A clustering filter for scale-space filtering and image restoration

A nonlinear clustering filter is derived using the maximum entropy principle. This filter is governed by a single-scale parameter and uses local characteristics in the data to determine the scale parameter in the output space. It provides a mechanism for removing impulsive noise, preserving edges, and improving smoothing of nonimpulsive noise. It also presents a scheme for nonlinear scale-space filtering. Comparisons with Gaussian scale-space filtering are made using real images. It is demonstrated that the clustering filter gives much better results