Impulse rejecting filter for efficient noise removal and fine detail preservation

A novel filtering algorithm applicable to image processing is presented. It was designed using rank-ordered mean (ROM) estimator to remove an outlier and robust local data activity estimators to detect the outliers. The proposed filter effectively remove impulse noise and preserve edge and fine details. The filter possesses good visual quality of the processed simulated images and good quantitative quality in comparison to the standard median filter. Recommendations to obtain best processing results by proper selection of the filter parameters are given. The designed filter is suitable for impulse noise removal in any image processing applications. One can use it at the first stage of image enhancement followed by any detail-preserving techniques such as the Sigma filter at the second stage.