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The pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN), due to its effectiveness in simulating the mammalian visual system to perceive and understand visual information, has been widely applied in the fields of image segmentation and image fusion. To address the issues of low contrast and the loss of detail information in infrared and visible light image fusion, this paper proposes a novel image fusion method based on an improved adaptive dual-channel PCNN model in the non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) domain. Firstly, NSST is used to decompose the infrared and visible light images into a series of high-pass sub-bands and a low-pass sub-band, respectively. Next, the PCNN models are stimulated using the weighted sum of the eight-neighborhood Laplacian of the high-pass sub-bands and the energy activity of the low-pass sub-band. The high-pass sub-bands are fused using local structural information as the basis for the linking strength for the PCNN, while the low-pass sub-band is fused using a linking strength based on multiscale morphological gradients. Finally, the fused high-pass and low-pass sub-bands are reconstructed to obtain the fused image. Comparative experiments demonstrate that, subjectively, this method effectively enhances the contrast of scenes and targets while preserving the detail information of the source images. Compared to the best mean values of the objective evaluation metrics of the compared methods, the proposed method shows improvements of 2.35%, 3.49%, and 11.60% in information entropy, mutual information, and standard deviation, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Side scan sonar images have great application prospects in underwater surveys, target detection, and engineering activities. However, the acquired sonar images exhibit low illumination, scattered noise, distorted outlines, and unclear edge textures due to the complicated undersea environment and intrinsic device flaws. Hence, this paper proposes a multi-scale fusion strategy for side scan sonar (SSS) image correction to improve the low contrast and noise interference. Initially, an SSS image was decomposed into low and high frequency sub-bands via the non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST). Then, modified multi-scale retinex (MMSR) was employed to enhance the contrast of the low frequency sub-band. Next, sparse dictionary learning (SDL) was utilized to eliminate high frequency noise. Finally, the process of NSST reconstruction was completed by fusing the emerging low and high frequency sub-band images to generate a new sonar image. The experimental results demonstrate that the target features, underwater terrain, and edge contours could be clearly displayed in the image corrected by the multi-scale fusion strategy when compared to eight correction techniques: BPDHE, MSRCR, NPE, ALTM, LIME, FE, WT, and TVRLRA. Effective control was achieved over the speckle noise of the sonar image. Furthermore, the AG, STD, and E values illustrated the delicacy and contrast of the corrected images processed by the proposed strategy. The PSNR value revealed that the proposed strategy outperformed the advanced TVRLRA technology in terms of filtering performance by at least 8.8%. It can provide sonar imagery that is appropriate for various circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray imaging is a valuable non-destructive tool for examining bronze wares, but the complexity of the coverings of bronze wares and the limitations of single-energy imaging techniques often obscure critical details, such as lesions and ornamentation. Therefore, multiple imaging is required to fully present the key information of bronze artifacts, which affects the complete presentation of information and increases the difficulty of analysis and interpretation. Using high-performance image fusion technology to fuse X-ray images of different energies into one image can effectively solve this problem. However, there is currently no specialized method for the fusion of images of bronze artifacts. Considering the special requirements for the restoration of bronze artifacts and the existing fusion framework, this paper proposes a new method. It is a novel multi-scale morphological gradient and local topology-coupled neural P systems approach within the Non-Subsampled Shearlet Transform domain. It addresses the absence of a specialized method for image fusion of bronze artifacts. The method proposed in this paper is compared with eight high-performance fusion methods and validated using a total of six evaluation metrics. The results demonstrate the significant theoretical and practical potential of this method for advancing the analysis and preservation of cultural heritage artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the problems of difficult online monitoring, low recognition efficiency and the subjectivity of work condition identification in mineral flotation processes, a foam flotation performance state recognition method is developed to improve the issues mentioned above. This method combines multi-dimensional CNN (convolutional neural networks) characteristics and improved LBP (local binary patterns) characteristics. We have divided the foam flotation conditions into six categories. First, the multi-directional and multi-scale selectivity and anisotropy of nonsubsampled shearlet transform (NSST) are used to decompose the flotation foam images at multiple frequency scales, and a multi-channel CNN network is designed to extract static features from the images at different frequencies. Then, the flotation video image sequences are rotated and dynamic features are extracted by the LBP-TOP (local binary patterns from three orthogonal planes), and the CNN-extracted static picture features are fused with the LBP dynamic video features. Finally, classification decisions are made by a PSO-RVFLNs (particle swarm optimization-random vector functional link networks) algorithm to accurately identify the foam flotation performance states. Experimental results show that the detection accuracy of the new method is significantly improved by 4.97% and 6.55%, respectively, compared to the single CNN algorithm and the traditional LBP algorithm, respectively. The accuracy of flotation performance state classification was as high as 95.17%, and the method reduced manual intervention, thus improving production efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing image fusion can effectively solve the inherent contradiction between spatial resolution and spectral resolution of imaging systems. At present, the fusion methods of remote sensing images based on multi-scale transform usually set fusion rules according to local feature information and pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN), but there are problems such as single local feature, as fusion rule cannot effectively extract feature information, PCNN parameter setting is complex, and spatial correlation is poor. To this end, a fusion method of remote sensing images that combines low-level visual features and a parameter-adaptive dual-channel pulse-coupled neural network (PADCPCNN) in a non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) domain is proposed in this paper. In the low-frequency sub-band fusion process, a low-level visual feature fusion rule is constructed by combining three local features, local phase congruency, local abrupt measure, and local energy information to enhance the extraction ability of feature information. In the process of high-frequency sub-band fusion, the structure and parameters of the dual-channel pulse-coupled neural network (DCPCNN) are optimized, including: (1) the multi-scale morphological gradient is used as an external stimulus to enhance the spatial correlation of DCPCNN; and (2) implement parameter-adaptive representation according to the difference box-counting, the Otsu threshold, and the image intensity to solve the complexity of parameter setting. Five sets of remote sensing image data of different satellite platforms and ground objects are selected for experiments. The proposed method is compared with 16 other methods and evaluated from qualitative and quantitative aspects. The experimental results show that, compared with the average value of the sub-optimal method in the five sets of data, the proposed method is optimized by 0.006, 0.009, 0.009, 0.035, 0.037, 0.042, and 0.020, respectively, in the seven evaluation indexes of information entropy, mutual information, average gradient, spatial frequency, spectral distortion, ERGAS, and visual information fidelity, indicating that the proposed method has the best fusion effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an image enhancement algorithm combining non-subsampled shearlet transform and gradient-domain guided filtering to address the problems of low resolution, noise amplification, missing details, and weak edge gradient retention in the X-ray image enhancement process. First, we decompose histogram equalization and nonsubsampled shearlet transform to the original image. We get a low-frequency sub-band and several high-frequency sub-bands. Adaptive gamma correction with weighting distribution is used for the low-frequency sub-band to highlight image contour information and improve the overall contrast of the image. The gradient-domain guided filtering is conducted for the high-frequency sub-bands to suppress image noise and highlight detail and edge information. Finally, we reconstruct all the effectively processed sub-bands by the inverse non-subsampled shearlet transform and obtain the final enhanced image. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has good results in X-ray image enhancement, and its objective index also has evident advantages over some classical algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Our method can be applied to AFAM imaging, which helps to analyze cell structure. Atomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) is a measurement method that uses the probe and acoustic wave to image the surface and internal structures of different materials. For cellular material, the morphology and phase images of AFAM reflect the outer surface and internal structures of the cell, respectively. This paper proposes an AFAM cell image fusion method in the Non-Subsampled Shearlet Transform (NSST) domain, based on local variance. First, NSST is used to decompose the source images into low-frequency and high-frequency sub-bands. Then, the low-frequency sub-band is fused by the weight of local variance, while a contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization is used to improve the source image contrast to better express the details in the fused image. The high-frequency sub-bands are fused using the maximum rule. Since the AFAM image background contains a lot of noise, and improved segmentation algorithm based on the Otsu algorithm is proposed to segment the cell region, and the image quality metrics based on the segmented region will make the evaluation more accurate. Experiments with different groups of AFAM cell images demonstrated that the proposed method can clearly show the internal structures and the contours of the cells, compared with traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyper-wavelet transforms, such as a non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST), are one of the mainstream algorithms for removing random noise from ground-penetrating radar (GPR) images. Because GPR image noise is non-uniform, the use of a single fixed threshold for noisy coefficients in each sub-band of hyper-wavelet denoising algorithms is not appropriate. To overcome this problem, a novel NSST-based GPR image denoising grey wolf optimisation (GWO) algorithm is proposed. First, a time-varying threshold function based on the trend of noise changes in GPR images is proposed. Second, an edge area recognition and protection method based on the Canny algorithm is proposed. Finally, GWO is employed to select appropriate parameters for the time-varying threshold function and edge area protection method. The Natural Image Quality Evaluator is utilised as the optimisation index. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method provides excellent noise removal performance while protecting edge signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is unable to represent the directional features of an image. Similarly, a fixed embedding strength is not able to establish an ideal balance between imperceptibility and robustness of a watermarked image. In this work, we propose an adaptive embedding strength watermarking algorithm based on shearlets' capture directional features (S-AES). We improve the watermarking algorithm in the domain of DWT using non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST). The improvement is made in terms of coping with anti-geometric attacks. The embedding strength is optimized by artificial bee colony (ABC) to achieve higher robustness under the premise of satisfying imperceptibility. The principle components (PC) of the watermark are embedded into the host image to overcome the false positive problem. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better imperceptibility and strong robustness against multi-attacks, especially those of high intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the fusion quality of multispectral (MS) and panchromatic (PAN) images, a pansharpening method with a gradient domain guided image filter (GIF) that is based on non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) is proposed. First, multi-scale decomposition of MS and PAN images is performed by NSST. Second, different fusion rules are designed for high- and low-frequency coefficients. A fusion rule that is based on morphological filter-based intensity modulation (MFIM) technology is proposed for the low-frequency coefficients, and the edge refinement is carried out based on a gradient domain GIF to obtain the fused low-frequency coefficients. For the high-frequency coefficients, a fusion rule based on an improved pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) is adopted. The gradient domain GIF optimizes the firing map of the PCNN model, and then the fusion decision map is calculated to guide the fusion of the high-frequency coefficients. Finally, the fused high- and low-frequency coefficients are reconstructed with inverse NSST to obtain the fusion image. The proposed method was tested using the WorldView-2 and QuickBird data sets; the subjective visual effects and objective evaluation demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to the state-of-the-art pansharpening methods, and it can efficiently improve the spatial quality and spectral maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the advantages of a non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) in image processing and the characteristics of remote sensing imagery, NSST was applied to enhance blurred images. In the NSST transform domain, directional information measurement can highlight textural features of an image edge and reduce image noise. Therefore, NSST was applied to the detailed enhancement of high-frequency sub-band coefficients. Based on the characteristics of a low-frequency image, the retinex method was used to enhance low-frequency images. Then, an NSST inverse transformation was performed on the enhanced low- and high-frequency coefficients to obtain an enhanced image. Computer simulation experiments showed that when compared with a traditional image enhancement strategy, the method proposed in this paper can enrich the details of the image and enhance the visual effect of the image. Compared with other algorithms listed in this paper, the brightness, contrast, edge strength, and information entropy of the enhanced image by this method are improved. In addition, in the experiment of noisy images, various objective evaluation indices show that the method in this paper enhances the image with the least noise information, which further indicates that the method can suppress noise while improving the image quality, and has a certain level of effectiveness and practicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]