3D image registration using a fast noniterative algorithm

This note describes the implementation of a three-dimensional (3D) registration algorithm, generalizing a previous 2D version [Alexander, Int J Imaging Systems and Technology 1999;10:242-57]. The algorithm solves an integrated form of linearized image matching equation over a set of 3D rectangular sub-volumes ('patches') in the image domain. This integrated form avoids numerical instabilities due to differentiation of a noisy image over a lattice, and in addition renders the algorithm robustness to noise. Registration is implemented by first convolving the unregistered images with a set of computationally fast [O(N)] filters, providing four bandpass images for each input image, and integrating the image matching equation over the given patch. Each filter and each patch together provide an independent set of constraints on the displacement field derived by solving a set of linear regression equations. Furthermore, the filters are implemented at a variety of spatial scales, enabling registration parameters at one scale to be used as an input approximation for deriving refined values of those parameters at a finer scale of resolution. This hierarchical procedure is necessary to avoid false matches occurring. Both downsampled and oversampled (undecimating) filtering is implemented. Although the former is computationally fast, it lacks the translation invariance of the latter. Oversampling is required for accurate interpolation that is used in intermediate stages of the algorithm to reconstruct the partially registered from the unregistered image. However, downsampling is useful, and computationally efficient, for preliminary stages of registration when large mismatches are present. The 3D registration algorithm was implemented using a 12-parameter affine model for the displacement: u(x) = Ax + b. Linear interpolation was used throughout. Accuracy and timing results for registering various multislice images, obtained by scanning a melon and human volunteers in various stationary positions, is described. The algorithm may be generalized to more general models of the displacement field, and is also well suited to parallel processing.     

On Scientific Data and Image Compression Based on Adaptive Higher-Order FEM

We present a novel compression algorithm for 2D scientific data and images based on exponentially-convergent adaptive higher-order finite element methods (FEM). So far, FEM has been used mainly for the solution of partial differential equations (PDE), but we show that it can be applied to data and image compression easily. The adaptive compression algorithm is trivial compared to adaptive FEM algorithms for PDE since the error estimation step is not present. The method attains extremely high compression rates and is able to compress a data set or an image with any prescribed error tolerance. Compressed data and images are stored in the standard FEM format, which makes it possible to analyze them using standard PDE visualization software. Numerical examples are shown. The method is presented in such a way that it can be understood by readers who may not be experts of the finite element method.     

红外目标湍流退化图像的优化复原算法

提出了基于最速下降法的湍流退化图像盲目复原算法。将图像转换到频域中，建立一个基于目标图像和点扩展函数频谱的目标函数，通过迭代方式采用最速下降优化方法来极小化该目标函数，并利用傅里叶变换和反变换将目标图像和点扩展函数在频域和空域之间进行变换，在每次迭代中交替加入约束条件进行反复修正，以便取得预期的图像恢复效果，增强算法的稳定性和抗噪能力。针对红外目标湍流退化图像，在微机上对算法进行了一系列复原验证实验。实验结果表明：该文算法复原效果稳定，抗噪能力强，具有实用价值。     

Cross-talk free image encryption and watermarking by digital holography and random composition

In previous image watermarking methods an encoded host image and a watermark image are usually directly added, consequently the two images have cross-talk in the decryption step. To eliminate this effect, we propose a novel method based on digital holography, in which all the image pixels of the two sets of holograms resulted from two hidden images are rearranged and integrated into one set of composite holograms with a random scattering matrix (RSM). In decryption the use of this matrix can ensure the exact retrieval of each hologram, and then the perfect reconstruction of each image without cross-talk noise can be achieved. The feasibility of this method and its robustness against occlusion and additional noise are verified by computer simulations with phase-shifting interferometry and double random-phase encoding technique. This approach is suitable for both two- and three-dimensional images, and the additional RSM as a key provides a much higher level of security.     

Two-stage non-local means filtering with adaptive smoothing parameter

Non-local means (NLM) filtering is an efficacious algorithm in image denoising which searches the similar neighborhoods and estimates the pixel by averaging these neighborhoods. Some internal parameters such as patch size, search window size and smoothing strength have serious effects on filtering performance. This paper proposes an improved version of NLM by using weak textured patches based single image noise estimation and two-stage NLM with adaptive smoothing parameter. Our proposed method firstly applies weak textured patches based noise estimation to achieve the noise level of input noisy image. Then relying on the estimated noise level, we apply the first stage NLM with adaptive smoothing parameter to attain a basic denoised image. After that, the basic denoised image is refined by the second stage of NLM with smaller smoothing strength. Our experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the NLM and some NLM recent variants both in visual quality and numerical measures. Additionally, the potential halo effect is almost eliminated in the result images produced by our proposed method.     

一种基于词袋模型的大规模图像层次化分组算法

大规模图像集合的自动分组,不仅可以帮助用户快速组织和掌握图像集合的内容,并且是基于图像的三维场景重建应用的前提和重要环节。提出一种基于词袋模型（bag-of-words, BOW）的层次化分组算法,将每幅图像表示为一个超高维视词向量,利用多路量化技术将内容相似的图像量化到同一个节点,从而完成对图像粗略分组。然后,在每组类别里面,对图像的局部特征向量进行逐一匹配,并利用仿射空间不变量的约束条件,去除不可靠特征匹配,得到更为准确可靠的图像相似度度量,从而完成图像的精细分组。实验结果表明:从得到的系统不同阶段图像分组的查准率-查全率（precision-recall）曲线可以看出,精细分组过程可以显著提高粗分组精度,并且在精细分组阶段,使用约束条件比不使用约束还能获得更高的分组精度     

Satellite image blind restoration based on surface fitting and iterative Multishrinkage method in redundant wavelet domain

In view of the non-unique, unstable and even divergent properties of the solution of iterative blind restoration, a non-iterative blind image-restoration algorithm was proposed, which included MTF estimation step and image-restoration step. In the MTF estimation stage, based on every degradation process of satellite imaging chain, a combined parametric model of MTF was given and used to fit the surface of normalized logarithmic amplitude spectrum of degraded image. In the image-restoration stage, a multivariate statistical model was introduced that can perfectly characterize the dependency of the neighboring wavelet coefficients and of reference coefficient and its parent. During the image-restoration, optimization-transfer method was adopted to decompose the image-restoration procedure into two simple steps: Landweber iteration and Multishrinkage denoising. In the numerical experiment, the comparison of restored panchromatic SPOT-5 (5 m) images with corresponding panchromatic SPOT-5 (2.5 m) image and higher resolution aerial image from the Google Earth software shows that the proposed algorithm can significantly restore some detailed information and effectively inhibit noise.     

基于加权块稀疏联合非凸低秩约束的高光谱图像去条带方法

针对高光谱图像(hyperspectral images,HSI)去条带易引起影像结构细节丢失问题,提出一种基于加权块稀疏(weighted block sparsity,WBS)正则化联合最小最大非凸惩罚(minimax concave penalty,MCP)约束的HSI去条带方法.本算法采用加权?2,1范数和MC...     

The registration of MR images using multiscale robust methods

Acquisition of MR images involves their registration against some prechosen reference image. Motion artifacts and misregistration can seriously flaw their interpretation and analysis. This article provides a global registration method that is robust in the presence of noise and local distortions between pairs of images. It uses a two-stage approach, comprising an optional Fourier phase-matching method to carry out preregistration, followed by an iterative procedure. The iterative stage uses a prescribed set of registration points, defined on the reference image, at which a robust nonlinear regression is computed from the squared residuals at these points. The method can readily accommodate general linear, or even nonlinear, registration transformations on the images. The algorithm was tested by recovering the registration transformation parameters when a 256 × 256 pixel T₂¹-weighted human brain image was scaled, rotated, and translated by prescribed amounts, and to which different amounts of Gaussian noise had been added. The results show subpixel accuracy of recovery when no noise is present, and graceful degradation of accuracy as noise is added. When 40% noise is added to images undergoing small shifts, the recovery errors are less than 3 pixels. The same tests applied to the Woods algorithm gave slightly inferior accuracy for these images, but failed to converge to the correct parameters in some cases of large-scale-shifted images with 10% added noise.     

基于约束优化的闪光照相图像重建算法

针对闪光照相图像受模糊及噪声影响的问题,提出了一种基于约束优化的闪光照相图像重建算法。该算法建立基于平行束投影的正向成像矩阵,并通过嵌入模糊矩阵表达成像过程中的模糊因素,采用最速下降法求解重建问题。在算法中设计了预优矩阵以提高迭代重建速度,利用客体密度值非负、密度分布分段光滑并含有阶跃性边界的先验知识,设计和采用了非负约束、光滑约束及广义变分边界约束条件。对仿真FTO客体图像及实际闪光照相图像的重建结果表明,基于约束优化的重建算法具有良好的边界保持能力及噪声抑制能力,可以有效提高图像重建质量。     

Efficient anisotropic filtering of diffusion tensor images

To improve the accuracy of structural and architectural characterization of living tissue with diffusion tensor imaging, an efficient smoothing algorithm is presented for reducing noise in diffusion tensor images. The algorithm is based on anisotropic diffusion filtering, which allows both image detail preservation and noise reduction. However, traditional numerical schemes for anisotropic filtering have the drawback of inefficiency and inaccuracy due to their poor stability and first order time accuracy. To address this, an unconditionally stable and second order time accuracy semi-implicit Craig-Sneyd scheme is adapted in our anisotropic filtering. By using large step size, unconditional stability allows this scheme to take much fewer iterations and thus less computation time than the explicit scheme to achieve a certain degree of smoothing. Second-order time accuracy makes the algorithm reduce noise more effectively than a first order scheme with the same total iteration time. Both the efficiency and effectiveness are quantitatively evaluated based on synthetic and in vivo human brain diffusion tensor images, and these tests demonstrate that our algorithm is an efficient and effective tool for denoising diffusion tensor images.     

Image sharing scheme based on discrete fractional random transform

We present a novel image sharing algorithm based on the discrete fractional random transform (DFRNT). The secret image is shared into several shadow images in the DFRNT domain together with some noise images as the encryption keys to increase the security. The decryption only requires a part of shadow images and therefore is independent of those noise images. The (t,n) threshold sharing scheme can be implemented completely by the proposed algorithm. The numerical simulations have demonstrated the effectiveness of this image sharing scheme.     

基于纹理显著性的微光图像目标检测

微光图像对比度较低,目标显著性不明显,目标自动探测难度大.针对此问题,本文提出一种噪声鲁棒性较好的图像局部纹理粗糙度算法,并给出一种适用于微光图像显著分析的纹理显著性算法.首先,提出一种新的局部纹理粗糙度算法,该算法利用最佳尺寸计算局部纹理粗糙度,对纹理图像进行加噪实验,与基于局部分形维的粗糙度方法相比,本文局部纹理粗糙度算法表现出较好的噪声鲁棒性;其次,在提取图像粗糙度特征图的基础上,给出一种针对纹理的显著性度量算法;最后,将纹理显著性算法应用于微光图像目标检测,实验结果证明了该算法的有效性.     

Optical asymmetric watermarking using modified wavelet fusion and diffractive imaging

In most of the existing image encryption algorithms the generated keys are in the form of a noise like distribution with a uniform distributed histogram. However, the noise like distribution is an apparent sign indicating the presence of the keys. If the keys are to be transferred through some communication channels, then this may lead to a security problem. This is because; the noise like features may easily catch people׳s attention and bring more attacks. To address this problem it is required to transfer the keys to some other meaningful images to disguise the attackers. The watermarking schemes are complementary to image encryption schemes. In most of the iterative encryption schemes, support constraints play an important role of the keys in order to decrypt the meaningful data. In this article, we have transferred the support constraints which are generated by axial translation of CCD camera using amplitude-, and phase- truncation approach, into different meaningful images. This has been done by developing modified fusion technique in wavelet transform domain. The second issue is, in case, the meaningful images are caught by the attacker then how to solve the copyright protection. To resolve this issue, watermark detection plays a crucial role. For this purpose, it is necessary to recover the original image using the retrieved watermarks/support constraints. To address this issue, four asymmetric keys have been generated corresponding to each watermarked image to retrieve the watermarks. For decryption, an iterative phase retrieval algorithm is applied to extract the plain-texts from corresponding retrieved watermarks.     

基于小波变换和非负支撑域递归逆滤波算法的盲目图像复原

提出了一种将自适应正则化方法与非负支撑域递归逆滤波(NAS-RIF)算法相结合用于小波域的盲图像复原算法.该算法先对降质图像进行小波分解,得到了图像在不同子频段的信息.在各个子频段采用NAS-RIF算法进行复原.针对各个子频段内图像的频率和方向特性,分别引入了不同的正则化约束项.在各个子频段估计出噪声方差,提出了根据噪声方差和图像局部方差来选取正则化参数.分别对两幅模糊图像进行了仿真实验,复原结果取得的信噪比分别为19.66 dB和23.86 dB.实验结果表明,复原效果相对于空间自适应正则化方法有一定的提高.     

Shadow regions detection algorithm by adaptive narrowband two-phase Chan-Vese model

An adaptive narrowband two-phase Chan-Vese(ANBCV) model is proposed for im?proving the shadow regions detection performance of sonar images. In the first noise smoothing step, the anisotropic second-order neighborhood MRF(Markov Random Field, MRF) is used to describe the image texture feature parameters. Then, initial two-class segmentation is processed with the block mode /c-means clustering algorithm, to estimate the approximate position of the shadow regions. On this basis, the zero level set function is adaptively initialized by the approximate position of shadow regions. ANBCV model is provided to complete local op?timization for eliminating the image global interference and obtaining more accurate results.Experimental results show that the new algorithm can efficiently remove partial noise, increase detection speed and accuracy, and with less human intervention.     

去除乘性噪音的主成分分析算法

雷达成像系统的进一步应用依赖于对图像中噪音的有效抑制.在目前现有消除噪音方法的基础上,基于图像的局部相似性,结合主成分分析法,提出一种新的有效去除乘性噪音的滤波算法.乘性噪音经对数变换后可转化为加性噪音处理.分析了对数域中噪音的类型.首先在图像的对数域,通过非局部方法选取局部相似块作为训练样本,利用主成分分析法提取出信号的主要特征.然后基于统计理论中最小均方误差估计法给出了一种适用于图像信息的阈值原则.最后分析了变换过程引起的偏差,由对数域的偏估计得到滤波图像.数值实验验证了新算法的有效性.对比于目前提出的变分方法,新算法处理后的图像有更高的信噪比和更好的视觉效果,且具有一定的实用性.     

Motion detection in moving background using a novel algorithm based on image features guiding self-adaptive Sequential Similarity Detection Algorithm

A novel efficient algorithm for motion detection in dynamic background was proposed. In image registration step, a feature-based and self-adaptive Sequential Similarity Detection Algorithm (SSDA) algorithm was proposed, which searches for matching position under constraints induced by image features with variational threshold. Then perform change detection by calculating and classifying the Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) around detected features in the middle frames of three consecutive images. Moving objects position was determined according to the rule that the feature from moving regions shows a lager MAD. Experiments on data sets of four typical scenes show that the improved registration algorithm is accurate and costs less than 0.4 s in computation, much faster compared with other four methods, and the proposed Dual Maximum Mean Absolute Difference Algorithm (DMMADA) can obtain a robust set of moving object features. Our algorithm can be used for fast detection of moving targets in dynamic background as well as change detection.     

Hepatic vessel segmentation using variational level set combined with non-local robust statistics

Hepatic vessel segmentation is a challenging step in therapy guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This paper presents an improved variational level set method, which uses non-local robust statistics to suppress the influence of noise in MR images. The non-local robust statistics, which represent vascular features, are learned adaptively from seeds provided by users. K-means clustering in neighborhoods of seeds is utilized to exclude inappropriate seeds, which are obviously corrupted by noise. The neighborhoods of appropriate seeds are placed in an array to calculate the non-local robust statistics, and the variational level set formulation can be constructed. Bias correction is utilized in the level set formulation to reduce the influence of intensity inhomogeneity of MRI. Experiments were conducted over real MR images, and showed that the proposed method performed better on small hepatic vessel segmentation compared with other segmentation methods.     

基于多相组重建的航空图像超分辨率算法

为提高航空图像的空间分辨率, 提出一种基于多相组重建的超分辨率算法. 融合图像间的互补信息, 将多帧低分辨率图像作为图像基, 参考帧分解为多相组, 利用差异采样特性构建图像基与参考帧之间的的多相组线性关系重建得到高分辨率图像的多项组, 经图像多相分解逆变换获得融合的高分辨率图像. 根据该融合图像的局部内容和结构信息自适应调整控制核核函数, 应用改进的控制核回归算法去除图像模糊和噪声得到清晰的超分辨率图像. 与传统算法相比, 该算法无需图像配准和迭代过程, 计算效率极大地提高. 实验结果表明, 本文算法能够有效提高航空图像的空间分辨率, 在定量评价指标和主观视觉效果方面都有显著提高.