A CURE for Noisy Magnetic Resonance Images: Chi-Square Unbiased Risk Estimation

In this paper, we derive an unbiased expression for the expected mean-squared error associated with continuously differentiable estimators of the noncentrality parameter of a chi-square random variable. We then consider the task of denoising squared-magnitude magnetic resonance (MR) image data, which are well modeled as independent noncentral chi-square random variables on two degrees of freedom. We consider two broad classes of linearly parameterized shrinkage estimators that can be optimized using our risk estimate, one in the general context of undecimated filterbank transforms, and the other in the specific case of the unnormalized Haar wavelet transform. The resultant algorithms are computationally tractable and improve upon most state-of-the-art methods for both simulated and actual MR image data.

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title: The SURE-LET Approach to Image Denoising
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title: Chi-square unbiased risk estimate for denoising magnitude MR images
abstract: In this article we develop Stein-type results for unbiased estimation of the risk associated with parametric estimators of the noncentrality parameter of chi-squared random variables on two degrees of freedom. These results allow for estimator adaptivity, and thus can be used to optimize the parameters of a broad class of typical denoising functions, subject only to weak smoothness assumptions. We show how to apply these results to the problem of enhancing magnitude magnetic resonance images, which are known to be corrupted by Rician noise. As an example, we propose a transform-domain point-wise estimator based on linear expansion of thresholds. Finally, we apply this estimator to synthetic and real image data in conjunction with the undecimated Haar wavelet transform, and conclude that it is able to outperform previous wavelet-based techniques and compares favorably with a more recent approach based on non-local means.

title: Translation-Invariant De-Noising
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title: Image Denoising in Mixed Poisson–Gaussian Noise
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title: THE NON-CENTRAL χ2- AND F-DISTRIBUTIONS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
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title: De-noising by soft-thresholding
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title: Wavelet-based Poisson rate estimation using the Skellam distribution
abstract: Owing to the stochastic nature of discrete processes such as photon counts in imaging, real-world data measurements often exhibit heteroscedastic behavior. In particular, time series components and other measurements may frequently be assumed to be non-iid Poisson random variables, whose rate parameter is proportional to the underlying signal of interest-witness literature in digital communications, signal processing, astronomy, and magnetic resonance imaging applications. In this work, we show that certain wavelet and filterbank transform coefficients corresponding to vector-valued measurements of this type are distributed as sums and differences of independent Poisson counts, taking the so-called Skellam distribution. While exact estimates rarely admit analytical forms, we present Skellam mean estimators under both frequentist and Bayes models, as well as computationally efficient approximations and shrinkage rules, that may be interpreted as Poisson rate estimation method performed in certain wavelet/filterbank transform domains. This indicates a promising potential approach for denoising of Poisson counts in the above-mentioned applications.

title: Fast interscale wavelet denoising of Poisson-corrupted images
abstract: We present a fast algorithm for image restoration in the presence of Poisson noise. Our approach is based on (1) the minimization of an unbiased estimate of the MSE for Poisson noise, (2) a linear parametrization of the denoising process and (3) the preservation of Poisson statistics across scales within the Haar DWT. The minimization of the MSE estimate is performed independently in each wavelet subband, but this is equivalent to a global image-domain MSE minimization, thanks to the orthogonality of Haar wavelets. This is an important difference with standard Poisson noise-removal methods, in particular those that rely on a non-linear preprocessing of the data to stabilize the variance. Our non-redundant interscale wavelet thresholding outperforms standard variance-stabilizing schemes, even when the latter are applied in a translation-invariant setting (cycle-spinning). It also achieves a quality similar to a state-of-the-art multiscale method that was specially developed for Poisson data. Considering that the computational complexity of our method is orders of magnitude lower, it is a very competitive alternative. The proposed approach is particularly promising in the context of low signal intensities and/or large data sets. This is illustrated experimentally with the denoising of low-count fluorescence micrographs of a biological sample.

title: Adapting to Unknown Smoothness via Wavelet Shrinkage
abstract: We attempt to recover a function of unknown smoothness from noisy sampled data. We introduce a procedure, SureShrink, that suppresses noise by thresholding the empirical wavelet coefficients. The thresholding is adaptive: A threshold level is assigned to each dyadic resolution level by the principle of minimizing the Stein unbiased estimate of risk (Sure) for threshold estimates. The computational effort of the overall procedure is order N · log(N) as a function of the sample size N. SureShrink is smoothness adaptive: If the unknown function contains jumps, then the reconstruction (essentially) does also; if the unknown function has a smooth piece, then the reconstruction is (essentially) as smooth as the mother wavelet will allow. The procedure is in a sense optimally smoothness adaptive: It is near minimax simultaneously over a whole interval of the Besov scale; the size of this interval depends on the choice of mother wavelet. We know from a previous paper by the authors that traditional smoot...

title: Spatially adaptive wavelet thresholding with context modeling for image denoising
abstract: The method of wavelet thresholding for removing noise, or denoising, has been researched extensively due to its effectiveness and simplicity. Much of the literature has focused on developing the best uniform threshold or best basis selection. However, not much has been done to make the threshold values adaptive to the spatially changing statistics of images. Such adaptivity can improve the wavelet thresholding performance because it allows additional local information of the image (such as the identification of smooth or edge regions) to be incorporated into the algorithm. This work proposes a spatially adaptive wavelet thresholding method based on context modeling, a common technique used in image compression to adapt the coder to changing image characteristics. Each wavelet coefficient is modeled as a random variable of a generalized Gaussian distribution with an unknown parameter. Context modeling is used to estimate the parameter for each coefficient, which is then used to adapt the thresholding strategy. This spatially adaptive thresholding is extended to the overcomplete wavelet expansion, which yields better results than the orthogonal transform. Experimental results show that spatially adaptive wavelet thresholding yields significantly superior image quality and lower MSE than the best uniform thresholding with the original image assumed known.

title: Image quality assessment: from error visibility to structural similarity
abstract: Objective methods for assessing perceptual image quality traditionally attempted to quantify the visibility of errors (differences) between a distorted image and a reference image using a variety of known properties of the human visual system. Under the assumption that human visual perception is highly adapted for extracting structural information from a scene, we introduce an alternative complementary framework for quality assessment based on the degradation of structural information. As a specific example of this concept, we develop a structural similarity index and demonstrate its promise through a set of intuitive examples, as well as comparison to both subjective ratings and state-of-the-art objective methods on a database of images compressed with JPEG and JPEG2000. A MATLAB implementation of the proposed algorithm is available online at http://www.cns.nyu.edu//spl sim/lcv/ssim/.

title: Automatic estimation of the noise variance from the histogram of a magnetic resonance image.
abstract: Estimation of the noise variance of a magnetic resonance (MR) image is important for various post-processing tasks. In the literature, various methods for noise variance estimation from MR images are available, most of which however require user interaction and/or multiple (perfectly aligned) images. In this paper, we focus on automatic histogram-based noise variance estimation techniques. Previously described methods are reviewed and a new method based on the maximum likelihood (ML) principle is presented. Using Monte Carlo simulation experiments as well as experimental MR data sets, the noise variance estimation methods are compared in terms of the root mean squared error (RMSE). The results show that the newly proposed method is superior in terms of the RMSE.

title: Noise measurement from magnitude MRI using local estimates of variance and skewness.
abstract: In this note, we address the estimation of the noise level in magnitude magnetic resonance (MR) images in the absence of background data. Most of the methods proposed earlier exploit the Rayleigh distributed background region in MR images to estimate the noise level. These methods, however, cannot be used for images where no background information is available. In this note, we propose two different approaches for noise level estimation in the absence of the image background. The first method is based on the local estimation of the noise variance using maximum likelihood estimation and the second method is based on the local estimation of the skewness of the magnitude data distribution. Experimental results on synthetic and real MR image datasets show that the proposed estimators accurately estimate the noise level in a magnitude MR image, even without background data.

title: K-SVD : An Algorithm for Designing of Overcomplete Dictionaries for Sparse Representation
abstract: In recent years there has been a growing interest in the study of sparse representation of signals. Using an overcomplete dictionary that contains prototype signal-atoms, signals are described by sparse linear combinations of these atoms. Applications that use sparse representation are many and include compression, regularization in inverse problems, feature extraction, and more. Recent activity in this field concentrated mainly on the study of pursuit algorithms that decompose signals with respect to a given dictionary. Designing dictionaries to better fit the above model can be done by either selecting one from a pre-specified set of linear transforms, or by adapting the dictionary to a set of training signals. Both these techniques have been considered, but this topic is largely still open. In this paper we propose a novel algorithm for adapting dictionaries in order to achieve sparse signal representations. Given a set of training signals, we seek the dictionary that leads to the best representation for each member in this set, under strict sparsity constraints. We present a new method – the K-SVD algorithm – generalizing the K-Means clustering process. K-SVD is an iterative method that alternates between sparse coding of the examples based on the current dictionary, and a process of updating the dictionary atoms to better fit the data. The update of the dictionary columns is combined with an update of the sparse representations, thereby accelerating convergence. The K-SVD algorithm is flexible and can work with any pursuit method (e.g., basis pursuit, FOCUSS, or matching pursuit). We analyze this algorithm and demonstrate its results on both synthetic tests and in applications on real image data.