Adaptive multilevel median filtering of image sequences

This paper presents a new method for adaptive multilevel median (AML3D) filtering of image sequences that can be used for impulse noise suppression in movies that have been converted from film to digital format. The proposed AML3D filter operates on three consecutive frames using an adaptive window and is designed to provide good image quality at modest computational cost. In addition, we present a benchmark comparison of methods used for median filtering of image sequences. Testing includes both grayscale and color images that are synthetically degraded by various levels of impulse noise. Results obtained for timing performance and image quality illustrate that the AML3D filter provides the highest PSNR improvement, while maintaining a reasonable throughput.