Perceptual similarity between color images using fuzzy metrics

In many applications of the computer vision field measuring the similarity between (color) images is of paramount importance. However, the commonly used pixelwise similarity measures such as Mean Absolute Error, Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Mean Squared Error or Normalized Color Difference do not match well with perceptual similarity. Recently, it has been proposed a method for gray-scale image similarity that correlates quite well with the perceptual similarity and it has been extended to color images. In this paper we use the basic ideas in this recent work to propose an alternative method based on fuzzy metrics for perceptual color image similarity. Experimental results employing a survey of observations show that the global performance of our proposal is competitive with best state of the art methods and that it shows some advantages in performance for images with low correlation among some image channels.     

Hue-preserving color image enhancement without gamut problem

The first step in many techniques for processing intensity and saturation in color images keeping hue unaltered is the transformation of the image data from RGB space to other color spaces such as LHS, HSI, YIQ, HSV, etc. Transforming from one space to another and processing in these spaces usually generate a gamut problem, i.e., the values of the variables may not be in their respective intervals. We study enhancement techniques for color images theoretically in a generalized setup. A principle is suggested to make the transformations gamut-problem free. Using the same principle, a class of hue-preserving, contrast-enhancing transformations is proposed; they generalize existing grey scale contrast intensification techniques to color images. These transformations are also seen to bypass the above mentioned color coordinate transformations for image enhancement. The developed principle is used to generalize the histogram equalization scheme for grey scale images to color images.     

Sparse representation for color image restoration

Sparse representations of signals have drawn considerable interest in recent years. The assumption that natural signals, such as images, admit a sparse decomposition over a redundant dictionary leads to efficient algorithms for handling such sources of data. In particular, the design of well adapted dictionaries for images has been a major challenge. The K-SVD has been recently proposed for this task and shown to perform very well for various grayscale image processing tasks. In this paper, we address the problem of learning dictionaries for color images and extend the K-SVD-based grayscale image denoising algorithm that appears in. This work puts forward ways for handling nonhomogeneous noise and missing information, paving the way to state-of-the-art results in applications such as color image denoising, demosaicing, and inpainting, as demonstrated in this paper.     

基于图像边缘特征的深度上采样算法

针对低分辨率深度图像上采样容易导致边缘模糊问 题,提出了一种基 于图像边缘特征的深度上采样算法。一方面,利用相同低分辨率深度和彩色图像的相关性系 数,自适应调 节深度图像边缘上采样过程中深度和彩色的权重;另一方面,结合上采样值和低分辨率深度 图像中邻近像 素值,对低分辨率深度图像的不连续区域进行求精操作以进一步减少边缘模糊现象。实验结 果表明,本文算法 的性能优于近年文献中提出的算法。本算法上采样深度图像的平均坏点率(B PR)为2.07%,均方根误差(RMSE )为3.46,峰值信噪比(PSNR)为38.58dB,绘制 虚拟视点的平均PSNR为39.58dB。     

Adaptive methods for dithering color images

Most color image printing and display devices do not have the capability of reproducing true color images. A common remedy is the use of dithering techniques that take advantage of the lower sensitivity of the eye to spatial resolution and exchange higher color resolution with lower spatial resolution. An adaptive error diffusion method for color images is presented. The error diffusion filter coefficients are updated by a normalized least mean square-type (LMS-type) algorithm to prevent textural contours, color impulses, and color shifts, which are among the most common side effects of the standard dithering algorithms. Another novelty of the new method is its vector character: previous applications of error diffusion have treated the individual color components of an image separately. We develop a general vector approach and demonstrate through simulation studies that superior results are achieved.     

Vision-based strategy to reduce the perceived color misregistrationof image-capturing devices

One of the common artifacts for three-row charge-coupled device (CCD) desktop scanners is color misregistration between the red, green, and blue layers of an image. This causes both color fringing and blur in the resulting scanned images, which we quantify by linear system theory analysis. Knowing the bandwidth and peak sensitivity asymmetries in the opponent color representation of the visual system, we develop a method to reduce the color misregistration artifact by attempting to capture signals in an approximate opponent color space. To facilitate separate capture of the luminance and chrominance signals, we use a new sensor arrangement. The luminance signal (Y) is captured at the full resolution using one row of the three-row CCD linear arrays. The first chrominance signal is captured on another row with a interleaved half resolution red (R) and half resolution luminance sensor elements and the second chrominance signal is similarly captured on a third row using blue (B) and luminance. Since each luminance and chrominance signal is isolated on a single row and since there is no registration error within a row, color misregistration is theoretically prevented in luminance as well as in the chrominance signals. Simulation shows that the new method does reduce blur and the visibility of color fringing. Because residual luminance and chrominance misregistration may occur we conduct a psychophysical experiment to judge the improvement in the scanned image quality. The experiment shows that this new capture scheme can significantly reduce the perception of misregistration artifacts. Finally, we use an image processing model of the visual system to quantify the visible differences due to misregistration and compare these to the psychophysical results     

Color image sharpening based on local color statistics

This paper presents an effective color image sharpening method, which is based on local color statistics. First, the variance of a set of color samples is measured by a scalar that is computed based on the sum of distances of color vectors, whereas other studies usually treat a color variance as a 3D vector. This is because what a variance expresses is the degree of the deviation of the image (vector) signal from its mean, indicating that describing this degree of deviation by a scalar is reasonable. Then, the local scalar variance and mean vector are combined together to measure the change of color image signal from a pixel to its neighboring ones, and the polarity of the change is determined by the change of luminance. Finally, based on the measure of the change, an effective sharpening operator is developed. Experimental results show that the proposed method excellently sharpens different kinds of color images and at the same time preserves image chromaticity well, and outperforms other typical sharpening techniques in both objective assessment and visual evaluation.

     

Color image enhancement with high saturation using piecewise linear gamut mapping

Most of the color image enhancement algorithms are implemented in two stages: gray scale image enhancement, which finds the target intensity, and then gamut mapping of the original color coordinates to the target. Therefore, hue preserving gamut mapping is an essential and crucial step, which influences colorfulness. In conventional color mapping methods, color saturation is reduced after intensity modification, which deteriorates subjective image quality. In this paper, a new color enhancement algorithm resulting in high color saturation is proposed. The proposed method employs multiplicative and additive color mapping to improve color saturation without clipping of a color component for increased target intensity as well as decreased cases. This new scheme is fast and effective, therefore, it can be employed to real time applications such as video signal processing.     

Wavelet-based watermarking for color images through visual masking

In this paper, a wavelet-based watermarking scheme for color images is proposed. The watermarking scheme is based on the design of a color visual model that is the modification of a perceptual model used in the image coding of gray scale images. The model is to estimate the noise detection threshold of each wavelet coefficient in luminance and chrominance components of color images in order to satisfy transparency and robustness required by the color image watermarking technique. The noise detection thresholds of coefficients in each color component are derived in a locally adaptive fashion based on the wavelet decomposition, by which perceptually significant coefficients are selected and a perceptually lossless quantization matrix is constructed for embedding watermarks. Performance in terms of robustness and transparency is obtained by embedding the maximum strength watermark while maintaining the perceptually lossless quality of the watermarked color image. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is more robust than the existing scheme while retaining the watermark transparency.     

Resolution enhancement of monochrome and color video using motioncompensation

We propose an iterative algorithm for enhancing the resolution of monochrome and color image sequences. Various approaches toward motion estimation are investigated and compared. Improving the spatial resolution of an image sequence critically depends upon the accuracy of the motion estimator. The problem is complicated by the fact that the motion field is prone to significant errors since the original high-resolution images are not available. Improved motion estimates may be obtained by using a more robust and accurate motion estimator, such as a pel-recursive scheme instead of block matching, in processing color image sequences, there is the added advantage of having more flexibility in how the final motion estimates are obtained, and further improvement in the accuracy of the motion field is therefore possible. This is because there are three different intensity fields (channels) conveying the same motion information. In this paper, the choice of which motion estimator to use versus how the final estimates are obtained is weighed to see which issue is more critical in improving the estimated high-resolution sequences. Toward this end, an iterative algorithm is proposed, and two sets of experiments are presented. First, several different experiments using the same motion estimator but three different data fusion approaches to merge the individual motion fields were performed. Second, estimated high-resolution images using the block matching estimator were compared to those obtained by employing a pel-recursive scheme. Experiments were performed on a real color image sequence, and performance was measured by the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR).     

Automatic watershed segmentation of randomly textured color images

A new method is proposed for processing randomly textured color images. The method is based on a bottom-up segmentation algorithm that takes into consideration both color and texture properties of the image. An LUV gradient is introduced, which provides both a color similarity measure and a basis for applying the watershed transform. The patches of watershed mosaic are merged according to their color contrast until a termination criterion is met. This criterion is based on the topology of the typical processed image. The resulting algorithm does not require any additional information, be it various thresholds, marker extraction rules, and suchlike, thus being suitable for automatic processing of color images. The algorithm is demonstrated within the framework of the problem of automatic granite inspection. The segmentation procedure has been found to be very robust, producing good results not only on granite images, but on the wide range of other noisy color images as well, subject to the termination criterion.     

Selective color transferring via ellipsoid color mixture map

Color transfer among images is a natural phenomenon and important research topic in interactive graphics and augmented environments. Most of the conventional methods need complex user interactions and difficult image segmentation. Motivated for the intuitive use of color editing tools, this paper presents a simple but effective ellipsoid color mixture map to realize selective color transfers. Our approach proposes ellipsoid hulls to represent color statistics of the images. Based on the window-click input, the system computes the ellipsoid hulls of the source and target images respectively. The color mixture map is generated to determine the blending weight of pixels in the output image, according to the color and distance information instead of using image segmentation. By mixing the images using the color mixture map, the final results we produce have the source color selected realistically spreading on the structures related to the target window. Our selective color transferring approach is efficient and simple to use, and widely applicable for images and also video sequences without the need of addition interaction. Our experimental results have showed the high-quality visual effects and efficiency of image/video color transfers.     

基于边缘特征和亮度的彩色图像质量评价

传统的图像质量评价算法大多针对灰度图像而言,这些算法利用图像中对应的像素灰度误差建立数学模型来评价图像,不能够评价彩色图像的质量。本文提出了一种基于边缘特征和颜色亮度信息的彩色图像质量评价方法。首先,利用Sobel算子提取图像边缘;其次,定义了边缘和亮度相似系数来分析它们对图像的影响。最后,综合考虑这两个因素建立数学模型对彩色图像进行评价。大量实验表明:该方法适合评价彩色图像;同时,该实验结果与人的主观感觉的一致性较好。     

Regularization Approaches to Demosaicking

Demosaicking is the process of reconstructing a full resolution color image from the sampled data acquired by a digital camera that apply a color filter array to a single sensor. In this paper, we propose a regularization approach to demosaicking, making use of some prior knowledge about natural color images, such as smoothness of each single color component and correlation between the different color channels. Initially, a quadratic strategy is considered and a general approach is reported. Then, an adaptive technique is analyzed, in order to improve the reconstruction near the edges and the discontinuities of the image. This is performed using a novel strategy that avoids computational demanding iterations. The proposed approach provides good performances and candidates itself for many applications. Moreover, since the response of the pixel sensors can be taken into account, it can handle nonideal acquisition devices.     

Robust image hash function using local color features

Conventional image hash functions only exploit luminance components of color images to generate robust hashes and then lead to limited discriminative capacities. In this paper, we propose a robust image hash function for color images, which takes all components of color images into account and achieves good discrimination. Firstly, the proposed hash function re-scales the input image to a fixed size. Secondly, it extracts local color features by converting the RGB color image into HSI and YCbCr color spaces and calculating the block mean and variance from each component of the HSI and YCbCr representations. Finally, it takes the Euclidian distances between the block features and a reference feature as hash values. Experiments are conducted to validate the efficiency of our hash function. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve comparisons with two existing algorithms demonstrate that our hash function outperforms the assessed algorithms in classification performances between perceptual robustness and discriminative capability.     

A robust structure-adaptive hybrid vector filter for color image restoration.

A robust structure-adaptive hybrid vector filter is proposed for digital color image restoration in this paper. At each pixel location, the image vector (i.e., pixel) is first classified into several different signal activity categories by applying a modified quadtree decomposition to luminance component (image) of the input color image. A weight-adaptive vector filtering operation with an optimal window is then activated to achieve the best tradeoff between noise suppression and detail preservation. Through extensive simulation experiments conducted using a wide range of test color images, the filter has demonstrated superior performance to that of a number of well known benchmark techniques, in terms of both standard objective measurements and perceived image quality, in suppressing several distinct types of noise commonly considered in color image restoration, including Gaussian noise, impulse noise, and mixed noise.     

Edge-preserving interpolation of depth data exploiting color information

The extraction of depth information associated to dynamic scenes is an intriguing topic, because of its perspective role in many applications, including free viewpoint and 3D video systems. Time-of-flight (ToF) range cameras allow for the acquisition of depth maps at video rate, but they are characterized by a limited resolution, specially if compared with standard color cameras. This paper presents a super-resolution method for depth maps that exploits the side information from a standard color camera: the proposed method uses a segmented version of the high-resolution color image acquired by the color camera in order to identify the main objects in the scene and a novel surface prediction scheme in order to interpolate the depth samples provided by the ToF camera. Effective solutions are provided for critical issues such as the joint calibration between the two devices and the unreliability of the acquired data. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world scenes have shown how the proposed method allows to obtain a more accurate interpolation with respect to standard interpolation approaches and state-of-the-art joint depth and color interpolation schemes.     

基于分块颜色直方图和GWLBP的图像检索算法

为了提高多特征融合图像检索的效果,本文提出了一种基于分块颜色直方图和GWLBP的图像检索算法。算法采用K-means均值聚类对RGB颜色空间进行颜色聚类,再将4×4均匀分块图像分成9个子块,提取每个子块的颜色体积直方图,并赋予不同权值计算颜色特征;利用Gabor滤波器组对输入图像进行不同分辨率和方向滤波,然后将不同方向上局部滤波器输出结果与全局滤波器输出结果的平均值进行比较,并进行二值化,据此提出3种不同的GWLBP算子来提取纹理特征。最后对图像的颜色和纹理特征高斯归一化,采用加权平均来融合颜色和纹理的特征距离。通过实验仿真可知,与其他3种算法相比,本算法对正常和有旋转倾向的图像都有较高的查全率和查准率。     

A CCD color signal separation IC for single-chip color imagers

A CCD color signal separation IC for solid-state imagers with color filter arrays is described. The device simplifies peripheral circuitry and enhances picture qualities such as resolution, color fidelity, and stability for single-chip color imaging systems by incorporating CCD delay lines, sample-and-hold circuits, and dual clamp circuit. Also described is a color filter array utilizing Bayer geometry, which is used in the separation IC. Color images corresponding to a horizontal resolution of 340 TV lines with no erroneous color have been obtained from the device when used with a 580/spl times/475 element CCD imager.