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A gradient-domain-based edge-preserving sharpen filter

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Abstract

As one of the most fundamental operations in computer graphics and computer vision, sharpness enhancement can enhance an image in respect of sharpness characteristics. Unfortunately, the prevalent methods often fail to eliminate image noise, unrealistic details, or incoherent enhancement. In this paper, we propose a new sharpness enhancement approach that can boost the sharpness characteristics of an image effectively with affinity-based edge preserving. Our approach includes three gradient-domain operations: sharpness saliency representation, affinity-based gradient transformation, and gradient-domain image reconstruction. Moreover, we also propose an evaluation method based on sharpness distribution for analyzing all sharpness enhancement approaches in respect of sharpness characteristics. By evaluating the sharpness distribution and comparing the visual appearance, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our sharpness enhancement approach.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Project of China (No. 2011CB302203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61073089, No. 61133009), the Innovation Program of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 10511501200), and a SRG grant from City University of Hong Kong (No. 7002664).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China

    Zhi-Feng Xie, Yan Gui, Min-Gang Chen & Li-Zhuang Ma

  2. City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Rynson W. H. Lau

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  1. Zhi-Feng Xie
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  2. Rynson W. H. Lau
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  3. Yan Gui
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  4. Min-Gang Chen
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  5. Li-Zhuang Ma
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Correspondence to Zhi-Feng Xie.

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Xie, ZF., Lau, R.W.H., Gui, Y. et al. A gradient-domain-based edge-preserving sharpen filter. Vis Comput 28, 1195–1207 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-011-0668-6

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