Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!wang!dbushong
From: dbushong@wang.com (Dave Bushong)
Subject: Re: Need definition of despeckling
Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA, USA
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 00:42:03 GMT
Message-ID: <D29oM4.E8r@wang.com>
References: <3eo7fn$kvv@news.halcyon.com>
Lines: 30

mls@chinook.halcyon.com (Michael L. Stults) writes:

>Hi,,
>  
>     I have recently been involved with a conflict concerning the 
>definition of despeckling.  I would apprectiate any definitions or 
>references for this process.

Generically, it means the removal of dots that are of 1- or 2-pixel
size.  Specks are caused by scanning a document that has areas that
aren't full black or white, so they show up as specks of white (you
don't see them) or black (you see them), since the particular scanner
has to call it "1" or "0".

There are at least two reasons why despeckling is important.  OCR
processing is bound to be faster, and image storage is more efficient,
if the image is despeckled.  If you are looking at text pages, then
you should probably despeckle, if you have the processing time
available in which to do it.


(By the way, the "1- or 2-pixel size" comment was a generalization; it
only needs to be decidedly smaller than a period or comma, regardless
of resolution.)


Dave
-- 
Dave Bushong
Wang Labs
