Unsupervised, information-theoretic, adaptive image filtering for image restoration

IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell. 2006 Mar;28(3):364-76. doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2006.64.

Abstract

Image restoration is an important and widely studied problem in computer vision and image processing. Various image filtering strategies have been effective, but invariably make strong assumptions about the properties of the signal and/or degradation. Hence, these methods lack the generality to be easily applied to new applications or diverse image collections. This paper describes a novel unsupervised, information-theoretic, adaptive filter (UINTA) that improves the predictability of pixel intensities from their neighborhoods by decreasing their joint entropy. In this way, UINTA automatically discovers the statistical properties of the signal and can thereby restore a wide spectrum of images. The paper describes the formulation to minimize the joint entropy measure and presents several important practical considerations in estimating neighborhood statistics. It presents a series of results on both real and synthetic data along with comparisons with current state-of-the-art techniques, including novel applications to medical image processing.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Computer Graphics
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / methods*
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Information Storage and Retrieval / methods*
  • Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted