A Fast Alternating Minimization Algorithm for Total Variation Deblurring Without Boundary Artifacts

Recently, a fast alternating minimization algorithm for total variation image deblurring (FTVd) has been presented by Wang, Yang, Yin, and Zhang [{\em SIAM J. Imaging Sci.}, 1 (2008), pp. 248--272]. The method in a nutshell consists of a discrete Fourier transform-based alternating minimization algorithm with periodic boundary conditions and in which two fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) are required per iteration. In this paper, we propose an alternating minimization algorithm for the continuous version of the total variation image deblurring problem. We establish convergence of the proposed continuous alternating minimization algorithm. The continuous setting is very useful to have a unifying representation of the algorithm, independently of the discrete approximation of the deconvolution problem, in particular concerning the strategies for dealing with boundary artifacts. Indeed, an accurate restoration of blurred and noisy images requires a proper treatment of the boundary. A discrete version of our continuous alternating minimization algorithm is obtained following two different strategies: the imposition of appropriate boundary conditions and the enlargement of the domain. The first one is computationally useful in the case of a symmetric blur, while the second one can be efficiently applied for a nonsymmetric blur. Numerical tests show that our algorithm generates higher quality images in comparable running times with respect to the Fast Total Variation deconvolution algorithm

Diffusion equations and inverse problems regularization.

The present thesis can be split into two dfferent parts: The first part mainly deals with the porous and fast diffusion equations. Chapter 2 presents these equations in the Euclidean setting highlighting the technical issues that arise when trying to extend results in a Riemannian setting. Chapter 3 is devoted to the construction of exhaustion and cut-o_ functions with controlled gradient and Laplacian, on manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below by a (possibly unbounded) nonpositive function of the distance from a fixed reference point, and without any assumptions on the topology or the injectivity radius. The cut-offs are then applied to the study of the fast and porous media diffusion, of Lq-properties of the gradient and of the selfadjointness of Schrödinger-type operators. The second part is concerned with inverse problems regularization applied to image deblurring. In Chapter 5 new variants of the Tikhonov filter method, called fractional and weighted Tikhonov, are presented alongside their saturation properties and converse results on their convergence rates. New iterated fractional Tikhonov regularization methods are then introduced. In Chapter 6 the modified linearized Bregman algorithm is investigated. It is showed that the standard approach based on the block circulant circulant block preconditioner may provide low quality restored images and different preconditioning strategies are then proposed, which improve the quality of the restoration

FAST PRECONDITIONERS FOR TOTAL VARIATION DEBLURRING WITH ANTIREFLECTIVE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China for Distinguished Young Scholars [2010J06002]; NCET; U. Insubria; MIUR [20083KLJEZ]In recent works several authors have proposed the use of precise boundary conditions (BCs) for blurring models, and they proved that the resulting choice (Neumann or reflective, antireflective) leads to fast algorithms both for deblurring and for detecting the regularization parameters in presence of noise. When considering a symmetric point spread function, the crucial fact is that such BCs are related to fast trigonometric transforms. In this paper we combine the use of precise BCs with the total variation (TV) approach in order to preserve the jumps of the given signal (edges of the given image) as much as possible. We consider a classic fixed point method with a preconditioned Krylov method (usually the conjugate gradient method) for the inner iteration. Based on fast trigonometric transforms, we propose some preconditioning strategies that are suitable for reflective and antireflective BCs. A theoretical analysis motivates the choice of our preconditioners, and an extensive numerical experimentation is reported and critically discussed. Numerical tests show that the TV regularization with antireflective BCs implies not only a reduced analytical error, but also a lower computational cost of the whole restoration procedure over the other BCs

Symmetrization Techniques in Image Deblurring

This paper presents a couple of preconditioning techniques that can be used to enhance the performance of iterative regularization methods applied to image deblurring problems with a variety of point spread functions (PSFs) and boundary conditions. More precisely, we first consider the anti-identity preconditioner, which symmetrizes the coefficient matrix associated to problems with zero boundary conditions, allowing the use of MINRES as a regularization method. When considering more sophisticated boundary conditions and strongly nonsymmetric PSFs, the anti-identity preconditioner improves the performance of GMRES. We then consider both stationary and iteration-dependent regularizing circulant preconditioners that, applied in connection with the anti-identity matrix and both standard and flexible Krylov subspaces, speed up the iterations. A theoretical result about the clustering of the eigenvalues of the preconditioned matrices is proved in a special case. The results of many numerical experiments are reported to show the effectiveness of the new preconditioning techniques, including when considering the deblurring of sparse images

Diffusion equations and inverse problems regularization.

The present thesis can be split into two dfferent parts: The first part mainly deals with the porous and fast diffusion equations. Chapter 2 presents these equations in the Euclidean setting highlighting the technical issues that arise when trying to extend results in a Riemannian setting. Chapter 3 is devoted to the construction of exhaustion and cut-o_ functions with controlled gradient and Laplacian, on manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below by a (possibly unbounded) nonpositive function of the distance from a fixed reference point, and without any assumptions on the topology or the injectivity radius. The cut-offs are then applied to the study of the fast and porous media diffusion, of Lq-properties of the gradient and of the selfadjointness of Schrödinger-type operators. The second part is concerned with inverse problems regularization applied to image deblurring. In Chapter 5 new variants of the Tikhonov filter method, called fractional and weighted Tikhonov, are presented alongside their saturation properties and converse results on their convergence rates. New iterated fractional Tikhonov regularization methods are then introduced. In Chapter 6 the modified linearized Bregman algorithm is investigated. It is showed that the standard approach based on the block circulant circulant block preconditioner may provide low quality restored images and different preconditioning strategies are then proposed, which improve the quality of the restoration

Truncated decompositions and filtering methods with Reflective/Anti-Reflective boundary conditions: a comparison

The paper analyzes and compares some spectral filtering methods as truncated singular/eigen-value decompositions and Tikhonov/Re-blurring regularizations in the case of the recently proposed Reflective [M.K. Ng, R.H. Chan, and W.C. Tang, A fast algorithm for deblurring models with Neumann boundary conditions, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 21 (1999), no. 3, pp.851-866] and Anti-Reflective [S. Serra Capizzano, A note on anti-reflective boundary conditions and fast deblurring models, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 25-3 (2003), pp. 1307-1325] boundary conditions. We give numerical evidence to the fact that spectral decompositions (SDs) provide a good image restoration quality and this is true in particular for the Anti-Reflective SD, despite the loss of orthogonality in the associated transform. The related computational cost is comparable with previously known spectral decompositions, and results substantially lower than the singular value decomposition. The model extension to the cross-channel blurring phenomenon of color images is also considered and the related spectral filtering methods are suitably adapted.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figure

Tikhonov-type iterative regularization methods for ill-posed inverse problems: theoretical aspects and applications

Ill-posed inverse problems arise in many fields of science and engineering. The ill-conditioning and the big dimension make the task of numerically solving this kind of problems very challenging. In this thesis we construct several algorithms for solving ill-posed inverse problems. Starting from the classical Tikhonov regularization method we develop iterative methods that enhance the performances of the originating method. In order to ensure the accuracy of the constructed algorithms we insert a priori knowledge on the exact solution and empower the regularization term. By exploiting the structure of the problem we are also able to achieve fast computation even when the size of the problem becomes very big. We construct algorithms that enforce constraint on the reconstruction, like nonnegativity or flux conservation and exploit enhanced version of the Euclidian norm using a regularization operator and different semi-norms, like the Total Variaton, for the regularization term. For most of the proposed algorithms we provide efficient strategies for the choice of the regularization parameters, which, most of the times, rely on the knowledge of the norm of the noise that corrupts the data. For each method we analyze the theoretical properties in the finite dimensional case or in the more general case of Hilbert spaces. Numerical examples prove the good performances of the algorithms proposed in term of both accuracy and efficiency