Speckle Noise Reduction in Ultrasound Images

Abstract

Abstract: Ultrasound Imaging is used to examine various organs in the Human Body. However, in the process of obtaining a Ultrasound Image, Speckle noise is generated due to backscattered echo signals. So, a noise reduction method is required. To improve the speckle noise reduction, we propose a novel algorithm using characteristics of speckle noise and filtering methods based on Speckle Reducing Anisotropic Diffusion (SRAD) filtering, Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Weighted Guided Image Filtering (WGIF) and Gradient Domain Guided Image Filtering (GDGIF). The SRAD filter is exploited as a preprocessing filter because it can be directly applied to a medical US image containing speckle noise without a log-compression. The wavelet domain has the advantage of suppressing the additive noise. Therefore, a homomorphic transformation is utilized to convert the multiplicative noise into additive noise. After two-level DWT decomposition is applied, to suppress the residual noise of an SRAD filtered image, GDGIF and WGIF are exploited to reduce noise from seven high-frequency subband images and one low-frequency sub-band image, respectively. Finally, a noise-free image is attained through inverse DWT and an exponential transform