Simple and Fast All-in-Focus Image Reconstruction Based on Three-Dimensional/Two-Dimensional Transform and Filtering

This paper deals with all-in-focus image reconstruction by merging multiple differently focused images. We previously proposed a method of generating an all-in-focus image from multi-focus imaging sequences based on a 3-D filtering. In this paper, we first combine the sequence into a 2-D image. Just by applying a 2-D filter to the image, we realize fast reconstruction of all-in-focus images robustly. In order to reduce the cost of image acquisition, the optimal number of multiple differently focused images is also discussed. In addition, we introduce a simple estimation method utilizing the 2-D filter for the parameter of 3-D blurs. We show experimental results of fast all-in-focus image reconstruction by using synthetic and real images.