PLOS ONE

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Image denoising method integrating ridgelet

transform and improved wavelet threshold
Bingbing Li1,2, Yao Cong1, Hongwei Mo ID1*
1 College of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China,
2 Technology School, Jilin Business and Technology College, Changchun, China

* mohongwei2023@163.com

a1111111111
Abstract
a1111111111 In the field of image processing, common noise types include Gaussian noise, salt and pep-
a1111111111
a1111111111 per noise, speckle noise, uniform noise and pulse noise. Different types of noise require dif-
a1111111111 ferent denoising algorithms and techniques to maintain image quality and fidelity.
Traditional image denoising methods not only remove image noise, but also result in the
detail loss in the image. It cannot guarantee the clean removal of noise information while
preserving the true signal of the image. To address the aforementioned issues, an image
OPEN ACCESS
denoising method combining an improved threshold function and wavelet transform is pro-
posed in the experiment. Unlike traditional threshold functions, the improved threshold func-
Citation: Li B, Cong Y, Mo H (2024) Image
denoising method integrating ridgelet transform tion is a continuous function that can avoid the pseudo Gibbs effect after image denoising
and improved wavelet threshold. PLoS ONE 19(9): and improve image quality. During the process, the output image of the finite ridge wave
e0306706. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. transform is first combined with the wavelet transform to improve the denoising perfor-
pone.0306706
mance. Then, an improved threshold function is introduced to enhance the quality of the
Editor: Hua Wang, Victoria University, AUSTRALIA reconstructed image. In addition, to evaluate the performance of different algorithms, differ-
Received: December 29, 2023 ent densities of Gaussian noise are added to Lena images of black, white, and color in the
Accepted: June 19, 2024 experiment. The results showed that when adding 0.010.01 variance Gaussian noise to
black and white images, the peak signal-to-noise ratio of the research method increased by
Published: September 6, 2024
2.58dB in a positive direction. The mean square error decreased by 0.10dB. When using the
Copyright: © 2024 Li et al. This is an open access
algorithm for denoising, the research method had a minimum denoising time of only 13ms,
article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits which saved 9ms and 3ms compared to the hard threshold algorithm (Hard TA) and soft
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in threshold algorithm (Soft TA), respectively. The research method exhibited higher stability,
any medium, provided the original author and with an average similarity error fluctuating within 0.89%. The above results indicate that the
source are credited.
research method has smaller errors and better system stability in image denoising. It can be
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are applied in the field of digital image denoising, which can effectively promote the positive
within the manuscript and its Supporting
development of image denoising technology to a certain extent.
Information files.

Funding: This manuscript was supported by: The

Science and Technology Research Projects of the
Education Office of Jilin Province (No.
JJKH20230256KJ to B.L.). The Jilin Business and
Technology College (No. KB2020 [006] No.
KB2022 [006] to B.L.). 1. Introduction
Competing interests: The authors have declared With the development of the times, digital images have become one of the ways for people to
that no competing interests exist. obtain important information from their daily lives. However, in image propagation and

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

information acquisition, the noise can affect the image blurring, distortion, and even loss of
important information [1, 2]. This also means that the quality of digital images will directly
affect the accuracy of information transmission in the image, so it is necessary to perform cer-
tain denoising processing on the image before using digital images [3]. How to denoise images
has become a difficult problem, which has attracted the attention of many scholars. Scholars
have proposed statistical filtering and adaptive filtering methods to denoise images. In addi-
tion, Khmag A et al. proposed an image denoising method based on improved wavelet trans-
form (WT) to improve the main structure of the original model image. This method could
remove noise from natural images corrupted by Gaussian white noise and compress image sig-
nals. The results showed that the performance of this algorithm was significantly better than
other algorithms [4]. Khmag A et al. proposed to implement pre-classification using clustering
based on invariant moments and hidden Markov models to capture the wavelet transform
dependence between additive Gaussian white noise pixels and their neighbors. Experimental
results show that this method has great advantages in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio and
structural similarity under higher noise levels [5]. At the same time, some scholars have pro-
posed that traditional methods such as standardization, enhancement (randomization), and
data aggregation training can be used to overcome the standardization risks and modal differ-
ences in traditional denoising methods. However, when using these methods, it cannot be
guaranteed that the obtained images can retain complete image information. The flourishing
development of artificial intelligence technology provides a new direction for the innovation
of image denoising technology. Hard threshold algorithm (Hard TA), and Soft threshold algo-
rithm (Soft TA) are commonly used threshold processing functions in signal processing. The
Hard TA refers to the threshold that cannot be exceeded by the detected data. The Soft TA
refers to specifying a range of changes for the detected data. Semi-soft threshold algorithm
(Semi-Soft TA) is a combination of Soft TA and Hard TA, which can maintain continuity near
the threshold point, but there is a slope below the threshold point. The above three parameters
play a crucial role in the effectiveness of image denoising, which can be collectively referred to
as the improved threshold function. The improved threshold function is a continuous function
that can effectively remove the interference of noise in images during image processing. This
experiment proposes an image denoising method that integrates an improved threshold func-
tion and WT, aiming to removing noise information from the image and fully preserving the
image information.
The contribution of this research is mainly in two aspects. Firstly, aiming at the problems
existing in the traditional image denoising algorithm when dealing with complex noise types,
it adopts the fused improved threshold function and WT, and combined with WT and ridge
algorithm. Therefore, the denoising algorithm can better adapt to images with different noise
types. Secondly, the setting method of threshold algorithm is improved, which further
improves the denoising quality in the image denoising.
The research has four parts. The first is a literature review on image denoising methods that
integrate improved threshold functions with WT. It mainly introduces the application of the
improved threshold and WT algorithm in other fields, as well as the research history of image
denoising. The second part has two sections. The first section mainly introduces the core algo-
rithm of the fusion algorithm and the method of obtaining key parameters. The second section
introduces the optimization methods of the fusion algorithm and the running ideas of the
algorithm. The third part has two sections. The first section discusses the denoising perfor-
mance of the fusion algorithm in different demand environments such as color images, black
and white images, and fingerprint images. The second section mainly introduces the stability,
computational speed, and application performance of the algorithm in complex environments

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

with fused noise. The fourth part summarizes the first three parts, and analyzes the specific
performance of the fusion algorithm and the shortcomings in the research process.

2. Related work
WT, as a change analysis method, can effectively remove the correlation between different
extracted features. It has fast computing speed, which is favored by scholars. S. Ramakanth
and other scholars designed a new algorithm based on continuous WT to achieve automatic
target recognition using jet engine modulated radar signals. It is applied to simulated signals
affected by noise. Coiflet and complex Morlet wavelets are used for research. Compared with
the improved Hilbert Huang Transform, the improved algorithm has better performance [6].
Khmag A et al. also proposed a nonlinear filtering method based on a two-step switching
scheme to eliminate salt-and-pepper noise and additive Gaussian white noise [7]. Khmag A
and Ramli’s team also used a combination of wavelet denoising algorithm and statistical prin-
cipal component analysis algorithm to denoise images. This algorithm integrates (PCA) to
exploit the subjective and objective quality of the observed images produced by the filtering
process [8]. Y. Xu et al. used an improved empirical WT initialized multi-scale fluctuation dis-
persion entropy method to study the characteristics in active distribution network (ADN)
models under grid connection, interruption, and islanding conditions. Disturbance signals in
high permeability ADN were detected and classified. The research results indicated that the
improved method had robustness and good accuracy [9]. Gao L et al. proposed a signal denois-
ing method that combined mathematical morphology and wavelet adaptive threshold to accu-
rately diagnose ECG signals. The signal-to-noise ratio was used to adjust the threshold
parameters, and mathematical morphology was used to eliminate low-frequency noise. Then
an innovative denoising method was obtained. The results showed that the root mean square
difference and signal-to-noise ratio of this algorithm were significantly improved. The denois-
ing effect was significant [10].
As the mainstream way of information dissemination nowadays, digital image transmission
has received a lot of attention and research on the noise processing. Khare S K et al. used adap-
tive tunable Q-WT for automatic selection when studying emotional recognition of EEG sig-
nals. Grey Wolf Optimization was applied to obtain the optimal tuning parameters. Compared
with traditional methods, the improved method had strong advantages in accuracy, computa-
tional speed, and other aspects [11]. Qiao W et al. adopted a combination prediction model
based on WT, short-term memory, and stacked automatic encoder when dealing with strategic
planning issues in power generation. The research results indicated that the model had higher
prediction accuracy and faster prediction speed [12]. FU Q et al. proposed an image denoising
method based on an improved threshold function to eliminate the deviation between different
threshold functions. The improved threshold function was combined to process low-frequency
noise and reconstruct the image. The results showed that the PSNR of this algorithm was sig-
nificantly improved by about 5%. The mean square error (MSE) was significantly reduced,
and the performance was superior [13]. M. Begum’s team proposed a digital image encryption
method based on discrete cosine transform and wavelet transform to ensure the security of
images during network transmission. During the process, Arnold mapping is used to encrypt
the transmitted image, followed by generating the image through multiple operations. The
results indicate that the improved method has good performance and can effectively enhance
security [14]. H. Xu et al. adopted a new method based on structural matrix restoration on
reducing noise in hyperspectral images. The research results indicated that it exceeded other
methods in visual and quantitative indicators such as PSNR and spectral angular distance
(SAD) [15].

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

In summary, high noise levels have a negative impact on image quality, resulting in blurred
image details, unclear edges, etc., thereby reducing the image perception quality. It may also
cause the effective information in the image to be submerged or destroyed, and even lead to
important details in the image can not be accurately identified and utilized. Image denoising
has high research value. Currently, a large number of scholars have participated in the research
on this issue. However, few scholars have combined improved threshold functions with
wavelet algorithms to solve image denoising. Therefore, an image denoising method combin-
ing improved threshold function and WT is used to improve the quality of reconstructed
images. Combining the improved threshold function with WT algorithm, it is expected to
improve the denoising ability of the algorithm by combining the excellent performance of the
two algorithms in image denoising. The improved threshold function can better adapt to the
noise variety of the image, and can adjust the relevant parameters to adjust the threshold selec-
tion range according to the actual situation. The WT algorithm greatly improves the denoising
ability of the fusion algorithm by segmenting the image.

3. Design of image denoising methods

In the image denoising, the threshold parameters will affect the denoising performance. Com-
bining ridge wave algorithm with wavelet algorithm, and absorbing the characteristics of Hard
TA and Soft TA, an TA is proposed to obtain the parameters required in the image denoising.

3.1. The main structure design of denoising algorithm

During the process of obtaining and transmitting images, they are easily affected by the envi-
ronment, leading to the doped noise in the output image. The signal of the image itself is
mixed with noise signals, resulting in blurred image details. This can cause problems such as
image information loss during the decoding [16]. Therefore, the removal of image noise has
received widespread attention from scholars for a long time. The noise in images is reduced by
integrating improved threshold algorithms with wavelet algorithms. A brief introduction is
given to the optimization ideas and parameter selection of improved threshold algorithm and
wavelet algorithm. The noise processing of images is the foundation of image processing. The
relationship between the two is shown in Fig 1.
In Fig 1, the relationship between image denoising and image processing can be divided
into three parts, namely image understanding, image analysis and image processing. The three

Fig 1. Correlation between image denoising and image processing.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

parts complement each other and are related to each other. Image processing can be mainly
divided into four steps. Firstly, the images are collect and obtain. Then the selected technology
is used to denoise the image. Different image information is segmented and relevant informa-
tion is fused. Finally, image processing is implemented. Compression and encoding are used
to achieve image denoising effect. The denoised image can better reflect the objective data and
real information of the original image, providing strong support for image analysis and under-
standing processes. The WT is extensively applied in the image denoising, which has good
denoising effects. However, traditional wavelet algorithms still have discontinuity at the
threshold point of the Hard TA. The Soft TA has drawbacks such as deviation from the real
signal. Therefore, improvements are made to the threshold and threshold function [17]. The
output image of the finite ridge transform and the improved threshold wavelet algorithm are
combined to improve the denoising performance. The specific flowchart of ridge wave trans-
formation is shown in Fig 2.
In Fig 2, the ridgelet transform can be mainly divided into two steps, namely Radon trans-
form and WT. Specifically, after obtaining an original image, the subspace domain image is
used to undergo ridgelet transformation to obtain the image ridgelet coefficients (containing
noise). Then, the coefficients higher than the threshold are retained. The coefficients lower
than the threshold are removed. The ridgelet transform of the final image is inversely trans-
formed into a spatial domain image. If the transformed image has warping distortion, it needs
to be removed by Vienna transformation. The experiment assumes that ψ(t) represents a one-
dimensional wavelet, then the two-dimensional ridgelet can be expressed as Eq (1).

1=2
ca;b;y ¼ a cððx1 cosy þ x2 siny bÞ=aÞ ð1Þ

In Eq (1), a; b 2 R; a 6¼ 0; x ¼ ðx1 ; x2 Þ. θ is the directional parameter. This equation is rela-

tively complex. Therefore, the expression of two-dimensional ridge waves is transformed to
reduce the mathematical difficulty. The modified two-dimensional function ridge wave trans-
formation is shown in Eq (2).
Z
CRTf ða; b; yÞ ¼ ca;b;y ðxÞf ðxÞdx ð2Þ
R2

Fig 2. Ridge wave transformation flowchart.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

In Eq (2), the conic curve function is converted into an integral. f(x) is the weight parameter
change function in the direction of y. The continuous Radon transformation of the two-
dimensional function can be obtained by the two-dimensional ridge-wave transformation.
The continuous Radon transform and discrete form of the two-dimensional ridge-wave trans-
form can be expressed, as shown in Eq (3).
8 Z
< R ðy; tÞ ¼ f ðxÞdðx1 cosy þ x2 siny tÞdx
f
R2 ð3Þ
:
Rðn; mÞ ¼ jF ðn; mÞj jF ðn 1; mÞj jF ðn þ 1; mÞj jF ðn; m 1Þj jF ðn; m þ 1Þj

In Eq (3), Rf(θ,t) represents the continuous Radon transformation of the two-dimensional

ridge-wave transformation. t is the time parameter. After obtaining the Radon transformation
expression of the two-dimensional function ridge transform expression, the form can be
rewritten to obtain the expression of the two-dimensional ridge transform. R(n,m) represents
the discrete value of the two-dimensional ridge-wave transform result. F(n,m) represents the
transformation result of the two-dimensional discrete function in the frequency domain. The
discrete form of the ridge transform of the two-dimensional function indicates that the dis-
crete value R (n,m) of the ridge transform result is equal to the amplitude value of the corre-
sponding position in the frequency domain minus the amplitude value of the adjacent
positions above and below [18]. This formula can be used to detect the structure of the ridged
wave in the two-dimensional function. By calculating the discrete value of the ridged wave
transform result, the ridged sign and edge information in the function can be found. The spe-
cific form of a two-dimensional ridge wave is shown in Eq (4).
Z
ca;b;y ¼ ca;b ðtÞdðx1 cosy þ x2 siny tÞdt ð4Þ
R

In Eq (4), ca;b ðtÞ ¼ a 1=2 cððt bÞ=aÞ. ψa,b(t) is the Fourier transform form of one-dimen-
sional ridge waves. The one-dimensional ridged wave in the form of Fourier transform refers
to the spectrum obtained after the one-dimensional signal is Fourier transformed, which rep-
resents the distribution of the signal in the frequency domain [19]. One-dimensional ridged
wave transform based on Fourier transform frequency domain analysis method, by calculating
the spectrum amplitude and phase information of the signal, the frequency characteristics and
periodic structure of the signal can be revealed. One-dimensional ridge transform can high-
light the ridge structure and suppress other frequency components by Fourier transform and
spectrum processing, such as threshold processing or spectrum amplitude filtering, and can
extract the ridge structure and edge information in the signal. The result obtained by substitut-
ing two-dimensional ridged wave into the two-dimensional functional ridged wave transform
is shown in Eq (5).
Z Z
CRTf ða; b; yÞ ¼ ca;b ðtÞf ðxÞdðx1 cosy þ x2 siny tÞdtdx ð5Þ
R2 R

In Eq (5), the final ridge transformation expression can be obtained by performing Radon
transformations on the obtained transformation expressions. The specific form of this expres-
sion is shown in Eq (6).
D E Z
CRTf ða; b; yÞ ¼ ca;b ðtÞ; Rf ðy; tÞ ¼ ca;b ðtÞRf ðy; tÞdt ð6Þ
R

In Eq (6), ψ(�) is a projection of the one-dimensional wavelet in the θ direction. The ridge
wave transformation process is as follows. The transformation method obtained by performing

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Radon transform first and then WT processing. The image size I(i,j) is p × p. p represents a
prime number. The transformation definition of finite Radon is shown in Eq (7).
1 X
rk ½l� ¼ pffiffi Iði; jÞ ð7Þ
p ði;jÞ2L
k;l

In Eq (7), Lk,l represents a straight line. The slope is k and the intercept is l. This line is
shown in Eq (8).
8 n o
>
< Lk;l ¼ ði; jÞ : j ¼ ki þ lðmodpÞ; i 2 Zp ; k 2 Z
n o ð8Þ
>
: Lp:l ¼ ði; jÞ : j 2 Zp

In Eq (8), the finite Radon transform is considered as the sum of pixel values of lines in dif-
ferent directions. rk(l) is the matrix of ridge wave transformation. The image has multiple
blocks. It is expressed as a term in the matrix. There are p+1 directions in the matrix. Each
direction covers p pixel values. Therefore, the ridge transform matrix can cover the entire pixel
of the image, and then perform WT on each column in the matrix, resulting in finite ridge
coefficients. By performing Radon transform and WT on the initial image, the processed
image is obtained. Among them, the inverse transform signal obtained through finite Radon
transform is a very important part of the signal reconstruction process. This part needs to be
obtained through finite ridge inverse transformation. The definition of the finite back projec-
tion operator is shown in Eq (9).
8
>
> 1 X
< Iði; jÞ ¼ pffipffi
> rk ðlÞ; ði; jÞ 2 Zp2
ðk;lÞ2Pi;j
ð9Þ
>
> n o
>
: P ¼ ðk; lÞ : l ¼ j kiðmodpÞk 2 Z [ fðp; iÞg
i;j p

In Eq (9), I(i,j) stands for the pixel value at the corresponding coordinate of the image. rk(l)
stands for the finite Radon coefficient. Based on this method, the finite back projection opera-
tor is restored to the original image. The finite Radon transform uses modular p-operation,
which sometimes leads to the "wrapping" in the image. The output image shows streaks, which
affect the output image quality. Therefore, the main improvement direction for the ridge algo-
rithm is to reduce the surround phenomenon of the algorithm and improve the quality of the
output image.

3.2. Optimization of fusion algorithm

Threshold denoising method of WT is widely used in signal and image processing. WT has the
characteristics of multi-scale analysis, which can provide information in both frequency
domain and time domain. This gives it an advantage in capturing local details and overall
trends. In addition, the WT can compress the signal, remove redundant information and
retain the main features. The WT mainly achieves denoising by setting a threshold. The WT
coefficients that are less than the threshold are considered noise. The remaining coefficients
are retained as effective signals. It has the simple principle, small computational complexity,
and good denoising effect. Fig 3 displays the specific denoising process.
In Fig 3, WT decomposes the signal to obtain wavelet coefficients. The obtained wavelet
coefficients are subjected to threshold processing to obtain an estimated value [20]. The differ-
ence between the two is minimized by continuously adjusting the threshold. Then, the esti-
mated value is reconstructed through inverse WT to obtain the estimated signal, which is the

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 3. Flow of wavelet threshold denoising.

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original denoised signal. The signal is f ðtÞ ¼ sðtÞ þ nðtÞ. s(t) refers to the original signal. n(t)
refers to the noise. Taking this signal as an example, discrete sampling is performed on the sig-
nal to obtain the discrete signal. The WT coefficients of f(t) can be obtained. The specific form
is shown in Eq (10).

j X
N 1
Wf ðj; kÞ ¼ 22 f ðnÞcð2j n kÞ ð10Þ
n¼0

In Eq (10), the calculation method for Wf(j,k) is relatively complex. ψ(t) is the analytical
expression. Therefore, the WT coefficients are transformed through a dual scale equation. The
original coefficient of change is transformed, as shown in Eq (11).
(
Sf ðj þ 1; kÞ ¼ Sf ðj; kÞ∗hðj; kÞ
ð11Þ
Wf ðj þ 1; kÞ ¼ Sf ðj; kÞ∗gðj; kÞ

In Eq (11), h stands for the low-pass filter of the scaling function φ(t). g is a high-pass filter
for the ψ(t). Sf(0,k) stands for the initial signal. Sf(j,k) stands for the approximation coefficient
on the j scale. Wf(j,k) stands for the wavelet coefficient. After obtaining a recursive implemen-
tation method for the coefficient, the equation is reconstructed. The specific form of the recon-
structed WT is shown in Eq (12).

Sf ðj ~ kÞ þ W ðj; kÞ∗~
1; kÞ ¼ Sf ðj; kÞ∗hðj; g ðj; kÞ ð12Þ
f

In Eq (12), the coefficient is ωj,k. After performing discrete WT of signal f(k), the coeffi-
cients consist of two parts. s(k) stands for the real signal, corresponding to the coefficient Ws(j,
k). The noise n(k) corresponds to the coefficient Wn(j,k). At this point, the construction of WT
equation is completed. After obtaining the denoised image output by WT, ridge wave trans-
form is used to denoise the image. The outputs of the last two algorithms are fused to improve
the denoising effect. The denoising method using ridge transform is similar to WT. Namely,
threshold processing is performed through finite ridge coefficients to get ridge transformation
coefficients obtained from noise and signal transformation. Ridged denoising is applied to
reduce image noise and improve signal-to-noise ratio. The specific process is as follows. Firstly,
the image is preprocessed, and the image size is adjusted to the prime size. Next, the image is
decomposed by finite ridge transform and the ridge coefficient is obtained. Then, the ridge
coefficient is filtered by setting the threshold to remove the noise in the image. Finally, the

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

processed ridged coefficients are synthesized into reconstructed images by using the inverse
transformation of finite ridged waves. After the reconstructed image is obtained, the image
can be processed using the Wiener filter to reduce the surround effect that may be caused by
the ridge denoising, which further enhances the image quality. In the wavelet threshold
denoising, setting the threshold value is a very important step, which will directly affect the
quality of the image after denoising. The classical threshold selection methods include univer-
sal threshold method, SUREShrink threshold method, heuristic threshold method and mini-
max threshold method. The most extensively applied method is the universal threshold. The
selected method is simple, which has been widely used in practical life. After determining the
threshold selection method, the TA is used to obtain the threshold. Among them, Hard TA
and Soft TA are the most common methods. The specific expression is shown in Eq (13).
8
oj;k ; joj;k j � T
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ^ ¼
o
> j;k
>
<
f 0; joj;k j < T

>
> 8
>
> < sgnðoj;k Þðoj;k TÞ; joj;k j � T
>
>
>
> ^ ¼
o ð13Þ
>
: j;k :
0; joj;k j < T

^ j;k stands for the new coefficient after

In Eq (13), ωj,k stands for the wavelet coefficient. o
denoising. T refers to the threshold. The constructed Hard TA and Soft TA are displayed in Fig 4.
In Fig 4, each of the two TAs has the own advantages. For example, the denoising process of
the Hard TA can better preserve the original features, while the denoising process of the Soft
TA can make the signal smoother. Among them, Soft TA zeros signal components below a cer-
tain threshold, and scale the components that are greater than the threshold. Hard TA zeros
signal components below a certain threshold and keeps components above that threshold
unchanged. Semi-Soft TA is a combination of Soft TA and Hard TA. In Semi-Soft TA, the
retained component larger than the threshold is scaled, while the component smaller than the
threshold is zeroed directly. When facing the problem of image denoising with larger image
scales, the energy amplitude of the noise decreases due to the larger image scale. The

Fig 4. The diagram of Hard TA and Soft TA.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

traditional universal threshold method to reduce noise can lead to excessive denoising, result-
ing in the information being removed as noise. The quality of denoised images decreases.
Among them, the image reconstructed by the Hard TA generates pseudo Gibbs lines due to
discontinuity at the threshold points, resulting in image oscillation. The Soft TA has a constant
difference between the denoised signal and the real signal, which leads to blurring and quality
degradation of the reconstructed output image. In order to overcome such shortcomings, a
more effective and applicable TA is constructed based on the understanding of the limitations
and shortcomings of traditional TA, in-depth understanding of mathematical principles, and
in-depth thinking and exploration of practical problems, as shown in Eq (14).
8 2T
>
> oj;k þ T ; oj;k � T
>
> T
>
> expðj j
n
1Þ þ 1 þ n
>
> oj;k
>
>
>
>
>
> nþ1
< 2sgnðoj;k Þjoj;k j
^ j;k ¼ h
o oj;k n i ; joj;k j < T ð14Þ
>
> expðj j 1Þ þ 1 þ n T n
>
> T
>
>
>
> 2T
>
> oj;k T þ ; oj;k � T
>
> T
>
> n
: expðj j 1Þ þ 1 þ n
oj;k

In Eq (14), n stands for the adjustment parameter. The improved TA combines the charac-
teristics of Hard TA and Soft TA to enhance the flexibility of threshold changes. It has better
noise reduction performance for larger scale images. The improved Hard TA and Soft TA are
shown in Fig 5.
In Fig 5, the improved TA still maintains continuity at ±T. When adjusting parameter
n = 0, the denoised wavelet coefficients will not change. When the adjustment coefficient
approaches positive infinity, the form of the denoised wavelet coefficient is shown in Eq (15).
8
> o þ T; oj;k � T
< j;k
^ j;k ¼ 0; joj;k j < T
o ð15Þ
>
:
oj;k T; oj;k � T

Fig 5. The improved Hard TA and Soft TA.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

In Eq (15), the improved TA can change the wavelet parameters of the TA as the adjustment
parameters change. Increasing the value of the adjustment parameter can gradually bring the
TA closer to the Soft TA. Adjusting parameters not only makes the improved TA continuous,
but also reduces the mathematical processing difficulty. It also adjusts the adjustability of the
parameters. By repeatedly fitting, the optimal denoising effect is obtained through optimiza-
tion. WT is highly effective in describing the singularity. However, there is a lack of ability to
describe lines. Therefore, the WT in image denoising inevitably leads to blurring and distor-
tion of the image. Ridge wave transform has better performance than WT in processing
images, edges, or linear contours. Compared with WT, ridge transform can provide sparse
representation of edges, thus better preserving the linear features of the image. The specific
content of the segmented ridge denoising algorithm is shown in Fig 6.
In Fig 6, the first step is to divide the image into equally sized square blocks. Then, the size
of each small square block is converted to a prime size. The ridge wave transform decomposi-
tion is applied. A threshold is selected for denoising based on each square block. Finally, each
square block is reconstructed using inverse ridge wave transform. The denoised square blocks
are restored to their original size, and then concatenated to obtain a complete image. From
this, the steps of the algorithm can be obtained, which includes a total of 7 steps. (1) The noise
image of size N × N is divide into square image blocks of size b × B (b<N), so that these small
image blocks do not overlap with each other. The position of each small square image block in
the original image is recorded. (2) The bi-linear interpolation is reused to transform the square
image block into p × P size (where p is the minimum prime greater than b). (3) The ridge wave
transformation is performed on each square image block to retain the ridge wave coefficient
matrix for each block. (4) A threshold is selected based on the ridge coefficient matrix of each
square image block and the denoising processing is performed. (5) The processed ridge wave
coefficients are subjected to inverse ridge wave transformation to preserve the processed
square blocks and restore all square blocks to their original sizes. (6) These blocks are restored
to their original positions and glued together to form a complete image. (7) Wiener filters are
used to filter denoised images to reduce the influence of "surrounding" effects. To achieve bet-
ter denoising results in image denoising tasks, the wavelet thresholding and ridge transform
processing are combined. The specific fusion process is shown in Fig 7.

Fig 6. Block ridge wave denoising flowchart.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 7. A hybrid algorithm based on improved threshold function and wavelet transform.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306706.g007

In Fig 7, the combination steps of wavelet threshold algorithm and ridge wave algorithm
are as follows. Firstly, the noise is added to the original image. Then, the improved wavelet
threshold method is applied to denoise the noisy image. It is applied to the segmented ridge
wave transformation method for denoising noisy images. Finally, the denoised images
obtained by the two methods are selected with appropriate wavelet bases for wavelet decompo-
sition. The low-frequency and high-frequency wavelet coefficients are extracted, respectively.
The high-frequency and low-frequency parts of two sets of coefficients are added and summed,
and then the average value is taken to obtain a new set of high-frequency and low-frequency
coefficients. Finally, by applying the inverse WT, the fused image can be obtained. When
denoising images, the structure, smoothness and denoising time of the image will be affected
to a certain extent. Therefore, the denoising time, structural changes of the image after denois-
ing, image smoothness, and similarity error are studied. The performance of the four algo-
rithms is compared with objective performance indicators (the calculation is very simple, and
the experiment does not provide special calculation formulas here).

4. Result analysis
As one of the mainstream information dissemination methods, the research on denoising
technology of digital image propagation has always received a lot of attention from scholars.
To specifically reflect the performance of the image processing technology that combines the
improved TA and WT, the improved algorithm is compared with traditional image denoising
algorithms. The denoising performance in different images and noise situations is statistically
analyzed to verify the superiority.

4.1. Performance analysis of algorithm

To verify the superior performance of the hybrid algorithm constructed in the experiment, the
black and white and color Lena image data sets are selected as the experimental data set. The
images contained in the Lena image dataset are rich in detail, smooth areas, shadows and tex-
tures, making them ideal for evaluating the performance of various image processing tech-
niques [21]. The experiment selects a 512x512 pixel version of the Lena image, which can be
either color (24-bit) or grayscale (8-bit). Images come from image databases of various

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

academic institutions, such as the SIPi image database of the University of Southern California
(USC), as well as public domain resources on the Internet.
To ensure the smooth progress of the experiment, all experiments are conducted in a uni-
fied simulation environment. The parameters are set as follows. The CPU is Intel Xeon Gold
6230 20-Core Processor, 2.1 GHz. The network is 10Gbps Ethernet. The storage is 1TB NVMe
SSD. The server is Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS. The development environment is Python. The
image processing software is the MATLAB platform. The data management tool is PostgreSQL
software. The system learning framework is PyTorch.
Gaussian noise with a variance of 0.01 is added to two test images in the experiment. Gauss-
ian noise with large noise variance usually has poor denoising effect. A higher noise variance
means that the noise signal strength is larger, which makes the noise more difficult to identify
and separate in the original signal.Traditional algorithms such as HTA, STA, Semi-Soft TA,
Mean algorithm (MA), Median algorithm (MeA), and improved threshold fusion
wavelet algorithms are used for image denoising. The objective evaluation indicators are
applied to assess the denoising effect of the image. Fig 8 displays the specific evaluation results.
In Fig 8, a black and white image with 0.01 variance Gaussian noise is denoised. The PSNR
of the fusion algorithm increased by 2.58dB, 2.31dB, 1.98dB, 1.59dB, and 1.15dB compared to
the HTA, STA, Semi-Soft TA, MA, and MeA, respectively. The MSE decreases by 0.05%,
0.10%, 0.04%, 0.06%, and 0.05%, respectively. When the amplitude of the noise increased to
0.03, the PSNR increased by 1.84%, 2.21%, 1.85%, 1.56%, and 1.71%. The MSE decreased by
0.07%, 0.10%, 0.05%, 0.05%, and 0.04%, respectively. The fusion algorithm has shown signifi-
cant improvement in both PSNR and MSE values. The traditional methods and fusion algo-
rithms are tested using color Lena images. The specific indicator gap is shown in Fig 9.

Fig 8. Comparison results of PSNR and MSE of gray images under different algorithms.
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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 9. Comparison results of PSNR and MSE of color images under different algorithms.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306706.g009

In Fig 9, when using different algorithms to process Gaussian noise with a difference of
0.01 in the image, the PSNRs of the fusion algorithm, Hard TA, Soft TA, Semi Soft TA, MA,
and MeA were 74.25%, 71.70%, 71.94%, 72.26%, 72.66%, and 73.08%, respectively. The MSE
of the fusion algorithm was 0.21. In addition, when the amplitude of Gaussian noise increased
to 0.03, compared to traditional methods, the PSNR of the hybrid algorithm increased by
1.87%, 2.21%, 1.85%, 1.54%, and 1.68%, respectively. The MSE decreased by 0.06dB, 0.11dB,
0.05dB, 0.07dB, and 0.04dB, respectively. By comparing the above results, the PSNR of the
fusion algorithm significantly increased, while the value of MSE significantly decreased. This
also indicates that there is a small difference between the reconstructed image and the original
image. The difference between the predicted and actual values is also small, resulting in better
image quality. At the same time, the hybrid algorithm can be widely used for denoising opera-
tions on black and white images and color images. The denoising effect is very good.

4.2. Analysis of application effect of algorithm

Fingerprint images are different from ordinary images. To comprehensively consider the per-
formance of Fusion algorithm, three fingerprint patterns from the FCV2004 fingerprint data-
base are selected as test images to measure the noise reduction performance of traditional
algorithms and fusion algorithms. The images of three fingerprint patterns are shown in Fig 10.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 10. Three images of fingerprint patterns.

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All three fingerprint images are added with a mixture of Gaussian and salt and pepper
noise, with a noise density of 0.01. The denoising evaluation indicators of traditional methods
and fusion algorithms are displayed in Table 1.
Table 1 shows the denoising effect of fingerprint images with added noise. The fusion algo-
rithm is compared with other algorithms. Taking the denoising effect of fingerprint images
with serial number 1 as an example, the PSNR values increased by 3.35%, 2.01%, 2.68%, 2.51%,
and 1.80%, respectively. The MSE decreased by 0.23%, 0.13%, 0.21%, 0.13%, and 0.11%,
respectively. For sequence 1, the FOM of the Hard TA and Soft TA was 49.36 and 58.69,
respectively, while the FOM of the fusion algorithm was 83.52, indicating that the fusion algo-
rithm had better overall performance compared to the Hard TA and Soft TA. For sequence 1,
the MAE of the Soft TA was 3.34, while the fusion algorithm was 1.25, which showed that the
fusion algorithm could obtain higher prediction accuracy when denoising the fingerprint
image. The fusion algorithm still shows excellent performance for mixed noise mixed in fin-
gerprint images. This is mainly because the experimental design method introduces Hard TA
and Soft TA. The results are obtained after calculation. The values of the evaluation indicators
obtained after denoising are better than those of several other algorithms, proving that the
image denoising method that combines the improved threshold algorithm and the WT algo-
rithm can maintain high denoising performance when processing single noise or mixed noise
images. After studying the impact of image color and noise type on the performance of denois-
ing algorithms, from the structural similarity of images, the denoising performance of different
algorithms is studied. The specific evaluation indicators are shown in Table 2.
In Table 2, taking the image with serial number 1 as an example, the fusion algorithm out-
performed the Hard TA, Soft TA, Semi Soft TA, and MA by 0.973, 0.967, 0.922, and 0.979,
respectively. By comparison, the fusion algorithm had the smallest MSE, the highest PSNR,
and the highest structural similarity. This also indicates that the details of the denoised image
obtained by using fusion algorithms are more fully preserved. The image contours are
smoother, and the image clarity is also higher. To explore the smoothness of the fusion algo-
rithm’s output images, nine classic detection algorithms are selected. 1000 natural images are
selected from the standard test image library MSRA1000 to group and calculate the smooth-
ness of the output images. The study statistically analyzes the denoising performance and
image smoothness of various methods by manually marking the results. The precision and

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Table 1. Denoising evaluation indicators for fingerprint images using different algorithms.
Image sequence number Evaluating indicator/dB Hard TA Soft TA Semi-Soft TA Mean algorithm Median algorithm Fusion algorithm
1 PSNR 71.13 72.04 71.57 71.82 72.21 73.53
MSE 0.0049 0.0037 0.0041 0.0039 0.0040 0.0024
FOM 49.36 58.69 77.51 68.32 71.21 83.52
MAE 4.53 3.34 2.96 3.68 2.36 1.25
2 PSNR 70.31 70.83 70.59 71.52 72.20 73.58
MSE 0.0060 0.0051 0.0055 0.0041 0.0042 0.0031
FOM 48.48 61.71 75.25 70.20 69.13 78.64
MAE 4.32 3.18 3.01 3.02 2.58 1.18
3 PSNR 70.71 71.25 71.07 72.22 72.30 73.74
MSE 0.0054 0.0050 0.0049 0.0038 0.0041 0.0023
FOM 50.24 65.89 72.84 75.85 74.56 79.63
MAE 3.96 2.93 3.28 3.27 2.81 1.27
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306706.t001

recall of each algorithm are also calculated. The P-R curve was plotted. The specific P-R curves
are shown in Fig 11.
In Fig 11, in addition to the RC algorithm based on global contrast, the fusion algorithm,
whether in local or global contrast, exceeded the traditional methods. The P-R curve also
shows that the Fusion algorithm has smoother changes, stable image output performance, and
significant performance improvement than existing methods. Meanwhile, in different applica-
tion environments, the noise density of the target image that denoising algorithms face varies.
Traditional HTA, STA, Semi-Soft TA, and fusion algorithms are selected for comparison. The
MSRA1000 data set is selected as the task data set. This data set is a standard test gallery for
visual saliency detection, covering a variety of scenes, such as natural scenery, urban street
scenes, indoor environments, etc. This data set is provided by Microsoft Research Asia,
MSRA, containing 1,000 high-quality color images and their corresponding saliency annota-
tions. These images are divided into 10 levels, with 100 images as one level, gradually increas-
ing the number of tests. The average structural similarity of each level is calculated. The
specific situation obtained is shown in Fig 12.
Fig 12(A) shows the SSIM values obtained by different algorithms. As the amount of data
changes, the SSIM values of all algorithms change with different amplitudes. During the entire
process of changing the amount of data, the SSIM value of the fusion algorithm remained near
98.3%. The SSIM values of other algorithms were significantly less than 98.3%. Fig 12(B)
shows the MSE values obtained by different algorithms running on the MSRA database data
set. When the amount of data reached 300 images, the fusion algorithm had the smallest MSE,
with a value of 0.114. At this time, the MSE of Hard TA and Soft TA were greater than the
MSE of the fusion algorithm, with values of 0.158 and 1.361, respectively, much larger than the

Table 2. Structural changes of images after denoising using different algorithms.

Evaluating indicator MSE PSNR SSIM References
Image sequence number 1 2 1 2 1 2
Hard TA 120.731 191.251 27.313 25.315 0.973 0.917 [22]
Soft TA 146.748 187.004 26.46 25.412 0.967 0.913 [23]
Semi-Soft TA 119.317 172.758 27.364 25.756 0.974 0.922 [3]
Mean algorithm 96.077 146.607 28.305 27.138 0.979 0.935 [24]
Fusion algorithm 80.457 125.687 29.075 27.138 0.982 0.945 This study
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306706.t002

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 11. Image smoothness of different methods.

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fusion algorithm. From the above results, the image obtained by using the fusion algorithm
had a high SSIM value and a low MSE value, that is, the distortion of the obtained image is
small, and the denoised image is closer to the clear image. The difference is smaller. After
examining the robustness of the algorithm, it is also necessary to analyze the calculation time
of the algorithm. The MSRA1000 images in the standard test gallery are used as the test set.
The 100 natural images are divided into 10 groups. The groups are denoised and statistically
denoised. The time spent in the process and the time spent on denoising by different methods
are shown in Fig 13.
In Fig 13, the fusion algorithm performs well in denoising time consumption. Among
them, the minimum denoising time was only 13ms. Compared to the HTA and the STA, it
saved 9ms and 3ms respectively. The improved algorithm combining threshold algorithm and
wavelet algorithm had high training efficiency. Afterwards, the denoising application

Fig 12. The SSIM for the different algorithms.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 13. Time spent on image denoising using different algorithms.

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effectiveness of the denoising algorithm was tested. Therefore, in the standard test library
MSRA1000, 1000 natural images are randomly selected and divided them into 20 groups. The
denoised image is compared with the standard image to determine the similarity change. The
specific algorithm application effect is shown in Fig 14.
If the similarity error value in Fig 14 is low, the quality of the image or video is good. From
Fig 14, the similarity error of the Fusion algorithm proposed in this study was relatively low, in
which the lowest similarity error was 0.1 and the average similarity error was 0.89. The average
similarity error values of Hard TA and Soft TA were 2.63 and 1.95. This suggests that the

Fig 14. Similarity error of different methods.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

fusion threshold algorithm performs better in preserving image or video quality. The reason
may be that the fusion threshold algorithm can better maintain the integrity of image details in
the denoising by integrating WT technology and threshold processing strategy. This means
that the fusion algorithm can effectively reduce noise and reduce the loss of image informa-
tion. In view of this, the image denoising technology combining threshold algorithm and
wavelet algorithm shows excellent performance in output denoising image quality, denoising
calculation speed, and algorithm stability. It can better adapt to complex and ever-changing
noise environments. The algorithm has higher universality. Compared to traditional image
denoising algorithms, the fusion algorithm has stronger comprehensive denoising perfor-
mance and higher stability. It can better meet the current performance requirements of image
denoising technology.
Finally, a random image is selected from the Lena image data set. The pink noise of σ = 20
is added to the original image. In addition, the image denoising methods (Affine Non Local
Bayes, ANLB) of mixed affine and non local Bayes algorithms [25] are compared with the con-
structed experimental hybrid algorithm. The obtained image denoising results are shown in
Fig 15.
In Fig 15, the ANLB method produced more false textures in the flat areas of the denoising
results. The edges were slightly distorted, while the hybrid algorithm had advantages in both
aspects. Through subjective and objective analysis, it can be concluded that the hybrid algo-
rithm has a better noise removal effect, which produces clearer images. Then the experimental
methods in references [24, 25] were selected to compare the denoising effects with the con-
structed method, as shown in Fig 16 for details.
As can be seen from Fig 16, compared with the multi-level image denoising method based
on wavelet transform in reference [24] and the image denoising method based on Caputo dif-
fusion equation in reference [25], the image denoising technology based on fusion threshold
algorithm and wavelet algorithm designed in this study is better in the output denoising pic-
ture quality. The reason may be that this method tries to keep the integrity of image details
while removing Gaussian noise, and can achieve remarkable results in reducing mean square
error and improving peak signal-to-noise ratio.

Fig 15. Comparison of image denoising results between two algorithms.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

Fig 16. Comparison of denoising effects of different algorithms.

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5. Conclusion
The purpose of image denoising is to better eliminate the noise information in the image while
retaining the true signal of the image. To solve this problem, the research proposes an image
denoising method based on improved threshold function and WT. The experiment combines
the WT and finite ridgelet transform to jointly improve the output noise reduction perfor-
mance of the image. An improved threshold function is used to reconstruct the image to
improve the image quality. From the data results, after adding Gaussian noise with a variance
of 0.01 to the image, the PSNR of the image obtained by the fusion algorithm increased by
more than 1.10%. The MSE was significantly reduced by 0.06%. In terms of denoising running
time, the fusion algorithm had the lowest running time, which was only 13ms. Compared to
the Hard TA and Soft TA, it saved 9ms and 3ms respectively. In the comparison of SSIM val-
ues of different algorithms, the SSIM value of the fusion algorithm was stable at around 98.3%
during the entire process. In practical applications, the image obtained through the hybrid
algorithm is clearer and has less edge distortion texture. The above results show that the image
texture obtained after denoising by the fusion algorithm is displayed more clearly and the
denoising effect is better. However, it should be noted that the data set involved in the experi-
ment does not cover all possible noise types. Future work will be extended to more types of
noise, verifying the denoising efficiency and effectiveness of the fusion algorithm on a wider
data set.

Supporting information
S1 Dataset.
(DOC)

Author Contributions
Data curation: Bingbing Li, Hongwei Mo.
Software: Yao Cong.
Writing – original draft: Bingbing Li.

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PLOS ONE Improved Threshold Function and Wavelet Transform

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