Image fusion algorithm using nonsubsampled contourlet transform

Abstract

In this paper, a pixel-level image fusion algorithm based on Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT) has been proposed. Compared with Contourlet Transform, NSCT is redundant, shift-invariant and more suitable for image fusion. Each image from different sensors could be decomposed into a low frequency image and a series of high frequency images of different directions by multi-scale NSCT. For low and high frequency images, they are fused based on local-contrast enhancement and definition respectively. Finally, fused image is reconstructed from low and high frequency fused images. Experiment demonstrates that NSCT could preserve edge significantly and the fusion rule based on region segmentation performances well in local-contrast enhancement.