Compression and Denoising

of Astronomical Images
Using Wavelets
By:
Kerry Baldeosingh,
Paula Harrell,
Trimaine Mc Fadden.
South Carolina State University
Principal Investigator: Dr. Donald Walter
Team Mentor: Dr. Kuzman Adzievski.

Outline
Wavelets and some of their applications.
Haar and Daubechies wavelets.
Compression and Denoising.
Summary and results of image denoising.

What are wavelets?

Wavelets are functions that are generated
from one single function, known as the
mother wavelet.

Applications of Wavelets
Wavelets are used in many fields: physics,
astronomy, mathematics, biomedicine,
computer graphics.
In our paper we use wavelets for
compression and denoising of
astronomical images.

Discrete signals and images

A discrete signal is a function f with values at
discrete instances and usually it is expressed in the
form:
f = ( f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, fN-1, fN ).
A discrete image, f, is an array of M rows and N
columns and is expressed in the form:
f 1, M , f 2 , M , ... , f N , M

.
.

.
.

f =

.
.

f 1, 2 , f 2, 2 , ... , f N , 2
f , f , ..., f

2 ,1
N ,1
1,1

Types of Wavelets
Haar
Daubechies
Coiflets

Haar Wavelets
The Haar wavelet is the simplest type of
wavelet.
They are related to a mathematical
operation called the Haar transform which
serves as the model for other wavelet
transforms.

Haar Transform
A 1D, 1-level Haar transform is performed on a signal,
f = ( f1, f2, f3, f4, fN-1, fN ), is
f ( a1| d1 )
where a1 = (f1 + f2 )/ (2) , (f3 + f4 )/ (2),
and d1 = (f1 f2 )/ (2), (f3 f4 )/ (2),
a1 is called the trend or running average.
d1 is called the fluctuation or running difference.
This process can be repeated until there ceases to be an even number
of averages.
Performing an inverse transform only to the trend sub signal would
allow an approximation of the original signal.

Daubechies Wavelets and

transforms
There are various types of Daubechies
transforms. We use the Daub4 transform
which is slightly more complex than the
Haar transform.

Daub4 transform
This Daub4 transform involves using constant values 1, 2, 3 and
4 and 1, 2, 3 and 4 which are found from solving a set of
equations.
If a signal f = ( f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, fN-1, fN ), then a 1D, 1-level
transform will be:
f ( a1| d1 )
where
a1 = (1f1 + 2f2 + 3f3 + 4f4 ), (1f3 + 2f4 + 3f5 + 4f6 ), (1fn-1 + 2fn
+ 3 f1 + 4 f2 )
d1 = ( 1f1 + 2f2 + 3f3 + 4f4 ), ( 1f3 + 2f4 + 3f5 + 4f6 ), ( 1fn-1 +
2 fn + 3 f1 + 4 f2 )
A 1D 2-level transform would be f (a2| d2 | d1)

2D Wavelet transform
A 2D wavelet transform of a discrete image can be performed
only when the image has an even number of rows and
columns.
A 1-level wavelet transform of an image involves:
A 1D, 1-level, wavelet transform on each row of the
image, producing a new image.
Then on the new image, a 1D, 1-level wavelet transform
is performed on each of its columns.
If f is an N x M, 2D array of an image, then under a 1-level
wavelet transform f can be symbolized as:
h1 |

d1

f

1
1
a | v

2D Wavelet transform
From an image f:
a1 = trend rows then trend columns.
h1 = trend rows then fluctuation columns.
d1 = fluctuation rows then fluctuations columns.
v1 = fluctuation rows then trend columns.

A 2D 2-level transform is calculated by

computing a 1-level transform of the trend
subimage a1:
h2 | d2

1
a

2
2
a | v

Compression
Compression relies on converting data into a smaller
format that allows the transmission of fewer bits.
There are two types of compression:
Lossless
No image data is lost as a result of compression.
No errors in result.
Compression ratios of up to 2:1 can be obtained.

Lossy
Some image data is lost as a result of compression.
Results have small inaccuracies.
Compression ratios of up to 100:1 can be obtained.

Method of compression
The basic steps of compression are as follows:
Perform a wavelet transform of the signal.
Set equal to 0 all values of the wavelets transform which are
insignificant, i.e., which lie below some threshold value.
Transmit only the significant, non-zero values of the transform
obtained from Step. 2. This should be a much smaller data set than
the original signal.
At the receiving end, perform the inverse wavelet transform of the
data transmitted in Step. 3, assigning zero values to the insignificant
values which were not transmitted. This decompression step
produces an approximation of the original signal.

Denoising Gaussian noise

Find the mean, , and the standard deviation, , of the
image.
The image is then transformed once.
Using the value of the standard deviation, , a
thresholding value, T, can be established where T =
4.5 .
Approximately 99% of the noise can be removed.
Success of this method depends on how well the
transform compresses the signal into a few high
magnitude values that stand out.

Soft and Hard thresholdiing

Hard thresholding:
x
0

H ( x)

Soft thresholding

if | x | T
if | x | T

if | x | T
if T / 2 x T

T 2x
0

if T x T / 2
if | x | T / 2.

S( x )

x
2x T

In hard thresholding, the transform is not continuous and

thus those values near the threshold are greatly
exaggerated. In soft thresholding the function does not
abruptly change thus an inverse transform from soft
thresholded values produce a better quality denoised image.

Results

Image with random noise

Denoised Images 1
Coif 6 (denoise)
Level 1
Threshold
150.965
Avg. 2

Daub 20 (denoise)
Level 1
Threshold 213.4967
Avg. 4

Coif 6 (series)
Level 1
3611 coefficients used,
22.%.
Threshold: 1/2^2
Bits per pixel: 0.66

Daub 20 (series)
Level 1
3625 coefficients used,
22.1%.
Threshold: 1/2^2
Bits per pixel: 0.66

Denoised Images 2
Daub 20 (denoise)
Level 1
Threshold 213.4967
Avg. 8

Haar (denoise)
Level 1
Threshold 213.4967
Avg. 1

Daub 12 (series)
Level 1
1159 coefficients used,
7.1%.
Threshold: 1/2^1
Bits per pixel: 0.14

Haar (series)
Level 1
5225 coefficients used,
31.9%.
Threshold: 1/2^3

References and useful tools

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Walker S. James. Wavelets and their Scientific Applications,

A Primer. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida, 1999.
http://www.crcpress.com/edp/download. FAWAV Software for
Wavelet Analysis
Mathematica Software Package, Wolfram Research Inc.
Dr. Kuzman Adzievski. In-class Lectures and Recitations.
http://hubble.stsci.edu/gallery/showcase/stars/s1.html.
Globular Cluster M80
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Smith for
the helping me loading the JPEG images using the
Mathematica software.