Reference-Free Quality Assessment of Sonar Images via Contour Degradation Measurement

Feature Pyramid U-Net with Attention for Semantic Segmentation of Forward-Looking Sonar Images

Forward-looking sonar is a technique widely used for underwater detection. However, most sonar images have underwater noise and low resolution due to their acoustic properties. In recent years, the semantic segmentation model U-Net has shown excellent segmentation performance, and it has great potential in forward-looking sonar image segmentation. However, forward-looking sonar images are affected by noise, which prevents the existing U-Net model from segmenting small objects effectively. Therefore, this study presents a forward-looking sonar semantic segmentation model called Feature Pyramid U-Net with Attention (FPUA). This model uses residual blocks to improve the training depth of the network. To improve the segmentation accuracy of the network for small objects, a feature pyramid module combined with an attention structure is introduced. This improves the model's ability to learn deep semantic and shallow detail information. First, the proposed model is compared against other deep learning models and on two datasets, of which one was collected in a tank environment and the other was collected in a real marine environment. To further test the validity of the model, a real forward-looking sonar system was devised and employed in the lake trials. The results show that the proposed model performs better than the other models for small-object and few-sample classes and that it is competitive in semantic segmentation of forward-looking sonar images.

A Quantum Weak Signal Detection Method for Strengthening Target Signal Features under Strong White Gaussian Noise

As the noise power increases, the target signal features become less obvious, which leads to the failure of weak signal detection methods. To address this problem, a quantum weak signal detection method, Local Semi-Classical Signal Analysis-Singular Value Decomposition (LSCSA-SVD), for strengthening target signal features under strong white Gaussian noise is proposed. Firstly, the time domain weak signal is quantized by the Schrodinger operator and its discrete spectrum formula. Then, in the quantum domain, the later eigenvalues are used to reconstruct the time domain signal, which can protect and enhance the target signal features. Finally, the difference between signal and noise in the singular value vector is used to further extract the reconstruction signal features. In simulation, the LSCSA-SVD can accurately extract target signals from white Gaussian noise signals with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of −30 dB, which is better than the comparison methods. In the experiment, the weak acceleration sensor signal and the weak signal of the test circuit are successfully extracted. The results show that the LSCSA-SVD can suppress strong noise and improve the SNR.

Joint Early Stopping Criterions for Protograph LDPC Codes-Based JSCC System in Images Transmission

In this paper, a joint early stopping criterion based on cross entropy (CE), named joint CE criterion, is presented for double-protograph low-density parity-check (DP-LDPC) codes-based joint source-channel coding (JSCC) systems in images transmission to reduce the decoding complexity and decrease the decoding delay. The proposed early stopping criterion adopts the CE from the output likelihood ratios (LLRs) of the joint decoder. Moreover, a special phenomenon named asymmetry oscillation-like convergence (AOLC) in the changing process of CE is uncovered in the source decoder and channel decoder of this system meanwhile, and the proposed joint CE criterion can reduce the impact from the AOLC phenomenon. Comparing to the counterparts, the results show that the joint CE criterion can perform well in the decoding complexity and decoding latency in the low-moderate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region and achieve performance improvement in the high SNR region with appropriate parameters, which also demonstrates that this system with joint CE is a low-latency and low-power system.

Speckle Noise Reduction in Sonar Image Based on Adaptive Redundant Dictionary

As acoustic waves are affected by the channel characteristics, such as scattering and reverberation when propagating in water, sonar images often exhibit speckle noise which will cause visual quality of the image to decrease. Therefore, denoising is a crucial preprocessing technique in sonar image applications. However, speckle noise is mainly caused by the sediment echo signals which are related to the background of seafloor sediment and can be obtained by prior modeling. Although deep learning-based denoising algorithms represent a research hotspot now, they are not suitable for such applications due to the high calculation amount and the large requirement of original images considering that sonar is carried by Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for collecting sonar images and performing calculation. In contrast, dictionary learning-based denoising method is more suitable and easier to be modeled. Compared with deep learning, it can greatly reduce the calculation amount and is more easily integrated into AUV systems. In addition, dictionary learning method based on image sparse representation can effectively achieve image denoising similarly. In order to solve the above problems, we propose a new adaptive dictionary learning method based on multi-resolution characteristics, which combines K-SVD dictionary learning with wavelet transform. Our method has the characteristics of dictionary learning and inherits the features of wavelet analysis as well. Compared with several classical methods, the proposed method is better at speckle noise reduction and edge detail preservation. At the same time, the calculation time is greatly reduced and the efficiency is significantly improved.