A wavelet-based multiresolution regularized least squaresreconstruction approach for optical tomography

The authors present a wavelet-based multigrid approach to solve the perturbation equation encountered in optical tomography. With this scheme, the unknown image, the data, as well as the weight matrix are all represented by wavelet expansions, thus yielding a multiresolution representation of the original perturbation equation in the wavelet domain. This transformed equation is then solved using a multigrid scheme, by which an increasing portion of wavelet coefficients of the unknown image are solved in successive approximations. One can also quickly identify regions of interest (ROI's) from a coarse level reconstruction and restrict the reconstruction in the following fine resolutions to those regions. At each resolution level a regularized least squares solution is obtained using the conjugate gradient descent method. This approach has been applied to continuous wave data calculated based on the diffusion approximation of several two-dimensional (2-D) test media. Compared to a previously reported one grid algorithm, the multigrid method requires substantially shorter computation time under the same reconstruction quality criterion     

M带小波变换在图象中的应用

小波变换是近年来兴起的一种时频域信号分析理论,是信号分析处理的一种强有力的新工具.本文根据小波变换的特点,在Mallat二带多分辨分析的基础上,讨论分析了信号的多带多分辨分析的理论和实现算法,并将这一理论和算法应用于图象处理,取得了满意效果.     

Line detection in images through regularized Hough transform.

The problem of determining the location and orientation of straight lines in images is of great importance in the fields of computer vision and image processing. Traditionally the Hough transform, (a special case of the Radon transform) has been widely used to solve this problem for binary images. In this paper, we pose the problem of detecting straight lines in gray-scale images as an inverse problem. Our formulation is based on use of the inverse Radon operator, which relates the parameters determining the location and orientation of the lines in the image to the noisy input image. The advantage of this formulation is that we can then approach the problem of line detection within a regularization framework and enhance the performance of the Hough-based line detector through the incorporation of prior information in the form of regularization. We discuss the type of regularizers that are useful for this problem and derive efficient computational schemes to solve the resulting optimization problems enabling their use in large applications. Finally, we show how our new approach can be alternatively viewed as one of finding an optimal representation of the noisy image in terms of elements chosen from a dictionary of lines. This interpretation relates the problem of Hough-based line finding to the body of work on adaptive signal representation.     

Generalized maximum a posteriori processing of multichannel images and applications

This paper considers several aspects of robust estimation in the restoration of mutichannel images. Robust functionals emerging from a generalized maximum a posteriori (MAP) approach are employed for the representation of both the noise and the signal statistics. Several linear multichannel techniques can be derived as special cases of the approach presented. In addition, the robust approach derives nonlinear algorithms that simultaneously account for the suppression of nominal noise and outliers, and for the efficient reconstruction of sharp detailed structure in the estimate. The robust multichannel approach is presented as a general approach for the regularization of the ill-posed restoration problem. From this perspective, we develop a method for the selection of the regularization parameter, which can be used in a wide variety of applications that may or may not involve noise outliers. We consider several issues associated with the application of robust algorithms to multichannel images, we discuss computational inefficiencies of such algorithms, and we propose approximations that are appropriate for their cost-efficient multichannel implementation. We demonstrate the robust approach in two examples from the rapidly developing fields of color image processing and multiresolution image processing in the wavelet domain.The research presented in this paper was partially supported by the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota under Summer Research Fellowship no. 15556 and Grant-in-Aid Award no. 15987.     

Multiresolution maximum intensity volume rendering by morphological adjunction pyramids

We describe a multiresolution extension to maximum intensity projection (MIP) volume rendering, allowing progressive refinement and perfect reconstruction. The method makes use of morphological adjunction pyramids. The pyramidal analysis and synthesis operators are composed of morphological 3-D erosion and dilation, combined with dyadic downsampling for analysis and dyadic upsampling for synthesis. In this case the MIP operator can be interchanged with the synthesis operator. This fact is the key to an efficient multiresolution MIP algorithm, because it allows the computation of the maxima along the line of sight on a coarse level, before applying a two-dimensional synthesis operator to perform reconstruction of the projection image to a finer level. For interpolation and resampling of volume data, which is required to deal with arbitrary view directions, morphological sampling is used, an interpolation method well adapted to the nonlinear character of MIP. The structure of the resulting multiresolution rendering algorithm is very similar to wavelet splatting, the main differences being that (i) linear summation of voxel values is replaced by maximum computation, and (ii) linear wavelet filters are replaced by nonlinear morphological filters.     

Nonlinear multigrid algorithms for Bayesian optical diffusiontomography

Optical diffusion tomography is a technique for imaging a highly scattering medium using measurements of transmitted modulated light. Reconstruction of the spatial distribution of the optical properties of the medium from such data is a difficult nonlinear inverse problem. Bayesian approaches are effective, but are computationally expensive, especially for three-dimensional (3-D) imaging. This paper presents a general nonlinear multigrid optimization technique suitable for reducing the computational burden in a range of nonquadratic optimization problems. This multigrid method is applied to compute the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate of the reconstructed image in the optical diffusion tomography problem. The proposed multigrid approach both dramatically reduces the required computation and improves the reconstructed image quality     

Inverse and approximation problem for two-dimensional fractal sets

The geometry of fractals is rich enough that they have extensively been used to model natural phenomena and images. Iterated function systems (IFS) theory provides a convenient way to describe and classify deterministic fractals in the form of a recursive definition. As a result, it is conceivable to develop image representation schemes based on the IFS parameters that correspond to a given fractal image. In this paper, we consider two distinct problems: an inverse problem and an approximation problem. The inverse problem involves finding the IFS parameters of a signal that is exactly generated via an IFS. We make use of the wavelet transform and of the image moments to solve the inverse problem. The approximation problem involves finding a fractal IFS-generated image whose moments match, either exactly or in a mean squared error sense, a range of moments of the original image. The approximating measures are generated by an IFS model of a special form and provide a general basis for the approximation of arbitrary images. Experimental results verifying our approach will be presented.     

An efficient solver for the three-dimensional capacitance of theinterconnects in high speed digital circuit by the multiresolutionmethod of moments

The computation of the equivalent capacitances for three-dimensional (3-D) interconnects features large memory usage and long computing time. In this paper, a matrix sparsification approach based on multiresolution representation is applied with the method of moments (MoM) to calculate 3-D capacitances of interconnects in a layered media. Instead of direct expansion of the charge distribution by the orthogonal wavelet basis functions, the large full matrix resulting from discretization of the integral equations is taken as a discrete image and sparsified by two-dimensional (2-D) multiresolution representations. The inverse of the obtained sparse matrix is efficiently implemented by Schultz's iterative approach. Several numerical examples are given and the results obtained show that the proposed method significantly sparsifies the matrix equation and the capacitance parameters computed by the matrix equation with high sparsity agree well with the results of other reports and those computed by an established capacitance extractor FASTCAP     

基于模糊小波的图像对比度增强算法

针对传统的图像对比度增强方法存在的诸多问题,本文提出了一种模糊小波增强算法.首先,将低对比度图像进行规范化,选定一个确定小波对规范化后的图像进行小波变换,得到小波系数.然后,模糊化低通小波系数,再采用全局和局部信息进行调整.对高通小波系数,采用非线性运算进行调整.将调整后的小波系数反变换到空域上,得到增强后的结果.最后,给出几种增强算法实验结果的比较和分析,表明该算法对低对比度图片的增强是非常有效的,并且很好的抑制了噪声,没有出现局部区域过增强或增强不足的现象.     

Estimation of the Projection Operator in a Multiresolution Multisensor Data Fusion Scheme

Zhang presented a new multiresolution multisensor data fusion scheme for dynamic systems to be observed by multisensors of different resolutions. State space projection equation is introduced to associate the states of a system at each resolution with others. A discrete model of the system is built by using Haar wavelet or general compactly supported wavelet as a linear projection operator to approximate the state space projection. In fact, different wavelet corresponds to different sensor structure. For the multiresolution multisensor system with unknown sensor structure, the projection operator should be estimated online. Up to now, this problem has never been investigated. In this brief, the projection operator is estimated by using least-square estimation algorithm and recursive least-square estimation algorithm. The research on projection operator estimation lays a foundation for the popularization and application of the multiresolution multisensor system estimation algorithm in the real system     

Multiresolution detection of spiculated lesions in digitalmammograms

We present a novel multiresolution scheme for the detection of spiculated lesions in digital mammograms. First, a multiresolution representation of the original mammogram is obtained using a linear phase nonseparable two-dimensional (2-D) wavelet transform. A set of features is then extracted at each resolution in the wavelet pyramid for every pixel. This approach addresses the difficulty of predetermining the neighborhood size for feature extraction to characterize objects that may appear in different sizes. Detection is performed from the coarsest resolution to the finest resolution using a binary tree classifier. This top-down approach requires less computation by starting with the least amount of data and propagating detection results to finer resolutions. Experimental results using the MIAS image database have shown that this algorithm is capable of detecting spiculated lesions of very different sizes at low false positive rates     

Two-dimensional phase unwrapping using wavelet transform

A method for solving the least squares two-dimensional phase unwrapping problem is presented. This technique is based on the multiresolution representation of a linear system using the discrete wavelet transform. By applying the wavelet transform to the original system, a better convergence condition of an equivalent new system can be achieved     

Gabor wavelet representation for 3-D object recognition

This paper presents a model-based object recognition approach that uses a Gabor wavelet representation. The key idea is to use magnitude, phase, and frequency measures of the Gabor wavelet representation in an innovative flexible matching approach that can provide robust recognition. The Gabor grid, a topology-preserving map, efficiently encodes both signal energy and structural information of an object in a sparse multiresolution representation. The Gabor grid subsamples the Gabor wavelet decomposition of an object model and is deformed to allow the indexed object model match with similar representation obtained using image data. Flexible matching between the model and the image minimizes a cost function based on local similarity and geometric distortion of the Gabor grid. Grid erosion and repairing is performed whenever a collapsed grid, due to object occlusion, is detected. The results on infrared imagery are presented, where objects undergo rotation, translation, scale, occlusion, and aspect variations under changing environmental conditions.     

Efficient multiscale regularization with applications to thecomputation of optical flow

A new approach to regularization methods for image processing is introduced and developed using as a vehicle the problem of computing dense optical flow fields in an image sequence. The solution of the new problem formulation is computed with an efficient multiscale algorithm. Experiments on several image sequences demonstrate the substantial computational savings that can be achieved due to the fact that the algorithm is noniterative and in fact has a per pixel computational complexity that is independent of image size. The new approach also has a number of other important advantages. Specifically, multiresolution flow field estimates are available, allowing great flexibility in dealing with the tradeoff between resolution and accuracy. Multiscale error covariance information is also available, which is of considerable use in assessing the accuracy of the estimates. In particular, these error statistics can be used as the basis for a rational procedure for determining the spatially-varying optimal reconstruction resolution. Furthermore, if there are compelling reasons to insist upon a standard smoothness constraint, the new algorithm provides an excellent initialization for the iterative algorithms associated with the smoothness constraint problem formulation. Finally, the usefulness of the approach should extend to a wide variety of ill-posed inverse problems in which variational techniques seeking a "smooth" solution are generally used.     

A general framework for nonlinear multigrid inversion.

A variety of new imaging modalities, such as optical diffusion tomography, require the inversion of a forward problem that is modeled by the solution to a three-dimensional partial differential equation. For these applications, image reconstruction is particularly difficult because the forward problem is both nonlinear and computationally expensive to evaluate. In this paper, we propose a general framework for nonlinear multigrid inversion that is applicable to a wide variety of inverse problems. The multigrid inversion algorithm results from the application of recursive multigrid techniques to the solution of optimization problems arising from inverse problems. The method works by dynamically adjusting the cost functionals at different scales so that they are consistent with, and ultimately reduce, the finest scale cost functional. In this way, the multigrid inversion algorithm efficiently computes the solution to the desired fine-scale inversion problem. Importantly, the new algorithm can greatly reduce computation because both the forward and inverse problems are more coarsely discretized at lower resolutions. An application of our method to Bayesian optical diffusion tomography with a generalized Gaussian Markov random-field image prior model shows the potential for very large computational savings. Numerical data also indicates robust convergence with a range of initialization conditions for this nonconvex optimization problem.     

一种多分辨率图像混合编码方案

本文提出一种基于小波变换与神经网络的多分辨率图像混合编码方案，利用小波分解对图像的多分辨率表示来消除图像空间域和频率域的相关性，由于小波图像相邻行之间的复杂关系难以用线性表示式来描述，使用多层神经网络（ＭＬＮＮ）来确定这种未知关系。实验证明，神经网络非线性预测器性能优于线性预测器，对非线性预测后的差值图像用自组织特征映射（ＳＯＦＭ）码书进行矢量量化（ＶＱ）编码，编码图像主观质量好，压缩比高，算法简     

The contourlet transform: an efficient directional multiresolution image representation.

The limitations of commonly used separable extensions of one-dimensional transforms, such as the Fourier and wavelet transforms, in capturing the geometry of image edges are well known. In this paper, we pursue a "true" two-dimensional transform that can capture the intrinsic geometrical structure that is key in visual information. The main challenge in exploring geometry in images comes from the discrete nature of the data. Thus, unlike other approaches, such as curvelets, that first develop a transform in the continuous domain and then discretize for sampled data, our approach starts with a discrete-domain construction and then studies its convergence to an expansion in the continuous domain. Specifically, we construct a discrete-domain multiresolution and multidirection expansion using nonseparable filter banks, in much the same way that wavelets were derived from filter banks. This construction results in a flexible multiresolution, local, and directional image expansion using contour segments, and, thus, it is named the contourlet transform. The discrete contourlet transform has a fast iterated filter bank algorithm that requires an order N operations for N-pixel images. Furthermore, we establish a precise link between the developed filter bank and the associated continuous-domain contourlet expansion via a directional multiresolution analysis framework. We show that with parabolic scaling and sufficient directional vanishing moments, contourlets achieve the optimal approximation rate for piecewise smooth functions with discontinuities along twice continuously differentiable curves. Finally, we show some numerical experiments demonstrating the potential of contourlets in several image processing applications. Index Terms-Contourlets, contours, filter banks, geometric image processing, multidirection, multiresolution, sparse representation, wavelets.     

An integrated multiscaling strategy based on a particle swarm algorithm for inverse scattering problems

The application of a multiscale strategy integrated with a stochastic technique to the solution of nonlinear inverse scattering problems is presented. The approach allows the explicit and effective handling of many difficulties associated with such problems ranging from ill-conditioning to nonlinearity and false solutions drawback. The choice of a finite dimensional representation for the unknowns, due to the upper bound to the essential dimension of the data, is iteratively accomplished by means of an adaptive multiresolution model, which offers a considerable flexibility for the use of the information on the scattering domain acquired during the iterative steps of the multiscaling process. Even though a suitable representation of the unknowns could limit the local minima problem, the multiresolution strategy is integrated with a customized stochastic optimizer based on the behavior of a particle swarm, which prevents the solution from being trapped into false solutions without a large increasing of the overall computational burden. Selected examples concerned with a two-dimensional microwave imaging problem are presented for illustrating the key features of the integrated stochastic multiscaling strategy.     

Multigrid tomographic inversion with variable resolution data and image spaces.

A multigrid inversion approach that uses variable resolutions of both the data space and the image space is proposed. Since the computational complexity of inverse problems typically increases with a larger number of unknown image pixels and a larger number of measurements, the proposed algorithm further reduces the computation relative to conventional multigrid approaches, which change only the image space resolution at coarse scales. The advantage is particularly important for data-rich applications, where data resolutions may differ for different scales. Applications of the approach to Bayesian reconstruction algorithms in transmission and emission tomography with a generalized Gaussian Markov random field image prior are presented, both with a Poisson noise model and with a quadratic data term. Simulation results indicate that the proposed multigrid approach results in significant improvement in convergence speed compared to the fixed-grid iterative coordinate descent method and a multigrid method with fixed-data resolution.