Fast non-uniform filtering with Symmetric Weighted Integral Images

Non-uniform filters are frequently used in many image processing applications to describe regions or to detect specific features. However, non-uniform filtering is a computationally complex task. This paper presents a method to perform fast non-uniform filtering using a reduced number of memory accesses. The idea is based on integral images which are commonly used for box or Haar wavelet filtering. The disadvantage of those filters for several applications is their uniform shape. We describe a method to build Symmetric Weighted Integral Images that are tailored for a variety of kernels and the process to perform fast filtering with them. We show a relevant speedup when compared to Kernel Integral Images and large when compared to conventional non-uniform filtering by reducing the computational complexity.