Optimization Methods for Inverse Problems

Optimization plays an important role in solving many inverse problems. Indeed, the task of inversion often either involves or is fully cast as a solution of an optimization problem. In this light, the mere non-linear, non-convex, and large-scale nature of many of these inversions gives rise to some very challenging optimization problems. The inverse problem community has long been developing various techniques for solving such optimization tasks. However, other, seemingly disjoint communities, such as that of machine learning, have developed, almost in parallel, interesting alternative methods which might have stayed under the radar of the inverse problem community. In this survey, we aim to change that. In doing so, we first discuss current state-of-the-art optimization methods widely used in inverse problems. We then survey recent related advances in addressing similar challenges in problems faced by the machine learning community, and discuss their potential advantages for solving inverse problems. By highlighting the similarities among the optimization challenges faced by the inverse problem and the machine learning communities, we hope that this survey can serve as a bridge in bringing together these two communities and encourage cross fertilization of ideas.Comment: 13 page

Optimization with Sparsity-Inducing Penalties

Sparse estimation methods are aimed at using or obtaining parsimonious representations of data or models. They were first dedicated to linear variable selection but numerous extensions have now emerged such as structured sparsity or kernel selection. It turns out that many of the related estimation problems can be cast as convex optimization problems by regularizing the empirical risk with appropriate non-smooth norms. The goal of this paper is to present from a general perspective optimization tools and techniques dedicated to such sparsity-inducing penalties. We cover proximal methods, block-coordinate descent, reweighted $\ell_2$-penalized techniques, working-set and homotopy methods, as well as non-convex formulations and extensions, and provide an extensive set of experiments to compare various algorithms from a computational point of view

Compressed Sensing Based Reconstruction Algorithm for X-ray Dose Reduction in Synchrotron Source Micro Computed Tomography

Synchrotron computed tomography requires a large number of angular projections to reconstruct tomographic images with high resolution for detailed and accurate diagnosis. However, this exposes the specimen to a large amount of x-ray radiation. Furthermore, this increases scan time and, consequently, the likelihood of involuntary specimen movements. One approach for decreasing the total scan time and radiation dose is to reduce the number of projection views needed to reconstruct the images. However, the aliasing artifacts appearing in the image due to the reduced number of projection data, visibly degrade the image quality. According to the compressed sensing theory, a signal can be accurately reconstructed from highly undersampled data by solving an optimization problem, provided that the signal can be sparsely represented in a predefined transform domain. Therefore, this thesis is mainly concerned with designing compressed sensing-based reconstruction algorithms to suppress aliasing artifacts while preserving spatial resolution in the resulting reconstructed image. First, the reduced-view synchrotron computed tomography reconstruction is formulated as a total variation regularized compressed sensing problem. The Douglas-Rachford Splitting and the randomized Kaczmarz methods are utilized to solve the optimization problem of the compressed sensing formulation. In contrast with the first part, where consistent simulated projection data are generated for image reconstruction, the reduced-view inconsistent real ex-vivo synchrotron absorption contrast micro computed tomography bone data are used in the second part. A gradient regularized compressed sensing problem is formulated, and the Douglas-Rachford Splitting and the preconditioned conjugate gradient methods are utilized to solve the optimization problem of the compressed sensing formulation. The wavelet image denoising algorithm is used as the post-processing algorithm to attenuate the unwanted staircase artifact generated by the reconstruction algorithm. Finally, a noisy and highly reduced-view inconsistent real in-vivo synchrotron phase-contrast computed tomography bone data are used for image reconstruction. A combination of prior image constrained compressed sensing framework, and the wavelet regularization is formulated, and the Douglas-Rachford Splitting and the preconditioned conjugate gradient methods are utilized to solve the optimization problem of the compressed sensing formulation. The prior image constrained compressed sensing framework takes advantage of the prior image to promote the sparsity of the target image. It may lead to an unwanted staircase artifact when applied to noisy and texture images, so the wavelet regularization is used to attenuate the unwanted staircase artifact generated by the prior image constrained compressed sensing reconstruction algorithm. The visual and quantitative performance assessments with the reduced-view simulated and real computed tomography data from canine prostate tissue, rat forelimb, and femoral cortical bone samples, show that the proposed algorithms have fewer artifacts and reconstruction errors than other conventional reconstruction algorithms at the same x-ray dose

Fusion of Head and Full-Body Detectors for Multi-Object Tracking

In order to track all persons in a scene, the tracking-by-detection paradigm has proven to be a very effective approach. Yet, relying solely on a single detector is also a major limitation, as useful image information might be ignored. Consequently, this work demonstrates how to fuse two detectors into a tracking system. To obtain the trajectories, we propose to formulate tracking as a weighted graph labeling problem, resulting in a binary quadratic program. As such problems are NP-hard, the solution can only be approximated. Based on the Frank-Wolfe algorithm, we present a new solver that is crucial to handle such difficult problems. Evaluation on pedestrian tracking is provided for multiple scenarios, showing superior results over single detector tracking and standard QP-solvers. Finally, our tracker ranks 2nd on the MOT16 benchmark and 1st on the new MOT17 benchmark, outperforming over 90 trackers.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; Winner of the MOT17 challenge; CVPRW 201

Proceedings of the second "international Traveling Workshop on Interactions between Sparse models and Technology" (iTWIST'14)

The implicit objective of the biennial "international - Traveling Workshop on Interactions between Sparse models and Technology" (iTWIST) is to foster collaboration between international scientific teams by disseminating ideas through both specific oral/poster presentations and free discussions. For its second edition, the iTWIST workshop took place in the medieval and picturesque town of Namur in Belgium, from Wednesday August 27th till Friday August 29th, 2014. The workshop was conveniently located in "The Arsenal" building within walking distance of both hotels and town center. iTWIST'14 has gathered about 70 international participants and has featured 9 invited talks, 10 oral presentations, and 14 posters on the following themes, all related to the theory, application and generalization of the "sparsity paradigm": Sparsity-driven data sensing and processing; Union of low dimensional subspaces; Beyond linear and convex inverse problem; Matrix/manifold/graph sensing/processing; Blind inverse problems and dictionary learning; Sparsity and computational neuroscience; Information theory, geometry and randomness; Complexity/accuracy tradeoffs in numerical methods; Sparsity? What's next?; Sparse machine learning and inference.Comment: 69 pages, 24 extended abstracts, iTWIST'14 website: http://sites.google.com/site/itwist1