A statistical iteration approach with energy minimization to sinogram noise reduction for low-dose X-ray CT

Low-dose CT imaging has been particularly used in modern medical practice for its advantage on reducing the radiation dose to patients. However, excessive quantum noise is present in low dose X-ray imaging along with the decrease of the radiation dose; thus, there are obvious streak-like artifacts in reconstructed images. The statistical iterative reconstruction approach applied to the noisy sinogram before a filtered back-projection (FBP) is a resolution to deal with the noisy problem. In this paper, the statistical property of the noise sinogram was considered to achieve a satisfactory image reconstruction and a statistical iterative method with energy minimization was proposed to address the problem of streak-like artifacts. Simulations were performed and indicated that the proposed method could suppress noise and obviously decrease streak-like artifacts in reconstructed images.     

Noise reduction for low-dose X-ray computed tomography with fuzzy filter

Low-dose CT imaging has been particularly used in modern medical practice for its advantage on reducing the radiation dose to patients. However, reconstructed images will distinctly degenerate along with the decrease of the radiation dose. A resolution is to deal with the noisy projection space by an effective filter. This study was performed to address this problem and a fuzzy-median filter was proposed in this paper according to the properties of the noise of low-dose CT images. Reconstructed images by FBP were acquired from the previous noisy sinogram filtered by different filters for comparison. This fuzzy-median filter in fact is a spatially variant one that can solve the streak artifacts. And simulations also indicated that this spatially variant filter could suppress noise and obviously decrease streak artifacts in reconstructed images.     

The adaptive sinogram restoration algorithm based on anisotropic diffusion by energy minimization for low-dose X-ray CT

Apparent streak artifacts will present in reconstructed images due to excessive quantum noise in low-dose X-ray imaging process. Estimating a noise-free sinogram to satisfy the filtered back-projection (FBP) reconstruction is an effective way to solve this problem. In this paper, we propose a novel sinogram noise reduction method by energy minimization. An adaptive smoothness parameter based on a modified anisotropic diffusion coefficient is applied for an optimal estimation. The smoothness parameter can make the method effectively adjust the degree of smoothness according to the noise level and the region feature in the sinogram. Visual effect together with quantitative analysis of the experimental result shows the developed approach has the excellent performance in protection of the edge and removal of streak artifacts in the reconstructed image.     

The statistical sinogram smoothing via adaptive-weighted total variation regularization for low-dose X-ray CT

Though clinically desired, low-dose X-ray computed tomography (CT) images tend to be degraded by the noise-contaminated sinogram data. Preprocessing the noisy sinogram before filtered back-projection (FBP) is an effective way to solve this problem. This paper presents a statistical sinogram smoothing approach for low-dose CT reconstruction. The approach is obtained by minimizing an energy function consisting of an adaptive-weighted total variation (AWTV) regularization term and a data fidelity term based on the Markov random fields (MRF) framework. The AWTV regularization term can make our algorithm automatically adjust the smoothing degree according to the feature and the level of noise of the smoothed pixel. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach has the excellent performance in visual effects and quantitative analysis.     

基于小波域三状态HMT模型的含噪图像增强

针对含噪图像增强问题,提出一种基于小波域三状态隐马尔可夫树模型的方法,采用三状态的高斯混合模型逼近小波系数的分布,不需要设定精确的阈值,依据期望最大算法训练得到的每个系数所属状态的后验概率,将系数区分为噪声系数、弱边缘系数和强边缘系数,然后通过抑制噪声系数,增强细节特征系数来达到对含噪图像增强的目的,并引入循环平移策略避免人工失真.通过对含噪的标准图像和人脑核磁共振图像进行仿真实验,并与几种经典的图像增强方法作视觉上的对比和定量分析.实验结果表明,本文所提出的方法具有很好的鲁棒性,在突出了图像中更多的细节信息的同时,可以有效抑制噪声.     

Anisotropic total variation minimization approach in in-line phase-contrast tomography and its application to correction of ring artifacts

In-line phase-contrast computed tomography(IL-PC-CT) imaging is a new physical and biochemical imaging method.IL-PC-CT has advantages compared to absorption CT when imaging soft tissues. In practical applications, ring artifacts which will reduce the image quality are commonly encountered in IL-PC-CT, and numerous correction methods exist to either pre-process the sinogram or post-process the reconstructed image. In this study, we develop an IL-PC-CT reconstruction method based on anisotropic total variation(TV) minimization. Using this method, the ring artifacts are corrected during the reconstruction process. This method is compared with two methods: a sinogram preprocessing correction technique based on wavelet-FFT filter and a reconstruction method based on isotropic TV. The correction results show that the proposed method can reduce visible ring artifacts while preserving the liver section details for real liver section synchrotron data.     

变分模态分量降噪后重构的水声弱信号检测

针对能量检测法在低信噪比下对非合作水声探测信号的检测性能显著下降的问题,提出了一种组合变分模态分解和小波变换降噪重构的信号检测方法。以信号分解出的各个本征模态函数的近似熵与互相关系数比值作为分量分类参数,将所得分量分为信号分量、含噪信号分量与噪声分量,然后利用第二代小波变换对含噪信号分量降噪后与信号分量组成重构信号,最后对重构信号进行检测。数值仿真结果表明该方法可以在无先验信息的情况下对CW和LFM信号自适应降噪,信噪比0 dB以下时CW信号重构后信噪比提升约12 dB,宽带LFM信号信噪比提升约8～9 dB,有效提升了低虚警概率下信号的检测概率。湖试结果表明,虚警概率为0.1时检测概率可提升至0.9以上,验证了该方法的有效性。     

一种改进的小波除噪方法用于含噪ICP-AES光谱的处理

提出了一种改进的小波除噪方法。它基于噪声具有频率较高和幅度较小的特点 ,先排除信号中频率较高的成分 ,再丢弃余下的系数较小的成分。对模拟的含噪电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱 (ICP AES)的处理结果表明 ,该法能克服小波平滑和小波去噪的一些缺陷 ,可去除更多噪声 ,而信号强度不受影响。同时 ,基线变得平坦 ,有利于峰高的定量计算。用该法处理实测ICP AES光谱 ,效果满意。     

多通道相位图像的改进型自适应重建算法

自适应重建(Adaptive Reconstruction,AR)算法被广泛应用于磁共振图像的多通道合并问题上.AR算法不需要直接采集各个线圈的灵敏度信息,而是通过通道间信号及噪声相关矩阵,估算出各个通道的灵敏度,从而保证了合并的幅值图像具有较高的信噪比(Signal-to-Noise Ratio,SNR).然而,由于AR算法没有针对相位图像的合并问题进行优化,导致重建出的相位图像具有不确定性.另外,受各通道之间相位偏移及低信噪比相位图像的影响,重建结果可能包含伪影.该文提出了一种改进型AR算法,估算并移除了各通道之间的相位偏移,同时对多通道数据的相位进行质量评估及通道重排,用以进行后续自适应重建.仿体及在体实验表明,该方法可以有效提升AR算法稳定性、消除重建图像中存在的伪影,同时保持合并后幅值图像及相位图像的高信噪比.     

An approach based on simplified KLT and wavelet transform for enhancing speech degraded by non-stationary wideband noise

It is well known that the non-stationary wideband noise is the most difficult to be removed in speech enhancement. In this paper a novel speech enhancement algorithm based on the dyadic wavelet transform and the simplified Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT) is proposed to suppress the non-stationary wideband noise. The noisy speech is decomposed into components by the wavelet space and KLT-based vector space, and the components are processed and reconstructed, respectively, by distinguishing between voiced speech and unvoiced speech. There are no requirements of noise whitening and SNR pre-calculating. In order to evaluate the performance of this algorithm in more detail, a three-dimensional spectral distortion measure is introduced. Experiments and comparison between different speech enhancement systems by means of the distortion measure show that the proposed method has no drawbacks existing in the previous methods and performs better shaping and suppressing of the non-stationary wideband noise for speech enhancement.     

A Noisy SAR Image Fusion Method Based on NLM and GAN

The unavoidable noise often present in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, such as speckle noise, negatively impacts the subsequent processing of SAR images. Further, it is not easy to find an appropriate application for SAR images, given that the human visual system is sensitive to color and SAR images are gray. As a result, a noisy SAR image fusion method based on nonlocal matching and generative adversarial networks is presented in this paper. A nonlocal matching method is applied to processing source images into similar block groups in the pre-processing step. Then, adversarial networks are employed to generate a final noise-free fused SAR image block, where the generator aims to generate a noise-free SAR image block with color information, and the discriminator tries to increase the spatial resolution of the generated image block. This step ensures that the fused image block contains high resolution and color information at the same time. Finally, a fused image can be obtained by aggregating all the image blocks. By extensive comparative experiments on the SEN1–2 datasets and source images, it can be found that the proposed method not only has better fusion results but is also robust to image noise, indicating the superiority of the proposed noisy SAR image fusion method over the state-of-the-art methods.     

复合扫描全息术及透过强散射介质三维成像研究

应用菲涅耳波带片光学扫描全息术原理，研究强散射介质中吸收体的三维成像.针对由成像物体强散射背景产生的背景噪音，提出复合扫描全息术成像方法.实验中应用这一方法，对嵌埋在浓度为1%，深度为1.7 cm的脂肪乳剂中的吸收体成像，得到了信噪比和对比度较好的再现像.在此基础上，对复合扫描全息成像系统的信噪比，对比度及分辨率等性能进行了深入的理论分析和实验测试.研究表明，与单一模式相比，复合扫描全息术在信噪比和对比度方面有较大改善，但分辨率还需进一步提高.     

基于二通道不可分加性小波的多光谱图像融合

提出了伸缩矩阵为[1,1;1,-1]的不可分小波的一种构造方法,并把它应用于多光谱图像与高分辨力全色图像的融合中。提出了一种二通道对称的不可分小波滤波器组的构造方法,设计出多组具有紧支撑、对称性和正交性的不可分小波6×6滤波器组,利用此类滤波器组中的低通滤波器对图像进行加性分解与重构。采用三种模式NAWS、NAWRGB和NAWL对ETM 及其它类多光谱图像与高分辨力全色图像进行融合研究。实验结果表明,该方法对多光谱图像与高分辨力全色图像的融合有较好的融合效果,与传统的融合方法相比,该方法既能保持多光谱图像的光谱信息,又能保持高分辨力全色图像的高分辨力特性,克服了传统张量积小波融合方法不能得到高分辨力图像的不足,并能节约运算量。     

基于梯度和小波变换的水下距离选通图像去噪

水体的散射效应、激光光斑、成像器件的非理想化等因素使得图像出现大量无规律粒状噪声,它们增加了水下距离选通图像的背景噪声,模糊了目标轮廓,掩盖了目标细节,降低了图像的信噪比。针对上述问题本文提出了一种基于梯度和小波变换的去噪方法。首先对图像进行余弦小波变换,得到不同频率空间的图像集。低频空间引入新的图像梯度强化方法以提高图像的纹理信息量;对应非均匀性条带的LH或HL空间做曲面拟合处理以消除非均匀性条带的影响;在HH空间去噪过程中,低层空间做非局部均值处理以保留图像相似信息,高层空间做分数阶积分处理以保留图像细节信息。最后小波逆变换得到结果图像。从实验水槽中采集水下图像进行算法验证,将改进方法与已有算法比对分析。实验表明,本文所研究的水下去噪算法,能够平滑噪声且更大限度地保留图像细节纹理,在客观评价指标上提升了6%。     

Beam hardening correction for a cone-beam CT system and its effect on spatial resolution

In this paper, we present a beam hardening correction (BHC) method in three-dimension space for a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) system in a mono-material case and investigate its effect on the spatial resolution. Due to the polychromatic character of the X-ray spectrum used, cupping and streak artifacts called beam hardening artifacts arise in the reconstructed CT images, causing reduced image quality. In addition, enhanced edges are introduced in the reconstructed CT images because of the beam hardening effect. The spatial resolution of the CBCT system is calculated from the edge response function (ERF) on different planes in space. Thus, in the CT images with beam hardening artifacts, enhanced ERFs will be extracted to calculate the modulation transfer function (MTF), obtaining a better spatial resolution that deviates from the real value. Reasonable spatial resolution can be obtained after reducing the artifacts. The 10% MTF value and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the point spread function with and without BHC are presented.     

Dictionary learning based sinogram inpainting for CT sparse reconstruction

In CT (computed tomography), reconstruction from undersampling projection data is often ill-posed and suffers from severe artifact in the reconstructed images. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes a sinogram inpainting method based on recently rising sparse representation technology. In this approach, a dictionary learning based inpainting is used to estimate the missing projection data. The final image can be reconstructed by the analytic filtered back projection (FBP) reconstruction. We conduct experiments using both simulated and real phantom data. Compared to the comparative interpolation method, visual and numerical results validate the clinical potential of the proposed method.     

Improving spatio-temporal resolution of infrared images to detect thermal activity of defect at the surface of inorganic glass

This paper proposes a noise suppression methodology to improve the spatio-temporal resolution of infrared images. The methodology is divided in two steps. The first one consists in removing the noise from the temporal signal at each pixel. Three basic temporal filters are considered for this purpose: average filter, cost function minimization (FIT) and short time Fast Fourier Transform approach (STFFT). But while this step effectively reduces the temporal signal noise at each pixel, the infrared images may still appear noisy. This is due to a random distribution of a residual offset value of pixels signal. Hence in the second step, the residual offset is identified by considering thermal images for which no mechanical loading is applied. In this case, the temperature variation field is homogeneous and the value of temperature variation at each pixel is theoretically equal to zero. The method is first tested on synthetic images built from infrared computer-generated images combined with experimental noise. The results demonstrate that this approach permits to keep the spatial resolution of infrared images equal to 1 pixel. The methodology is then applied to characterize thermal activity of a defect at the surface of inorganic glass submitted to cyclic mechanical loading. The three basic temporal filters are quantitatively compared and contrasted. Results obtained demonstrate that, contrarily to a basic spatio-temporal approach, the denoising method proposed is suitable to characterize low thermal activity combined to strong spatial gradients induced by cyclic heterogeneous deformations.     

噪声情况下采用稀疏非负矩阵分解与深度吸引子网络的人声分离算法

为实现噪声情况下的人声分离,提出了一种采用稀疏非负矩阵分解与深度吸引子网络的单通道人声分离算法。首先,通过训练得到人声与噪声的字典矩阵,将其作为先验信息从带噪混合语音中分离出人声与噪声的系数矩阵;然后,根据人声系数矩阵中不同的声源成分在嵌入空间中的相似性不同,使用深度吸引子网络将其分离为各声源语音的系数矩阵;最后,使用分离得到的各语音系数矩阵与人声的字典矩阵重构干净的分离语音。在不同噪声情况下的实验结果表明,本文算法能够在抑制背景噪声的同时提高分离语音的整体质量,优于结合声噪人声分离模型的对比算法。      

基于稀疏重建的磁共振图像尖峰噪声消除方法

磁共振图像K空间中的尖峰噪声会严重影响图像质量.该文在磁共振图像压缩感知的共轭梯度重建法的基础上,提出一种新的利用磁共振图像稀疏性进行尖峰噪声修复的方法.传统的共轭梯度重建是通过小波域迭代进行的,对于K空间的尖峰噪声的消除不是最适合.首先提出压缩感知的K空间重建算法,该算法与小波域重建等效.在此基础上,提出可以较好地修复尖峰噪声的K空间部分重建算法.即在迭代过程中,以图像的稀疏性作为约束条件,仅修改尖峰噪声所遮盖区域的数据,其他位置的数据保持不变.该算法与传统的插值算法及共轭梯度算法相比,能够更好地修复K空间尖峰噪声点,减少图像伪影,同时降低了对尖峰噪声定位准确性的要求.     

Wavelet domain non-linear filtering for MRI denoising

Feature-preserved denoising is of great interest in medical image processing. This article presents a wavelet-based bilateral filtering scheme for noise reduction in magnetic resonance images. Undecimated wavelet transform is employed to provide effective representation of the noisy coefficients. Bilateral filtering of the approximate coefficients improves the denoising efficiency and effectively preserves the edge features. Denoising is done in the square magnitude domain, where the noise tends to be signal independent and is additive. The proposed method has been adapted specifically to Rician noise. The visual and the diagnostic quality of the denoised image is well preserved. The quantitative and the qualitative measures used as the quality metrics demonstrate the ability of the proposed method for noise suppression.