FROBENIUS NORM FILTERING FOR

REMOVAL OF A CLASS OF NOISES

THROUGH ANALYSIS OF SAR, MEDICAL
IMAGES.

By : Sutanshu S. Raj,
Divij Babbar (USIT)
&
Palak Jain (IGIT)
GGS-IP Univ.
 AIM / PURPOSE :
1. A Novel Spatially Selective Noise Filtration Technique
based on Relational Context Spatial Domain Analysis is
introduced, for the removal of Additive, Multiplicative
and Uncorrelated Noise – Frobenius Norm Filter (FNF).
2. In extension, the Filter is applied to various polluted
Images – Medical, SAR, etc – and the results are found to
be comparable with those of existing Filtering methods.
3. Also, the Filter is employed upon a Class of Noises
having varied Probability Density Functions (PDF’s) to
show the versatility of the FN Filter.
4. Mathematically Prove the existence of a Minimizer, and
its Convergence, for the Frobenius Norm Filter.
 INSPIRATION :
1. Measure Theory: a measure on a set is a systematic way to assign to
each suitable subset a number, intuitively interpreted as the size of
the subset. In this sense, a measure is a generalization of the
concepts of length, area, volume, etc.
2. Euclidean axioms leave no freedom, they determine uniquely all
geometric properties of the Space. Every Euclidean space is also a
Topological Space, which are of analytic nature.
3. Topological Spaces, by definition, have Open Sets leading to notions
of continuous functions, paths, maps, convergent sequences, limits,
interior, boundary.
4. Open Set provides a fundamental way to speak of nearness of points
in a Topological Space, without explicitly having a concept of
distance defined – done on a neighborhood basis.
 INSPIRATION (CONTD.):
1. Frobenius Norm: A Vector Norm treats an m×n Matrix as
a Vector of size mn, and using mapping function p = 2 gives
-

2. The Frobenius Norm is similar to the Euclidean Norm on

Kn and comes from an inner product on the space of all
Matrices. The Frobenius Norm is sub-multiplicative and is
easier to compute than Induced Norms.
3. The set of all n-by-n Matrices, together with such a sub-
multiplicative Norm, is a Banach Space – which, unlike the
Euclidean Space, does not support Orthonormal Basis.
 JUSTIFICATION:
1. L2 space: Lp spaces are Function Spaces defined using
generalizations of Norms for finite-dimensional Vector Spaces. On a
space X, the set of square-integrable functions is an L2 space. Taken
together with the inner product w.r.t a measure μ, the L2 space forms
a Hilbert Space:
2. L2 space consists of equivalence classes of functions and we can
think of an L2 function as a density function, so only its integral on
sets with positive measure matter.
3. L2 function in Euclidean Space can be represented by a continuous
function f and we can think of L2 (Rn) as the completion of the
continuous functions with respect to the L2 norm.
4. CTM - Every isomorphism between two Euclidean Spaces is also an
isomorphism between the corresponding Topological Spaces.
 JUSTIFICATION (CONTD.):
1. Eigenvector & Eigenvalue: A Matrix acts on certain Vectors, called
Eigenvectors, by changing only their magnitude, and leaving their
direction unchanged. It does so by multiplying the magnitude of the
Eigenvector with a factor, which is either positive or negative,
called Eigenvalue. Mathematically, Ax = λx.
2. Frobenius Norm works on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, which are
unique to a given system and are sensitive to perturbations.
3. The Mean of a sequence depends upon the number of elements on
either side of the cardinal element, whereas the Median depends
upon the magnitude of the elements on either side.
4. A Noise Model’s PDF can be measured / is compatible with the
Frobenius L2 (Rn) Norm.
5. In short, the FNF is an adaptive order statistic filter functioning on
the L2 space which can modulate itself according to the Noise Level.
 MATHEMATICAL BACKGROUND.
1. Noise: an unwanted sound / perturbation to a Signal / Image. It is
the random variation of brightness and color information in the
Image. Mathematically, Image Degradation can be modeled as:

g(x,y) = H[f(x,y)] + η(x,y) ; where H is a linear, spatially invariant

process; f is the input image; g is the output image and η is the Noise.
2. The FNF is applied under a given Window Set / Kernel and uses
Pixel Connectivity for removal of additive / multiplicative Noise.
3. The minimization of outlier effects is accomplished by replacing
the above linear form, for (s,t)∊ Sxy , with = Frobenius
Norm{g(s,t)}, such that the PSNR value is maximum; subject to
optical evaluation. Histogram Matching is also accounted for.
 MATHEMATICAL BACKGROUND:
1. Noise Models: describe the distribution (PDF) of random numbers
added to the gray level of each pixel of the Image. They are decided
based on understanding the physics of the source of the Noise, for e.g.,
Gaussian Noise is due to poor illumination of high temperature,
Speckle, Poisson and Rayleigh Noise is due to Range Imaging ( in
SAR, Medical Images), Gamma / Erlang Noise is due to Laser
Imaging, Impulse Noise is due to ‘quick’ transients b/w processes.
2. Since Frobenius Norm works on the L2 space, as do Wavelets; we
combine both to propose a De-noising algorithm. Wavelet Transform is
applied to smoothen the edges of the FN Filtered Image.
3. PDF’s: Gaussian Noise: Rayleigh Noise: Erlang Noise:

where, μ = mean.
 Proposed Algorithm.
If denote the dynamic range of , the gray level of a M×N
Image, then we have y as a Noisy Image and as a window of size w×w
centered at (i, j). The algorithm identifies the noisy pixels and then
adaptively replaces them with the Frobenius Norm of the pixels in .
1. For each pixel location (i, j), initialize w = 3.
2. Compute , which are the minimum, Frobenius
Norm, maximum of the pixel values in , respectively.
3. Compute .
4. If , then proceed to step [5], else set i = i+1.
5. If , then is not a noisy candidate, else we
replace the pixel with .
The neighborhood may include coefficients from other subbands,
corresponding to basis functions at nearby scales and orientations.
 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS (Gaussian Noise)…
Image corrupted with varying Noise Density (d) and thereafter filtered with FNF.

Image Corrupted with d = 0.1 Frobenius Norm Filtered Image. Median Filtered Image.

Image Corrupted with d = 0.5 Frobenius Norm Filtered Image. Median Filtered Image.
 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS…
Comparative Performance Study of various Denoising Algorithms (d=0.05)
 GRAPHS & HISTOGRAMS…
The Experimental Evaluation reveals that the proposed Frobenius Norm Filter
shows better results than the conventional Median Filter & Adaptive Median Filter
when the Images are highly corrupted and having Noise Density d ∊[0.4, 1).

Graphical Plots (PSNR vs. Noise Density) of ADP and FNF at different values of d for bior6.8 and db2, both at n=2.
Images for a Class of Noises (Poisson, Rayleigh & Speckle)…

Poisson Noise. Median Filter. Frobenius Norm Filter.

Rayleigh Noise. Median Filter Frobenius Norm Filter.

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 DENOISING RESULTS (PSNR - DB) FOR VARIOUS NOISE MODELS…
Parameter Settings (Mean and Variance) for the Simulations were Constant.
Compatibility, in terms of De-noising, with Noise Models having PDF’s measurable
in the L2 (Rn) space is evident from the results. The Noise is considered to be stationary.
FNF depicts edge & feature sensitive selectivity in passing High Frequency Data.
RESULTS FOR DENOISING OF A CLASS OF IMAGES (MRI, SAR)…

Bottom – Down: MRI Images corrupted with Rician, AWGN and Gaussian Noise, resp.
PSNR Values for Denoising of a Class of Images (MRI, SAR)…

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 DISCUSSION – THE 5 C’S…
1. Complexity: Sorting N pixel values in a neighbourhood in to Numerical
Order requires a Temporal Complexity of O(N log(N)). Median Filters, and its
variants, are a 2-phase process which are difficult to treat analytically, are
expensive and complex to compute. The Frobenius Norm calculations do not
exceed O(N) and it is hence, computationally (read time) more efficient.
2. Connectivity: It is observed that Median Filter’s Connectivity tends to break-
down when the Image is highly corrupted. Whereas, the Frobenius Norm
works on Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors, which are unique to a given system
and when applied to a neighborhood of pixels, the Connectivity is preserved.
3. Compatibility: Most set of Noises are compatible with the FNF as they are
measured either in the L1 (Ω) or L2 (Ω) space.
4. Correspondence: a one-to-one correspondence exists between the Banach
Space, when the Frobenius Norm is measured, and the Euclidean Hilbert
Space, where the Image is represented w.r.t the Image Intensity Function Ω.
5. Coupling: we use a Neighborhood of Coefficients drawn from two sub-bands
at adjacent scales, thus taking advantage of the strong statistical coupling
observed in Multi-resolution Analysis innate to Wavelet Analysis.
 RESULTS, APPLICATION and FUTURE WORK…

1. Frobenius Norm Filters adapts itself to the Local Properties, Information

surrounding the central pixel of a Mask in order to calculate a new pixel value .
2. FNF is far superior in preservation of the Salient Image features such as
Sharpness, Details, Edges (- sharp contrast variation) and Contours / Gradients.
3. There is NO equivalent to Gibbs’ Ringing at the edges after filtration and the loss
of Spatial Resolution is almost unnoticeable – no over-smoothing of edges.
4. We have used connectivity in the Spatial Domain and exploited the Group
Behaviour of pixel neighbourhood, leading to Adaptive Optimization of the code
5. FNF’s good Localization Characteristic and Protection of Sharp Edges will
allow the Wavelet Filters to be very competitive in Edge Detection, Pattern
Recognition, and Computer Vision.
6. The FNF method will be applied on the Compression Framework – to work
towards a ‘Simultaneous Decompression-Filtering of Images’ Algorithm.
7. The Filters effect on Multi-dimensional Images will also be studied.
 PAPERS PUBLISHED / SUBMITTED…

1. Paper titled ‘Analysis of Wavelet Family with Frobenius Norm for the
Removal of Impulse Noise’ has been accepted for publication at the
IEEE – IET International Conference on Audio, Language and
Image Processing ’10, Shanghai, China.
2. Paper titled ‘Image De-noising for a Class of Noises using the
Frobenius Norm Filter’ has been accepted in the International
Journal of Computer Applications (IJCA).
3. Paper titled ‘Enhancement of Medical & SAR Images Using a Novel
Frobenius Norm Filtering Method’ has been submitted to IEEE
International Conference on Communication and Signal
Processing ’11, Calicut, India.
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