Adaptive bilateral filter for sharpness enhancement and noise removal.

In this paper, we present the adaptive bilateral filter (ABF) for sharpness enhancement and noise removal. The ABF sharpens an image by increasing the slope of the edges without producing overshoot or undershoot. It is an approach to sharpness enhancement that is fundamentally different from the unsharp mask (USM). This new approach to slope restoration also differs significantly from previous slope restoration algorithms in that the ABF does not involve detection of edges or their orientation, or extraction of edge profiles. In the ABF, the edge slope is enhanced by transforming the histogram via a range filter with adaptive offset and width. The ABF is able to smooth the noise, while enhancing edges and textures in the image. The parameters of the ABF are optimized with a training procedure. ABF restored images are significantly sharper than those restored by the bilateral filter. Compared with an USM based sharpening method-the optimal unsharp mask (OUM), ABF restored edges are as sharp as those rendered by the OUM, but without the halo artifacts that appear in the OUM restored image. In terms of noise removal, ABF also outperforms the bilateral filter and the OUM. We demonstrate that ABF works well for both natural images and text images.     

A new sharpness metric based on local kurtosis,edge and energy information

Sharpness metrics that use the whole frequency spectrum of the image cannot separate the sharpness information from the scene content. The sharpness metrics that use spatial gradients of the edges work only for comparisons among versions of the same image. We have developed a content independent, no-reference sharpness metric based on the local frequency spectrum around the image edges. In this approach, we create an edge profile by detecting edge pixels and assigning them to 8×8 pixel blocks. Then we compute sharpness using the average 2D kurtosis of the 8×8 DCT blocks. However, average kurtosis is highly sensitive to asymmetry in the DCT, e.g. different amounts of energy and edges in the x and y directions, therefore causing problems with different content and asymmetric sharpness enhancement. Thus we compensate the kurtosis using spatial edge extent information and the amount of vertical and horizontal energy in the DCT. The results show high correlation with subjective quality for sharpness-enhanced video and high potential to deal with asymmetric enhancement. For compressed, extremely sharpened and noisy video, the metric correlates with subjective scores up to the point where impairments become strongly noticeable in the subjective quality evaluation. The metric can be used by itself as a control variable for high-quality image capture and display systems, high-quality sharpness enhancement algorithms, and as a key component of a more general overall quality metric.     

A no-reference sharpness metric based on the notion of relative blur for Gaussian blurred image

This work presents a no-reference sharpness metric for Gaussian blurred image. The metric is based on the notion of relative blur. The key concept is that the judgement on the sharpness closely relates to the degree of convenience for recognizing image objects on a certain scale. Based on this concept, the proposed metric is defined as relative blur with respect to certain object scale using an absolute blur measure. The object scale is characterized by a granularity analysis of image content. And the absolute blur is built on an analysis of edge local gray level distribution. The performance of the metric is tested and compared with some outstanding existing metrics in this field on three widely used databases. The experiment results show that the proposed metric can predict the sharpness of images in varying databases with high accuracy and reliability.     

自适应SAR图像边缘检测算法

边缘检测是图像分析的基础,在对SAR图像进行边缘检测时,由于SAR图像存在很强的相干乘性斑点噪声,几乎没有一种方法既能有效地检测边缘又能排除斑点噪声的影响而不产生较多的虚假边缘,特别是在低视数SAR的情况下,该文指出了在低视数情况下应当如何对Touzi ratio边缘检测方法和最大似然(ML)边缘方法的检测窗口进行改进,在对SAR图像进行边缘检测时,引入了自适应窗口的方法,并将其应用到Touzi ratio边缘检测和最大似然 (ML)两个恒虚警边缘检测算法中,取得了很好的改进效果,引入自适应窗口的方法也适用于其它的SAR图像边缘检测算法。     

图像质量快速盲检测及其在视觉系统中的应用

提出了一种新的图像质量快速盲检测方法,以锐利度作为图像质量准则,而锐利度可以归结为图像的模糊特性,并由边缘信息估计得到。为了提高系统效率,采用边缘对比度的估计方法,并以边缘对比度作为边缘锐利度的判据准则。分析了邻近边缘的相互影响,因而只需从有限的边缘点来提取出合理的线扩展函数(LSF),进而得到模糊参数。在LSF计算中,采用一种新的插值计算方法。实验结果表明:当图像不是特别模糊时,测量结果是准确的。     

一种基于小波变换的雷达图像边缘提取方法

图像最基本的特征是边缘,边缘特征提取是多传感器信息融合与景象匹配中的重要内容.合成孔径雷达图像通常带有较强的相干斑噪声,用传统的边缘检测算法效果很不理想.本文针对合成孔径雷达自身的特点,利用小波变换的特性,提出一种将小波变换的多尺度分析与模糊加权中值滤波相结合的边缘特征提取方法.实验证明方法有效,边缘定位准确,并对噪声有抑制作用,将提取结果用于匹配,定位精度达到1个象素.     

Watershed identification of polygonal patterns in noisy SAR images

The paper describes a new approach to pattern recognition in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. A visual analysis of the images provided by NASA's Magellan mission to Venus has revealed a number of zones showing polygonal-shaped faults on the surface of the planet. The goal of the paper is to provide a method to automate the identification of such zones. The high level of noise in SAR images and its multiplicative nature make automated image analysis difficult and conventional edge detectors, like those based on gradient images, inefficient. We present a scheme based on an improved watershed algorithm and a two-scale analysis. The method extracts potential edges in the SAR image, analyzes the patterns obtained, and decides whether or not the image contains a "polygon area". This scheme can also be applied to other SAR or visual images, for instance in observation of Mars and Jupiter's satellite Europa.     

A refined gamma MAP SAR speckle filter with improved geometricaladaptivity

A modified version of the refined gamma maximum-a-posteriori (RGMAP) speckle filter, which is found in the literature, is presented. The traditional RGMAP speckle filter first defects contours belonging to step edges and thin linear structures, then applies the RGMAP filter to local statistics extracted from rectangular masks that do not cross image contours. The proposed modified RGMAP (MRGMAP) filter first exploits local operators belonging to the odd-symmetric filter category employed by RGMAP to detect image segments, then it computes local statistics over areas that are not necessarily rectangular, but are subsets of the image segments having any possible shape. Therefore, MRGMAP enhances the RGMAP ability in exploiting shape adaptive windowing near image contours, where speckle is not fully developed. The MRGMAP computation time is estimated to be of the same magnitude of that of the original RGMAP, the latter depending on the number of filter categories being employed. The qualitative and quantitative results of the MRGMAP filter applied to real SAR images are satisfactory as the filter seems to be effective in speckle removal whereas it retains edge sharpness and subtle details. However, tests on simulated SAR images must still be performed in order to provide definitive evidence supporting MRGMAP effectiveness. Since MRGMAP typically removes image structures featuring a constant reflectivity gradient, this filter is not particularly suitable for image enhancement in human photo-interpretation. MRGMAP can be rather employed as a preprocessing module in a computer-based SAR image classification procedure based on segment mean value analysis     

A No-Reference Objective Image Sharpness Metric Based on the Notion of Just Noticeable Blur (JNB)

This work presents a perceptual-based no-reference objective image sharpness/blurriness metric by integrating the concept of just noticeable blur into a probability summation model. Unlike existing objective no-reference image sharpness/blurriness metrics, the proposed metric is able to predict the relative amount of blurriness in images with different content. Results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed perceptual-based sharpness metric. These results show that the proposed sharpness metric correlates well with the perceived sharpness being able to predict with high accuracy the relative amount of blurriness in images with different content.      

CFAR edge detector for polarimetric SAR images

Finding the edges between different regions in an image is one of the fundamental steps of image analysis, and several edge detectors suitable for the special statistics of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) intensity images have previously been developed. In this paper, a new edge detector for polarimetric SAR images is presented using a newly developed test statistic in the complex Wishart distribution to test for equality of covariance matrices. The new edge detector can be applied to a wide range of SAR data from single-channel intensity data to multifrequency and/or multitemporal polarimetric SAR data. By simply changing the parameters characterizing the test statistic according to the applied SAR data, constant false-alarm rate detection is always obtained. An adaptive filtering scheme is presented, and the distributions of the detector are verified using simulated polarimetric SAR images. Using SAR data from the Danish airborne polarimetric SAR, EMISAR, it is demonstrated that superior edge detection results are obtained using polarimetric and/or multifrequency data compared to using only intensity data.     

基于小波变换的SAR图像相干斑噪声消除方法研究

本文提出了一种基于小波变换的合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像相干斑消除滤波器.这种滤波器通过在小波细节子图像中减少小波分解系数的幅度来抑制相干斑噪声,同时利用小波细节子图像中提供的边缘信息来检测边缘和纹理细节,并保留其对应的小波分解系数值.实验结果表明,此方法除了对相干斑噪声有很好的抑制作用外,还保留了尽可能多的目标特性和图像细节,有着良好的图像视觉解译效果.     

Landsat ETM+ and SAR image fusion based on generalized intensity Modulation

This work presents a novel multisensor image fusion algorithm, which extends panchrmomatic sharpening of multispectral (MS) data through intensity modulation to the integration of MS and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. The method relies on SAR texture, extracted by ratioing the despeckled SAR image to its low-pass approximation. SAR texture is used to modulate the generalized intensity (GI) of the MS image, which is given by a linear transform extending intensity-hue-saturation transform to an arbitrary number of bands. Before modulation, the GI is enhanced by injection of high-pass details extracted from the available panchrmomatic image by means of the "a/spl grave/-trous" wavelet decomposition. The texture-modulated panchrmomatic-sharpened GI replaces the GI calculated from the resampled original MS data. Then, the inverse transform is applied to obtain the fusion product. Experimental results are presented on Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and European Remote Sensing 2 satellite images of an urban area. The results demonstrate accurate spectral preservation on vegetated regions, bare soil, and also on textured areas (buildings and road network) where SAR texture information enhances the fusion product, which can be usefully applied for both visual analysis and classification purposes.     

Efficient no-reference metric for sharpness mismatch artifact between stereoscopic views

This paper analyzes sharpness mismatch between stereoscopic views. Sharpness mismatch is a special binocular mismatch and can occur through e.g. focus mismatch between stereoscopic cameras, errors in post-processing or asymmetric coding for low-bandwidth transmission, where one view is subsampled or transmitted at a much lower rate. Although blurred edges in one view can be suppressed by the corresponding sharper edges in the other view according to the binocular suppression phenomenon, sharpness mismatch can still be perceived and cause eye strain for viewers. Subjective studies were carried out with a test video dataset, in which the stereoscopic views are asymmetrically blurred by Gaussian low-pass filters since defocus-based effects of lens aberrations can be modeled as Gaussian blur. Also, an efficient novel automatic no-reference approach to measure the probability of sharpness mismatch is presented in this paper. The sharpness mismatch score is estimated by measuring width deviations of edge pairs in each “edge-significant” depth plane based on depth edges in both views. The probability of sharpness mismatch (PSM) is then calculated considering the perceptibility of edge width deviations considering absolute depth at which the edges occur. This PSM metric is evaluated using the test video dataset and blurriness dataset of LIVE 3D Phase II database. The experimental results show that the proposed metric outperforms the state-of-the-art stereo 3D quality metrics on analyzing sharpness mismatch between stereoscopic views.     

A LUMINANCE EDGE EXTRACTION METHOD USING GRADIENT OF GRAY LEVEL FOR SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR IMAGERY

In the multistage imaging processing for SAR digital imaging and applications ofSAR imagery,extraction of luminance edge for the SAR imageis often required.It is well studiedto extract the luminance edge for ordinary images,The methods using gradient are effective andcommonly used.Because of the serious noise of coherent speckle exists in SAR images,somepeople believe that edge extraction by using gradient for SAR imagery gives poor results.Inthis paper,we have derived a rather ideal method for the extraction of luminance edge for SARimagery with the consideration of the characteristics of SAR imagery.This method uses therelative average gradient and combines detection with tracking.     

一种基于多重分形的SAR图像边缘检测方法

分形维数只能刻画那些具有理想的自相似性的分形体,现实中的许多纹理并不满足这一条件,因此单一的分形维数并不足以描述和刻画SAR图像的纹理,多重分形维数更适合于描述图像的纹理.通过计算原始SAR图像离散点数据的奇异性指数,然后对应每一点奇异性指数计算全局多重分形奇异谱,根据判决准则区分边缘和纹理可以实现SAR图像的边缘检测,实验结果表明,基于多重分形特征的边缘检测算法能够检测到许多局部细节,同时又避免出现不重要的细节,突出了主要的边缘信息,很好地区分出SAR图像的纹理和边缘.     

Edge detection applied to satellite imagery of the oceans

A computer edge-detection algorithm for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure in digital satellite IR (infrared) images of the ocean is developed. The popular derivative-based edge operators are shown to be too sensitive to edge fine-structure and to weak gradients to be useful in this application. The edge-detection algorithm is based on the gray level cooccurrence matrix (GLC), which is commonly used in image texture analysis. The cluster shade texture measure derived from the GLC matrix is found to be an excellent edge detector that exhibits the characteristic of fine-structure rejection while retaining edge sharpness. This characteristic is highly desirable for analyzing oceanographic satellite images     

一种使用灰度梯度提取合成孔径雷达图像灰度边界的方法

在合成孔径雷达数字成像的多级成像和合成孔径雷达图像的许多应用中,往往需要提取合成孔径雷达图像的灰度边界特征。人们对于由可见光或红外成像系统获得的普通图像的灰度边界提取已经进行了很多研究。使用灰度梯度提取普通图像的灰度边界非常有效,得到了广泛的应用.但由于在合成孔径雷达图像中存在严重的相干斑噪声,有人认为使用灰度梯度提取合成孔径雷达图像的灰度边界得不到好的结果。在本文中,我们考虑到合成孔径雷达图像的特性,给出了一种比较理想的提取合成孔径雷达图像的灰度边界的方法。这种方法使用相对平均灰度梯度,并且把检测与跟踪结合起来。     

Modeling SAR images with a generalization of the Rayleigh distribution

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery has found important applications due to its clear advantages over optical satellite imagery one of them being able to operate in various weather conditions. However, due to the physics of the radar imaging process, SAR images contain unwanted artifacts in the form of a granular look which is called speckle. The assumptions of the classical SAR image generation model lead to a Rayleigh distribution model for the histogram of the SAR image. However, some experimental data such as images of urban areas show impulsive characteristics that correspond to underlying heavy-tailed distributions, which are clearly non-Rayleigh. Some alternative distributions have been suggested such as the Weibull, log-normal, and the k-distribution which had success in varying degrees depending on the application. Recently, an alternative model namely the alpha-stable distribution has been suggested for modeling radar clutter. In this paper, we show that the amplitude distribution of the complex wave, the real and the imaginery components of which are assumed to be distributed by the alpha-stable distribution, is a generalization of the Rayleigh distribution. We demonstrate that the amplitude distribution is a mixture of Rayleighs as is the k-distribution in accordance with earlier work on modeling SAR images which showed that almost all successful SAR image models could be expressed as mixtures of Rayleighs. We also present parameter estimation techniques based on negative order moments for the new model. Finally, we test the performance of the model on urban images and compare with other models such as Rayleigh, Weibull, and the k-distribution.     

采用格形算法对SAR图像进行压缩处理

文章提出了一种新的可用于合成孔径雷达的图像数据压缩技术。该技术基于格形编码的方案，人有比以往的压缩算法更为出色的特性，在星载和机载合成孔径雷达图像和原始数据的压缩上有着广泛的应用前景。文中给出了对机载雷达图像压缩后的实验结果和分析数据。     

一种新的星载SAR图像定位方法的研究

该文应用摄影测量理论,将星载SAR图像近似看作一个画幅式投影传感器获取的等效影像,从而对星载 SAR共线方程进行改进,提出了一种新的定位模型。文中选用一景北京地区RadarSat影像进行实验,结果表明,该模型表达简单,解算稳定,不需要已知轨道信息和成像参数且定位精度保持在像素级范围之内。