Multi-focus image fusion based on robust principal component analysis and pulse-coupled neural network

Abstract Multi-focus image fusion combines multiple source images with different focus points into one image, so that the resulting image appears all in-focus. In order to improve the accuracy of focused region detection and fusion quality, a novel multi-focus image fusion scheme based on robust principal component analysis (RPCA) and pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN) is proposed. In this method, registered source images are decomposed into principal component matrices and sparse matrices with RPCA decomposition. The local sparse features computed from the sparse matrix construct a composite feature space to represent the important information from the source images, which become inputs to PCNN to motivate the PCNN neurons. The focused regions of the source images are detected by the firing maps of PCNN and are integrated to construct the final, fused image. Experimental results demonstrate that the superiority of the proposed scheme over existing methods and highlight the expediency and suitability of the proposed method.