Ripplet: A new transform for image processing

Efficient representation of images usually leads to improvements in storage efficiency, computational complexity and performance of image processing algorithms. Efficient representation of images can be achieved by transforms. However, conventional transforms such as Fourier transform and wavelet transform suffer from discontinuities such as edges in images. To address this problem, we propose a new transform called ripplet transform. The ripplet transform is a higher dimensional generalization of the curvelet transform, designed to represent images or two-dimensional signals at different scales and different directions. Specifically, the ripplet transform allows arbitrary support c and degree d while the curvelet transform is just a special case of the ripplet transform (Type I) with c = 1 and d = 2. Our experimental results demonstrate that the ripplet transform can provide efficient representation of edges in images. The ripplet transform holds great potential for image processing such as image restoration, image denoising and image compression.