Efficient algorithm for designing a ternary valued filter yielding maximum signal to noise ratio

An efficient algorithm for designing a ternary valued filter yielding the highest signal to noise ratio (SNR) is utlined. Numerical evaluations using the image of a tank indicate that using such a filter can provide an improvement in SNR of ~5 dB over the conventional binary phase-only filter (BPOF). This is superior to the 1-dB improvement obtained for that image by varying the threshold line angle (TLA) in filter binarization. Simulation results are presented. They agree with the numerically computed SNRs.