Image Denoising via Nonlinear Hybrid Diffusion

A nonlinear anisotropic hybrid diffusion equation is discussed for image denoising, which is a combination of mean curvature smoothing and Gaussian heat diffusion. First, we propose a new edge detection indicator, that is, the diffusivity function. Based on this diffusivity function, the new diffusion is nonlinear anisotropic and forward-backward. Unlike the Perona-Malik (PM) diffusion, the new forward-backward diffusion is adjustable and under control. Then, the existence, uniqueness, and long-time behavior of the new regularization equation of the model are established. Finally, using the explicit difference scheme (PM scheme) and implicit difference scheme (AOS scheme), we do numerical experiments for different images, respectively. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the new model with respect to other known models

A forward-backward view of some primal-dual optimization methods in image recovery

A wide array of image recovery problems can be abstracted into the problem of minimizing a sum of composite convex functions in a Hilbert space. To solve such problems, primal-dual proximal approaches have been developed which provide efficient solutions to large-scale optimization problems. The objective of this paper is to show that a number of existing algorithms can be derived from a general form of the forward-backward algorithm applied in a suitable product space. Our approach also allows us to develop useful extensions of existing algorithms by introducing a variable metric. An illustration to image restoration is provided

Generalized SURE for Exponential Families: Applications to Regularization

Stein's unbiased risk estimate (SURE) was proposed by Stein for the independent, identically distributed (iid) Gaussian model in order to derive estimates that dominate least-squares (LS). In recent years, the SURE criterion has been employed in a variety of denoising problems for choosing regularization parameters that minimize an estimate of the mean-squared error (MSE). However, its use has been limited to the iid case which precludes many important applications. In this paper we begin by deriving a SURE counterpart for general, not necessarily iid distributions from the exponential family. This enables extending the SURE design technique to a much broader class of problems. Based on this generalization we suggest a new method for choosing regularization parameters in penalized LS estimators. We then demonstrate its superior performance over the conventional generalized cross validation approach and the discrepancy method in the context of image deblurring and deconvolution. The SURE technique can also be used to design estimates without predefining their structure. However, allowing for too many free parameters impairs the performance of the resulting estimates. To address this inherent tradeoff we propose a regularized SURE objective. Based on this design criterion, we derive a wavelet denoising strategy that is similar in sprit to the standard soft-threshold approach but can lead to improved MSE performance.Comment: to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin