A NEW COMPLEX-DIRECTIONAL WAVELET TRANSFORM AND ITS
APPLICATION TO IMAGE DENOISING
Ivan W. Selesnick
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polytechnic University
6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201
selesi@taco.poly.edu
ABSTRACT
This paper describes a new complex-directional expansive
perfect reconstruction twc-dimensional wavelet transform.
Each complex wavelet is oriented along one of six possible
directions, and the msgnitude of each complex wavelet has
a smooth bell-shape. The transform is based both on the
complex dual-tree wavelet transform introduced hy Kings-
bury and on the double-density DWT. I t is designed so as to
possess simultaneously the properties of the complex dual-
tree DWT and the doubledensity DWT. The paper also
describes a simple subband-dependent data-driven denois-
ing algorithm for use with this transform. An example is
shown t o illustrate the performance of the denoising a l g e
rithm and the transform.
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper describes a two-dimensional double-density dual-
tree discrete wavelet transform (DWT), an overcomplete
(expansive) transform designed so as to possess simultane-
ously the properties of the double-density DWT [15,17] and
the complex dual-tree DWT [7, 81.
The double-density DWT and the complex dual-tree
DWT are both expansive (they both transform and N point
signal to an M point signal with M > N); they are both
nearly shift-invariant; they are both based on FIR perfect
reconstruction filter banks; and they both outperform the
critically-sampled DWT for image denoising. However, the
Icomplex dual-tree DWT is based on wavelets which are ori-
ented along one of six specific directions, while the double-
density is based on wavelets which are similar to those of the
critically-sampled separable DWT. In addition, the com-
plex dual-tree DWT has two wavelets in each direction -
one can be interpreted as the real part, the other as the
imaginary part, of a single complex wavelet. The magni-
i.tude of the two-dimensional complex wavelet so obtained
‘has roughly a Gaussian bell-shaped curve. This character-
istic of the complex dual-tree DWT makes it highly effective
for image denoising by the shrinkage of wavelet coefficients
(soft thresholding, for example). Instead of shrinking each
wavelet coefficient directly, one can shrink the magnitude of
the complex wavelet to improve the denoising performance.
The complex dual-tree DWT is implemented with two
suitably designed critically-sampled DWTs operating on
This work was supported by the NSF under CAREER p a n t
CCR-987452.
0-7803-7622-6/02/$17.00 02002 IEEE I11 - 573
the same data in parallel. It is required that the wavelets
corresponding to each of the two DWTs form a Hilbert
transform pair,
& ( t ) = x{$‘h(t)}. (1)
The dual-tree DWT was further analyzed in [16] which in-
troduces a characterization theorem describing how the fil-
ter coefficientsshould be chosen so as to obtain two wavelet
bases where the two wavelets form a Hilbert transform pair.
A design algorithm based on spectral-factoriiation was de-
scribed in [13]. This design algorithm extends the algorithm
developed by Daubechies for the construction of orthogonal
wavelet bases [5], to the new problem arising from the cam-
plex dual-tree DWT.
The doubledensity DWT was developed to be a less-
expansive version of the undecimated DWT. (For denoising,
the undecimated DWT out-performs the critically-sampled
DWT 14, 91, but not by as much as the complex dual-tree.)
The double-density DWT is based on a single scaling func-
tion and two distinct wavelets, where the two wavelets are
designed to he off-set from one another by one half - the
integer translates of one wavelet fall midway between the
integer translates of the other wavelet,
$z(t) 3 $i(t - 0.5). (2)
The design of wavelet frames (or expansive transforms) of
this type is described in [15]. Specifically [I51 describes the
design of wavelet filters of minimal support with vanishing
moment properties (analogous to Dauhechies’ orthonormal
wavelet bases but now in the over-sampled case). The re-
sulting wavelets are very smooth with short support and
the transform is nearly shift-invariant.
The twedimensional double-density dual-tree DWT pre-
sented in this paper is based on the separable (row/column)
implementation of the one-dimensional double-density dual-
tree transform [14] which is based on two distinct scaling
functions and four distinct wwelets,
where the two wavelets $ h , 4 ( t ) are off-set from one another
by one half, and qg,<(t)likewise:
and where the two wavelets Q g , l ( t ) and $ h , l ( t ) form an
approximate Hilbert transform pair, and & , z ( t ) and l / ) h . z ( t )
IEEE ICIP 2002
likewise:

The design procedure for the doubledensity dual-tree DWT

is too lengthly to describe here, however, it draws on the d e
sign procedures for the doubledensity DWT and the dual-
tree DWT described in 13, 151 and 1131. The design p r ~
cedure, fully described in [14], produces sets of compactly
supported wavelets with vanishing moments satisfying the
sought properties (3,4).
We also wish to note that although the structure of the
DWT introduced in this paper is different, the goals are
similar to those described in 1191, which introduced shiftable
multisale transforms. In addition, a complex-directional
filter bank is described in 1111. Other directional filter banks
are possible as well, see [I, 61. Also, the doubledensity
DWT is an example of an affine frame, see 13, 10, 121.

2 . COMPLEX-DIHECTIONAI.
TWO-DIMENSIONAL WAVELETS

The implementation of a complex-directional expansive dis-

crete wavelet transform can be efficiently implemented with
separable (row/coIumn) multirate filtering followed by (non-
separable) sums and differences. Specifically, the complex-
directional wavelets are obtained as follows.
First, define a separable wavelet basis by the following
expression,

for 0 5 i , j 5 2; where for notational convenience we r e p

resent the scaling function by $0, $ h , o ( x ) := 4 h ( x ) . One
of the nine functions defined in (5) is the scaling function
(&O,O(X, y)), while the other eight functions are handpass
wavelets. Similarly, define three more separable wavelet
bases by the following expressions, Fig. 1. The ZD wavelets generated by an approximate
Hilbert transform Dair of 1D wavelets.
$b.i.j(x>Y) = $s+(z)$g,j(Y) (6)
$ c . ~ . ~Y)( x=~ $ h . i ( X ) $g,j(Y) (7)
$'d.w(X>Y) = $9.c(x)d'h,j(Y) (8)
Each of the wavelets in (9-12) is oriented along one of six
for 0 5 i , j 5 2; where &,o(z) := &(x). angles: 1 1 5 , *45,+75 degrees. There are a total of 32 di-
Each of these four sets of separable wavelets bases are rectional wavelets (excluding the lowpass scaling functions
implemented using the traditional row/column filter bank corresponding to i = j = 0). They are illustrated in Fig-
structure of the usual critically-sampled separable DWT. ure 1. There are more than one wavelet in each direction;
The directional wavelets are obtained by taking the sums however, they are off-set from one another so that for each
and differences as follows. direction the integer translates of one wavelet fall midway
between the integer translates of the other wavelets oriented
$'A.i.>(z>Y) $o,*,~(XIY) +d'S.i.j(X,Y) (9) in the same direction.
$'B,<,j(X>Y) = d'a,i,j(x,Y) -$b,<,~(x,Y) (10) Moreover, the 16 wavelets in the top half of Figure 1
$C.i,j(X,Y) = $=,i.j(x,Y)+$d.i,j(X,Y) (11) can be interpreted as the real parts of 16 complex wavelets,
$'D,S,i(x,Y) = $c,<,j(xxY) ~ $d,%,j(x>Y) (12) while the 16 wavelets in the bottom half of Figure 1 can
be interpreted as the imaginary parts. This is illustrated
for 0 5 z,j 5 2, except for a = j = 0. The snmldifference in Figure 2 which shows two of the wavelets from Figure 1
operations are non-separable operations, so the total trans- together with the modulus of the complex wavelet formed
form is technically non-separable. However, they are the from them. The same functions are illustrated as gray-scale
only non-separable operations, so the total transform has images in the lower part of the figure. Because the magni-
the efficiency of a separable transform. The inverse trans- tude of the complex wavelet is relatively free of oscillations,
form requires taking the sum and difference, dividing by 4, it is roughly shift invariant and so can be used to improve
followed the seDarahle inverse DWTs. the performance of wavelet-based image processing.

111- 574
 REAL WAVELET 3. AN IMAGE DENOISING ALGORITHM
. .
... To develop a simple subhand-dependent data-driven image
.
. ...
.. . . denoising procedure we can modify the Bayes-shrink algo-
rithm described in [Z]. We assume the image s is corrupted
by additive Gaussian iid noise with unknown variance, U:,
z=s+n.

The noise can be estimated from the finest scale wavelet

coefficients using the formula
5, = median(lwk1)/0.6745
2 For each suhband, we compute the standard deviation of
the noisy wavelet coefficients using
Y 0 0 x 6, = Jz mean(lwlr/)
IMAGINARY WAVELEl which is the maximum-likelihood estimate assuming a Lapla-
cia" distribution. For each suhhand, we then estimate the
standard deviation of the wavelet coefficients of s using
= Jmax(a - B~,o).
For each subhand, we then compute the following threshold
for soft thresholding

which is applied t o the magnitude of each complex wavelet

coefficient.
Note that as the wavelets have different norms it is im-
portant to normalize the wavelet coefficients, before Per-
Y "
x forming the thresholding, by dividing each coefficient by
ENVELOPE the norm of the corresponding wavelet. Then the processed
coefficients are multiplied by the same norm, and finally the
inverse transform is computed.
... .. .
.. .. We tested the denoising scheme with the 512 by 512
%bit gray-scale Lena image. With the standard deviation
of the additive Gaussian noise taken to be U,, = 25, we
obtained the results illustrated in Figure 3. To evaluate the
denoising scheme we memure the rms error, or equivalently
the PSNR. Let y denote the denoised image. Therms error
is given by

2
The PSNR in dB is given by
0 0
Y
PSNR = 20 log,,
(Z)
Far the critically-sampled DWT using orthonormal Daubechies
wavelets, we obtained:
tg = 8.858, PSNR = 29.183
. . . For the doubledensity complex dual-tree we obtained:
= 7.630, PSNR = 30.48
Fig. 2. A pair of 2D wavelets from Figure 1 interpreted
as the real and imaginary parts of a complex-directional Note that this simple algorithm uses no statistical modeling
wavelet. of wavelet coefficients, which can he used to substantially
improve denoising results, see for example [lU].
 4. CONCLUSION
NOISY IMAGE
This paper presents a new expansive complex-directional
discrete wavelet transform based on the complex dual-tree
DWT. We also describe a simple subband-dependent data-
driven denoising procedure in which the magnitudes of the
complex wavelet coefficients are processed by soft-threshold-
ing. Matlab programs for reproducing these results are
available on the Web at http://taco.poly.edu/selesi.

5. R E F E R E N C E S
[lj R. H. Bamherger and M. J . T. Smith. A filter bank for
the directional decomposition of images: Theory and de-
sign. IEEE Tmns. on Signal Processing, 40(4):882-892,
April 1992.
[2] S. 6. Chang, B. Yu, and M. Vetterli. Adaptive wavelet
thresholding for image denoising and compression. IEEE
Trans. on Image Processing, 9(9):1532-1546, September
2000.
131 C. Chui and W . He. Compactly supported tight frames asso-
ciated with refinable functions. Applied and Computational CRITICALLY-SAMPLED DWT
Harmonic Analysis, 8(3):293-319, May 2000.
141 R. R. Coifman and D. L. Donoho. Ttanslation-invariant de-
noising. In A. Antoniadis, editor, Wavelets and Statistics.
Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes, 1995.
151 I. Dauhechies. Ten Lectures On Wavelets. SIAM, 1992.
161 M. N.Do and M. Vetterli. Pyramidal directional filter banks
and curvelets. In Pmc. IEEE I d Conf. Image Processing,
October 2001.
[i]N. G. Kingsbury. Image processing with complex wavelets.
Phil. Tmns. Royal Society London A , September 1999.
[8] N. G. Kingsbury. Complex wavelets for shift invariant anal-
ysis and Bltering of signals. Applied and Computational
Harmonic Analysis, 10(3):234-253, May 2001.
191 M . Law, H. Guo, J . E. Odegard, C. S. Burrus, and R. 0.
Wells, Jr. Noise reduction using an ""decimated dis-
crete wavelet transform. IEEE S t p a l Processing Letters,
3(1):1&12, January 1996.
1101 A. Petukhov. Explicit construction of framelets. Ap-
plied and Computational Harmonic Analysis, 11(2):313-
327, September 2001. DOUBLE-DENSITY COMPLEX DUAL-TREE
[ I l l J. Portilaa and E. P. Simoncelli. A parametric texture model
based on joint statistics of complex wavelet coefficients. Int.
J . of Comp. Vision, 4 0 ( 1 ) : 4 S i l , 2000.
[l2l A. Ron and 2. Shen. construction of compactly supported
affine frames in L,(@). In K. S. La", editor. Advances in
Wa'ouelets.Springer Verlag, 1998.
1131 I. W. Selesnick. The design of Hilbert transform pairs af
wavelet bases. IEEE Tmns. on Signal Pmeessing, 2001.
Accepted
1141 I. W. Selesnick. The doubledensity dual-tree discrete
wavelet transform. 2001. Preprint.
115) 1. W. Selesnick. The double density DWT. In A. Petrosian
and F. G. Meyer, editors, Wavelets in Signal and Image
Analysis: &om TheonJ to Pmctice. Kluwer, 2001.
I161 I. W. Selesnick. Hilbert transform pairs of wavelet bases.
IEEE Signal Pmcessing Letters, 8(6):17&173, June 2001.
[I71 I. W. Selesnick. Smooth wavelet tight frames with zero
moments. Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis,
10(2):163-181, March 2001. F i g . 3. Image denoising via soft-thresholding using the
critically-sampled DWT and the doubledensity complex
[I81 L. Sendur and 1. W. Selesnick. Bivariate shrinkage functions
for wavelet-hssed denoising. 2001. Preprint. dual-tree DWT. (A 150 by 150 subset of the full image
[I91 E. P. Simoncelli, W. T. Freeman, E. H. Adelson, and D. J.
is shown.)
Heeger. Shiftable multi-scale transform. IEEE P a m . In-
f o n . Theory, 38(2):587-607, March 1992.

111 - 576