EDGE-PRESERVING RESTORATION OF LOW-LIGHT-LEVEL MICROSCOPE IMAGES

The low light intensity of fluorescence has always been a serious limi tation to its routine use in biology and biomedicine. Since average us ers in digital microscopy usually possess a commercial TV camera, whic h is not always a sophisticated or very expensive camera, procedures f or software image restoration can represent an alternative and valid s olution for studying 'in vivo' biological events. In this paper we pre sent a novel algorithm for edge-preserving image restoration, and show the results of its application on a fluorescence test image. The qual ity of the restored image is comparable to the quality of the image ac quired by a high quality camera.