Optimal parallel stack filtering under the mean absolute error criterion.

Abstract

The authors extend the configuration of stack filtering to develop a new class of stack-type filters called parallel stack filters (PSFs). As a basis for the parallel stack filtering, the block threshold decomposition (BTD) is introduced, and its properties are investigated. The design of optimal PSHs under the mean absolute error (MAE) criterion is shown to be similar to the minimum MAE stack filtering theory. The only difference is that one needs now to design more than one stack filter that together construct an optimal PSF. As a result, while reviewing briefly the optimal stack filtering theory, they will put more efforts to demonstrate, via several examples, the improvement by switching from stack filtering to parallel stack filtering for the task of image noise removal.