A new and more effective image fusion algorithm based on salient feature

The introduction of the full paper, after discussing Refs. 1 through 6, proposes a new and more effective image fusion algorithm which combines the wavelet transform with salient feature. Section 1 explains our new algorithm; its core consists of: we decompose the images to be fused and obtain their low-frequency coefficients and high-frequency coefficients by using the wavelet transform; for the low-frequency coefficients, we propose a new fusion rule based on the salient feature, which is obtained by computing spatial frequencies with eqs. (1), (2) and (3); the maximum high-frequency coefficients are selected by using maximum absolute values; thus we obtain the fused image by using the inverse wavelet transform of the fused low-frequency coefficients and high-frequency coefficients; we also give the procedural steps of our image fusion algorithm. With the help of Fig. 1, section 2 discusses the illusive contours of multi-focus images and proposes a simple method for locating them. The simulation results, presented in Figs. 2 and 3 and Table 1, and their analysis show preliminarily that our image fusion algorithm is more effective than both the traditional and some improved methods based on visual effect and objective evaluation values such as entropy, standard deviation and mutual information.