Universal descreening technique via wavelet analysis

In this paper, a novel wavelet-based approach to recover continuous tone images from halftone images is presented. Wavelet decomposition of the halftone image facilitates a series of spatial and frequency selective processing to preserve most of the original image contents while eliminating the halftone noise. Furthermore, optional non- linear filtering can be applied as post-processing stage to create the final aesthetic contone image. This approach lends itself to practical applications since it is independent of parameter estimation and hence universal to all types of halftoned images, including those obtained by scanning printed halftones.

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