Nonlinear thresholding of multiresolution decompositions adapted to the presence of discontinuities

International audienceA new nonlinear representation of multiresolution decompositions and new thresholding adapted to the presence of discontinuities are presented and analyzed. They are based on a nonlinear modification of the multiresolution details coming from an initial (linear or nonlinear) scheme and on a data dependent thresholding. Stability results are derived. Numerical advantages are demonstrated on various numerical experiments

ENO-wavelet transforms for piecewise smooth functions

We have designed an adaptive essentially nonoscillatory (ENO)-wavelet transform for approximating discontinuous functions without oscillations near the discontinuities. Our approach is to apply the main idea from ENO schemes for numerical shock capturing to standard wavelet transforms. The crucial point is that the wavelet coefficients are computed without differencing function values across jumps. However, we accomplish this in a different way than in the standard ENO schemes. Whereas in the standard ENO schemes the stencils are adaptively chosen, in the ENO-wavelet transforms we adaptively change the function and use the same uniform stencils. The ENO-wavelet transform retains the essential properties and advantages of standard wavelet transforms such as concentrating the energy to the low frequencies, obtaining maximum accuracy, maintained up to the discontinuities, and having a multiresolution framework and fast algorithms, all without any edge artifacts. We have obtained a rigorous approximation error bound which shows that the error in the ENO-wavelet approximation depends only on the size of the derivative of the function away from the discontinuities. We will show some numerical examples to illustrate this error estimate

Tomographic reconstruction with non-linear diagonal estimators

In tomographic reconstruction, the inversion of the Radon transform in the presence of noise is numerically unstable. Reconstruction estimators are studied where the regularization is performed by a thresholding in a wavelet or wavelet packet decomposition. These estimators are efficient and their optimality can be established when the decomposition provides a near-diagonalization of the inverse Radon transform operator and a compact representation of the object to be recovered. Several new estimators are investigated in different decomposition. First numerical results already exhibit a strong metrical and perceptual improvement over current reconstruction methods. These estimators are implemented with fast non-iterative algorithms, and are expected to outperform Filtered Back-Projection and iterative procedures for PET, SPECT and X-ray CT devices

Recovering edges in ill-posed inverse problems: optimality of curvelet frames

We consider a model problem of recovering a function $f(x_1,x_2)$ from noisy Radon data. The function $f$ to be recovered is assumed smooth apart from a discontinuity along a $C^2$ curve, that is, an edge. We use the continuum white-noise model, with noise level $\varepsilon$. Traditional linear methods for solving such inverse problems behave poorly in the presence of edges. Qualitatively, the reconstructions are blurred near the edges; quantitatively, they give in our model mean squared errors (MSEs) that tend to zero with noise level $\varepsilon$ only as $O(\varepsilon^{1/2})$ as $\varepsilon\to 0$. A recent innovation--nonlinear shrinkage in the wavelet domain--visually improves edge sharpness and improves MSE convergence to $O(\varepsilon^{2/3})$. However, as we show here, this rate is not optimal. In fact, essentially optimal performance is obtained by deploying the recently-introduced tight frames of curvelets in this setting. Curvelets are smooth, highly anisotropic elements ideally suited for detecting and synthesizing curved edges. To deploy them in the Radon setting, we construct a curvelet-based biorthogonal decomposition of the Radon operator and build "curvelet shrinkage" estimators based on thresholding of the noisy curvelet coefficients. In effect, the estimator detects edges at certain locations and orientations in the Radon domain and automatically synthesizes edges at corresponding locations and directions in the original domain. We prove that the curvelet shrinkage can be tuned so that the estimator will attain, within logarithmic factors, the MSE $O(\varepsilon^{4/5})$ as noise level $\varepsilon\to 0$. This rate of convergence holds uniformly over a class of functions which are $C^2$ except for discontinuities along $C^2$ curves, and (except for log terms) is the minimax rate for that class. Our approach is an instance of a general strategy which should apply in other inverse problems; we sketch a deconvolution example

Variational image restoration by means of wavelets: Simultaneous decomposition, deblurring, and denoising

AbstractInspired by papers of Vese–Osher [Modeling textures with total variation minimization and oscillating patterns in image processing, Technical Report 02-19, 2002] and Osher–Solé–Vese [Image decomposition and restoration using total variation minimization and the H−1 norm, Technical Report 02-57, 2002] we present a wavelet-based treatment of variational problems arising in the field of image processing. In particular, we follow their approach and discuss a special class of variational functionals that induce a decomposition of images into oscillating and cartoon components and possibly an appropriate ‘noise’ component. In the setting of [Modeling textures with total variation minimization and oscillating patterns in image processing, Technical Report 02-19, 2002] and [Image decomposition and restoration using total variation minimization and the H−1 norm, Technical Report 02-57, 2002], the cartoon component of an image is modeled by a BV function; the corresponding incorporation of BV penalty terms in the variational functional leads to PDE schemes that are numerically intensive. By replacing the BV penalty term by a B11(L1) term (which amounts to a slightly stronger constraint on the minimizer), and writing the problem in a wavelet framework, we obtain elegant and numerically efficient schemes with results very similar to those obtained in [Modeling textures with total variation minimization and oscillating patterns in image processing, Technical Report 02-19, 2002] and [Image decomposition and restoration using total variation minimization and the H−1 norm, Technical Report 02-57, 2002]. This approach allows us, moreover, to incorporate general bounded linear blur operators into the problem so that the minimization leads to a simultaneous decomposition, deblurring and denoising

A Panorama on Multiscale Geometric Representations, Intertwining Spatial, Directional and Frequency Selectivity

The richness of natural images makes the quest for optimal representations in image processing and computer vision challenging. The latter observation has not prevented the design of image representations, which trade off between efficiency and complexity, while achieving accurate rendering of smooth regions as well as reproducing faithful contours and textures. The most recent ones, proposed in the past decade, share an hybrid heritage highlighting the multiscale and oriented nature of edges and patterns in images. This paper presents a panorama of the aforementioned literature on decompositions in multiscale, multi-orientation bases or dictionaries. They typically exhibit redundancy to improve sparsity in the transformed domain and sometimes its invariance with respect to simple geometric deformations (translation, rotation). Oriented multiscale dictionaries extend traditional wavelet processing and may offer rotation invariance. Highly redundant dictionaries require specific algorithms to simplify the search for an efficient (sparse) representation. We also discuss the extension of multiscale geometric decompositions to non-Euclidean domains such as the sphere or arbitrary meshed surfaces. The etymology of panorama suggests an overview, based on a choice of partially overlapping "pictures". We hope that this paper will contribute to the appreciation and apprehension of a stream of current research directions in image understanding.Comment: 65 pages, 33 figures, 303 reference

Enhancement of Single and Composite Images Based on Contourlet Transform Approach

Image enhancement is an imperative step in almost every image processing algorithms. Numerous image enhancement algorithms have been developed for gray scale images despite their absence in many applications lately. This thesis proposes hew image enhancement techniques of 8-bit single and composite digital color images. Recently, it has become evident that wavelet transforms are not necessarily best suited for images. Therefore, the enhancement approaches are based on a new 'true' two-dimensional transform called contourlet transform. The proposed enhancement techniques discussed in this thesis are developed based on the understanding of the working mechanisms of the new multiresolution property of contourlet transform. This research also investigates the effects of using different color space representations for color image enhancement applications. Based on this investigation an optimal color space is selected for both single image and composite image enhancement approaches. The objective evaluation steps show that the new method of enhancement not only superior to the commonly used transformation method (e.g. wavelet transform) but also to various spatial models (e.g. histogram equalizations). The results found are encouraging and the enhancement algorithms have proved to be more robust and reliable