FPGA Implementation and Simulation of Guided Image Filtering

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology has become a viable target for the implementation of real time algorithms suitable to video image processing applications. The exclusive architecture of the FPGA has allowed the technology to be used in many applications encompassing all aspects of video image processing. In this paper, we propose a novel type of explicit image filterguided filter. Resulting from a local linear model, the guided filter produces the filtering amount fashioned by considering the content of a guidance image, which can be the input image itself. The guided filter has a fast and non-approximate linear-time algorithm, whose computational intricacy is independent of the filtering kernel size. The guided filter is together effective and efficient in a great variety of computer vision and computer graphics applications including noise reduction, detail smoothing/enhancement, image matting/feathering. In this work, an implementation guided image filtering using a FPGA Xilinx Spartan 3E, with educational purposes, is obtainable. The system is connected to a USB port of a personal computer, in that way it forms a authoritative and low-cost intend station.The FPGA-based system is accessed through a Matlab graphical user interface, which handles the communication arrangement. A similarity between results obtained from MATLAB simulations and the described FPGA-based implementation is obtained.