Self-Similar Vector Fields

We propose statistically self-similar and rotation-invariant models for vector fields, study some of the more significant properties of these models, and suggest algorithms and methods for reconstructing vector fields from numerical observations, using the same notions of self-similarity and invariance that give rise to our stochastic models. We illustrate the efficacy of the proposed schemes by applying them to the problems of denoising synthetic flow phantoms and enhancing flow-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of blood flow in the aorta. In constructing our models and devising our applied schemes and algorithms, we rely on two fundamental notions. The first of these, referred to as "innovation modelling" in the thesis, is the principle —applicable both analytically and synthetically— of reducing complex phenomena to combinations of simple independent components or "innovations". The second fundamental idea is that of "invariance", which indicates that in the absence of any distinguishing factor, two equally valid models or solutions should be given equal consideration

Fractional Laplacian Pyramids

We provide an extension of the L2-spline pyramid (Unser et al., 1993) using polyharmonic splines. We analytically prove that the corresponding error pyramid behaves exactly as a multi-scale Laplace operator. We use the multiresolution properties of polyharmonic splines to derive an efficient, non-separable filterbank implementation. Finally, we illustrate the potentials of our pyramid by performing an estimation of the parameters of multivariate fractal processes