3.4.2.2 Bilateral Filter

The bilateral filter is an enhanced form of smooth filter that retains the high-frequency structure in the phase map by using the amplitude map as a reference. This filter assumes neighboring pixels with similar amplitudes as the center pixel have similar depth; therefore, the center pixel’s filtered value is an average of its neighboring pixels weighed amplitudes similarity. The bilateral filter has sigma as a property that defines the degree of smoothing. Generally the bilateral filter is applied to the phase map.

Figure 20. Bilateral Filter Property