The conventional shape-from-focus (SFF) methods have inaccuracies because of piecewise constant approximation of the focused image surface (FIS). We propose a scheme for SFF based on representation of three-dimensional (3-D) FIS in terms of neural network weights. The neural networks are trained to learn the shape of the FIS that maximizes the focus measure.
Mostly, shape-from-focus algorithms use local averaging using a fixed rectangle window to enhance the initial focus volume. In this linear filtering, the window size affects the accuracy of the depth map. A small window is unable to suppress the noise properly, whereas a large window oversmoothes the object shape. Moreover, the use of any window size smoothes focus values uniformly. Consequently, an erroneous depth map is obtained. In this paper, we suggest the use of iterative 3-D anisotropic nonlinear diffusion filtering (ANDF) to enhance the image focus volume. In contrast to linear filtering, ANDF utilizes the local structure of the focus values to suppress the noise while preserving edges. The proposed scheme is tested using image sequences of synthetic and real objects, and results have demonstrated its effectiveness.
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