Visual contrast enhancement of optical coherence tomography images by combined and image fusion methods

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an interferometric. noninvasive and non contact imaging technique mat generates images of biological tissues at micrometer scale resolution. Images obtained from the OCT process are often noisy and of low visual contrast level This work focuses on improving the visual contrast of OCT images using image and fusion techniques Since OCT images are often corrupted with noise, our first approach is to use the most effective noise reduction algorithm. This process is followed by a series of digital enhancement techniques that are suitable to enhance the visual contrast of the OCT images. We also investigate any gain in visual contrast if combined enhancement is employed. In the image fusion methods, images taken at different depths are fused together using discrete wavelet transform (DUT) We answer the question of it is more efficient to enhance images before or after fusion. This work concludes by performing an analysis mat defines the an efficient approach to improve the visual contrast of OCT images.