ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 238 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I

• APPLICATIONS

• Signal estimation in presence of noise

• Detecting known features in a noisy background

• Coherent (periodic) noise removal

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 239 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I

TYPES OF NOISE

• photoelectronic

• photon noise

• thermal noise

• impulse

• salt noise

• pepper noise

• salt and pepper noise

• line drop

• structured

• periodic, stationary

• periodic, nonstationary

• aperiodic

• detector striping

• detector banding

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 240 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I

Photoelectronic noise

• Photon noise

Photon arrival statistics

Low-light levels (nightime imaging, astronomy)

• Poisson density function

• Standard deviation = square root mean (signal-dependent)

High-light levels (daytime imaging)

• Poisson distribution Ñ> Gaussian distribution

• Standard deviation = square root mean

• Thermal noise

Electronic

White (flat power spectrum), Gaussian distributed, zero-mean (signal-independent)

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 241 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I• Photoelectronic noise model

Photon noise is signal-dependent

Thermal noise is signal-independent

One model for a combined noise field is:

where

and are independent white, zero-mean Gaussian noise fields

is the noiseless signal (may not be measurable)

Note, has unit standard deviation and is scaled by square root of signal

• Approximates photon noise component for large signals

fη m n,( )

fη m n,( ) ηP m n,( ) fs m n,( ) ηT m n,( )+=

ηP m n,( ) ηT m n,( )

fs m n,( )

ηP m n,( )

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 242 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I• Noisy image model

additive signal-dependent and signal-independent random noise

• Note, this model may not apply in particular situations!

f m n,( ) fs m n,( ) fη m n,( )+ fs m n,( ) ηP m n,( ) fs m n,( ) ηT m n,( )+ += =

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 243 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IExamples of simulated thermal noise for different noise standard deviations ση

1020

5

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 244 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IExamples of simulated photon + thermal noise for different standard deviations ση

10 20

5

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 245 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IIMPULSE NOISE

• Data loss or saturation

• Definitions

• Salt noise: DN = maximum possible

• Pepper noise: DN = minimum possible

• Salt and pepper noise: mixture of salt and pepper noise

• Line drop: part or all of a line lost

pepper noise (0.05% and 2%)

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 246 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I

Line drop

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 247 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE ISTRUCTURED NOISE

Periodic, stationary

• Noise has fixed amplitude, frequency and phase

• Commonly caused by interference between electronic components

simulation example

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 248 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IMars Mariner example - multiple frequencies (Rindfleish et al, 1971)

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 249 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IPeriodic, nonstationary

• noise parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase) vary across the image

• Intermittant interference between electronic components

simulation example

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 250 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IMars Mariner 9 example - single frequency, variable amplitude (Chavez and Soderblum, 1975)

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 251 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IAperiodic

• JPEG noise

JPEG-compressed (low quality)

difference (noise)

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 252 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE I• ADPCM (Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation) noise

• IKONOS 1-m panchromatic imagery

• Kodak proprietary compression algorithm

lake in Reid Park, Tucson DN 200-220 contrast-stretched

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 253 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IDetector Striping

• Calibration differences among individual scanning detectors

• For detector i:

where E is the scanned optical image

detector 1

2.i

N12.

.

i.

N

scan direction reverses

scan j

N detectors/scan

DN i gain iE offset i+=

example with 4 detectors

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 254 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE IDetector Banding

• Calibration changes from scan-to-scan (whiskbroom scanner)

• For detector i, scan j:

where E is the scanned optical image irradiance (W-m-2)

• Changes in or from scan-to-scan can be caused by detector saturation at one end of scan

detector 1

2.i

N12.

N detectors/scan.

i.

N

scan direction reverses

scan j

DN ij gain j gain iE offset i+( ) offset j+=

gain j offset j

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes 255 Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt 2003

IMAGE NOISE Iexample Landsat Thematic Mapper (Schowengerdt, 1997) - 16 detectors/scan

original (San Francisco Bay) water mask

masked original

contrast-stretched