Line preserving adaptive median filtering

Abstract

A new form of adaptive median filtering that suppresses impulsive noise while preserving image detail and thin lines is presented. This is accomplished by first generating a binary mask of the image which is subsequently used to drive the type of filtering within the filter windows. The decisions used are either 2-D or directional 1-D median filtering, depending on line structure information from the binary mask. Filtering along the direction of a line preserves the line and suppresses impulsive noise. Experimental results with a real image demonstrate the performance of the algorithm.