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Mathematics of Difference of Gaussians

The difference of Gaussians (DoG) algorithm involves subtracting one blurred version of an image from another less blurred version, where the blurring is done using Gaussian kernels with different standard deviations. This acts as a band-pass filter, removing both very high and very low spatial frequencies from the original image and enhancing details in between. The DoG approximation can be used for tasks like edge detection, blob detection, and scale-invariant feature extraction by enhancing features at different scales.

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46 views3 pages

Mathematics of Difference of Gaussians

The difference of Gaussians (DoG) algorithm involves subtracting one blurred version of an image from another less blurred version, where the blurring is done using Gaussian kernels with different standard deviations. This acts as a band-pass filter, removing both very high and very low spatial frequencies from the original image and enhancing details in between. The DoG approximation can be used for tasks like edge detection, blob detection, and scale-invariant feature extraction by enhancing features at different scales.

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Rajesh Paul
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© © All Rights Reserved
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In imaging science, difference of Gaussians (DoG) is a feature enhancement algorithm that

involves the subtraction of one blurred version of an original image from another, less blurred
version of the original. In the simple case of grayscale images, the blurred images are obtained
by convolving the original grayscale images with Gaussian kernels having differing standard
deviations. Blurring an image using a Gaussian kernel suppresses only high-frequency
spatial information. Subtracting one image from the other preserves spatial information that lies
between the range of frequencies that are preserved in the two blurred images. Thus, the
difference of Gaussians is a band-pass filter that discards all but a handful of spatial frequencies
that are present in the original grayscale image.[1]

Mathematics of difference of Gaussians[edit]

Comparison of difference of Gaussian with Mexican hat wavelet

Given an m-channel, n-dimensional image

The difference of Gaussians (DoG) of the image is the function

obtained by subtracting the image convolved with the Gaussian of variance from the

image convolved with a Gaussian of narrower variance , with . In one

dimension, is defined as:

and for the centered two-dimensional case :


which is formally equivalent to:

which represents an image convoluted to the difference of two Gaussians, which approximates
a Mexican Hat function.
The relation between the difference of Gaussians operator and the Laplacian of the Gaussian
operator (the Mexican hat wavelet) is explained in appendix A in Lindeberg (2015).[2

Details and applications[edit]

Example before difference of Gaussians

After difference of Gaussians filtering in black and white

As a feature enhancement algorithm, the difference of Gaussians can be utilized to increase the
visibility of edges and other detail present in a digital image. A wide variety of alternative edge
sharpening filters operate by enhancing high frequency detail, but because random noise also
has a high spatial frequency, many of these sharpening filters tend to enhance noise, which can
be an undesirable artifact. The difference of Gaussians algorithm removes high frequency detail
that often includes random noise, rendering this approach one of the most suitable for processing
images with a high degree of noise. A major drawback to application of the algorithm is an
inherent reduction in overall image contrast produced by the operation.[1]
When utilized for image enhancement, the difference of Gaussians algorithm is typically applied
when the size ratio of kernel (2) to kernel (1) is 4:1 or 5:1. In the example images to the right, the
sizes of the Gaussian kernels employed to smooth the sample image were 10 pixels and 5
pixels. The algorithm can also be used to obtain an approximation of the Laplacian of
Gaussian when the ratio of size 2 to size 1 is roughly equal to 1.6.[3] The Laplacian of Gaussian is
useful for detecting edges that appear at various image scales or degrees of image focus. The
exact values of sizes of the two kernels that are used to approximate the Laplacian of Gaussian
will determine the scale of the difference image, which may appear blurry as a result.
Differences of Gaussians have also been used for blob detection in the scale-invariant feature
transform. In fact, the DoG as the difference of two Multivariate normal distribution has always a
total null sum and convolving it with a uniform signal generates no response. It approximates well
a second derivate of Gaussian (Laplacian of Gaussian) with K~1.6 and the receptive fields of
ganglion cells in the retina with K~5. It may easily be used in recursive schemes and is used as
an operator in real-time algorithms for blob detection and automatic scale selection.

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