for the restoration of signals and images corrupted by additive non-Gaussian noise. They are especially preferred if the underlying noise deviates from Gaussian with the impulsive noise components. The key design issue of these filters is to select its only parameter, alpha, optimally for a given noise type. In image restoration, adaptive filters utilize the flexibility of selecting alpha according to some local noise statistics. In the present paper, we first review the existing adaptive alpha-trimmed mean filter schemes. We then analyze the performance of these filters when the underlying noise distribution deviates from the Gaussian and does not satisfy the assumptions such as symmetry. Specifically, the clipping effect and the mixed noise cases are analyzed. We also present a new adaptive alpha-trimmed filter implementation that detects the nonsymmetry points locally and applies alpha-trimmed mean filter that trims out the outlier pixels such as edges or impulsive noise according to this local decision. Comparisons of the speed and filtering performances under deviations from symmetry and Gaussian assumptions show that the proposed filter is a very good alternative to the existing schemes.     

Partial update and sparse adaptive filters

There has been increasing research interest in developing adaptive filters with partial update (PU) and adaptive filters for sparse impulse responses. On the basis of maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation, new adaptive filters are developed by determining the update when a new set of training data is received. The MAP estimation formulation permits the study of a number of different prior distributions which naturally incorporate the sparse property of the filter coefficients. First, the Gaussian prior is studied, and a new adaptive filter with PU is proposed. A theoretical basis for an existing PU adaptive filter is also studied. Then new adaptive filters that directly exploit the sparsity of the filter are developed by using the scale mixture Gaussian distribution as the prior. Two new algorithms based on the Student's-t and power-exponential distributions are presented. The minorisation-maximisation algorithm is employed as an optimisation tool. Simulation results show that the learning performance of the proposed algorithms is better than or similar to that of some recently published algorithms     

Unifying probabilistic and variational estimation

A maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator using a Markov or a maximum entropy random field model for a prior distribution may be viewed as a minimizer of a variational problem.Using notions from robust statistics, a variational filter referred to as a Huber gradient descent flow is proposed. It is a result of optimizing a Huber functional subject to some noise constraints and takes a hybrid form of a total variation diffusion for large gradient magnitudes and of a linear diffusion for small gradient magnitudes. Using the gained insight, and as a further extension, we propose an information-theoretic gradient descent flow which is a result of minimizing a functional that is a hybrid between a negentropy variational integral and a total variation. Illustrating examples demonstrate a much improved performance of the approach in the presence of Gaussian and heavy tailed noise. In this article, we present a variational approach to MAP estimation with a more qualitative and tutorial emphasis. The key idea behind this approach is to use geometric insight in helping construct regularizing functionals and avoiding a subjective choice of a prior in MAP estimation. Using tools from robust statistics and information theory, we show that we can extend this strategy and develop two gradient descent flows for image denoising with a demonstrated performance.     

Robust Huber adaptive filter

Classical filtering methods are not optimal when the statistics of the signals violate the underlying assumptions behind the theoretical development. Most of the classical filtering theory like least-squares filtering assumes Gaussianity as its underlying distribution. We present a new adaptive filter that is optimal in the presence of Gaussian noise and robust to outliers. This novel robust adaptive filter minimizes the Huber objective function. An estimator based on the Huber objective function behaves as an L₁ norm estimator for large residual errors and as an L₂ norm estimator for small residual errors. Simulation results show the improved performance of the Huber adaptive filter (configured as a line enhancer) over various nonlinear filters in the presence of impulsive noise and Gaussian noise     

Posterior-mean super-resolution with a causal Gaussian Markov random field prior

We propose a Bayesian image super-resolution (SR) method with a causal Gaussian Markov random field (MRF) prior. SR is a technique to estimate a spatially high-resolution image from given multiple low-resolution images. An MRF model with the line process supplies a preferable prior for natural images with edges. We improve the existing image transformation model, the compound MRF model, and its hyperparameter prior model. We also derive the optimal estimator--not the joint maximum a posteriori (MAP) or the marginalized maximum likelihood (ML) but the posterior mean (PM)--from the objective function of the L2-norm-based (mean square error) peak signal-to-noise ratio. Point estimates such as MAP and ML are generally not stable in ill-posed high-dimensional problems because of overfitting, whereas PM is a stable estimator because all the parameters in the model are evaluated as distributions. The estimator is numerically determined by using the variational Bayesian method. The variational Bayesian method is a widely used method that approximately determines a complicated posterior distribution, but it is generally hard to use because it needs the conjugate prior. We solve this problem with simple Taylor approximations. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method is more accurate or comparable to existing methods.     

Adaptive speckle reduction filter for log-compressed B-scan images

A good statistical model of speckle formation is useful for designing a good adaptive filter for speckle reduction In ultrasound B-scan images. Previously, statistical models have been used, but they failed to account for the log compression of the echo envelope employed by clinical ultrasound systems. Log-compression helps in reducing the dynamic range of the B-scan Images for display on a monitor as well as enhancing weak backscatters. In this article, statistics of log-compressed echo images, using the K-distribution statistical model for the echo envelope, are used to derive a parameter that can be used to quantify the extent of speckle formation. This speckle quantification can be used with an unsharp masking filter to adaptively reduce speckle. The effectiveness of the filter is demonstrated on images of contrast detail phantoms and on in-vivo abdominal images obtained by a clinical ultrasound system with log-compression.     

Homomorphic wavelet-based statistical despeckling of SAR images

In this paper, we introduce the homomorphic /spl Gamma/-WMAP (wavelet maximum a posteriori) filter, a wavelet-based statistical speckle filter equivalent to the well known /spl Gamma/-MAP filter. We perform a logarithmic transformation in order to make the speckle contribution additive and statistically independent of the radar cross section. Further, we propose to use the normal inverse Gaussian (NIG) distribution as a statistical model for the wavelet coefficients of both the reflectance image and the noise image. We show that the NIG distribution is an excellent statistical model for the wavelet coefficients of synthetic aperture radar images, and we present a method for estimating the parameters. We compare the homomorphic /spl Gamma/-WMAP filter with the /spl Gamma/-MAP filter and and the recently introduced /spl Gamma/-WMAP filter, which are both based on the same statistical assumptions. The homomorphic /spl Gamma/-WMAP filter is shown to have better performance with regard to smoothing homogeneous regions. It may in some cases introduce a small bias, but in our studies it is always less than that introduced by the /spl Gamma/-MAP filter. Further, the speckle removed by the homomorphic /spl Gamma/-WMAP filter has statistics closer to the theoretical model than the speckle contribution removed with the other filters.     

Robust quantization of memoryless sources using dispersive FIRfilters

An approach to quantizing discrete-time memoryless sources is presented. An important feature is that its performance is largely insensitive to errors in modeling the input PDF. The method involves changing the amplitude distribution of the source to be approximately Gaussian by all-pass filtering, then applying a Lloyd-Max quantizer designed for a Gaussian source. After quantization, the samples are passed through another all-pass filter, which is an approximate inverse of the first filter. The mean-square error (MSE) for the overall process is roughly equal to the quantization MSE for the intermediate Gaussian signal, independent of the source statistics. For some sources, this is actually an improvement over direct, correct-model Lloyd-Max quantization. The cost of this technique is some delay due to filtering     

Double Gaussian mixture model for image segmentation with spatial relationships

In this paper, we present a finite mixture model based on a Gaussian distribution for image segmentation. There are four advantages to the proposed model. First, compared with the standard Gaussian mixture model (GMM), the proposed model effectively incorporates spatially relationships between the pixels using a Markov random field (MRF). Second, the proposed model is similar to GMM, but has a simple representation and is easier to implement than some existing models based on MRF. Third, the contextual mixing proportion of the proposed model is explicitly modelled as a probabilistic vector and can be obtained directly during the inference process. Finally, the expectation maximization algorithm and gradient descent approach are used to maximize the log-likelihood function and infer the unknown parameters of the proposed model. The performance of the proposed model at image segmentation is compared with some state-of-the-art models on various synthetic noisy grayscale images and real-world color images.     

Ultrasound kidney segmentation with a global prior shape

In this paper, we focus on segmentation of ultrasound kidney images. Unlike previous work by using trained prior shapes, we employ a parametric super-ellipse as a global prior shape for a human kidney. The Fisher–Tippett distribution is employed to describe the grey level statistics. Combining the grey level statistics with a global character of a kidney shape, we propose a new active contour model to segment ultrasound kidney images. The proposed model involves two subproblems. One subproblem is to optimize the parameters of a super-ellipse. Another subproblem is to segment an ultrasound kidney image. An alternating minimization scheme is used to optimize the parameters of a super-ellipse and segment an image simultaneously. To segment an image fast, a convex relaxation method is introduced and the split Bregman method is incorporated to propose a fast segmentation algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed method is illustrated by numerical experiments on both simulated images and real ultrasound kidney images.     

Nonlocal Means-Based Speckle Filtering for Ultrasound Images

In image processing, restoration is expected to improve the qualitative inspection of the image and the performance of quantitative image analysis techniques. In this paper, an adaptation of the nonlocal (NL)-means filter is proposed for speckle reduction in ultrasound (US) images. Originally developed for additive white Gaussian noise, we propose to use a Bayesian framework to derive a NL-means filter adapted to a relevant ultrasound noise model. Quantitative results on synthetic data show the performances of the proposed method compared to well-established and state-of-the-art methods. Results on real images demonstrate that the proposed method is able to preserve accurately edges and structural details of the image.     

SAR相干斑AWMAP抑制算法

MAP滤波器是一种常用的抑制SAR图像相干斑噪声的滤波器。针对SAR图像的特点提出了一种自适应窗口MAP算法（AWMAP），它根据窗内像素点的统计特征自适应调节窗口大小来增强噪声抑制性能。实际SAR图像处理表明，AWMAP算法在抑制噪声斑点和保留图像细节方面较原方法都有较大的改进和提高。     

A minimum misadjustment adaptive FIR filter

The performance of an adaptive filter is limited by the misadjustment resulting from the variance of adapting parameters. This paper develops a method to reduce the misadjustment when the additive noise in the desired signal is correlated. Given a static linear model, the linear estimator that can achieve the minimum parameter variance estimate is known as the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE). Starting from classical estimation theory and a Gaussian autoregressive (AR) noise model, a maximum likelihood (ML) estimator that jointly estimates the filter parameters and the noise statistics is established. The estimator is shown to approach the best linear unbiased estimator asymptotically. The proposed adaptive filtering method follows by modifying the commonly used mean-square error (MSE) criterion in accordance with the ML cost function. The new configuration consists of two adaptive components: a modeling filter and a noise whitening filter. Convergence study reveals that there is only one minimum in the error surface, and global convergence is guaranteed. Analysis of the adaptive system when optimized by LMS or RLS is made, together with the tracking capability investigation. The proposed adaptive method performs significantly better than a usual adaptive filter with correlated additive noise and tracks a time-varying system more effectively