Modified median filter for noise reduction in Ziehl-Neelsen sputum slide images

Abstract

Image filtering is an important approach in the area of digital image processing for noise reduction. The time cost and output image quality in the filtering system are two convention measures in selecting the appropriate filtering algorithm. In this paper, a modified median filter algorithm is presented for noise reduction in Ziehl-Neelsen sputum slide images that are corrupted by impulse or salt and pepper noise. It has been tested on samples of images and the results are compared with the output produced using original median filter algorithm. The proposed method shows a good performance in filtering the noise in the image while reducing the processing time for computational purposes.