Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 260 (2022) 169050

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijleo

Forward-reverse fractional and fuzzy logic augmented partial

differential equation-based enhancement and thresholding for
degraded document images
Uche A. Nnolim
Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper presents a thresholding algorithm using an alternate forward-reverse flow-based
Adaptive thresholding partial differential equation (PDE)-based formulation. Additionally, revised models are
Source-edge-diffusion(SED)-based PDE augmented with fuzzy intensification and fuzzy rule-based structure tensor edge terms for
Fractional partial differential equations
handling degraded document images. Furthermore, an effective technique for enhancement of
Fuzzy intensification boosted forward-reverse
PDE
document images with extreme bleed-through is proposed to further improve binarization results.
Fuzzy rule-based structure tensor edge term Comparisons with state-of-the-art PDE thresholding/binarization approaches show superior re­
Fuzzy edge detection sults of proposed methods based on visual and objective analysis.

1. Introduction

Image thresholding is a crucial step prior to object and feature detection in image scenes and involves the removal of extraneous
information from the initial image. The various binary thresholding algorithms have their foundations in clustering, statistical, fuzzy
logic, optimization, color or Retinex [1] techniques. More recent methods involve partial differential equations (PDE), machine and
deep learning [2,3] or a hybrid of two or more approaches.
Standard images are easily processed with conventional thresholding and classical binarization algorithms. However, these are ill-
suited for segmenting degraded document images. Such images suffer from optical blur due to humidity, noise from scanning, bleed-
through background [1,4], ink stains and smudges, etc. Several thresholding/binarization algorithms fail in the presence of these
challenges as a majority are unable to compensate. The few that may be effective are usually complex, especially the deep learning
methods, which require massive amounts of training data, computing power and resources. The PDE-based approaches have shown to
be of relatively low complexity and effective for most applications and are the main focus of this study.
The PDE-based methods include models by Cheriet [5], Nwogu et al. [6], Mahani et al. [7], Kumar et al. [8], Bella et al. [9], Guemri
and Drira [10]. Additional methods are by Wang et al. [11,12], Wang and He [13], Jacobs and Momoniat [14,15], Rivest-Hénault et al.
[16]. Others by Drira, Yagoubi [3], Chen et al. [17], Huang et al. [18], Guo, He etal [1,3] and Zhang et al. [4]. Variational models
include Variational minimax [19] and methods by Likforman-Sulem et al. [20], Wang et al. [13], Wu et al. [21], Tang et al. and Feng
[22]. Recently, we have the methods by Nnolim [23–25] and Du and He [26].
Several of the various proposed PDE-based approaches still have problems with certain types of degradation and severity of
degradation. Recent work has shown improvements in handling these degradations and severity somewhat but there is still room for
improvement. In this work, we continue to advance the PDE-based approaches with additional or modified pre-processing algorithms

E-mail address: uche.nnolim@unn.edu.ng.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2022.169050
Received 29 November 2021; Received in revised form 28 March 2022; Accepted 5 April 2022
Available online 9 April 2022
0030-4026/© 2022 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

to further improve their performance. It was observed that document images with extreme bleed-through were difficult to process
optimally using standalone PDE-based models [25]. Thus, we devise a scheme for handling severity of the degradations encountered in
previous work. In this study, we repurpose a log-agnostic, forward-reverse flow-based PDE [27] for binary image thresholding.
Additionally, we develop new PDE models with basic fuzzy rule-based edge detection logic for degraded document images. Moreover,
we also develop an improved scheme for effective enhancement of document images affected by severe bleed-through. The novel
contributions of the proposed scheme include;.

• Forward-reverse flow-based PDE for gradual thresholding and segmentation.

• Fuzzy intensification-boosted thresholding to reduce noise in thresholded images.
• Fuzzy rule-based structure tensor edge term for softer binarization of degraded document images.
• Advanced method for enhancement of document images with extreme bleed-through.

The remainder of the paper is outlined as follows; Section 2 describes the proposed model, modifications and numerical imple­
mentation of the proposed algorithms. Section 3 presents the results of experiments and comparisons with other works from the
literature, while Section 4 concludes the work.

2. Forward-reverse PDE-based image thresholding

The proposed formulation for image thresholding is presented first as a binarization or source term and combined with a fuzzy
contrast enhancement term. Subsequently we utilize fuzzy rule-based detection to compute the fuzzy structure tensor, then defuzzify
and utilize them in the PDE formulation. This is designated as the new proposed algorithm (NPA).

2.1. Forward reverse flow binarization/source term and PDE-IRCES-FINT-based image thresholding (NPA)

The proposed PDE using the illumination-reflectance contrast enhancement system (IRCES) [27] as a binarization source term is
[ ]k
given as; ∂∂ut = f − a, where f = f{u} = IRCES{u}. The IRCES function is given as; − |∇u| +[u + |∇u| ]k or − ∇2 u + u + ∇2 u − u[27].
Thus the PDE becomes;
∂u ( ) ∂u ( [ ]k )
= − |∇u| + [u + |∇u| ]k − a or = − ∇2 u + u + ∇2 u − a (1)
∂t ∂t
The k is the power factor such that k > 0. For binary image thresholding, k = 54 or 1.25, based on experiments. The threshold, a can
be computed using Otsu method, mean, median, etc. It should also be kept in mind that the initial threshold value is static. However,
we can also make it dynamic, i.e., change with each iteration. For the sake of legibility, we utilize the formulation for the second order
PDE;
∂u √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ∂u
= − |∇u| + u + |∇u| − aor = − |∇u| + (u + |∇u| )2 − a (2)
∂t ∂t
For the fourth order PDE;
∂u √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ∂u ( )2
= − ∇2 u + u + ∇2 u − aor = − ∇2 u + u + ∇2 u − a (3)
∂t ∂t
⃒ ⃒ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )2̅ u(i+1,j)− u(i,j)
Where |∇u| = |ux | +⃒uy ⃒ or |∇u| = (ux )2 + uy ; ux = 2 ; uy = u(i,j+1)−
2
u(i,j)
and uxx = u(i +1, j) − 2u(i, j) + u(i − 1, j); uyy =
u(i, j +1) − 2u(i, j) + u(i, j − 1). The fractional order PDE (FPDE) equivalent is given as;
∂α u
= − |∇α u| + (u + |∇α u| )k − a (4)
∂tα
In Eq. (4), α is the fractional order, such that α < 1. We further extend the model to incorporate fuzzy methods for the thresholding
operation. We add the fuzzy intensification operation to f = f{u} = IRCES{FINT(u) } in the PDE. This is for images with considerable
amount of noise to enable smoothening in order to avoid thresholding unwanted noise as part of the signal. The results are similar to
the earlier formulations but with minimal noise.
We improve results by normalizing the image employing logarithms as; Ilog = log(I). This is followed by performing a local contrast
( ) 2(fmax − fmin )
operation [28]; C = localcontrast Ilog , r ; C(x, y) = fmax +fmin , where fmax and fmin are the maximum and minimum pixel values in local
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
window with radius, r [28] and size 2 ∗ r +1 of the log-normalized image Ilog . A masking operation is performed as; Imask = C ∗ Ilog
( )
Imask − Imask min
similar to previous work. The mask image is converted via the mapping function [4]; u0 = 2 Imask max − Imask min
− 1, where Imaskmax and

Imaskmin are the maximum and minimum pixel intensity values of the mask image. The improved PDE models using the fuzzy INT with
the pre-processing stages are given as;

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U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

Fig. 1. Fuzzy membership functions for ∂x uσ , ∂y uσ and output.

Table 1
Fuzzy Rules for edge detector.
∂y uσ 0 1
∂x u σ
0 white black
1 black black

∂u √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ∂u
= − |∇u| + u + |∇u| + λ(f − u)or = − |∇u| + (u + |∇u| )2 + λ(f − u) (5)
∂t ∂t

Where f = FINT(u) and λ is a control parameter determining the extent of stain removal.

2.2. PDE model using fuzzy rule-based edge detector structure tensor (NPA-1)

The FINT-based PDE removes stains but fails to handle bleed-through consistently. Thus we propose a fuzzy rule based structure
tensor. We also add a diffusion component similar to previous work using the previous model given as; ∂∂ut = cs f(u) + ce g(h) +
( ) ( )
cd g(h)div |∇u|
∇u
. The anisotropic diffusion term is g(h)div |∇u|
∇u
, g(h) is the edge term, while f(u) is the source term. The contributions

of these terms are regulated by the control parameters; cd , ce and cs respectively. The edge term is in form of the diffusivity function,
g(h) from previous work given as; g(h) = 1 − ( p )2 ; p > 0; q > 0. The enhancement of desired text and bleed-through
h∗maxΩ (h)
1+q∗ m

( )
( ) g11 g12
elimination in g(h) is controlled by the constants p and q, given by the Hessian matrix; Jσ,ρ = Hσ ∗ ∇uσ ∇uTσ ≜ . The
g12 g22
term uσ is the product of the convolution of Gaussian kernel of standard deviation σ with image, u [4], while ρ controls the size of the
local window [4]. The Hessian in this case is computed using fuzzy rules involving the gradients in the horizontal and vertical di­
rections. The fuzzy membership functions for ∂x uσ , ∂y uσ and output based on [29] are given in Fig. 1.
Thus the gradients, g11 to g22 are obtained via fuzzy rules rather than crisp gradient computation. The defuzzified values are ob­
tained as follows;

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U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

Fig. 2. Scheme for enhancement and binarization of document images with extreme bleed through.

g11 = defuzz(∂x uσ , ∂x uσ ); g12 = g21 = defuzz(∂x uσ , ∂y uσ ); g22 = defuzz(∂y uσ , ∂y uσ ) (6)

The rules for edge detection based on [29] are shown in Table 1.
( √̅̅̅̅ )
The subsequent eigenvalues [4] are obtained in the usual form; λ± = 12 g11 +g22 ± Δ , where Δ = (g11 − g22 )2 + 4g12 2 . The edge
detection result utilized in g(h) is obtained using the following expression as in previous work; h = λ+ 2 − λ− 2 . The results of utilizing
the fuzzy rules increases computational complexity, especially for large images. However, the results are justified as will be seen in
experimental comparisons. Additionally, we incorporate the FAB-LAP from previous work in the modified PDE as;
( [ ( ) ])
∂u ∇u
= cs (u − a) + ce g(h) + cd g(h)uεε − ∇2 cFAB (‖∇u‖ )div − λΔu (7)
∂t ‖∇u‖
We present the numerical realization of the proposed schemes from the initial formulation to the fractional and fuzzy formulations.
This leads to increasing complexity from integer to fractional order combined with fuzzy rule-based system but improved performance.
The numerical implementation for the IRCES model, is given for the kth order PDE;
[ ⃒ ⃒ ( ⃒ ⃒) ] [ ( )k ]
⃒ n⃒ ⃒ n⃒ k
un+1 n n
i,j = ui,j + − ⃒∇ui,j ⃒ + ui,j + ⃒∇ui,j ⃒ − a τ; orun+1 n 2 n n 2 n
i,j = ui,j + − ∇ ui,j + ui,j + ∇ ui,j − a τ (8)

⃒ ⃒
⃒ ⃒
Where k = 0.5 or 2 and using the gradient, ⃒∇uni,j ⃒, we have the first or second order PDE;
[ ⃒ ⃒ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ] [ ⃒ ⃒ ( ⃒ ⃒) ]
⃒ n⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ n⃒ ⃒ n⃒ 2
un+1 n
i,j = ui,j + − ⃒∇ui,j ⃒ + uni,j + ⃒∇uni,j ⃒ − a τ; orun+1 n n
i,j = ui,j + − ⃒∇ui,j ⃒ + ui,j + ⃒∇ui,j ⃒ − a τ (9)

Where k = 0.5 or 2 and using the Laplacian, ∇2 uni,j , we have the second or fourth order PDE;
[ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ] [ ( )2 ]
un+1 n 2 n
i,j = ui,j + − ∇ ui,j + uni,j + ∇2 uni,j − a τ; orun+1 n 2 n n 2 n
i,j = ui,j + − ∇ ui,j + ui,j + ∇ ui,j − a τ (10)

For the modified model using the FABLAP, we have the following fourth order PDE;
( [ ( ) ])
( ) (⃦ ⃦) ∇uni,j
⃦ ⃦
un+1 n n
i,j = ui,j + cs ui,j − a
n
+ ce gn (h) + cd gn (h)unεε − ∇2 cFAB ⃦∇uni,j ⃦ div ⃦
⃦∇un ⃦
⃦ − Δuni,j τ (11)
i,j

We then utilize the standard steps [4] as follows;

1. Set a positive threshold value, To and maximum number of iterations, N.

√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
̅ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
)2̅
n
∑⃒⃒ n ⃒⃒2 n
∑(⃒⃒ n ⃒⃒
2. Then compute the norms ‖u ‖ = ⃒ui,j ⃒ and ‖|u | − 1 ‖ = ⃒ui,j ⃒ − 1 .
i,j i,j
‖|un |− 1 ‖
3. While ‖un ‖ ≥ To and n < N, process image using PA, set n = n + 1, repeat step 2.

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U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

Fig. 3. Results for original image with extreme bleed-through text, (a) edge and contrast enhanced image, (b) processed with FAB-LAP PDE from
NPA-2 with corresponding column signal profiles.

{ }
1, &uni,j ≥ 0
4. If condition is reached, obtain the binary image [3] as; bi,j =
− 1, &uni,j < 0

For the fractional derivative numerical implementation, the Grunwald-Letnikov (G-L) fractional derivative definition is employed
similar to previous work [24] using order, α ≤ 0.95 in this case. The numerical implementation of the fuzzy logic-based PDEs are
similar to the crisp and integer order methods and are straight-forward. Furthermore, the relevant steps utilized in the integer version
are the same for the fuzzy versions.

2.3. Enhancement scheme for extreme bleed-through text (NPA-2)

In previous work, we devised effective means of improving binarization results for several degraded document images [25]. The
difference between mild bleed-through and stains was much easier to handle in other stained/degraded document images. This was
due to sparsity properties of text information and smooth features of the background stains [25]. However, document images with
extreme bleed-through posed a special challenge due to the usually overlapping edge profiles of both foreground and background
information [25]. Thus, we propose a new modified scheme to be combined with the developed fuzzy and crisp PDE-based binarization

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U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

formulations. The flowchart of the proposed method for binarization of document images with extreme bleed-through is shown in
Fig. 2.
Due to the nature of the bleed-through, there are several issues to address namely; contrast, edge and noise. Previous work showed
that the Switching Trimmed Mean Deviation Filter (STMDF) yielded best results for pre-smoothing [25]. This is because the STMDF
handles several types of noise well without obscuring important edge features. This is followed by the Fuzzy NINT, which seeks to
gradually blend the bleed-through text into the surrounding background, while avoiding considerably affecting the desired text [25].
The un-sharp masking is performed to strengthen the edges of the text information. This may also enhance the edges of the un­
wanted bleed-through text. However, the NINT has suppressed the intensity enough to blend it into the background to minimize this
issue and we once more process the sharpened image with the STMDF to further suppress the bleed-through text edge profile. Then the
smoothened image is fed to the forward-and backward diffusion Laplacian (FAB-LAP) PDE used in previous work [25]. This performs
forward-reverse anisotropic diffusion simultaneously and also isotropic sharpening of the desired text. This ensures that maximum
details and edges of the desired text are not lost in the anisotropic smoothing process. The processed image is finally fed to the proposed
PDE binarization model. This forms the second new proposed algorithm (NPA-2).
Fig. 3 shows the results of a document image exhibiting extreme bleed-through enhanced using the proposed pre-processing
technique prior to binarization. Note how the edge and intensity profile of the background (bleed-through) text has been greatly
suppressed, while the foreground text is enhanced (see image and the column signal profiles). This makes edge detection easier and
avoids spurious data being captured as edges. It must be emphasized that the PDE and highly nonlinear processes are the key aspects of
the system since no other tested combination yields better results. This is because of the nonlinear and overlapping nature of the
degradation, which closely matches the desired information.
Increased iterations make the algorithm slower and also leads to more blurring, affecting the edges of the foreground text. Thus, the
balance must be maintained to avoid this since smudged edges will reduce the performance of the binarization algorithm. The
robustness of the edge sharpening is controlled by the forward and backward force parameters, kf , kb in the FAB-LAP PDE. For example,
when kf ≥ kb or if kf = 0, the image is blurred, exhibiting isotropic or Gaussian smoothing effect. Conversely, if kf < kb , the image will
have sharply defined foreground text and blurred background, exhibiting fully adaptive forward-reverse anisotropic smoothing effect,
which is the desired outcome. However, it should be noted that if kf ≪ kb , noise due to edge over-enhancement will occur in the image
and lead to poor binarization results.
Additionally, the values of kf , kb can be used to reduce the number of iterations required. This scheme can give results similar to the
variational calculus-based estimation method used in previous work to remove stains in degraded document images [25]. However,
this depends on if the degradation in the document image conforms to the underlying assumptions of the particular model. For
example, in previous work, the variational scheme worked extremely well for stains and smudges but performed marginally for
extreme bleed-through [25] when compared with the method by Du and He [26].

3. Experiments and results

We compared the state-of-the-art PDE-based methods with the proposed approach (NPA-2). These include Wang and He (WH) [13],
Rivest-Hénault et al. (RMC) [16], Jacobs and Momoniat (JM) [14]. Additional ones are Wang et al. (WYH) [12], FENG [22], Guo et al.
(GHZ) [3], Zhang et al. (ZHG) [4], Guo et al. (GHW) [30], Du and He [26] and previous proposed algorithms (PPA1 to PPA3) [23–25].
Both extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments were performed using well-known metrics and benchmark datasets.
The metrics included the F-measure (FM) (in percentage) [31], pseudo F-measure (Fps) (in percentage) [31], Negative Rate Metric
(NRM) [31], Distance Reciprocal Distortion (DRD) [32] and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR in dB) [31]. The expressions for each of
these metrics are given as;
∑
s
DRDk
2(Prec)(Rec) 2(Prec)(Recallpseudo ) NRFN + NRFP
FM = ; Fps = ; NRM = ; DRD = k=1 ;
Prec + Rec Prec + Recallpseudo 2 NUBN
⎡ ⎤
(12)
⎢ ⎥
⎢ 2552 ⎥
PSNR = 10log⎢
⎢
⎥
⎥
⎣ ∑
M ∑
N
1
MN
|Y(i, j) − X(i, j) |2 ⎦
i=1 j=1

For FM, Precision = True Positive+False

True Positive
and Recall = True Positive+False
True Positive
.[31] For the Fps, Recallpseudo = TruePositiveTruePositive Skeleton
,
∑∑ Positive Negative
∑∑ Skeleton +FalseNegativeSkeleton

where TruePositiveSkeleton = TPSkeleton ; TPSkeleton = (Y = 0) ∩ (XGT skeleton ∕ = 0); FalseNegativeSkeleton = FNSkeleton ; FNSkeleton =
= 0) ∩ (XGT skeleton = 0), where XGT skeleton is the skeletonized ground truth binarized image and Y is the binarized output image [31].
(Y ∕
False Negative False Positive
∑
For the NRM, NRFN = False Negative+True Positive and NRFP = False Positive+True Negative.[31] For the DRD, DRDk = [Dk (i, j) × WNm (i, j) ],
i,j

where the normalized weight matrix, WNm (i, j) = ∑m ∑ Wm (i,j)

m and weight matrix, WNm (i, j) =
i=1 j=1
Wm (i,j)
⎧ ⎫
⎪
⎪ 0, &for i = ic and j = jc ⎪
⎪
⎨ ⎬ ⃒ [ ]⃒
1 ; also, the difference matrix, Dk (i, j) = ⃒Bk (i, j) − g (x, y)k ⃒, where Bk (i, j) is a block of pixels and
⎪ √ ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( ) , &otherwise ⎪
⎪
⎩ (i − i )2 + j − j 2 ⎪
⎭
c c

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U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

Fig. 4. Visual binarization results of PDE-based models for original image with extreme bleed-through text, (a) ground-truth, (b) JM2 (c) GHZ (d)
FENG (e) GHW (f) ZHG (g) DH (h) PPA (i) NPA-2.

Table 2
Numerical binarization results of PDE binarization algorithms for document image with extreme bleed through.
Figure Measures JM2 GHZ FENG GHW ZHG DH PPA3 NPA-2

Fig. 4 FM(%) 83.22 84.47 83.25 82.6 88.55 90.39 90.43 91.48
F ps (%) 86.21 87.49 86.29 83.82 89.82 92.44 92.53 93.81
PSNR 13.99 14.45 14.01 13.63 15.73 16.75 16.68 17.28
DRD 8.34 7.11 8.29 9.47 5.31 3.68 3.85 3.12

Table 3
Performance comparison of NPA-2 with state-of-the-art PDE binarization algorithms.
Metrics FM (%) FPS (%) PSNR (dB) DRD NRM (%)
Algorithms

WH [13] 80.37 85.17 16.25 7.95 –

RMC [16] 75.29 77.62 15.15 18.33 –
JM [14] 77.21 79.03 15.60 7.14 –
WYH [12] 86.75 89.11 17.53 4.71 –
FENG [22] 75.00 80.55 15.87 9.68 –
GHZ [3] 85.78 88.44 17.60 5.75 –
ZHG [4] 85.75 89.27 17.72 5.54 –
GHW [30] 86.34 89.71 17.68 6.25 –
PPA1 [23] 88.00 90.30 18.11 3.99 0.07
PPA2 [24] 89.03 91.31 18.78 3.47 0.06
DH [26] 90.02 92.38 18.84 3.26 –
PPA3 [25] 90.17 92.53 18.94 3.21 0.01
NPA-2 90.32 92.76 19.00 3.11 0.01

[ ]
g (x, y)k is the flipped pixel [32]. For the PSNR, Y(i, j) is the predicted output image, while X(i, j) is the ground truth image. The
indices i,j, M and N represent the horizontal and vertical locations of the pixels, width and height of the images respectively. Low values
for NRM and DRD imply good results. Values of or close to one (1) for FM and Fps represent best results, while values of zero (0)
indicate worst performance. High PSNR indicates excellent quality of results.
The dataset utilized for objective analysis and evaluation is the DIBCO datasets from 2009 to 2017 series [31,33]. These consist of a
hundred and six (106) document images of both handwritten and machine printed text with various degradations. Additionally,
corresponding ground truth segmentation results are provided for full-reference comparison.
The parameter settings for NPA-2 are as follows; threshold, T0 = 0.2, the number of iterations, N = [5,50], the time step, τ = 0.5,
while the control parameters are set as: cs = [0, 2], ce = [0, 2] and cd = [0, 1]. The σ and ρ values were set with same values as in Zhang
et al. (σ = 0.3, ρ = 0.4), while k = 10− 3 , forward and backward force parameters; kf = 20, kb = 60, and the tuning parameters for the
diffusivity function set as; p = 1 and q = 2. The results of the algorithms from the literature are used as presented by the various

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U.A. Nnolim Optik 260 (2022) 169050

authors.
All experiments were performed on MATLAB on a personal computer (PC) with an Intel® Core i7–6500 U x64-based 2.59 gigahertz
(GHz) processor with 12 gigabyte (GB) random access memory (RAM) and a 64-bit operating system with NVIDIA® GeForce™ 940 M
graphics processing unit (GPU) (compute capability of 5.0).
The visual comparisons are presented in Fig. 4 with results from Du and He [26] and Nnolim [25]. In Fig. 4(i), the bleed-through
and stains are mostly eliminated, while text edges and details retained or preserved best using NPA-2 compared with the others. This is
clearly observed in the first capital letters “N” and “V” in the first and second paragraphs of the sample document in Fig. 4(i).
In Table 2, NPA-2 yields the highest FM, Fps, PSNR and lowest DRD and NRM values for the sample document. The same domi­
nance of NPA-2 is observed in Table 3 for all the documents in the DIBCO dataset series.

4. Conclusion and future work

This paper has proposed and discussed aspects of a variant of forward-reverse PDE via fuzzy logic for thresholding/binarization.
The initial formulation is adaptive and optimized but with considerable time cost. Furthermore, it does not perform optimally for all
document images. Thus, subsequent PDE models augmented with fuzzy logic rule-based processing led to improvements and suit­
ability for degraded document binarization. Furthermore, an improved technique was proposed and devised for enhancement of
document images with extreme bleed-through. Results and comparisons show that the proposed approaches are consistent and su­
perior to existing state- of-the-art PDE-based thresholding methods in the literature. Future work will involve improving performance
to surpass or match results of deep learning-based approaches without dramatically increasing computational complexity.

Declaration of Competing Interest

All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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