A novel 3D wavelet-based filter for visualizing features in noisy biological data

Summary We have developed a three-dimensional (3D) wavelet-based filter for visualizing structural features in volumetric data. The only variable parameter is a characteristic linear size of the feature of interest. The filtered output contains only those regions that are correlated with the characteristic size, thus de-noising the image. We demonstrate the use of the filter by applying it to 3D data from a variety of electron microscopy samples, including low-contrast vitreous ice cryogenic preparations, as well as 3D optical microscopy specimens.