title: Edge-preserving filtering of images with low photon counts.
abstract: Edge-preserving filters such as local M-smoothers or bilateral filtering are usually designed for Gaussian noise. This paper investigates how these filters can be adapted in order to efficiently deal with Poissonian noise. In addition, the issue of photometry invariance is addressed by changing the way filter coefficients are normalized. The proposed normalization is additive, instead of being multiplicative, and leads to a strong connection with anisotropic diffusion. Experiments show that ensuring the photometry invariance leads to comparable denoising performances in terms of the root mean square error computed on the signal.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Imaging and Experimental Radiotherapy Unit (IMRE), Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels Belgium. John.Lee@uclouvain.be
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Geets
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grégoire
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bol
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D017785:Photons; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted