A Novel Medical Image Fusion Method Using Multi-Channel Pulse Coupled Neural Networks

A novel method for multi-channel pulse coupled neural networks (PCNN) is proposed in order to overcome the difficulty in lack of M-PCNN and question of many images fusion and instability of double-channel PCNN due to the different fusion sequence. In this study a novel multi-channel pulse coupled neural networks is analyzed in detail from odd numbers channel PCNN and even numbers channel PCNN. Through a combination of odd numbers channel PCNN and even numbers channel PCNN this study can realize image fusion by M-PCNN. A novel calculation method about linking-weight based on gray energy is proposed in order to overcome the lack of linking-weight in M-PCNN. To effectively avoid the Laplasse operator and calculation repeatedly, this study can realize not only many images fusion, but also better time efficiency and less information loss. Experimental results show that the presented method outperforms existing methods, in both fusion effect and different performance evaluation criteria.