4X4 Census Transform

Abstract

This paper proposes a 4X4 Census Transform (4X4CT) to encourage further research in computer vision and visual computing. Unlike the traditional 3X3 CT which uses a nine pixels kernel, the proposed 4X4CT uses a sixteen pixels kernel with four overlapped groups of 3X3 kernel size. In each overlapping group, a reference input pixel profits from its nearest eight pixels to produce an eight bits binary string convertible to a grayscale integer of the 4X4CT's output pixel. Preliminary experiments demonstrated more image textural crispness and contrast than the CT as well as alternativeness to enable meaningful solutions to be achieved.