Fusion algorithm of infrared and visible images based on NSCT and PCNN

A fusion algorithm of infrared and visible images was proposed based on Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT) and Pulse Coupled Neural Networks (PCNN). Firstly, two registered original images were decomposed by using NSCT separately, thus the low frequency subband coefficients and varieties of directional bandpass subband coefficients were obtained. Secondly, the selection principle of the low frequency subband coefficients was based on edges of images. The selection principle of the bandpass directional subband coefficients was improved by fusion method based on PCNN. Finally, the fused image was obtained by performing the inverse NSCT on the combined coefficients. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms laplacian-based, wavelet-based and NSCT-based fusion algorithms.