Anisotropic diffusion of color images

A new approach for anisotropic diffusion processing of color images is proposed. The main idea of the algorithm is to facilitate diffusion of the image in the direction parallel to color edges. The direction of maximal and minimal color change at each point is computed using the first fundamental form of the image in (L*a*b*) color space. The image (Phi) evolves according to an anisotropic diffusion flow given by (delta) (Phi) /(delta) t equals g((lambda) +, (lambda) -)(delta) 2(Phi) /(delta) (xi) 2, where (xi) is the direction of minimal color change. The diffusion coefficient, g((lambda) +, (lambda) -), is a function of the eigenvalues of the first fundamental form, which represent the maximal and minimal rates of color change. Examples for real color images are presented.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.