Blind Image Restoration Based on Wiener Filtering
and Defocus Point Spread Function Estimation
Fengqing Qin
School of Computer and Information Engineering
Yibin University, 644007,
Yibin, China
Abstract—In order to improve the quality of the defocus blurred
image, the defocus point spread function (PSF) of the imaging
system needs to be estimated. A blind image restoration
algorithm was proposed, in which the defocus PSF of the blurred
image was estimated through error-parameter estimation method.
Firstly, the error-parameter curve was generated through
Wiener filtering algorithm. Then, by analyzing the error-
parameter curve, the defocus radius of the blurred image was
estimated. Finally, utilizing the estimated PSF, image restoration
was performed through Wiener filtering algorithm.
Experimental results showed that the defocus PSF was estimated
with high accuracy, and justified the fact that the defocus PSF
estimation plays a great important part in blind image
restoration.
Keywords- blind; image restoration; point spread function;
defocus; Wiener filtering.
I. INTRODUCTION
Image blur may be caused by relative motion between the
camera and the scene, or by an optical system that is out of
focus, atmospheric turbulence, aberrations in the optical system,
etc. [1]. In recent years, image restoration has been applied to
many areas such as astronomy, remote sensing imaging and
medical image restoration etc. The blurred image is expressed
as the convolution of the original high resolution image with
the point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system.
In most of the current image restoration algorithms, the PSF
of the imaging system is assumed to be a given type and
parameters. It does not meet the real imaging model of optical
devices and the performance of the restoration algorithm will
decrease. But in many applications, the PSF of the imaging
model is most likely unknown or is known only within a set of
parameters, and such image restoration is called blind
restoration. Thus, blind image restoration problem arises
naturally and is expressed as estimating a high-resolution
image and the PSF simultaneously, which has always been one
advanced issue and challenge in image processing [2-4].
According to the mechanisms of image blurred,
researchers have proposed a series of blind image restoration
method. For example, the blind restoration based on Lucy-
Richardson method, employing the theory of the maximum
likelihood function to estimate the true image and PSF by
cross iteration under the noise of Poisson [5-6],depends on the
initial value of PSF. It is effective only when the initial value
of PSF approaches the true PSF, otherwise the restoration
effect is poor .The accurate estimation of initial value of PSF,
however, is very difficult in the practical application, so the
method is inapplicable for the blind restoration of motion blur
images. Xue-lin Wang et al represent image restoration
method based on wavelet-domain local Gaussian model [7],
assuming wavelet coefficients satisfy the local Gaussian
model. The model exists in some rationality for some images,
but usually the wavelet coefficients of astronomical images
and medical images do not satisfy the assumption, therefore
there are some limitations to the application scope. With a
view to the spectrum characteristic of motion-blur images, Ze-
feng Deng and You-lun Xiong have proposed a kind of
identification method of motion-blur direction based on
frequency-domain algorithm [8], but it is not robust to noise
disturbance and may result in a great error in identification of
PSF if the motion-blur images are noised. Qin et al proposed a
blind sing-image super resolution reconstruction method based
on motion blur [9], the motion PSF is estimated with high
accuracy when the signal-to-noise ratio is higher than 40dB.
The foremost difficulty of blind image restoration is rooted
in the fact that the observed image is an incomplete
convolution [10]. The convolution relationship around the
boundary is destroyed by the cut-off frequency, which makes it
much more difficult to identify the PSF of the imaging system.
In general, the Gaussian PSF and motion PSF are mainly
considered in many papers, but the defocus PSF is less
discussed.
In this paper, a blind image restoration method based on
Wiener filtering and defocus PSF estimation was proposed. For
a given defocused image, the defocus PSF was estimated
through error-parameter analysis method. Image restoration
was performed through Wiener filtering algorithm. The
importance of defocus PSF estimation in blind image
restoration was tested through experiments.
II. WIENER FILTERING IMAGE RESTORATION
METHOD
Wiener filtering is broadly applied in signal and image
processing. Practical experience shows that it is a classical
deconvolution technique with good restoration effect and small
amount of calculation. In this paper, Wiener filtering method is
used to restore the high resolution image, and to generate the
error-parameter curve of the observed low resolution image. If
the image and the noise are assumed to be generalized
stationary process, image may be restored through Wiener
filter.
In Wiener filtering image restoration algorithm, both the
blur function and the statistical character of system noise are
considered. The noise is assumed to be a random process. The
aim is to make the mean square error between the original
image and the estimated image to be the least. According to
this idea, the sketch map of Wiener filtering may be expressed
in Fig.1.
Figure 1. The sketch map of Wiener filtering.
The observed low resolution image may be expressed as
follows:
∞
y ( n) = ∑ x(n − k )h(k ) + ξ (n) = x(n)* h(n) +ξ (n)
k =−∞
Where, * is the convolution operation; x(n) is the original
high resolution image; ξ(n) is Gaussian white noise with zero
means; h(n) is the blur function, which can be presented by
point spread function.
It’s expected to find a filter with input y(n), and the output
is the estimated image expressed as follows:
∞ blur estimation criterion is as follows: when the parameter (R)
xˆ (n) = ∑ y(n − k ) g (k ) = y(n)* g (n)
k =−∞
The mean square error between the original image and the
estimated image is expressed as follows:
e 2 = E{| x(n) − xˆ ( n) |2 }
If the image and the noise are irrelevant, the minimum of
the error function may be calculated in frequency domain.
When the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) method is used to
estimate the restored image, the Wiener filter may be expressed
as follows:
*
HY
X=
H + Snn / S xx
2
where, X, Y and H are the DFT of the real image (x), the
blurred image (y) and the blur function (h) respectively;
denotes the conjugate operation; Snn and Sxx denote the power
spectrum of the noise and the real image. As it is usually very
difficult to estimate Snn and Sxx, the Wiener filter is usually
approximated by the following formula:
H *Y
X= (5)
H +Γ
2
Where, Γ is a positive constant, which is often taken as a
experience value. The best value of Γ is the reciprocal of the
SNR of the observed image.
III. DEFOCUS BLUR ESTIMATION
A. Defocus Blur
Defocus blur refers to the image degradation caused by the
incorrect focus of the optical system during the imaging
process. Geometrical optic analysis shows that the point spread
function (PSF) of defocus blur is a uniformly distributed
circular facula. The defocus PSF may be expressed as
following:
⎧1/ (π R 2 ) m 2 + n 2 ≤ R 2
h(m, n) = ⎨ (6)
⎩ 0 others
Where, R is the defocus radius, which needs to be estimated.
B. Parameter-Error Estimation Method
Error-parameter analysis method is utilized to estimate the
parameter of defocus PSF. Wiener filtering method is used to
(1)
generate the error-parameter curve. Given a range of the
motion distance [Rmin, Rmax], the parameter (R) increases with a
given increment. For each parameter, utilizing Wiener filtering
image restoration method, a restored image may be gained, and
the corresponding restoration error may be calculated. In this
way, an error-parameter curve is generated at different defocus
radius (R). By analyzing the relationship this curve, the real
defocus radius can be estimated approximately. The defocus
(2) changes from big to small, the slope of the error-parameter
curve decreases evidently around the real parameter. Given a
threshold of curve slope, the real defocus radius can be
estimated automatically. In this way, the parameter (R) and its
corresponding defocus PSF may be estimated approximately.
(3)
The description of this algorithm may be expressed as
follows:
Step 1: Select a range of motion distance [Rmin, Rmax], a
researching number S. So, ΔR=( Rmax - Rmin)/S;
Step 2: for i=1:S
Calculate the current parameter: Ri= Rmin +(i-1) ΔR;
(4)
Calculate the current PSF: h=1/Ri;
Using Wiener filter, calculate the estimated image ( xˆi );
*
Calculate the estimation error: Ei = y − xˆi * hi
end
Step 3: Under different parameter (R), plot the error-
parameter curve (E).
 IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
A. Simulated Images
In order to test the effectiveness of our algorithm
objectively and subjectively, experiments are performed on
simulated low resolution image. The original high resolution
image is taken as a standard image ‘lena.bmp’ of size 256×
256, which is shown in Fig.2.
Figure 2. The original high resolution image.
The original image is passed through an imaging model
to simulate a low resolution image. Here, the original image is
convolved with a defocus PSF to simulate the blurring process.
The original defocus radius (R0) is taken as 1.5. The simulated
low resolution is shown in Fig.3.
Figure 3. The simulated low resolution image.
B. The defocus PSF Estimation
When Rmin=0.5, Rmax=3, S=40, and the threshold of curve
slope is taken as 0.01 ， using Wiener filtering image
restoration algorithm, the restoration error (E) at different
motion distance (L) is calculated. The error-parameter curve of
the blurred image is shown in Fig.4.
Figure 4. The error-parameter curve.
Figure 5. The estimated defocus PSF.
From the error-parameter curve, we can see that when the
defocus radius changes from big to small, the curve slope
around the real defocus radius decreases obviously. Using the
algorithm proposed in this paper, the estimated defocus radius
is 1.4375, and the relative estimation error is: (1.5-
1.4377)/1.5=0.0625.
From the experimental result, we can see that the defocus
PSF estimation algorithm achieves high accuracy. The
estimated PSF is shown in Fig.5.
C. Image restoration
Utilizing the estimated defocus PSF, image restoration is
performed through Wiener filtering method. The restored
image is shown in Fig.6. The peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR)
of the restored image relative to the high resolution image is
33.2411dB.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was supported by the National Nature Science
Foundation of China (61202195), the Scientific and
Technology key Project of Sichuan Provincial Education
Department (11ZA174), the Application Fundamental
Research Project of Sichuan Provincial Scientific and
Technology Department (2011JY0139), the key project of
Yibin Science and Technology Bureau (2011SF016 ), as well
as the Doctor Scientific Research Starting project of Yibin
University (2009B02).

Figure 6. The restored image at the estimated defocus PSF.

D. The effect of defocus PSF estimate in image restoration

In order to show the importance of defocus PSF estimate,
image restoration is performed at different estimated defocus (a) When the estimated standard deviation is 0.5,PSNR=34.9729dB.
PSF. When the estimated standard deviation are 0.5, 1, 1.5 2,
and 3 respectively, the restored images are shown in Fig.7 (a)-
(d).
From the experimental results, we can see that the restored
image has better quality around the real defocus PSF, as shown
in Fig.6 and Fig.7 (b). If the estimated defocus radius is smaller
than the real value, the restored image as shown in Fig.7 (a) is
illegible, though the PSNR is a bit higher. If the estimated
defocus radius is larger than the real value, ringing effect
appears in the restored image.

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a blind image restoration method was
proposed. The defocus PSF of the blurred image was estimated
through the parameter-error analysis method. Utilizing the
estimated defocus PSF, the image was restored through Wiener
filtering algorithm. The experimental results showed that the
parameter of defocus PSF was estimated with high accuracy.
The effect of defocus PSF estimation in image restoration was
also tested. The quality of the restored images was better
around the real defocus PSF. When the estimated defocus
radius was far away from the real value, the restored image (b) When the estimated standard deviation is 1.5, PSNR=35.2159dB.
would be illegible or appear obvious ringing effect.
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(d) When the estimated standard deviation is 2.5, PSNR=31.8648dB.

Figure 7. The restored images at different estimated defocus PSF.