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Abstract— This work provides an insight into the design of an efficient denoising architecture for removal of impulse noise in
images. Images are often corrupted by impulse noise in the procedures of image acquisition and transmission. In this work an
efficient denoising scheme and its VLSI architecture for the removal of random-valued impulse noise is proposed. To achieve
the goal of low cost, a low complexity VLSI architecture is proposed. Here a decision-tree-based impulse noise detector to
detect the noisy pixels, and an edge-preserving filter to reconstruct the intensity values of noisy pixels are used. Furthermore,
histogram equalization is used to enhance the effects of removal of impulse noise. Our extensive experimental results
demonstrate that the proposed technique can obtain better performances in terms of both quantitative evaluation and visual
quality than the previous lower complexity methods. Moreover, the performance can be comparable to the higher complexity
methods. Its hardware cost is low and suitable to be applied to many real-time applications. These are implemented using
Verilog Hardware Description Language. The Verilog code is synthesized on Spartan 3 FPGA using Xilinx ISE 14.7 software
tool.
on filter window. Often, the use of smoothing filters cause significant blurring of edges. Recently, Buades et al. proposed
interesting work in which they uses the Non-Local Means algorithm, supported on the idea that images contain repeated structures,
and averaging this structures, noise can be reduced. The decision tree is a simple but powerful form of multiple variable analysis .
It can break down a complex decision-making process into a collection of simpler decisions, thus provide a solution which is often
easier to interpret. There have been several methods using decision tree to deal with salt-and-pepper noise and some of them
perform well. Based on above basic concepts, we present a novel adaptive decision-tree-based denoising method (DTBDM) and
its VLSI architecture for removing random-valued impulse noise. To enhance the effects of removal of impulse noise, the results
of reconstructed pixels are adaptively written back as a part of input data.
The proposed design requires simple computations and two line memory buffers only, so its hardware cost is low. For a
512 x 512 x 8-bit gray scale test image, only two line buffers (512 x 2 x 8 bits) is needed in our design. Most state-of-the-art
methods need to buffer a full image (512 x 512 x 8) bits. In the proposed design, 99.6 percent of storage is reduced. Furthermore,
only simple arithmetic operations, such as addition and subtraction, are used in DTBDM. Especially, it can remove the noise from
corrupted images efficiently and requires no previous training. These experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique
can obtain better performances in terms of both quantitative evaluation and visual quality than other lower complexity denoising
methods.
Moreover, the performance can be comparable to the higher complexity methods. The seven-stage VLSI architecture for
the proposed design will be implemented and synthesized by using Verilog HDL and Xilinx ISE Tool using Spartan 3 FPGA
device respectively. The content of this report is organized as follows. First a literature survey on existing methods is described
briefly. The proposed DTBDM is introduced briefly in next section and describes the proposed VLSI architecture in detail. Next
section illustrates the VLSI implementation and comparisons. The conclusion is provided in next section with advantages and
disadvantages along with scope of the proposed work.
DTBDM consists of two components: decision-tree-based impulse detector and edge-preserving image filter. The
detector determines whether p i,j is a noisy pixel by using the decision tree and the correlation between pixel p i,j and its
neighbouring pixels. If the result is positive, edge preserving image filter based on direction-oriented filter generates the
reconstructed value. Otherwise, the value will be kept unchanged. The design concept of the DTBDM is displayed in Figure.2.
In order to determine whether pi,j is a noisy pixel, the correlations between and its pi,j neighbouring pixels are considered .
Surveying these methods, we can simply classify them into several ways—observing the degree of isolation at current pixel
determining whether the current pixel is on a fringe or comparing the similarity between current pixel and its neighbouring pixels.
Therefore,in the decision-tree-based impulse detector, we design three modules—isolation module (IM), fringe module (FM), and
similarity module (SM). Three concatenating decisions of these modules build a decision tree. The decision tree is a binary tree
and can determine the status of pi,j by using the different equations in different modules.
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International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
Volume 1 Issue 7 (August 2014 ) http://ijirae.com
First, we use isolation module to decide whether the pixel value is in a smooth region. If the result is negative, we conclude
that the current pixel belongs to noisy free. Otherwise, if the result is positive, it means that the current pixel might be a noisy
pixel or just situated on an edge. The fringe module is used to confirm the result. If the current pixel is situated on an edge, the
result of fringe module will be negative (noisy free); otherwise, the result will be positive. If isolation module and fringe module
cannot determine whether current pixel belongs to noisy free, the similarity module is used to decide the result. It compares the
similarity between current pixel and its neighboring pixels. If the result is positive, pi,j is a noisy pixel; otherwise, it is noise free.
The following sections describe the three modules in detail.
1) Isolation Module: The pixel values in a smooth region should be close or locally slightly varying, as shown . The differences
between its neighbouring pixel values are small. If there are noisy values, edges, or blocks in this region, the distribution of the
values is different, as shown in Figure. 3. Therefore, we determine whether current pixel is an isolation point by observing the
smoothness of its surrounding pixels. Figure. 4 shows an example of noisy image. The pixels with shadow suffering from noise
have low similarity with the neighbouring pixels and the so-called isolation point. The difference between it and its neighbouring
pixel value is large. According to the above concepts, we first detect the maximum and minimum luminance values in WTopHalf ,
named as TopHalf_max, TopHalf_min, and calculate the difference between them, named as TopHalf_diff. For WBottomHalf , we
apply the same idea to obtain BottomHalf_diff. The two difference values are compared with a threshold Th_IMa to decide
whether the surrounding region belongs to a smooth area. The equations are as
TopHalf_ diff = TopHalf_ max - TopHalf _min (3)
BottomHalf diff = BottomHalf max - BottomHalf_ min (4)
DecisionI = { true, if ( TopHalf diff ≥ Th _IMa)
or ( BottomHalf _dif f ≥ Th _IMa)
{ false, otherwise: (5)
Next, we take pi,j into consideration. Two values must be calculated first. One is the difference between f i,j and
TopHalf_max; the other is the difference between and f i,j and TopHalf_min. After the subtraction, a threshold ThIMb is used to
compare these two differences. The same method as in the case of WBottomHalf is applied. The equations are as
IM_TopHalf
{ True, if ( |f i,j - TopHalf_ max| ≥ Th _IMb)
= or | f i,j - TopHalf _min| ≥ Th_ IMb) (6)
{ false, otherwise.
IM _BottomHalf
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International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
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Finally, we can make a temporary decision whether pi,j belongs to a suspected noisy pixel or is noisy free.
2) Fringe Module: If pi,j has a great difference with neighbouring pixels, it might be a noisy pixel or just situated on an edge,
as shown in Figure. 5. How to conclude that a pixel is noisy or situated on an edge is difficult. In order to deal with this case, we
define four directions, from E1 to E4, as shown in Figure. 6. We take direction E1 for example. By calculating the absolute
difference between f i;j and the other two pixel values along the same direction, respectively, we can determine whether there is an
edge or not. The detailed equations are as
FM _E1 = false; if (| a - fi,j| ≥Th _FMa)
or (|h – fi,j| ≥ Th_ FMa)
or (|a - h| ≥ Th _FMb)
= true, otherwise. (9)
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International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
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International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
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Fig. 7 Dataflow of edge-preserving image filter & its eight directional differences
1)Isolation module:
The architecture of IM consists of a comparator CMPL which is used to output the larger value from the two input values
while the comparator CMPS is used to output the smaller value from the two input values. The first two-level comparators are used
to find TopHalf_max and TopHalf_min. The SUB unit is used to output the difference which is subtracted the lower input
(TopHalf_min) from the upper one (TopHalf_max), and the |SUB| unit is used to output the absolute value of difference of two
inputs. The GC is the greater comparator that will output logic 1 if the upper input value is greater than the lower one. The OR
gate is employed to generate the binary result for IM_TopHalf. Finally, if the result of Decision II is positive, pi;j might be a noisy
pixel or situate on an edge. The next module (FM) will be used to confirm the result.
Fig. 8. Architecture of IM
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2 )Fringe Module
The architecture of FM is composed of four small modules, from FM_1 to FM_4, and each of them is used to determine
its direction, as mentioned in Section 2.1.2. Fig 5.2.2.2 is a detailed implementation of FM_1. Since E1 is the direction from a to h
, the relation between a, h, and f i,j must be referenced. The three |SUB| units are used to determine the absolute differences
between them. The GC is described in the above section and the NOR gate is used to generate the result of FM _E1. If the result is
positive, we consider that f i,j is on the edge E1 and regard it as noise free.
Fig 11 Architecture of SM
4)Edge-Preserving Image Filter
The Edge-Preserving Image Filter is composed of two modules, minED generator and average generator (AG). The
architecture consists of minED generator which is used to determine the edge that has the smallest difference. Eight directional
differences are calculated with twelve |SUB|, four ADD, and four shifter units. Then, the smallest one is determined by using the
Min Tree unit. Min Tree is made up of a series of comparators. After that, the mean of luminance values of the pixels which
process the smallest directional difference (Dmin) can be obtained from the average generator.
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International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
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As mentioned already if pi;j-1; pi;j+1; pi+1;j-1; pi+1;j and pi+1, j+1 are all suspected to be noisy pixels, the final MUX will output
(a +b x 2 +c)/4. Otherwise, the MUX will output the mean of the pixel values which process Dmin. Some directional differences
are determined according to four pixel values, so its reconstructive values also need four pixel values. Two-level ADD and shifter
units are used to complete our calculation. As for the chip implementation, the gate counts or silicon area of one multiplier or
division is much larger than one shifter. In our design, all multipliers or divisions will be replaced by shifter units in order to lower
the hardware cost. After above computations, we sort b, d, e, and g in order. The reconstructed value f ^i;j obtained from edge-
preserving filter will be compared with the second and third values, named as SortFour2, SortFour3, and the final value f¯ i;j is
obtained from the equation as
5) Histogram Equalization
Image enhancement is a mean as the improvement of an image appearance by increasing dominance of some features or by
decreasing ambiguity between different regions of the image. Image enhancement processes consist of a collection of techniques
that seek to improve the visual appearance of an image or to convert the image to a form better suited for analysis by a human or
machine Numerous enhancement methods have been proposed but the enhancement efficiency, computational requirements, noise
amplification, user intervention, and application suitability are the common factors to be considered when choosing from these
different methods for specific image processing application. Histogram processing is the act of altering an image by modifying its
histogram. Common uses of histogram processing include normalization by which one makes the histogram of an image as flat as
possible. This is also known as contrast enhancement. Intensity transformation functions based on information extracted from
image such as enhancement, compression, segmentation and description.
Histogram Equalization is a technique that generates a gray map which changes the histogram of an image and redistributing
all pixels values to be as close as possible to a user –specified desired histogram. HE allows for areas of lower local contrast to
gain a higher contrast. Histogram equalization automatically determines a transformation function seeking to produce an output
image with a uniform Histogram. Histogram equalization is a method in image processing of contrast adjustment using the image
histogram. This method usually increases the global contrast of many images, especially when the usable data of the image is
represented by close contrast values. Through this adjustment, the intensities can be better distributed on the histogram. Histogram
equalization accomplishes this by effectively spreading out the most frequent intensity values. Histogram equalization
automatically determines a transformation function seeking to produce an output image with a uniform Histogram.
A. Simulation Results
The performance analysis of all architectures are analysed and it is simulated using ModelSim simulator .
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International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
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Fig.16 Resultsof denoising method and image restoration with image enhancement
V. CONCLUSIONS
A low-cost VLSI architecture for efficient removal of random-valued impulse noise is proposed in this paper. The approach
uses the decision-tree-based detector to detect the noisy pixel and employs an effective design to locate the edge. With adaptive
skill, the quality of the reconstructed images is notable improved. Our extensive experimental results demonstrate that the
performance of our proposed technique is better than the previous lower complexity methods and is comparable to the higher
complexity methods in terms of both quantitative evaluation and visual quality. It requires only low computational complexity and
two line memory buffers. Therefore, it is very suitable to be applied to many real-time applications. Furthermore, histogram
equalization is used to enhance the effects of removal of impulse noise.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
© 2014, IJIRAE- All Rights Reserved Page -263
International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
Volume 1 Issue 7 (August 2014 ) http://ijirae.com
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am grateful to Mr.Bibin Binu Simon, Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
Mangalam College of Engineering, for his innovative ideas in proceeding with this proposed system.
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