Image denoising using trivariate prior model in nonsubsampled dual-tree complex contourlet transform domain and non-local means filter in spatial domain

Abstract Image denoising is always the basic problem of image processing, and the main challenge is how to effectively remove the noise and preserve the detailed information. This paper presents a new image denoising algorithm based on the combination of trivariate prior model in nonsubsampled dual-tree complex contourlet transformlet transform (NSDTCT) domain and non-local means filter (NLMF) in spatial domain. Firstly, NSDTCT is constructed by combining the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) and nonsubsampled directional filter banks (NSDFB). The noisy image is decomposed by using NSDTCT. Secondly, based on the correlation between the interscale and intrascale dependencies of NSDTCT coefficients, the distribution of the high frequency coefficients is modeled with the trivariate non-Gaussian distribution model. A nonlinear trivariate shrinkage function is derived in the framework of Bayesian theory, and then the denoised coefficients are obtained and inverse NSDTCT is performed to get the initial denoised image. Finally, NLMF is used to smooth the initial denoised image. Simulation experiment shows that our algorithm can obtain better performances than those outstanding denoising algorithms in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), mean structural similarity (MSSIM) as well as visual quality.