UNIT III

IMAGE RESTORATION
 Topics

• Image Restoration:
• Degradation Mode
• Algebraic Approach to Restoration
• Inverse Filtering
• Least Mean Square Filters
• Constrained Least Squares Restoration

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 IMAGE RESTORATION
• IMAGE RESTORATION:
• Restoration improves image in some predefined
sense. It is an objective process.
• Restoration attempts to reconstruct an image
that has been degraded by using a priori
knowledge of the degradation phenomenon.
• These techniques are oriented toward modeling
the degradation and then applying the inverse
process in order to recover the original image.
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• Restoration techniques are based on
mathematical or probabilistic models of image
processing.
• Enhancement, on the other hand is based on
human subjective preferences regarding what
constitutes a “good” enhancement result.
• Image Restoration refers to a class of
methods that aim to remove or reduce the
degradations that have occurred while the
digital image was being obtained.
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• All natural images when displayed have gone
through some sort of degradation:
• During display mode
• Acquisition mode, or
• Processing mode
– Sensor noise
– Blur due to camera miss focus
– Relative object-camera motion
– Random atmospheric turbulence
• Others
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 Degradation Model
• Degradation process operates on a degradation
function that operates on an input image with an
additive noise term.
• Input image is represented by using the notation
f(x,y), noise term can be represented as η(x,y).
• These two terms when combined gives the result as
g(x,y).
• If we are given g(x,y), some knowledge about the
degradation function H or J and some knowledge
about the additive noise teem η(x,y), the objective of
restoration is to obtain an estimate f'(x,y) of the
original image. 6
Fig: A model of the image Degradation / Restoration process

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• We want the estimate to be as close as possible to
the original image. The more we know about h and η
, the closer f(x,y) will be to f'(x,y).
• If it is a linear position invariant process, then
degraded image is given in the spatial domain by
g(x,y)=f(x,y)*h(x,y)+η(x,y)
• h(x,y) is spatial representation of degradation
function and symbol * represents convolution.
• In frequency domain we may write this equation as
G(u,v)=F(u,v)H(u,v)+N(u,v)
• The terms in the capital letters are the Fourier
Transform of the corresponding terms in the spatial
domain. 8
 Noise Models
• The principal source of noise in digital images
arises during image acquisition and /or
transmission.
• The performance of imaging sensors is
affected by a variety of factors, such as
environmental conditions during image
acquisition and by the quality of the sensing
elements themselves.

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• Images are corrupted during transmission
principally due to interference in the channels
used for transmission.
• Since main sources of noise presented in
digital images are resulted from atmospheric
disturbance and image sensor circuitry,
following assumptions can be made i.e.
– the noise model is spatial invariant (independent
of spatial location).
– The noise model is uncorrelated with the object
function.
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 Gaussian Noise
• The PDF of Gaussian
random variable is

• Where z represents the

gray level, μ= mean of
average value of z, σ=
standard deviation.

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 Rayleigh Noise
• Unlike Gaussian
distribution, the Rayleigh
distribution is no
symmetric. It is given by
the formula.

• The mean and variance of

this density is

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 Gamma Noise
• The PDF of Erlang noise is given
by

• The mean and variance of this

density are given by

• Its shape is similar to Rayleigh

disruption. This equation is
referred to as gamma density it is
correct only when the
denominator is the gamma
function. 13
 Exponential Noise
• Exponential distribution
has an exponential shape.
The PDF of exponential
noise is given as

• Where a>0. The mean and

variance of this density are
given by

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 Uniform Noise
• The PDF of uniform noise is
given by

• The mean and variance of

this noise is

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 Impulse (salt & pepper) Noise
• In this case, the noise is
signal dependent, and is
multiplied to the image.
• The PDF of bipolar
(impulse) noise is given by

• If b>a, gray level b will

appear as a light dot in
image. Level a will appear
like a dark dot.
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Restoration in the presence of Noise only-
Spatial filtering
• When the only degradation present in an image is noise, i.e.
g(x,y)=f(x,y)+η(x,y)
or
G(u,v)= F(u,v)+ N(u,v)
• The noise terms are unknown so subtracting them from g(x,y)
or G(u,v) is not a realistic approach. In the case of periodic
noise it is possible to estimate N(u,v) from the spectrum
G(u,v).
• So N(u,v) can be subtracted from G(u,v) to obtain an estimate
of original image. Spatial filtering can be done when only
additive noise is present.

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Techniques used to reduce the
noise effect

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 Mean Filter
Arithmetic Mean filter:
• It is the simplest mean filter.
• Let Sxy represents the set of coordinates in
the sub image of size m*n centered at point
(x,y). The arithmetic mean filter computes the
average value of the corrupted image g(x,y) in
the area defined by Sxy.

• A mean filter smoothes local variations in

image Noise is reduced as a result of blurring.
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 Geometric Mean filter
• An image restored using a geometric mean
filter is given by the expression

• Here, each restored pixel is given by the

product of the pixel in the sub image window,
raised to the power 1/mn. A geometric mean
filters but it to loose image details in the
process.
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 Harmonic Mean filter
• The harmonic mean filtering operation is
given by the expression

• The harmonic mean filter works well for salt

noise but fails for pepper noise. It does well
with Gaussian noise also.

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 Order statistics filter
• Order statistics filters are spatial filters whose
response is based on ordering the pixel
contained in the image area encompassed by
the filter.
• The response of the filter at any point is
determined by the ranking result.

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Median filter:
• It is the best order statistic filter; it replaces the value of a pixel by the
median of gray levels in the Neighborhood of the pixel.

• It provide excellent noise reduction capabilities with considerably less

blurring then smoothing filters of similar size.
Max filter:
• Using the l00th percentile of ranked set of numbers is called the max filter
and is given by the equation

• It is used for finding the brightest point in an image.

Min filter:
• The 0th percentile filter is min filter.

• This filter is useful for flinging the darkest point in image.

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Midpoint filter:
• The midpoint filter simply computes the
midpoint between the maximum and
minimum values in the area encompassed by

• This filter works best for randomly distributed

noise like Gaussian or uniform noise.

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 Periodic Noise by Frequency domain
filtering
• Band Reject Filters
• Band pass filters
• Notch filters
• Low pass filters
• High pass filters

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 Band Reject Filters
• It removes a band of frequencies about the origin of
the Fourier transformer.
Ideal Band reject Filter
• An ideal band reject filter is given by the expression

• D(u,v)- the distance from the origin of the centered

frequency rectangle.
• W- the width of the band
• Do- the radial center of the frequency rectangle. 31
• Butterworth Band reject Filter:

• Gaussian Band reject Filter:

• These filters are mostly used when the location of noise

component in the frequency domain is known. Sinusoidal
noise can be easily removed by using these kinds of filters
because it shows two impulses that are mirror images of each
other about the origin. Of the frequency transform. 32
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 Band pass Filter
• The function of a band pass filter is opposite to that
of a band reject filter It allows a specific frequency
band of the image to be passed and blocks the rest
of frequencies.

• Hbp(u,v) transfer function of a band pass filter can be

obtained from a corresponding band reject filter with
transfer function Hbr(u,v)

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 Notch Filters
• A notch filter rejects (or passes) frequencies in
predefined neighborhoods about a center frequency.
• Due to the symmetry of the Fourier transform notch
filters must appear in symmetric pairs about the
origin.
• The transfer function of an ideal notch reject filter of
radius D0 with centers a (u0 , v0) and by symmetry at (-
u0 , v0) is

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• Ideal, butterworth, Gaussian notch filters

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 Notch pass filter

Hnp(u,v)= 1 - Hnr(u,v)

• Hnp(u,v) transfer function of a Notch pass filter

can be obtained from a corresponding Notch
reject filter with transfer function Hnr(u,v)

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 Inverse Filtering
• The simplest approach to restoration is direct inverse filtering
where we complete an estimate of the transform of the
original image simply by dividing the transform of the
degraded image G(u,v) by degradation function H(u,v)

• We know that

• Therefore

• From the above equation we observe that we cannot recover

the undegraded image exactly because N(u,v) is a random
function whose Fourier transform is not known. 40
• One approach to get around the zero or small-
value problem is to limit the filter frequencies
to values near the origin.
• We know that H(0,0) is equal to the average
values of h(x,y).
• By Limiting the analysis to frequencies near
the origin we reduce the probability of
encountering zero values.

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 Minimum mean Square Error
(Wiener) filtering
• The inverse filtering approach has poor performance. The
wiener filtering approach uses the degradation function and
statistical characteristics of noise into the restoration process.
• The objective is to find an estimate of the uncorrupted image
f such that the mean square error between them is
minimized.
• The error measure is given by

• Where E{.} is the expected value of the argument.

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• We assume that the noise and the image are uncorrelated one or the other
has zero mean.
• The gray levels in the estimate are a linear function of the levels in the
degraded image.

• Where H(u,v)= degradation function H*(u,v)=complex conjugate of H(u,v)

• | H(u,v)|2=H* (u,v) H(u,v)
• Sn(u,v)=|N(u,v)|2= power spectrum of the noise
• Sf(u,v)=|F(u,v)|2= power spectrum of the underrated image
• The power spectrum of the undegraded image is rarely known. An approach
used frequently when these quantities are not known or cannot be estimated
then the expression used is

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• Where K is a specified constant.
 Constrained least squares filtering
• The wiener filter has a disadvantage that we need to know the power
spectra of the undegraded image and noise. The constrained least square
filtering requires only the knowledge of only the mean and variance of the
noise. These parameters usually can be calculated from a given degraded
image this is the advantage with this method. This method produces a
optimal result. This method require the optimal criteria which is important
we express the

in vector-matrix form

• The optimality criteria for restoration is based on a measure of

smoothness, such as the second derivative of an image (Laplacian).

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• The minimum of a criterion function C defined
as

• Subject to the constraint

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