Multi-focus image fusion algorithm based on shearlets

Shearlets not only possess all properties that other transforms have, but also are equipped with a rich mathematical structure similar to wavelets, which are associated to a multi-resolution analysis. Recently, shearlets have been used in image denoising, sparse image representation, and edge detection. However, its application in image fusion is still under study. In this letter, we study the feasibility of image fusion using shearlets. Fusion rules of larger high-frequency coefficients based on regional energy, regional variance, and absolute value are proposed because shearlet transform can catch detailed information in any scale and any direction. The fusion accuracy is also further improved by a region consistency check. Several different experiments are adopted to prove that fusion results based on shearlet transform can acquire better fusion quality than any other method.