Comparative Analysis of Edge Detection Operators Using a Threshold Estimation Approach on Medical Noisy Images with Different Complexities

Abstract

The manuscript conducts a comparative analysis to assess the impact of noise on medical images using a proposed threshold value estimation approach. It applies an innovative method for edge detection on images of varying complexity, considering different noise types and concentrations of noise. Five edges are evaluated on images with low, medium, and high detail levels. This study focuses on medical images from three distinct datasets: retinal images, brain tumor segmentation, and lung segmentation from CT scans. The importance of noise analysis is heightened in medical imaging, as noise can significantly obscure the critical features and potentially lead to misdiagnoses. Images are categorized based on the complexity, providing a multidimensional view of noise’s effect on edge detection. The algorithm utilized the grid search (GS) method and random search with nine values (RS9). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, especially when using the Canny operator, across diverse noise types and intensities. Laplace operators are most affected by noise, yet significant improvements are observed with the new approach, particularly when using the grid search method. The obtained results are compared with the most popular techniques for edge detection using deep learning like AlexNet, ResNet, VGGNet, MobileNetv2, and Inceptionv3. The paper presents the results via graphs and edge images, along with a detailed analysis of each operator’s performance with noisy images using the proposed approach.