On empirical estimation of the parameters of edge enhancement filters

The authors develop an empirical measure for the selection of the Gaussian filter that is commonly used for edge enhancement. The measure is based totally on the image at hand. Edge enhancement by a Gaussian filter has two distinct advantages: (1) the filter is fully described by a single parameter, the standard deviation sigma ; (2) the two-dimensional filter is separable and can be easily implemented. The filter's spatial support is a function of sigma . This support is normally in the range of +or-3.5 sigma . An empirical measure is described for the selection of the Gaussian filter's spatial support using the power spectrum density of the input image. Classic Fourier analysis is used to obtain a measure for the spatial support of the Gaussian filter given a particular image. Experimental results suggest that this measure can be used as an aid in deciding the Gaussian filter's spatial support needed to enhance the edges.<>