Iterative cross bilateral filter for image binarization

We propose a method of image binarization for preserving local contrasts between neighboring bright and dark regions. We propagate the information of the sign and intensity of the gradient of principal edges to the whole image by using an iterative cross bilateral filter (ICBF), and then binarize it with a simple thresholding technique. Experimental results on synthetic and real images showed that the proposed binarization method effectively preserved local contrasts.