Directional Denoising Using Fourier Spectrum Cloning

Fourier filtering for image denoising consists in masking parts of the Fourier spectrum of an image and using inverse Fourier transform of the masked image to obtain the denoised one. In cases of directional noise, this process can induce artifacts, mainly because of the spatial coherence that exists in the theoretical noise-free image. Moreover, it can lead to loss of low-frequency content that is important in applications such as fringe projection technique, which aims at measuring 3D elevations of a surface. A method based on the principle of Fourier spectrum cloning for the denoising of images is proposed in this chapter. This method improves the PSNR and the SSIM ratio in comparison with spectrum masking denoising. The method will be detailed first, and then examples of image denoising in two different applications will be presented.