An efficient algorithm to remove scratches stripes and blotches in still images

In this paper a new efficient algorithm to remove scratches, stripes and blotches with impulse noise in still images using robust estimation based filter is proposed. A new attempt is made to remove scratches, stripes and blotches that are artificially introduced into the impulse noise corrupted still images. The proposed filter first detects missing data and replaces with an estimated image data using robust estimation. Because of this reason, the proposed filter effectively removes the annoying scratches, stripes and blotches without causing any blurring to the edges and to the sharp details present in the image. Experimental results show the proposed filter outperforms the existing non linear filters such as standard median filter, weighted median filter, center weighted median filter, progressive switching median filter, adaptive median filter and many other non linear filters.