4,218 research outputs found
Learning Deep CNN Denoiser Prior for Image Restoration
Model-based optimization methods and discriminative learning methods have
been the two dominant strategies for solving various inverse problems in
low-level vision. Typically, those two kinds of methods have their respective
merits and drawbacks, e.g., model-based optimization methods are flexible for
handling different inverse problems but are usually time-consuming with
sophisticated priors for the purpose of good performance; in the meanwhile,
discriminative learning methods have fast testing speed but their application
range is greatly restricted by the specialized task. Recent works have revealed
that, with the aid of variable splitting techniques, denoiser prior can be
plugged in as a modular part of model-based optimization methods to solve other
inverse problems (e.g., deblurring). Such an integration induces considerable
advantage when the denoiser is obtained via discriminative learning. However,
the study of integration with fast discriminative denoiser prior is still
lacking. To this end, this paper aims to train a set of fast and effective CNN
(convolutional neural network) denoisers and integrate them into model-based
optimization method to solve other inverse problems. Experimental results
demonstrate that the learned set of denoisers not only achieve promising
Gaussian denoising results but also can be used as prior to deliver good
performance for various low-level vision applications.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 2017. Code: https://github.com/cszn/ircn
Improving Image Restoration with Soft-Rounding
Several important classes of images such as text, barcode and pattern images
have the property that pixels can only take a distinct subset of values. This
knowledge can benefit the restoration of such images, but it has not been
widely considered in current restoration methods. In this work, we describe an
effective and efficient approach to incorporate the knowledge of distinct pixel
values of the pristine images into the general regularized least squares
restoration framework. We introduce a new regularizer that attains zero at the
designated pixel values and becomes a quadratic penalty function in the
intervals between them. When incorporated into the regularized least squares
restoration framework, this regularizer leads to a simple and efficient step
that resembles and extends the rounding operation, which we term as
soft-rounding. We apply the soft-rounding enhanced solution to the restoration
of binary text/barcode images and pattern images with multiple distinct pixel
values. Experimental results show that soft-rounding enhanced restoration
methods achieve significant improvement in both visual quality and quantitative
measures (PSNR and SSIM). Furthermore, we show that this regularizer can also
benefit the restoration of general natural images.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Regularized Newton Methods for X-ray Phase Contrast and General Imaging Problems
Like many other advanced imaging methods, x-ray phase contrast imaging and
tomography require mathematical inversion of the observed data to obtain
real-space information. While an accurate forward model describing the
generally nonlinear image formation from a given object to the observations is
often available, explicit inversion formulas are typically not known. Moreover,
the measured data might be insufficient for stable image reconstruction, in
which case it has to be complemented by suitable a priori information. In this
work, regularized Newton methods are presented as a general framework for the
solution of such ill-posed nonlinear imaging problems. For a proof of
principle, the approach is applied to x-ray phase contrast imaging in the
near-field propagation regime. Simultaneous recovery of the phase- and
amplitude from a single near-field diffraction pattern without homogeneity
constraints is demonstrated for the first time. The presented methods further
permit all-at-once phase contrast tomography, i.e. simultaneous phase retrieval
and tomographic inversion. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by
three-dimensional imaging of a colloidal crystal at 95 nm isotropic resolution.Comment: (C)2016 Optical Society of America. One print or electronic copy may
be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution,
duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial
purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibite
Self-Paced Learning: an Implicit Regularization Perspective
Self-paced learning (SPL) mimics the cognitive mechanism of humans and
animals that gradually learns from easy to hard samples. One key issue in SPL
is to obtain better weighting strategy that is determined by minimizer
function. Existing methods usually pursue this by artificially designing the
explicit form of SPL regularizer. In this paper, we focus on the minimizer
function, and study a group of new regularizer, named self-paced implicit
regularizer that is deduced from robust loss function. Based on the convex
conjugacy theory, the minimizer function for self-paced implicit regularizer
can be directly learned from the latent loss function, while the analytic form
of the regularizer can be even known. A general framework (named SPL-IR) for
SPL is developed accordingly. We demonstrate that the learning procedure of
SPL-IR is associated with latent robust loss functions, thus can provide some
theoretical inspirations for its working mechanism. We further analyze the
relation between SPL-IR and half-quadratic optimization. Finally, we implement
SPL-IR to both supervised and unsupervised tasks, and experimental results
corroborate our ideas and demonstrate the correctness and effectiveness of
implicit regularizers.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
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