Gaussian mixture model-based gradient field reconstruction for infrared image detail enhancement and denoising

Infrared images are characterized by low signal-to-noise ratio and low contrast. Therefore, the edge details are easily immerged in the background and noise, making it much difficult to achieve infrared image edge detail enhancement and denoising. This article proposes a novel method of Gaussian mixture model-based gradient field reconstruction, which enhances image edge details while suppressing noise. First, by analyzing the gradient histogram of noisy infrared image, Gaussian mixture model is adopted to simulate the distribution of the gradient histogram, and divides the image information into three parts corresponding to faint details, noise and the edges of clear targets, respectively. Then, the piecewise function is constructed based on the characteristics of the image to increase gradients of faint details and suppress gradients of noise. Finally, anisotropic diffusion constraint is added while visualizing enhanced image from the transformed gradient field to further suppress noise. The experimental results show that the method possesses unique advantage of effectively enhancing infrared image edge details and suppressing noise as well, compared with the existing methods. In addition, it can be used to effectively enhance other types of images such as the visible and medical images.     

基于照射_反射模型和有界运算的多谱段图像增强

根据多尺度照射_反射模型, 结合广义有界运算模型和引导滤波, 能够有效地解决多谱段降质图像的增强问题. 算法采用自适应的引导滤波核函数作为环绕函数, 估计反映图像整体结构的不同尺度的低频照射分量; 利用有界广义对数比(general log-radio, GLR)模型加法代替Retinex理论中的对数变换运算; 再由GLR模型减法去除照射分量, 将不同尺度的反射分量从原始图像中分割出来; 对不同尺度反射分量的有效信息采用有界GLR模型乘法和加法进行融合, 有效地避免光晕伪影现象及越界现象的发生, 得到多尺度反射分量图像, 即最终的增强图像. 通过对可见光波段的低照度图像和雾霾图像、红外图像、X光医学图像四组多谱段降质图像实验分析, 以对比度和信息熵作为评价指标, 与同类算法进行了图像增强效果的定性和定量对比, 结果表明本文算法增强后的图像纹理和边缘细节更加丰富、对比度更高、视觉效果更佳, 可广泛地应用于多种图像增强领域.     

Infrared image enhancement with learned features

Due to the variation of imaging environment and limitations of infrared imaging sensors, infrared images usually have some drawbacks: low contrast, few details and indistinct edges. Hence, to promote the applications of infrared imaging technology, it is essential to improve the qualities of infrared images. To enhance image details and edges adaptively, we propose an infrared image enhancement method under the proposed image enhancement scheme. On the one hand, on the assumption of high-quality image taking more evident structure singularities than low-quality images, we propose an image enhancement scheme that depends on the extractions of structure features. On the other hand, different from the current image enhancement algorithms based on deep learning networks that try to train and build the end-to-end mappings on improving image quality, we analyze the significance of first layer in Stacked Sparse Denoising Auto-encoder and propose a novel feature extraction for the proposed image enhancement scheme. Experiment results prove that the novel feature extraction is free from some artifacts on the edges such as blocking artifacts, “gradient reversal”, and pseudo contours. Compared with other enhancement methods, the proposed method achieves the best performance in infrared image enhancement.     

Variational infrared image enhancement based on adaptive dual-threshold gradient field equalization

Infrared images are characterized by low signal to noise ratio (SNR) and fuzzy texture edges. This article introduces the variational infrared image enhancement algorithm based on gradient field equalization with adaptive dual thresholds. Firstly, we transform the image into gradient domain and get the gradient histogram. Then, we do the gradient histogram equalization. By setting adaptive dual thresholds to qualify the gradients, the image is prevented from over enhancement. The total variation (TV) model is adopted in the reconstruction of the enhanced image to suppress noise. It is shown from experimental results that the image edge details are significantly enhanced, and therefore the algorithm is qualified for enhancement of infrared images in different applications.     

An improved POCS super-resolution infrared image reconstruction algorithm based on visual mechanism

The traditional projection onto convex sets (POCS) super-resolution (SR) reconstruction algorithm can only get reconstructed images with poor contrast, low signal-to-noise ratio and blurring edges. In order to solve the above disadvantages, an improved POCS SR infrared image reconstruction algorithm based on visual mechanism is proposed, which introduces data consistency constraint with variable correction thresholds to highlight the target edges and filter out background noises; further, the algorithm introduces contrast constraint considering the resolving ability of human eyes into the traditional algorithm, enhancing the contrast of the image reconstructed adaptively. The experimental results show that the improved POCS algorithm can acquire high quality infrared images whose contrast, average gradient and peak signal to noise ratio are improved many times compared with traditional algorithm.     

盲反卷积方法在水下激光图像复原中的应用

由于水体对激光存在着吸收和散射效应,距离选通水下激光成像系统所获得的图像存在不同程度的劣化问题,具有信噪比低、边缘模糊等特点。为提高图像质量,在分析水下激光成像劣化过程的基础上,研究了水下激光图像的基本噪声特征,并结合点扩展函数和调制传递函数,利用威尔斯小角度近似理论,将盲反卷积方法应用到水下激光图像复原中。在进行盲反卷积图像复原时,比较和讨论了将原始图像和经过降噪处理后的图像分别作为初始输入的处理结果;并对当人为改变调制传递函数和点扩展函数时所得到的图像复原结果进行了研究和讨论。处理结果表明该方法能达到抑制背景噪声、突出目标细节、提高对比度的效果,对水下激光图像增强十分有效。     

The infrared and visible image fusion algorithm based on target separation and sparse representation

Although the fused image of the infrared and visible image takes advantage of their complementary, the artifact of infrared targets and vague edges seriously interfere the fusion effect. To solve these problems, a fusion method based on infrared target extraction and sparse representation is proposed. Firstly, the infrared target is detected and separated from the background rely on the regional statistical properties. Secondly, DENCLUE (the kernel density estimation clustering method) is used to classify the source images into the target region and the background region, and the infrared target region is accurately located in the infrared image. Then the background regions of the source images are trained by Kernel Singular Value Decomposition (KSVD) dictionary to get their sparse representation, the details information is retained and the background noise is suppressed. Finally, fusion rules are built to select the fusion coefficients of two regions and coefficients are reconstructed to get the fused image. The fused image based on the proposed method not only contains a clear outline of the infrared target, but also has rich detail information.     

Fusion of the low-light-level visible and infrared images for night-vision context enhancement

For better night-vision applications using the low-light-level visible and infrared imaging, a fusion framework for night-vision context enhancement(FNCE) method is proposed. An adaptive brightness stretching method is first proposed for enhancing the visible image. Then, a hybrid multi-scale decomposition with edge-preserving filtering is proposed to decompose the source images. Finally, the fused result is obtained via a combination of the decomposed images in three different rules. Experimental results demonstrate that the FNCE method has better performance on the details(edges), the contrast, the sharpness, and the human visual perception. Therefore,better results for the night-vision context enhancement can be achieved.     

Image enhancement algorithm based on improved lateral inhibition network

There is often substantial noise and blurred details in the images captured by cameras. To solve this problem, we propose a novel image enhancement algorithm combined with an improved lateral inhibition network. Firstly, we built a mathematical model of a lateral inhibition network in conjunction with biological visual perception; this model helped to realize enhanced contrast and improved edge definition in images. Secondly, we proposed that the adaptive lateral inhibition coefficient adhere to an exponential distribution thus making the model more flexible and more universal. Finally, we added median filtering and a compensation measure factor to build the framework with high pass filtering functionality thus eliminating image noise and improving edge contrast, addressing problems with blurred image edges. Our experimental results show that our algorithm is able to eliminate noise and the blurring phenomena, and enhance the details of visible and infrared images.     

基于数学形态学的弱点状运动目标的检测

提出了一种新的基于数学形态学的红外图像序列中弱点状运动目标的非参数检测算法。采用数学形态学抑制背景杂波干扰和增强目标,用沿时间轴投影和二维空域搜索代替复杂的时空三维搜索形成组合帧,然后在每条可能的轨迹上将进行目标能量累加,实现了一种快速检测前跟踪(TBD)检测算法。仿真实验表明:在恒虚警概率条件下,该检测算法能高效地检测信噪比约为2的弱点状运动目标,检测性能对噪声分布不敏感,能精确地得到目标的即时位置和速度信息,适合于实时图像处理和目标探测,具有很高的实用价值。     

The effect of Laplacian filter in adaptive unsharp masking for infrared image enhancement

Image processing, in particular image enhancement techniques have been the focal point of considerable research activity in the last decade. With the aid of an existing image enhancement technique, adaptive unsharp masking (AUM), we propose a novel kernel to be used in AUM filtering in order to enhance discontinuities which occur on the edges of targets of interest in infrared (IR) images. The proposed method uses an adaptive filter approach where an objective function is minimized by using descent algorithms. The output IR image has better sharpness and contrast adjustment for the detection of targets in terms of objective quality metrics. Hence, the proposed method ensures that the edges of the targets in IR images are sharper and that the quality of contrast adjustment has its optimum level in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratios.     

基于多引导滤波的图像增强算法

图像增强技术可以有效地突出图像中的有用信息,已广泛应用于多个领域.现有的图像增强算法往往无法应对自然图像中复杂的梯度分布,难以准确保持图像中前景与背景的边缘信息.为了改善输出图像的边界过平滑问题,本文提出了一个基于多引导滤波的图像增强算法.首先,设计了一个以滤波核为变量的通用图像优化模型,现有的联合滤波器可视为该模型的解;然后,依据集成学习的思想,将联合滤波器中的单幅引导图像扩展到多幅,以更好地利用引导图中的结构信息进而获得更好的输出结果,并给出了一个多幅引导图的来源途径;最后,对多幅输出图像进行平滑,在图像优化模型中加入正则化项,以确保由多引导滤波得到的不同滤波输出保持一致.实验结果表明,本文算法在抑制图像噪声的同时,可以更好地保留物体的边界信息,从而使图像的信噪比进一步提升.     

Single infrared image super-resolution combining non-local means with kernel regression

In many infrared imaging systems, the focal plane array is not sufficient dense to adequately sample the scene with the desired field of view. Therefore, there are not enough high frequency details in the infrared image generally. Super-resolution (SR) technology can be used to increase the resolution of low-resolution (LR) infrared image. In this paper, a novel super-resolution algorithm is proposed based on non-local means (NLM) and steering kernel regression (SKR). Based on that there are a large number of similar patches within an infrared image, NLM method can abstract the non-local similarity information and then the value of high-resolution (HR) pixel can be estimated. SKR method is derived based on the local smoothness of the natural images. In this paper the SKR is used to give the regularization term which can restrict the image noise and protect image edges. The estimated SR image is obtained by minimizing a cost function. In the experiments the proposed algorithm is compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. The comparison results show that the proposed method is robust to the noise and it can restore higher quality image both in quantitative term and visual effect.     

Bilateral two-dimensional least mean square filter for infrared small target detection

The basic TDLMS (Two-Dimensional Least Mean Square) filter fails to detect infrared small targets consistently, especially under conditions of heavy noise and distinct cloud edges. This paper proposes a robust and efficient small-target detection method based on the basic TDLMS filter. The method first smooths the input image with a Gaussian filter of adaptive variance, and then employs TDLMS with a selected step size to filter the image with rightward and leftward iterations. Two prediction error images are obtained by subtracting the prediction images of the bilateral filtering from the original input image. Each prediction error image is separated into positive and negative prediction error images. That is, four images are generated in the bilateral filtering. The final image is obtained by fusing these four images. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves significant improvement in background suppression and detection performance over the basic TDLMS filter and other improved TDLMS filters.     

基于背景最佳滤波尺度的红外图像复杂度评价准则

提出一种基于背景最佳滤波尺度的红外图像复杂度评价准则来解决传统方法评价背景效果较差的问题. 同时, 这种方法还可以为红外图像滤波提供最佳高通滤波尺度信息, 从而对红外图像进行性能最佳滤波. 首先, 生成高斯仿真目标并与红外图像进行融合, 获得包含仿真目标及真实红外背景的图像. 然后, 在不同高斯滤波尺度下对图像滤波, 并计算滤波后仿真目标的信噪比. 最后, 取滤波后目标信噪比最大时的滤波尺度作为背景最佳滤波尺度, 使用该尺度可评价红外图像的复杂度. 另外, 本文还使用数学模型推导了红外图像最佳滤波尺度, 得出最佳滤波尺度的数学表达式. 大量实验表明: 1) 本文推导的最佳滤波尺度数学表达式与实验曲线吻合. 2) 这种方法在评价红外图像复杂度方面比传统的基于信息熵的方法效果要好很多. 并且这种方法获取的红外背景复杂度为滤波最佳尺度, 可以直接利用这项指标对图像进行最佳滤波从而更好地检测弱小目标. 3) 仿真目标尺度越大, 最佳滤波尺度也会相应增大. 因此, 在评价图像复杂度时, 应使用相同尺度的仿真目标, 不同图像之间才具备可比性. 同时, 最佳滤波尺度与仿真目标的强度无关. 4) 本文算法使用的滤波器宜用高斯及Butterworth高通滤波器实现. 5) 本文提出的方法不仅可以有效分析红外视频的复杂度, 并且可以通过复杂度的变化分析图像内容的突变.     

改进Canny算法的红外人脸图像边缘轮廓提取

红外人脸图像的边缘轮廓特征对于红外人脸检测、识别等相关应用具有重要价值。针对红外人脸图像边缘轮廓提取时存在伪边缘的问题,提出了一种改进Canny算法的红外人脸图像边缘轮廓提取方法。首先通过对引导滤波算法引入“动态阈值约束因子”替换原始算法中的高斯滤波,解决了原始算法滤波处理不均匀和造成红外人脸图像弱边缘特征丢失的弊端;接着对原始算法的非极大值抑制进行了改进,在原始计算梯度方向的基础上又增加了4个梯度方向,使得非极大值抑制的插值较原始算法更加精细;最后改进OTSU(大津)算法,构造灰度-梯度映射函数确定最佳阈值,解决了原始算法人为经验确定阈值的局限性。实验结果表明:提出的改进Canny算法的红外人脸轮廓提取方法滤波后的图像,相较于原始Canny算法滤波处理,信噪比性能提升了34.40%,结构相似度性能提升了21.66%;最终的红外人脸边缘轮廓提取实验的优质系数值高于对比实验的其他方法,证明改进后的算法对于红外人脸图像边缘轮廓提取具有优越性。     

多尺度条件卷积的OCT视网膜图像降噪研究

散斑噪声存在于光学相干层析成像(OCT)中,影响OCT图像质量.在使用OCT设备诊断各种常见眼科疾病时,高质量的OCT图像是极为重要的.利用深度神经网络对OCT图像进行降噪处理,使图像在保留空间结构细节的基础上能展示更多的信息.提出了一种基于残差学习网络的新型OCT图像降噪网络-CMCNN,其具有多尺度、多权重和多层次...     

基于局部位移校正的磁共振图像相干平均

多次扫描相干平均是提高磁共振图像信噪比的常用方法,但如果在多次扫描过程中病人发生自主或不自主的运动,使得图像中的组织发生位移,简单相干平均图像会导致图像模糊.本文受非局域均值算法的启发,提出了一种基于局部位移校正的相干平均方法.该算法通过比较多次采集的图像中组织结构的局部相似性,找出图像间的局部位移,利用该信息修正位移后进行加权平均,从而达到提高图像信噪比的目的.我们用模型及真实的肝脏弥散数据进行了实验.实验结果表明,对于不同次采样间存在运动的磁共振图像,该算法可有效地提高信噪比并保持结构边缘;其结果优于简单的相干平均,去噪效果也优于经典的非局域均值算法.     

Infrared image enhancement using Cellular Automata

Image enhancement is a crucial technique for infrared images. The clear image details are important for improving the quality of infrared images in computer vision. In this paper, we propose a new enhancement method based on two priors via Cellular Automata. First, we directly learn the gradient distribution prior from the images via Cellular Automata. Second, considering the importance of image details, we propose a new gradient distribution error to encode the structure information via Cellular Automata. Finally, an iterative method is applied to remap the original image based on two priors, further improving the quality of enhanced image. Our method is simple in implementation, easy to understand, extensible to accommodate other vision tasks, and produces more accurate results. Experiments show that the proposed method performs better than other methods using qualitative and quantitative measures.     

基于Curvelet变换的软硬阈值折衷图像去噪

与小波变换相比,Curvelet变换更好地表达图像的边缘和细节,因此更适合多尺度图像去噪。针对软阈值和硬阈值去噪方法存在的不足,提出了基于Curvelet变换域的软硬阈值折衷去噪法,并采用不同的阈值自适应地对不同的Curvelet子带进行阈值化。实验结果表明该方法对图像中的边缘、弱的直线和曲线特征有更好的恢复。去噪后图像PSNR值更高,视觉效果更好。