pnmnlfilt(1)


NAME

   pnmnlfilt  -  non-linear  filters:  smooth,  alpha  trim  mean, optimal
   estimation smoothing, edge enhancement.

SYNOPSIS

   pnmnlfilt alpha radius [pnmfile]

DESCRIPTION

   pnmnlfilt produces an output image where the pixels are  a  summary  of
   multiple pixels near the corresponding location in an input image.

   This program works on multi-image streams.

   This  is  something  of  a  swiss  army knife filter. It has 3 distinct
   operating modes. In all of  the  modes  each  pixel  in  the  image  is
   examined  and  processed  according  to  it  and its surrounding pixels
   values. Rather than using the 9 pixels in a 3x3 block, 7 hexagonal area
   samples  are  taken,  the  size of the hexagons being controlled by the
   radius parameter. A radius value of 0.3333 means that  the  7  hexagons
   exactly  fit  into  the  center  pixel (ie.  there will be no filtering
   effect). A radius value of 1.0 means that the 7 hexagons exactly fit  a
   3x3 pixel array.

Alpha trimmed mean filter. (0.0 <= alpha <= 0.5)

   The  value  of  the  center pixel will be replaced by the mean of the 7
   hexagon values, but the 7 values are sorted by size  and  the  top  and
   bottom alpha portion of the 7 are excluded from the mean.  This implies
   that an alpha value of 0.0 gives the same sort of output  as  a  normal
   convolution  (ie.  averaging  or  smoothing  filter), where radius will
   determine the "strength" of the filter. A good value to start from  for
   subtle  filtering  is  alpha  =  0.0,  radius = 0.55 For a more blatant
   effect, try alpha 0.0 and radius 1.0

   An alpha value of 0.5 will cause the median value of the 7 hexagons  to
   be  used to replace the center pixel value. This sort of filter is good
   for eliminating "pop" or single  pixel  noise  from  an  image  without
   spreading  the  noise  out or smudging features on the image. Judicious
   use of the radius parameter will fine tune the filtering.  Intermediate
   values  of  alpha  give  effects  somewhere between smoothing and "pop"
   noise reduction. For subtle filtering try starting with values of alpha
   =  0.4, radius = 0.6  For a more blatant effect try alpha = 0.5, radius
   = 1.0

Optimal estimation smoothing. (1.0 <= alpha <= 2.0)

   This type of filter applies a  smoothing  filter  adaptively  over  the
   image.   For  each pixel the variance of the surrounding hexagon values
   is  calculated,  and  the  amount  of  smoothing  is   made   inversely
   proportional  to  it. The idea is that if the variance is small then it
   is due to noise in the image, while if the variance  is  large,  it  is
   because  of  "wanted"  image  features.  As  usual the radius parameter
   controls the effective radius, but it probably advisable to  leave  the
   radius  between  0.8  and  1.0  for  the  variance  calculation  to  be
   meaningful.  The alpha parameter sets the noise threshold,  over  which
   less  smoothing  will  be  done.  This means that small values of alpha
   will give the most subtle filtering effect,  while  large  values  will
   tend to smooth all parts of the image. You could start with values like
   alpha = 1.2, radius = 1.0 and try increasing or  decreasing  the  alpha
   parameter  to  get  the desired effect. This type of filter is best for
   filtering out dithering noise in both bitmap and color images.

Edge enhancement. (-0.1 >= alpha >= -0.9)

   This is the opposite  type  of  filter  to  the  smoothing  filter.  It
   enhances  edges.  The  alpha  parameter  controls  the  amount  of edge
   enhancement, from subtle (-0.1) to blatant (-0.9). The radius parameter
   controls  the  effective radius as usual, but useful values are between
   0.5 and 0.9. Try starting with values of alpha = 0.3, radius = 0.8

Combination use.

   The various modes of pnmnlfilt can be used one after the other  to  get
   the  desired  result.  For instance to turn a monochrome dithered image
   into a grayscale image you could try one or two passes of the smoothing
   filter,  followed by a pass of the optimal estimation filter, then some
   subtle edge enhancement. Note  that  using  edge  enhancement  is  only
   likely  to be useful after one of the non-linear filters (alpha trimmed
   mean or optimal estimation filter), as edge enhancement is  the  direct
   opposite of smoothing.

   For reducing color quantization noise in images (ie. turning .gif files
   back into 24 bit files) you could try a pass of the optimal  estimation
   filter (alpha 1.2, radius 1.0), a pass of the median filter (alpha 0.5,
   radius 0.55), and possibly a  pass  of  the  edge  enhancement  filter.
   Several  passes  of  the optimal estimation filter with declining alpha
   values are more effective than a single pass with a large alpha  value.
   As  usual,  there  is  a  tradeoff  between filtering effectiveness and
   loosing detail. Experimentation is encouraged.

References:

   The alpha-trimmed mean filter is based on the description in IEEE  CG&A
   May  1990  Page  23  by Mark E. Lee and Richard A. Redner, and has been
   enhanced to allow continuous alpha adjustment.

   The optimal estimation filter is  taken  from  an  article  "Converting
   Dithered  Images  Back  to  Gray  Scale"  by  Allen  Stenger, Dr Dobb's
   Journal, November 1992, and  this  article  references  "Digital  Image
   Enhancement  and  Noise Filtering by Use of Local Statistics", Jong-Sen
   Lee, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis  and  Machine  Intelligence,
   March 1980.

   The  edge  enhancement  details  are from pgmenhance(1), which is taken
   from Philip R. Thompson's "xim" program, which in  turn  took  it  from
   section  6  of  "Digital  Halftones by Dot Diffusion", D. E. Knuth, ACM
   Transaction on Graphics Vol. 6, No. 4, October 1987, which in turn  got
   it from two 1976 papers by J. F. Jarvis et. al.

SEE ALSO

   pgmenhance(1), pnmconvol(1), pnm(5)

BUGS

   Integers and tables may overflow if PPM_MAXMAXVAL is greater than 255.

AUTHOR

   Graeme W. Gill    graeme@labtam.oz.au

                            5 February 1993                   pnmnlfilt(1)





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