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Image Despeckling Using Non-local Means with Diffusion Tensor

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Image Processing and Communications Challenges 8 (IP&C 2016)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 525))

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel modification of one of the varieties of the non-local means (NLM) algorithm for speckle reduction in images. This modification comes in the form of replacement of the structure tensor used in the NLM algorithm by the diffusion tensor. The diffusion tensor originally was used in the nonlinear coherent diffusion algorithm making possible intensification of the diffusion in the direction parallel to edges and inhibition in the direction perpendicular to edges. It is shown in this paper that using the diffusion tensor in calculating the weights for the NLM leads to an improvement of the quality of despeckled images. The NLM algorithm has a tendency to smooth the image in such a way that the despeckled image is covered by relatively flat areas typical for mosaic images. This tendency is undesirable since flat areas form visible contours that are not related to the object visualized. The superiority of the new despeckling filter is confirmed by examples of filtering the ultrasound (US) images as well as by image quality measures.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Prof. Andrzej Nowicki, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Warsaw for providing the necessary images for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Lodz, ul. Banacha 22, 90-238, Lodz, Poland

    Mariusz Nieniewski & Paweł Zajączkowski

Authors
  1. Mariusz Nieniewski
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  2. Paweł Zajączkowski
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Correspondence to Mariusz Nieniewski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Telecommunications and Computer Sciences, UTP University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz, Poland

    Ryszard S. Choraś

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Nieniewski, M., Zajączkowski, P. (2017). Image Despeckling Using Non-local Means with Diffusion Tensor. In: Choraś, R. (eds) Image Processing and Communications Challenges 8. IP&C 2016. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 525. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47274-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47274-4_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47273-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47274-4

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