Copyright © by SIAM. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
SIAM J. IMAGING SCIENCES
c
2008 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 294–321
A Nonlinear Inverse Scale Space Method
for a Convex Multiplicative Noise Model
∗
Jianing Shi
†
and Stanley Osher
‡
Abstract. We are motivated by a recently developed nonlinear inverse scale space method for image denoising
[M. Burger, G. Gilboa, S. Osher, and J. Xu, Commun. Math. Sci., 4 (2006), pp. 179–212; M. Burger,
S. Osher, J. Xu, and G. Gilboa, in Variational, Geometric, and Level Set Methods in Computer Vi-
sion, Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 3752, Springer, Berlin, 2005, pp. 25–36], whereby noise can be
removed with minimal degradation. The additive noise model has been studied extensively, using the
Rudin–Osher–Fatemi model [L. I. Rudin, S. Osher, and E. Fatemi, Phys. D, 60 (1992), pp. 259–268],
an iterative regularization method [S. Osher, M. Burger, D. Goldfarb, J. Xu, and W. Yin, Multi-
scale Model. Simul., 4 (2005), pp. 460–489], and the inverse scale space flow [M. Burger, G. Gilboa,
S. Osher, and J. Xu, Commun. Math. Sci., 4 (2006), pp. 179–212; M. Burger, S. Osher, J. Xu, and
G. Gilboa, in Variational, Geometric, and Level Set Methods in Computer Vision, Lecture Notes
in Comput. Sci. 3752, Springer, Berlin, 2005, pp. 25–36]. However, the multiplicative noise model
has not yet been studied thoroughly. Earlier total variation models for the multiplicative noise
cannot easily be extended to the inverse scale space, due to the lack of global convexity. In this
paper, we review existing multiplicative models and present a new total variation framework for the
multiplicative noise model, which is globally strictly convex. We extend this convex model to the
nonlinear inverse scale space flow and its corresponding relaxed inverse scale space flow. We demon-
strate the convergence of the flow for the multiplicative noise model, as well as its regularization
effect and its relation to the Bregman distance. We investigate the properties of the flow and study
the dependence on flow parameters. The numerical results show an excellent denoising effect and
significant improvement over earlier multiplicative models.
Key words. inverse scale space, total variation, multiplicative noise, denoising, Bregman distance
AMS subject classifications. 35-xx, 65-xx
DOI. 10.1137/070689954
1. Introduction. Image denoising is an important problem of interest to the mathemat-
ical community that has wide application in fields ranging from computer vision to medical
imaging. A variety of methods have been proposed over the last decades, including traditional
filtering, wavelets, stochastic approaches, and PDE-based variational methods. We refer the
reader to [9] for a review of various methods. The additive noise model has been extensively
studied, using the Rudin–Osher–Fatemi (ROF) model [23], an iterative regularization method
[21], and the inverse scale space (ISS) flow [5, 6]. However, the multiplicative noise has not yet
been studied thoroughly. In this paper, we obtain a new convex multiplicative noise model
and extend it to the nonlinear ISS.
∗
Received by the editors April 30, 2007; accepted for publication (in revised form) May 30, 2008; published
electronically September 4, 2008. This research was supported by NSF grants DMS-0312222 and ACI-0321917 and
by NIH G54 RR021813.
http://www.siam.org/journals/siims/1-3/68995.html
†
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, 351 Engineering Terrace, MC 8904, 530 W. 120th
St., New York, NY 10027 (js2615@columbia.edu).
‡
Department of Mathematics, UCLA, 520 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (sjo@math.ucla.edu).
294
Downloaded 12/01/12 to 125.71.231.223. Redistribution subject to SIAM license or copyright; see http://www.siam.org/journals/ojsa.php