Image and video processing using multi-scale amplitude-modulation frequency-modulation (“AM-FM”) demodulation where a multi-scale filterbank with bandpass filters that correspond to each scale are used to calculate estimates for instantaneous amplitude, instantaneous phase, and instantaneous frequency. The image and video are reconstructed using the instantaneous amplitude and instantaneous frequency estimates and variable-spacing local linear phase and multi-scale least square reconstruction techniques. AM-FM demodulation is applicable in imaging modalities such as electron microscopy, spectral and hyperspectral devices, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”), positron emission tomography (“PET”), histology, color and monochrome images, molecular imaging, radiographs (“X-rays”), computer tomography (“CT”), and others. Specific applications include fingerprint identification, detection and diagnosis of retinal disease, malignant cancer tumors, cardiac image segmentation, atherosclerosis characterization, brain function, histopathology specimen classification, characterization of anatomical structure such as carotid artery walls and plaques or cardiac motion and as the basis for computer-aided diagnosis to name a few.