Image fusion scheme using a novel dual-channel PCNN in lifting stationary wavelet domain

This paper presents a new multi-source image fusion scheme based on lifting stationary wavelet transform (LSWT) and a novel dual-channel pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN). By using LSWT, we can calculate a flexible multiscale and shift-invariant representation of registered images. After decomposing the original images using LSWT, a new dual-channel pulse coupled neural network, which can overcome some shortcomings of original PCNN for image fusion and putout the fusion image directly, is proposed and used for the fusion of sub-band coefficients of LSWT. In this fusion scheme, a new sum-modified-laplacian(NSML) of the low frequency sub-band image, which represent the edge-feature of the low frequency sub-band image in SLWT domain, is presented and input to motivate the dual-channel PCNN. For the fusion of high frequency sub-band coefficients, a novel local neighborhood modified-laplacian (LNML) measurement is developed and used as external stimulus to motivate the dual-channel PCNN. This fusion scheme is verified on several sets of multi-source images, and the experiments show that the algorithms proposed in the paper can significantly improve image fusion performance, compared with the fusion algorithms such as traditional wavelet, LSWT, and LSWT-PCNN in terms of objective criteria and visual appearance.