Image restoration by transformation of signal-dependent noise to signal-independent noise.

A transformation to convert signal-dependent noise corrupting an image to additive Gaussian signal-independent noise is derived in this paper. Wiener filtering techniques using a Markovian covariance model for the image signal are applied to the transformed data followed by an inverse transformation to restore the degraded image. An ad hoc technique using contrast manipulation to adaptively convert signal-dependent noise to signal-independent noise is also described. The results of the computer simulations designed to evaluate the performance of these techniques are also presented.