A Spatial Median Filter for

Noise Removal in Digital

Images
 Objective
 The purpose of these algorithms is to remove
noise from a signal that might occur through
the transmission of an image.
 Comparing the different algorithm results.
 Need of Noise Removal
 The inexpensiveness and simplicity of point-and shoot
cameras, combined with the speed at which budding
photographers can send their photos over the Internet
to be viewed by the world, makes digital photography a
popular hobby.
 With each snap of a digital photograph, a signal is
transmitted from a photon sensor to a memory chip
embedded inside a camera.
 Transmission technology is prone to a degree of error,
and noise is added to each photograph.
 Significant work has been done in both hardware and
software to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in digital
photography.
 Literature Survey
 Mean Filter
 Median Filter
 Component Median Filter
 Vector Median Filter
 Spatial Median Filter
 Modified Spatial Median Filter
 Modules
 Smoothing Algorithms
 Spatial Median Filter
 Modified Spatial Median Filter
 Smoothing Algorithms
 In software, a smoothing filter is used to remove noise
from an image.
 Each pixel is represented by three scalar values
representing the red, green, and blue chromatic intensities.
 At each pixel studied, a smoothing filter takes into
account the surrounding pixels to derive a more accurate
version of this pixel.
 By taking neighboring pixels into consideration, extreme
“noisy” pixels can be replaced.
 However, outlier pixels may represent uncorrupted fine
details, which may be lost due to the smoothing process.
 Block Diagram

Input Image Noisy Image Impulse Detection

Random Noise Different types of

Output Image
Generation Algorithms
 Mean Filter
 The Mean Filter is a linear filter which uses a
mask over each pixel in the signal.

 Each of the components of the pixels which fall

under the mask are averaged together to form a
single pixel.

 This new pixel is then used to replace the pixel

in the signal studied.
8 5 3

2 7 1 8+5+3+2+7+1+4+6+9
9
4 6 9

Mean=5
 Median Filter
 Drawback in the Mean Filter is poor at maintaining edges
within the image.
 The Median Filter is performed by taking the magnitude of all
of the vectors within a mask and sorting the magnitudes.
 The pixel with the median magnitude is then used to replace
the pixel studied.
 The Simple Median Filter has an advantage over the Mean
filter in that it relies on median of the data instead of the mean.
 The median of a set is more robust with respect to the
presence of noise.
 How does Median Filter Work
 First of all you have to sort the values of
vectors and then you have to find out center
value that is median value.
 If it will be matrix data means you have to sort
the column values first and row values.
 A=[4 2 3;7 9 6;2 5 6]; 2 6 2
 Median=5 A= 3 7 5 = 3 5 7
4 9 6
 Component Median Filter
 In the Simple Median Filter, each point in the signal
is converted to a single magnitude.
 In the Component Median Filter each scalar
component is treated independently.
 A filter mask is placed over a point in the signal. For
each component of each point under the mask, a
single median component is determined.
 These components are then combined to form a new
point, which is then used to represent the point in the
signal studied.
 When working with color images, however, this filter
regularly outperforms the Simple Median Filter.
 When noise affects a point in a grayscale image, the
result is called “salt and pepper” noise.
 In color images, this property of “salt and pepper”
noise is typical of noise models where only one scalar
value of a point is affected.
 For this noise model, the Component Median
Filter is more accurate than the Simple Median
Filter.
 The disadvantage of this filter is that it will
create a new signal point that did not exist in
the original signal, which may be undesirable
in some applications.