Scanning imaging through the scattering medium based on the guided filter assisted by a WTMM and NLM

In a scanning imaging system through a scattering medium, the quality of the imaging result is related to the energy distribution of the focusing point. In actual imaging, the energy of the focusing point cannot be perfectly concentrated. The scattering noise is always surrounded by the focusing point, which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio and results in poor image quality. To improve the quality of imaging, further processing of the imaging results is required, while most conventional image processing methods can only achieve one of the goals such as noise reduction, image smoothing, edge sharpening, or maintaining image integrity. In this paper, a scanning imaging system through the scattering medium based on an adaptive guided filter assisted by the wavelet transform modulus maximum (WTMM) and non-local mean (NLM) is proposed for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, which can make the imaging results simultaneously have the advantages of low noise, high contrast, and clear details. To verify the validity of the proposed method, a scanning imaging system through the scattering medium was setup. Transmissive imaging was performed at different positions from the focal plane. The experimental results show that the background noise is significantly restrained, single-pixel response and edge continuity are good, and details are clear with the proposed method. Compared with the traditional methods and the deep learning methods, the proposed method can improve the PSNR and SSIM by up to 10.68 dB, 0.75 and 5.34 dB, 0.72, respectively. Finally, the performance of the proposed method in high-noise environments, its application in the field of real-time imaging, and future improvements are discussed. The method proposed in this paper can effectively improve the quality of scanning imaging results through the scattering medium, which is expected to promote the application of this technology in endoscopic imaging and other fields.