Gaussian Blurring-Deblurring for Improved Image Compression

The deblurring of Gaussian blur by inverting the action of the diffusion equation has long been known. This technique is interesting but without much practical application since the images have to be blurred by convolution with a Gaussian to be "de-blur-able" with this technique. In this paper we investigate the possibility to use this blurring-deblurring process as a pre-post-processing step in classical image compression. It is known indeed that the compressibility of an image increases with the blurring, with a relation between compression ratio (CR) and the blurring scale, sigma (σ ), which we show to be roughly linear. So, by preprocessing and image with Gaussian blurring before compression, the CR will increase. The technique of deblurring Gaussian blur is then used as a post-processing step after decompression. Of course, quantisation of the blurred image prior to deblurring decreases the quality of the deblurring, introducing new errors. Hence, the quantisation step ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: DICTA
• Authors: Moi Hoon Yap, Michel Bister, Hong Tat Ewe
• Keywords: Classical Image Compression, DICTA 2003, DICTA 2007, Gaussian Blur, Image