Abstract
Like bilateral filter (BF), cross bilateral filter (CBF) considers both gray-level similarities and geometric closeness of the neighboring pixels without smoothing edges, but it uses one image for finding the kernel and other to filter, and vice versa. In this paper, it is proposed to fuse source images by weighted average using the weights computed from the detail images that are extracted from the source images using CBF. The performance of the proposed method has been verified on several pairs of multisensor and multifocus images and compared with the existing methods visually and quantitatively. It is found that, none of the methods have shown consistence performance for all the performance metrics. But as compared to them, the proposed method has shown good performance in most of the cases. Further, the visual quality of the fused image by the proposed method is superior to other methods.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- IR:
-
Infrared
- WT:
-
Wavelet transform
- DWT:
-
Discrete wavelet transform
- BF:
-
Bilateral filter
- CBF:
-
Cross bilateral filter
- API:
-
Average pixel intensity
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- AG:
-
Average gradient
- MI:
-
Mutual information
- FS:
-
Fusion symmetry
- CC:
-
Correlation coefficient
- SF:
-
Spatial frequency
References
Blum, R., Liu, Z.: Multi-Sensor Image Fusion and Its Applications. CRC Press, London (2005)
Li, H., Manjunath, B.S., Mitra, S.K.: Multisensor image fusion using the wavelet transform. Graph. Models Image Process 57(3), 235–245 (1995)
Hamza, A.B., He, Y., Krim, H., Willsky, A.: A multiscale approach to pixel-level image fusion. Integr. Comput. Aid. Eng. 12(2), 135–146 (2005)
Shah, P., Merchant, S.N., Desai, U. B.: Multifocus and multispectral image fusion based on pixel significance using multiresolution decomposition. J. SIViP. (2011). doi:10.1007/s11760-011-0219-7
Petrovic, V.: Multisensor pixel-level image fusion. PhD Thesis, Department of Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering, Manchester School of Engineering, United Kingdom (2001)
Sasikala, M., Kumaravel, M.: A comparative analysis of feature-based image fusion method. Inf. Tech. J. 6(8), 1224–1230 (2007)
Tao, Q., Veldhuis, R.: Threshold-optimized decision-level fusion and its application to biometrics. Pattern Recogn. 42, 823–836 (2009)
Carper, J.W., Lilles, T.M., Kiefer, R.W.: The use of intensity-hue saturation transformations for merging SPOT panchromatic and multi-spectra image data. Photogr. Eng. Remote Sens. 56, 459–467 (1990)
Toet, A.: Hierarchical image fusion. Mach. Vis. Appl. 3(1), 1–11 (1990)
Haeberli, P.: A multi-focus method for controlling depth of field. Grafica Obscura (1994)
Qu, G., Zhang, D., Yan, P.: Medical image fusion by wavelet transform modulus maxima. Opt. Exp. 9(4), 184–190 (2001)
Zhi-guo, J., Dong-bing, H., Jin, C., Xiao-kuan, Z.: A wavelet based algorithm for multi-focus micro-image fusion. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Image and Graphics (ICIG), pp. 176–179, Dec 2004
Ranjith, T., Ramesh, C.: A lifting wavelet transform based algorithm for multi-sensor image fusion. CRL Tech. J. 3(3), 19–22 (2001)
Hill, P., Canagaraj, N., Bull, D.: Image fusion using complex wavelets. In: Proceedings of the British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC), pp. 487–496, Sept 2002
Du, Y., Vachon, P.W., Vander Sanden, J.J.: Satellite image fusion with multi-scale wavelet analysis for marine applications. Can. J. Remote Sens. 29(1), 14–23 (2003)
Wang, Z., Ziou, D., Armenakis, C., Li, D., Li, Q.: A comparative analysis of image fusion methods. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 43(6), 1392–1402 (2005)
Zheng, S., Shi, W.-Z., Liu, J., Zhu, G.-X., Tian, J.-W.: Multisource image fusion method using support value transform. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 16(7), 1831–1839 (2007)
Li, S., Kwok, J.T., Wang, Y.: Multifocus image fusion using artificial neural networks. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 23, 985–997 (2002)
Hao, Y., Sun, Z., Tan, T.: Comparative studies on multispectral palm image fusion for biometrics. ACCV, Part II, LNCS 4844, 12–21 (2007)
Arivazhagan, S., Ganesan, L., Subash Kumar, T.G.: A modified statistical approach for image fusion using wavelet transform. J. SIViP 3(2), 137–144 (2009)
Shah, P., Merchant, S.N., Desai, U.B.: Fusion of surveillance images in infrared and visible band using curvelet, wavelet and wavelet packet transform. Int. J. Wavel. Multiresol. Inf. Process. 8(2), 271–292 (2010)
Shah, P., Srikanth, T.V., Merchant, S.N., Desai, U.B.: A novel multifocus image fusion scheme based on pixel significance using wavelet transform. In: Proceedings of the Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Process. (IVMSP), pp. 54–59, Aug 2011
Rahman, S.M.M., Omair Ahmad, M., Swamy, M.N.S.: Contrast-based fusion of noisy images using discrete wavelet transform. IET Image Process. 4(5), 374–384 (2010). doi:10.1049/iet-ipr.2009.0163
Naidu, V.P.S.: Discrete cosine transform-based image fusion. Def. Sci. J. 60(1), 48–54 (2010)
Shreyamsha Kumar, B.K.: Multifocus and multispectral image fusion based on pixel significance using discrete cosine harmonic wavelet transform. J. SIViP (2012). doi:10.1007/s11760-012-0361-x
Shreyamsha Kumar, B.K., Swamy, M.N.S., Omair Ahmad, M.: Multiresolution DCT decomposition for multifocus image fusion. In: Proceedings of the Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), pp. 1–4. Regina, Canada, May 2013. doi:10.1109/CCECE.2013.6567721
Tomasi, C., Manduchi, R.: Bilateral filtering for gray and color images. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision, pp. 839–846, Jan 1998
Zhang, M., Gunturk, B.K.: Multiresolution bilateral filtering for image denoising. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 17(12), 2324–2333 (2008)
Mustafa, Z.A., Kadah, Y.M.: Multi resolution bilateral filter for MR image denoising. In: Proceedings of the 1st Middle East Conference on Biomedical Engineering (MECBME), pp. 180–184. Sharjah, UAE, Feb 2011
Shreyamsha Kumar, B.K.: Image Denoising based on Gaussian/Bilateral Filter and its Method Noise Thresholding. J. SIViP (2012). doi:10.1007/s11760-012-0372-7
Petschnigg, G., Agrawala, M., Hoppe, H., Szeliski, R., Cohen, M., Toyama, K.: Digital photography with flash and no-flash image pairs. ACM Trans. Gr. 23(3), 664–672 (2004)
Eisemann, E., Durand, F.: Flash photography enhancement via intrinsic relighting. ACM Trans. Gr. 23(3), 673–678 (2004)
Hu, J., Li, S.: The multiscale directional bilateral filter and its application to multisensor image fusion. Inf. Fus. (2011). doi:10.1016/j.inffus.2011.01.002
Bennett, E.P., Mason, J.L., McMillan, L.: Multispectral bilateral video fusion. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 16(5), 1185–1194 (2007)
Fattal, R., Agrawala, M., Rusinkiewicz, S.: Multiscale shape and detail enhancement from multi-light image collections. ACM Trans. Gr. 26(3) (2007). doi:10.1145/1275808.1276441
Kotwal, K., Chaudhuri, S.: Visualization of hyperspectral images using bilateral filtering. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 48(5), 2308–2316 (2010)
Choi, E.-J., Park, D.-J.: Human detection using image fusion of thermal and visible image with new joint bilateral filter. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Sciences and Convergence Information Technology (ICCIT), pp. 882–885, Nov 2010
Shah, P., Merchant, S.N., Desai, U.B.: An efficient adaptive fusion scheme for multifocus images in wavelet domain using statistical properties of neighborhood. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Fusion, pp. 1–7, July 2011
Devlin, S.J., Gnanadesikan, R., Kettenring, J.R.: Robust estimation and outlier detection with correlation coefficients. Biometrika 62(3), 531–545 (1975)
Petrovic, V., Xydeas, C.: Objective image fusion performance characterization. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), vol. 2, pp. 1866–1871 (2005)
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express his gratitude to Mr. C. R. Patil, Member (Senior Research Staff), CRL-BEL, India, for his kind support and every possible help. Also, the author thanks the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shreyamsha Kumar, B.K. Image fusion based on pixel significance using cross bilateral filter. SIViP 9, 1193–1204 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11760-013-0556-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11760-013-0556-9