IMAGE NOISE I

APPLICATIONS
Signal estimation in presence of noise
Detecting known features in a noisy background
Coherent (periodic) noise removal

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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

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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 > Gaussian distribution
Standard deviation = square root mean

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

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Photoelectronic noise model
Photon noise is signal-dependent
Thermal noise is signal-independent
One model for a combined noise field f ( m,

n)

is:

f ( m, n ) = P ( m, n ) f s ( m, n ) + T ( m, n )
where

P ( m, n )

and

f s ( m, n )

is the noiseless signal (may not be measurable)

Note,

T ( m, n )

P ( m, n )

are independent white, zero-mean Gaussian noise fields

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

Approximates photon noise component for large signals

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Noisy image model
f ( m, n ) = f s ( m, n ) + f ( m, n ) = f s ( m, n ) + P ( m, n ) f s ( m, n ) + T ( m, n )
additive signal-dependent and signal-independent random noise

Note, this model may not apply in particular situations!

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Examples of simulated thermal noise for different noise standard deviations

20

10

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Examples of simulated photon + thermal noise for different standard deviations

10

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
IMPULSE NOISE

pepper noise (0.05% and 2%)

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

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Line drop

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes

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Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt

2003

IMAGE NOISE I
STRUCTURED NOISE

simulation example

Periodic, stationary
Noise has fixed
amplitude, frequency
and phase
Commonly caused by
interference between
electronic components

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Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt

2003

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

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Periodic, nonstationary
noise parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase) vary across the
image
Intermittant interference between electronic components
simulation example

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Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt

2003

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

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250

Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt

2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Aperiodic
JPEG noise

JPEG-compressed
(low quality)

difference (noise)

ECE/OPTI533 Digital Image Processing class notes

251

Dr. Robert A. Schowengerdt

2003

IMAGE NOISE I
ADPCM (Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation) noise
IKONOS 1-m panchromatic imagery
Kodak proprietary compression algorithm

DN 200-220 contrast-stretched

lake in Reid Park, Tucson

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Detector Striping

example with 4 detectors

Calibration differences among

individual scanning detectors
detector

1
2

scan j

N detectors/
scan

N
1
2
.
i
.
N

scan direction
reverses

For detector i:
DN i = gain i E + offset i
where E is the scanned optical image

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2003

IMAGE NOISE I
Detector Banding
Calibration changes from scan-to-scan (whiskbroom scanner)
detector

1
2

i
.

N detectors/scan

scan j

N
1
2
.
i
.

scan direction
reverses

For detector i, scan j:

DN ij = gain j ( gain i E + offset i ) + offset j
where E is the scanned optical image irradiance (W-m-2)

Changes in gain j or offset j from scan-to-scan can be caused by

detector saturation at one end of scan
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2003

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

original (San
Francisco Bay)

water mask

contraststretched

masked
original
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2003