20.5.5 Spatial Filters

Several spatial filtering routines are available in Origin. Included here are:

  • Average
  • Clear
  • Edge
  • Gaussian
  • Median
  • Noise
  • Sharpen
  • Unsharp Mask
  • User Filter (OriginPro Only)


Gaussian filter, average filter and median filter can be used for noise removal. Gaussian filtering is most suitable for removing Gaussian noise. For salt-and-pepper noise, median filter works best. Average filter is just a simple case for Gaussian filtering. These filters can also be used for blurring the images.

Sharpening and Unsharp Mask enhances the edges and details of the image. In addition to improving the visual quality of the image, these operations can also facilitate some later processing of the images, such as edge detection, if used properly.

Edge detection is an approach to find the boundaries of the objects. It is a fundamental step for image segmentation, object measurement, object classification, and computer vision.

Spatial filters are designed to highlight or suppress features in an image based on spatial frequency, such as suppressing 'noise' or highlighting specific image characteristics.

Spatial filters example.png

This section covers the following topics: