Non-Negative Group Sparsity with Subspace Note Modelling for Polyphonic Transcription

This work was supported by EPSRC Platform Grant EPSRC EP/K009559/1, EPSRC Grant EP/L027119/1, and EPSRC Grant EP/J010375/1

Homotopy based algorithms for ℓ0\ell_0-regularized least-squares

Sparse signal restoration is usually formulated as the minimization of a quadratic cost function $\|y-Ax\|_2^2$, where A is a dictionary and x is an unknown sparse vector. It is well-known that imposing an $\ell_0$ constraint leads to an NP-hard minimization problem. The convex relaxation approach has received considerable attention, where the $\ell_0$-norm is replaced by the $\ell_1$-norm. Among the many efficient $\ell_1$ solvers, the homotopy algorithm minimizes $\|y-Ax\|_2^2+\lambda\|x\|_1$ with respect to x for a continuum of $\lambda$'s. It is inspired by the piecewise regularity of the $\ell_1$-regularization path, also referred to as the homotopy path. In this paper, we address the minimization problem $\|y-Ax\|_2^2+\lambda\|x\|_0$ for a continuum of $\lambda$'s and propose two heuristic search algorithms for $\ell_0$-homotopy. Continuation Single Best Replacement is a forward-backward greedy strategy extending the Single Best Replacement algorithm, previously proposed for $\ell_0$-minimization at a given $\lambda$. The adaptive search of the $\lambda$-values is inspired by $\ell_1$-homotopy. $\ell_0$ Regularization Path Descent is a more complex algorithm exploiting the structural properties of the $\ell_0$-regularization path, which is piecewise constant with respect to $\lambda$. Both algorithms are empirically evaluated for difficult inverse problems involving ill-conditioned dictionaries. Finally, we show that they can be easily coupled with usual methods of model order selection.Comment: 38 page

Cooperative greedy pursuit strategies for sparse signal representation by partitioning

Cooperative Greedy Pursuit Strategies are considered for approximating a signal partition subjected to a global constraint on sparsity. The approach aims at producing a high quality sparse approximation of the whole signal, using highly coherent redundant dictionaries. The cooperation takes place by ranking the partition units for their sequential stepwise approximation, and is realized by means of i)forward steps for the upgrading of an approximation and/or ii) backward steps for the corresponding downgrading. The advantage of the strategy is illustrated by approximation of music signals using redundant trigonometric dictionaries. In addition to rendering stunning improvements in sparsity with respect to the concomitant trigonometric basis, these dictionaries enable a fast implementation of the approach via the Fast Fourier Transfor

Effective sparse representation of X-Ray medical images

Effective sparse representation of X-Ray medical images within the context of data reduction is considered. The proposed framework is shown to render an enormous reduction in the cardinality of the data set required to represent this class of images at very good quality. The goal is achieved by a) creating a dictionary of suitable elements for the image decomposition in the wavelet domain and b) applying effective greedy strategies for selecting the particular elements which enable the sparse decomposition of the wavelet coefficients. The particularity of the approach is that it can be implemented at very competitive processing time and low memory requirements