Image Filtering

Purpose:
Image Enhancement
Noise Removal
Edge Enhancement/Detection

Images
An image is a matrix of points called pixels
Resolution
640 X 480 ( 0.3 MegaPixels)
1600 X 1200 ( 2 MegaPixels)
3872 X 2592 (10 MegaPixels)
Grayscale: generally 8 bits per pixel Intensities in range
[0255]
RGB color: 3 of 8-bit color planes: IR , IG , IB

Images
Example of a grayscale image intensity I(x,y)
x
255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255
255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255

255 255 255

20

0 255 255 255 255 255 255 255

255 255 255

75

75

75 255 255 255 255 255 255

255 255

75

95

95

75 255 255 255 255 255 255

255 255

96 127 145 175 255 255 255 255 255 255

255 255 127 145 175 175 175 255 255 255 255 255

255 255 127 145 200 200 175 175

95 255 255 255

255 255 127 145 200 200 175 175

95

47 255 255

255 255 127 145 145 175 127 127

95

47 255 255

255 255

47 255 255

74 127 127 127

255 255 255

(0 = black, 255 = white)

74

74

74

95

95

95

74

74

74 255 255 255

255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255
255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255

Image Spatial Filtering

Origin

Simple 3*3
Neighbourhood

Original Image
Pixels

e
3*3 Filter

Image I (x, y)

Filter

eprocessed = v*e +
r*a + s*b + t*c +
u*d + w*f +
x*g + y*h + z*i

This process is called convolution and is repeated for every

pixel in the original image to get the filtered image

Mean Smoothing Filters

Simply average all of the pixels in a
neighbourhood around a central value
1/

1/

1/

1/

1/

1/

1/

1/

1/

sum of filter values = 1

Mean Smoothing Filters

Example

1 1 1 7 7 7 7 7 7
8 5 8 8 5 8
1

8 5 8 8 5 8
1
1
1
7 7 7 7 7 7

9
1 1 1 7 7 7 7 7 7
8 5 8 8 5 8

Mean Smoothing Filters

Image smoothed with mean filters

Original

33

99

Weighted Smoothing Filters

Pixels closer to the central pixel are more
important
1/
16

2/
16

1/
16

2/
16

4/
16

2/
16

1/
16

2/
16

1/
16

Gaussian Weighted Filter

sum of filter values = 1

Weighted Smoothing Filters

Original
image

Mean

Gaussian

Median Smoothing Filters

Example

2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8

Median Smoothing Filters

Noisy image

5x5 mean filter

5x5 median filter

Edge Enhancement (Sharpening)

0 0 0
0 2 0
0 0 0

1 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 1

sum of filter values = 1

Edge Detection

Convert a 2D image into a set of curves

Extracts salient features of the scene

Edge Detection
Directional Edge Detection
Simple mask for:
horizontal edges

-1

vertical edges
-1
1

sum of filter values = 0

Sobel Edge Detection

Sobel Filter is a combination of 2 filters:
-1
-2
-1

0
0
0

1
2
1

-1
0
1

-2
0
2

-1
0
1

Iy

Ix

the combined image will show edges from

both directions
I x2 I y2

Sobel Edge Detection

Ix

Iy

I x2 I y2

Dealing with Borders

At the borders of an image we are missing pixels to form a
neighbourhood
x

Truncate the image

Replicate border pixels

Pad the image (with either

all white or all black pixels)

Image I(x, y)