Analytical models for reduced spectral representations of images

Spectral components, obtained via bandpass filtering of images, have become important tools in capturing image variability. We present a two-parameter family of probability densities, called the Bessel forms, to model the marginal densities of the spectral components. The two parameters, shape and scale parameters, are used to characterize each spectral component of the image. We derive an L/sup 2/-metric on the space of Bessel forms that leads to a metric on the space of natural images. The strength of these forms/metric is demonstrated via a study of natural clutter images.