Disparity-based space-variant image deblurring

Obtaining a good-quality image requires exposure to light for an appropriate amount of time. If there is camera or object motion during the exposure time, the image is blurred. To remove the blur, some recent image deblurring methods effectively estimate a point spread function (PSF) by acquiring a noisy image additionally, and restore a clear latent image with the PSF. Since the groundtruth PSF varies with the location, a blockwise approach for PSF estimation has been proposed. However, the block to estimate a PSF is a straightly demarcated rectangle which is generally different from the shape of an actual region where the PSF can be properly assumed constant. We utilize the fact that a PSF is substantially related to the local disparity between two views. This paper presents a disparity-based method of space-variant image deblurring which employs disparity information in image segmentation, and estimates a PSF, and restores a latent image for each region. The segmentation method firstly over-segments a blurred image into sufficiently many regions based on color, and then merges adjacent regions with similar disparities. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Image deblurring via enhanced local maximum intensity prior

The enhanced local maximum intensity prior is proposed in this paper. We find that the intermediate latent image restoration can be enhanced by joining the local maximum intensity with the local maximum gradient, and the quality of the recovered kernel is hereby improved. Our method is based on the fact that the maximum value of local patch pixels and gradients will decrease with the blurring process, which has been proved mathematically and experimentally. This joint prior has been named enhanced local maximum intensity prior. Based on this prior, a new energy function is established and the image deblurring is successfully carried out by alternating optimization strategy. Extensive experiments have been conducted, which shows that our method is more effective compared with the state-of-the-art methods.     

Self-learning-based post-processing for image/video deblocking via sparse representation

Blocking artifact, characterized by visually noticeable changes in pixel values along block boundaries, is a common problem in block-based image/video compression, especially at low bitrate coding. Various post-processing techniques have been proposed to reduce blocking artifacts, but they usually introduce excessive blurring or ringing effects. This paper proposes a self-learning-based post-processing framework for image/video deblocking by properly formulating deblocking as an MCA (morphological component analysis)-based image decomposition problem via sparse representation. Without the need of any prior knowledge (e.g., the positions where blocking artifacts occur, the algorithm used for compression, or the characteristics of image to be processed) about the blocking artifacts to be removed, the proposed framework can automatically learn two dictionaries for decomposing an input decoded image into its “blocking component” and “non-blocking component.” More specifically, the proposed method first decomposes a frame into the low-frequency and high-frequency parts by applying BM3D (block-matching and 3D filtering) algorithm. The high-frequency part is then decomposed into a blocking component and a non-blocking component by performing dictionary learning and sparse coding based on MCA. As a result, the blocking component can be removed from the image/video frame successfully while preserving most original visual details. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.     

Enhanced Biggs–Andrews Asymmetric Iterative Blind Deconvolution

The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of a framework for estimation of multiple unknown blurs as well as their respective supports. Specifically, the Biggs–Andrews (B–A) multichannel iterative blind deconvolution (IBD) algorithm is modified to include the blur support estimation module and the asymmetry factor for the Richardson–Lucy (R–L) update-based IBD algorithm is calculated. A computational complexity assessment of the implemented modified IBD is made. Simulations conducted on real-world and synthetic images confirm the importance of accurate support estimation in the blind superresolution problem. Published online: April 2006     

Color image quality assessment based on sparse representation and reconstruction residual

Image quality assessment (IQA) is a fundamental problem in image processing. While in practice almost all images are represented in the color format, most of the current IQA metrics are designed in gray-scale domain. Color influences the perception of image quality, especially in the case where images are subject to color distortions. With this consideration, this paper presents a novel color image quality index based on Sparse Representation and Reconstruction Residual (SRRR). An overcomplete color dictionary is first trained using natural color images. Then both reference and distorted images are represented using the color dictionary, based on which two feature maps are constructed to measure structure and color distortions in a holistic manner. With the consideration that the feature maps are insensitive to image contrast change, the reconstruction residuals are computed and used as a complementary feature. Additionally, luminance similarity is also incorporated to produce the overall quality score for color images. Experiments on public databases demonstrate that the proposed method achieves promising performance in evaluating traditional distortions, and it outperforms the existing metrics when used for quality evaluation of color-distorted images.     

An algorithm for dictionary generation in sparse representation

The K-COD (K-Complete Orthogonal Decomposition) algorithm for generating adaptive dic-tionary for signals sparse representation in the framework of K-means clustering is proposed in this paper, in which rank one approximation for components assembling signals based on COD and K-means clustering based on chaotic random search are well utilized. The results of synthetic test and empirical experiment for the real data show that the proposed algorithm outperforms recently reported alternatives: K-Singular Value Decomposition (K-SVD) algorithm and Method of Optimal Directions (MOD) algorithm.     

Spatially variant defocus blur map estimation and deblurring from a single image

In this paper, we propose a single image deblurring algorithm to remove spatially variant defocus blur based on the estimated blur map. Firstly, we estimate the blur map from a single image by utilizing the edge information and K nearest neighbors (KNN) matting interpolation. Secondly, the local kernels are derived by segmenting the blur map according to the blur amount of local regions and image contours. Thirdly, we adopt a BM3D-based non-blind deconvolution algorithm to restore the latent image. Finally, ringing artifacts and noise are detected and removed, to obtain a high quality in-focus image. Experimental results on real defocus blurred images demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms some state-of-the-art approaches.     

基于稀疏表达的图像去噪方法研究

提出一种基于混合字典的图像稀疏分解去噪方法。使用小波包函数和离散余弦函数构成混合字典,采用匹配追踪算法对图像进行稀疏分解,提取含噪图像中的稀疏成分,最后利用稀疏成分进行图像重构,达到去除图像中噪声的目的。实验中与单一字典稀疏分解去噪算法进行了对比,结果表明,所提出的混合字典稀疏去噪算法可有效提取图像中的稀疏结构,改善重构图像的主客观质量。     

Multi-stage image denoising based on correlation coefficient matching and sparse dictionary pruning

We present a novel image denoising method based on multiscale sparse representations. In tackling the conflicting problems of structure extraction and artifact suppression, we introduce a correlation coefficient matching criterion for sparse coding so as to extract more meaningful structures from the noisy image. On the other hand, we propose a dictionary pruning method to suppress noise. Based on the above techniques, an effective dictionary training method is developed. To further improve the denoising performance, we propose a multi-stage sparse coding framework where sparse representations are obtained in different scales to capture multiscale image features for effective denoising. The multi-stage coding scheme not only reduces the computational burden of previous multiscale denoising approaches, but more importantly, it also contributes to artifact suppression. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a state-of-the-art denoising performance in terms of both objective and subjective quality and provides significant improvements over other methods at high noise levels.     

Projected Transfer Sparse Coding for cross domain image representation

Sparse coding has been used for image representation successfully. However, when there is considerable variation between source and target domain, sparse coding cannot achieve satisfactory results. In this paper, we proposed a Projected Transfer Sparse Coding algorithm. In order to reduce their distribution difference, we project source and target data into a shared low dimensional space. Meanwhile, we learn a projection matrix and a shared dictionary and the sparse coding of source and target data in the low dimensional space. Unlike existing methods, the sparse representations are learnt using the projected data which are invariant to the distribution difference and the irrelevant samples. Thus, the sparse representations are robust and can improve the classification performance. We do not need to know any explicit correspondence across domains. We learn the projection matrix, the discriminative sparse representations, and the dictionary in a unified objective function. Our image representation method yields state-of-the-art results.     

Split Bregmanized anisotropic total variation model for image deblurring

In this paper, an effective image deblurring model is proposed to preserve sharp image edges by suppressing the stair-casing arising in the total variation (TV) based method by using the anisotropic total variation. To solve the difficult L1 norm problems, the split Bregman iteration is employed. Several synthetic degraded images are used for experiments. Comparison results are also made with total variation and nonlocal total variation based method. Experimental results show that the proposed method not only is robust to noise and different blur kernels, but also performs well on blurring images with more detailed textures, and the stair-casing effect is well suppressed.     

基于核Fisher判别字典学习的稀疏表示分类

在基于稀疏表示分类的模式识别中,字典学习(DL) 可以为稀疏表示获得更为精简的数据表示。最近的基于Fisher判别的字典学习(FDDL)可以学 习到更加判别的稀疏字典,使得稀疏表示分类具有很强的识别性能。核空间变换可以学习到 非线性结构信息,这对判别分类非常有用。为了充分利用 核空间特性以学习更加判别的稀疏字典来提升最终的识别性能,在FDDL的基础上,提出了两 种核化的稀疏表示DL方法。首先原始训练数据被投影到高维核空间,进行基于Fisher 判别的核稀 疏表示DLFDKDL;其次在稀疏系数上附加核Fisher约束,进行基于核Fisher判别的核稀疏表 示DL(KFDKDL),使得所学习的字典具有更强的判别能力。在多个公开的图像数据库上的稀疏 表示分类实验结果验证了所提出的FDKDL和KFDKDL方法的有效性。     

An image denoising algorithm for mixed noise combining nonlocal means filter and sparse representation technique

Nonlocal means (NLM) filtering or sparse representation based denoising method has obtained a remarkable denoising performance. In order to integrate the advantages of two methods into a unified framework, we propose an image denoising algorithm through skillfully combining NLM and sparse representation technique to remove Gaussian noise mixed with random-valued impulse noise. In the non-Gaussian circumstance, we propose a customized blockwise NLM (CBNLM) filter to generate an initial denoised image. Based on it, we classify the different noisy pixels according to the three-sigma rule. Besides, an overcomplete dictionary is trained on the initial denoised image. Then, a complementary sparse coding technique is used to find the sparse vector for each input noisy patch over the overcomplete dictionary. Through solving a more reasonable variational denoising model, we can reconstruct the clean image. Experimental results verify that our proposed algorithm can obtain the best denoising performance, compared with some typical methods.     

基于稀疏表征的图像超分辨算法研究

超分辨率图像恢复的目的是由低分辨率图像得到高分辨率图像,通常需要多幅或者一系列连续低分辨率图像．在有限的条件下很难得到。针对单幅图像超分辨问题,结合当前比较先进的稀疏表征方法,利用训练集图像的先验信息．对单幅图像进行超分辨率恢复。结合当前先进的基于稀疏表征的超分辨算法,采用误差反投影方法,提出一种改进的算法．对超分辨率...     

基于多通道盲复原和改进K-SVD模型的图像恢复

图像盲复原( IBR)问题一直是图像处理中的重要研究课题。目前空间不变的多通道图像盲复原算法研究较为普遍,这种算法具有较好的盲去模糊效果,但是对噪声的抑制能力不足,特别是对含有大量噪声的低分辨率图像而言,消噪效果较差。基于K-奇异值分解( K-SVD )的模型能够有效地处理噪声方差较大的图像,但是不能自适应图像的稀疏先验性。为了解决上述问题,在全变分( TV)多通道IBR算法处理的基础上,结合一种改进的K-SVD消噪模型的优势,提出了一种新的组合图像恢复方法。改进的K-SVD模型考虑了图像特征系数的稀疏先验知识和最大化稀疏度,具有自适应的消噪鲁棒性。分别采用模拟的和真实的低分辨率图像(毫米波图像)进行测试,与采用单一的多通道盲恢复和图像消噪算法相比,实验结果表明所提出的图像恢复方法具有较好的视觉效果和较高的信噪比。     

Pose-based human action recognition via sparse representation in dissimilarity space

Human actions can be considered as a sequence of body poses over time, usually represented by coordinates corresponding to human skeleton models. Recently, a variety of low-cost devices have been released, able to produce markerless real time pose estimation. Nevertheless, limitations of the incorporated RGB-D sensors can produce inaccuracies, necessitating the utilization of alternative representation and classification schemes in order to boost performance. In this context, we propose a method for action recognition where skeletal data are initially processed in order to obtain robust and invariant pose representations and then vectors of dissimilarities to a set of prototype actions are computed. The task of recognition is performed in the dissimilarity space using sparse representation. A new publicly available dataset is introduced in this paper, created for evaluation purposes. The proposed method was also evaluated on other public datasets, and the results are compared to those of similar methods.     

基于正则化稀疏表示的图像超分辨率算法

为了从单幅低分辨率(LR)图像恢复出高分辨率(H R)图像,提出了一种应用正则化稀疏表示和基于机器学习 的超分辨率(SR)图像恢复算法。构造了一种基于稀疏表示的SR凸变模型,为了提高 恢复效果,针对模型 提出了两种稀疏正则化约束条件,一是将分类效果更好的图表拉普拉斯作为正则化约束条件 ,从而找到与 输入LR图像块在结构上最接近的学习样本;另一种是针对冗余的学习样本进行约 束,保证了图像边 缘的锐利。将输入的每一块LR图像应用正则化稀疏表示,经过学习得到与之对应的HR图像块 , 最终得到整幅HR图像。试验结果表明,算法恢复出的HR图像峰值信噪比(PSNR )值较双三次插值算法最高提升约2dB,主观目视清晰、边缘锐利。