Gabor Filter

In image processing, a Gabor filter, named after Dennis Gabor, is a linear filter used for edge detection. Frequency and orientation representations of Gabor filters are similar to those of the human visual system, and they have been found to be particularly appropriate for texture representation and discrimination. In the spatial domain, a 2D Gabor filter is a Gaussian kernel function modulated by a sinusoidal plane wave. The Gabor filters are self-similar: all filters can be generated from one mother wavelet by dilation and rotation.

J. G. Daugman discovered that simple cells in the visual cortex of mammalian brains can be modeled by Gabor functions. Thus, image analysis by the Gabor functions is similar to perception in the human visual system.