Quantifying Self-Organization with Optimal Wavelets

The optimal wavelet basis is used to develop quantitative, experimentally applicable criteria for self-organization. The choice of the optimal wavelet is based on the model of self-organization in the wavelet tree. The framework of the model is founded on the wavelet-domain hidden Markov model and the optimal wavelet basis criterion for self-organization which assumes inherent increase in statistical complexity, the information content necessary for maximally accurate prediction of the system's dynamics. At the same time the method, presented here for the one-dimensional data of any type, performs superior denoising and may be easily generalized to higher dimensions.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Large Scale Variational Bayesian Inference for Structured Scale Mixture Models

Natural image statistics exhibit hierarchical dependencies across multiple scales. Representing such prior knowledge in non-factorial latent tree models can boost performance of image denoising, inpainting, deconvolution or reconstruction substantially, beyond standard factorial "sparse" methodology. We derive a large scale approximate Bayesian inference algorithm for linear models with non-factorial (latent tree-structured) scale mixture priors. Experimental results on a range of denoising and inpainting problems demonstrate substantially improved performance compared to MAP estimation or to inference with factorial priors.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2012

3D medical volume segmentation using hybrid multiresolution statistical approaches

This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright © 2010 S AlZu’bi and A Amira.3D volume segmentation is the process of partitioning voxels into 3D regions (subvolumes) that represent meaningful physical entities which are more meaningful and easier to analyze and usable in future applications. Multiresolution Analysis (MRA) enables the preservation of an image according to certain levels of resolution or blurring. Because of multiresolution quality, wavelets have been deployed in image compression, denoising, and classification. This paper focuses on the implementation of efficient medical volume segmentation techniques. Multiresolution analysis including 3D wavelet and ridgelet has been used for feature extraction which can be modeled using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to segment the volume slices. A comparison study has been carried out to evaluate 2D and 3D techniques which reveals that 3D methodologies can accurately detect the Region Of Interest (ROI). Automatic segmentation has been achieved using HMMs where the ROI is detected accurately but suffers a long computation time for its calculations

Learning sparse representations of depth

This paper introduces a new method for learning and inferring sparse representations of depth (disparity) maps. The proposed algorithm relaxes the usual assumption of the stationary noise model in sparse coding. This enables learning from data corrupted with spatially varying noise or uncertainty, typically obtained by laser range scanners or structured light depth cameras. Sparse representations are learned from the Middlebury database disparity maps and then exploited in a two-layer graphical model for inferring depth from stereo, by including a sparsity prior on the learned features. Since they capture higher-order dependencies in the depth structure, these priors can complement smoothness priors commonly used in depth inference based on Markov Random Field (MRF) models. Inference on the proposed graph is achieved using an alternating iterative optimization technique, where the first layer is solved using an existing MRF-based stereo matching algorithm, then held fixed as the second layer is solved using the proposed non-stationary sparse coding algorithm. This leads to a general method for improving solutions of state of the art MRF-based depth estimation algorithms. Our experimental results first show that depth inference using learned representations leads to state of the art denoising of depth maps obtained from laser range scanners and a time of flight camera. Furthermore, we show that adding sparse priors improves the results of two depth estimation methods: the classical graph cut algorithm by Boykov et al. and the more recent algorithm of Woodford et al.Comment: 12 page

Wavelet-based denoising by customized thresholding

The problem of estimating a signal that is corrupted by additive noise has been of interest to many researchers for practical as well as theoretical reasons. Many of the traditional denoising methods have been using linear methods such as the Wiener filtering. Recently, nonlinear methods, especially those based on wavelets have become increasingly popular, due to a number of advantages over the linear methods. It has been shown that wavelet-thresholding has near-optimal properties in the minimax sense, and guarantees better rate of convergence, despite its simplicity. Even though much work has been done in the field of wavelet-thresholding, most of it was focused on statistical modeling of the wavelet coefficients and the optimal choice of the thresholds. In this paper, we propose a custom thresholding function which can improve the denoised results significantly. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the advantage of the new thresholding function

A Multiscale Approach for Statistical Characterization of Functional Images

Increasingly, scientific studies yield functional image data, in which the observed data consist of sets of curves recorded on the pixels of the image. Examples include temporal brain response intensities measured by fMRI and NMR frequency spectra measured at each pixel. This article presents a new methodology for improving the characterization of pixels in functional imaging, formulated as a spatial curve clustering problem. Our method operates on curves as a unit. It is nonparametric and involves multiple stages: (i) wavelet thresholding, aggregation, and Neyman truncation to effectively reduce dimensionality; (ii) clustering based on an extended EM algorithm; and (iii) multiscale penalized dyadic partitioning to create a spatial segmentation. We motivate the different stages with theoretical considerations and arguments, and illustrate the overall procedure on simulated and real datasets. Our method appears to offer substantial improvements over monoscale pixel-wise methods. An Appendix which gives some theoretical justifications of the methodology, computer code, documentation and dataset are available in the online supplements

Lapped transforms and hidden Markov models for seismic data filtering

International audienceSeismic exploration provides information about the ground substructures. Seismic images are generally corrupted by several noise sources. Hence, efficient denoising procedures are required to improve the detection of essential geological information. Wavelet bases provide sparse representation for a wide class of signals and images. This property makes them good candidates for efficient filtering tools, allowing the separation of signal and noise coefficients. Recent works have improved their performance by modelling the intra- and inter-scale coefficient dependencies using hidden Markov models, since image features tend to cluster and persist in the wavelet domain. This work focuses on the use of lapped transforms associated with hidden Markov modelling. Lapped transforms are traditionally viewed as block-transforms, composed of M pass-band filters. Seismic data present oscillatory patterns and lapped transforms oscillatory bases have demonstrated good performances for seismic data compression. A dyadic like representation of lapped transform coefficient is possible, allowing a wavelet-like modelling of coefficients dependencies. We show that the proposed filtering algorithm often outperforms the wavelet performance both objectively (in terms of SNR) and subjectively: lapped transform better preserve the oscillatory features present in seismic data at low to moderate noise levels