Image enhancement using non-linear diffusion

The potential of coupled nonlinear diffusion processes to provide an efficient and implementable mechanism capable of edge preserving smoothing and noise suppression is investigated. The basic idea is that several maps undergo coupled development towards an equilibrium state. These maps could contain intensity, local edge strength, range, or another quantity. All these maps, including the edge map, contain continuous rather than all-or-nothing information, following a strategy of least commitment. Each of the approaches is developed and tested on a parallel transputer network