316 research outputs found
New convergence results for the scaled gradient projection method
The aim of this paper is to deepen the convergence analysis of the scaled
gradient projection (SGP) method, proposed by Bonettini et al. in a recent
paper for constrained smooth optimization. The main feature of SGP is the
presence of a variable scaling matrix multiplying the gradient, which may
change at each iteration. In the last few years, an extensive numerical
experimentation showed that SGP equipped with a suitable choice of the scaling
matrix is a very effective tool for solving large scale variational problems
arising in image and signal processing. In spite of the very reliable numerical
results observed, only a weak, though very general, convergence theorem is
provided, establishing that any limit point of the sequence generated by SGP is
stationary. Here, under the only assumption that the objective function is
convex and that a solution exists, we prove that the sequence generated by SGP
converges to a minimum point, if the scaling matrices sequence satisfies a
simple and implementable condition. Moreover, assuming that the gradient of the
objective function is Lipschitz continuous, we are also able to prove the
O(1/k) convergence rate with respect to the objective function values. Finally,
we present the results of a numerical experience on some relevant image
restoration problems, showing that the proposed scaling matrix selection rule
performs well also from the computational point of view
A new steplength selection for scaled gradient methods with application to image deblurring
Gradient methods are frequently used in large scale image deblurring problems
since they avoid the onerous computation of the Hessian matrix of the objective
function. Second order information is typically sought by a clever choice of
the steplength parameter defining the descent direction, as in the case of the
well-known Barzilai and Borwein rules. In a recent paper, a strategy for the
steplength selection approximating the inverse of some eigenvalues of the
Hessian matrix has been proposed for gradient methods applied to unconstrained
minimization problems. In the quadratic case, this approach is based on a
Lanczos process applied every m iterations to the matrix of the most recent m
back gradients but the idea can be extended to a general objective function. In
this paper we extend this rule to the case of scaled gradient projection
methods applied to non-negatively constrained minimization problems, and we
test the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in image deblurring problems in
both the presence and the absence of an explicit edge-preserving regularization
term
Variable metric inexact line-search based methods for nonsmooth optimization
We develop a new proximal-gradient method for minimizing the sum of a
differentiable, possibly nonconvex, function plus a convex, possibly non
differentiable, function. The key features of the proposed method are the
definition of a suitable descent direction, based on the proximal operator
associated to the convex part of the objective function, and an Armijo-like
rule to determine the step size along this direction ensuring the sufficient
decrease of the objective function. In this frame, we especially address the
possibility of adopting a metric which may change at each iteration and an
inexact computation of the proximal point defining the descent direction. For
the more general nonconvex case, we prove that all limit points of the iterates
sequence are stationary, while for convex objective functions we prove the
convergence of the whole sequence to a minimizer, under the assumption that a
minimizer exists. In the latter case, assuming also that the gradient of the
smooth part of the objective function is Lipschitz, we also give a convergence
rate estimate, showing the O(1/k) complexity with respect to the function
values. We also discuss verifiable sufficient conditions for the inexact
proximal point and we present the results of a numerical experience on a convex
total variation based image restoration problem, showing that the proposed
approach is competitive with another state-of-the-art method
On the filtering effect of iterative regularization algorithms for linear least-squares problems
Many real-world applications are addressed through a linear least-squares
problem formulation, whose solution is calculated by means of an iterative
approach. A huge amount of studies has been carried out in the optimization
field to provide the fastest methods for the reconstruction of the solution,
involving choices of adaptive parameters and scaling matrices. However, in
presence of an ill-conditioned model and real data, the need of a regularized
solution instead of the least-squares one changed the point of view in favour
of iterative algorithms able to combine a fast execution with a stable
behaviour with respect to the restoration error. In this paper we want to
analyze some classical and recent gradient approaches for the linear
least-squares problem by looking at their way of filtering the singular values,
showing in particular the effects of scaling matrices and non-negative
constraints in recovering the correct filters of the solution
On the convergence of a linesearch based proximal-gradient method for nonconvex optimization
We consider a variable metric linesearch based proximal gradient method for
the minimization of the sum of a smooth, possibly nonconvex function plus a
convex, possibly nonsmooth term. We prove convergence of this iterative
algorithm to a critical point if the objective function satisfies the
Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz property at each point of its domain, under the assumption
that a limit point exists. The proposed method is applied to a wide collection
of image processing problems and our numerical tests show that our algorithm
results to be flexible, robust and competitive when compared to recently
proposed approaches able to address the optimization problems arising in the
considered applications
A Network of Portable, Low-Cost, X-Band Radars
Radar is a unique tool to get an overview on the weather situation, given its high spatio- temporal resolution. Over 60 years, researchers have been investigating ways for obtaining the best use of radar. As a result we often find assurances on how much radar is a useful tool, and it is! After this initial statement, however, regularly comes a long list on how to increase the accuracy of radar or in what direction to move for improving it. Perhaps we should rather ask: is the resulting data good enough for our application? The answers are often more complicated than desired. At first, some people expect miracles. Then, when their wishes are disappointed, they discard radar as a tool: both attitudes are wrong; radar is a unique tool to obtain an excellent overview on what is happening: when and where it is happening. At short ranges, we may even get good quantitative data. But at longer ranges it may be impossible to obtain the desired precision, e.g. the precision needed to alert people living in small catchments in mountainous terrain. We would have to set the critical limit for an alert so low that this limit would lead to an unacceptable rate of false alarm
Application of cyclic block generalized gradient projection methods to Poisson blind deconvolution
The aim of this paper is to consider a modification of a block coordinate gradient projection method with Armijo linesearch along the descent direction in which the projection on the feasible set is performed according to a variable non Euclidean metric. The stationarity of the limit points of the resulting scheme has recently been proved under some general assumptions on the generalized gradient projections employed. Here we tested some examples of methods belonging to this class on a blind deconvolution problem from data affected by Poisson noise, and we illustrate the impact of the projection operator choice on the practical performances of the corresponding algorithm
A new semi-blind deconvolution approach for Fourier-based image restoration: an application in astronomy
The aim of this paper is to develop a new optimization algorithm for the restoration of an image starting from samples of its Fourier Transform, when only partial information about the data frequencies is provided. The corresponding constrained optimization problem is approached with a cyclic block alternating scheme, in which projected gradient methods are used to find a regularized solution. Our algorithm is then applied to the imaging of high-energy radiation emitted during a solar flare through the analysis of the photon counts collected by the NASA RHESSI satellite. Numerical experiments on simulated data show that, both in presence and in absence of statistical noise, the proposed approach provides some improvements in the reconstructions
An image reconstruction method from Fourier data with uncertainties on the spatial frequencies
In this paper the reconstruction of a two-dimensional image from a nonuniform sampling of its Fourier transform is considered, in the presence of uncertainties on the frequencies corresponding to the measured data. The problem therefore becomes a blind deconvolution, in which the unknowns are both the image to be reconstructed and the exact frequencies. The availability of information on the image and the frequencies allows to reformulate the problem as a constrained minimization of the least squares functional. A regularized solution of this optimization problem is achieved by early stopping an alternating minimization scheme. In particular, a gradient projection method is employed at each step to compute an inexact solution of the minimization subproblems. The resulting algorithm is applied on some numerical examples arising in a real-world astronomical application
A fingerprint of a heterogeneous data set
In this paper, we describe the fingerprint method, a technique to classify bags of mixed-type measurements. The method was designed to solve a real-world industrial problem: classifying industrial plants (individuals at a higher level of organisation) starting from the measurements collected from their production lines (individuals at a lower level of organisation). In this specific application, the categorical information attached to the numerical measurements induced simple mixture-like structures on the global multivariate distributions associated with different classes. The fingerprint method is designed to compare the mixture components of a given test bag with the corresponding mixture components associated with the different classes, identifying the most similar generating distribution. When compared to other classification algorithms applied to several synthetic data sets and the original industrial data set, the proposed classifier showed remarkable improvements in performance
- …