Patent ID: 7130484

Claim:
A method of enhancing contours in a noisy image, said method comprising the steps of: a) capturing said noisy image as a first distribution m of spatially distributed intensity values b) transforming said intensity values of said first distribution m into a second distribution U of spatially distributed intensity values representing an enhanced image having enhanced contours therein, by using a transformation model that is defined by: U=U ( r )= Ñfb=Ñf ( r ) b ( r ) and a pair of equations: Qf+c·f+v= 0 Q*b+c·b+μ= 0 where: U=U(r) comprises an estimate of the probability that a contour passes through location r; Ñ is a parameter defining an expected number of contours associated with said noisy image; μ comprises an expected distribution of starting points for said contours; v comprises an expected distribution of end points for said contours; the operation “·” indicates the taking of a componentwise product of two functions, wherein s·v evaluated at location r is the product of the two values s(r) and v(r), where s and v are each functions of r; c=c(r) comprises a function of said first distribution m of intensity values; f=f(r) comprises an estimate of the probability that a contour continues from location r in a forward direction along a contour; b=b(r) comprises an estimate of the probability that a contour continues from location r in a backward direction along a contour; Q equals −G −1 , the negative of the inverse of the linear operator G=G(r 1 ,r 2 ), where G comprises a matrix of probabilities, each entry of said matrix representing the probability that a contour passing through location r 1 passes through location r 2 in said forward direction; and Q* equals −(G*) −1 , the negative of the inverse of the linear operator G*=G*(r 1 ,r 2 ), where G* comprises a matrix of probabilities, each entry of said matrix representing the probability that a contour passing through location r 1 passes through location r 2 in said backward direction.