DRFENet: An Improved Deep Learning Neural Network via Dilated Skip Convolution for Image Denoising Application

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Deep learning technology dominates current research in image denoising. However, denoising performance is limited by target noise feature loss from information propagation in association with the depth of the network. This paper proposes a Dense Residual Feature Extraction Network (DRFENet) combined with a Dense Enhancement Block (DEB), a Residual Dilated Block (RDB), a Feature Enhancement Block (FEB), and a Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Block (SIRB). The DEB uses our proposed interval transmission strategy to enhance the extraction of noise features in the initial stage of the network. The RDB module uses a combination strategy of concatenated dilated convolution and a skip connection, and the local features are amplified through different perceptual dimensions. The FEB enhances local feature information. The SIRB uses an attention block to learn the noise distribution while using residual learning (RL) technology to reconstruct a denoised image. The combination strategy in DRFENet makes the neural network deeper to obtain higher fine-grained image information. We respectively examined the performance of DRFENet in gray image denoising on datasets BSD68 and SET12 and color image denoising on datasets McMaster, Kodak24, and CBSD68. The experimental results showed that the denoising accuracy of DRFENet is better than most existing image-denoising methods under PSNR and SSIM evaluation indicators.