Nonlinear Image Processing

This state-of-the-art book deals with the most important aspects of non-linear imaging challenges. The need for engineering and mathematical methods is essential for defining non-linear effects involved in such areas as computer vision, optical imaging, computer pattern recognition, and industrial automation challenges.

From a strict semantic point of view, nonlinear image processing encompasses all image processing that is not based on linear operators; however, from a practical, evolutionary point of view, the name itself is usually associated with the study of nonlinear filters, mainly the deterministic and nondeterministic analysis and design of logic-based operators. This Tutorial Text volume explores logic-based operators with emphasis on representation, design, and statistical optimization of nonlinear filters.

Nonlinear signal and image processing methods are fast emerging as an alternative to established linear methods for meeting the challenges of increasingly sophisticated applications. Advances in computing performance and nonlinear theory are making nonlinear techniques not only viable, but practical. This book details recent advances in nonl

Image compression, the Navier-Stokes equations, and detection of gravitational waves are three seemingly unrelated scientific problems that, remarkably, can be studied from one perspective. The notion that unifies the three problems is that of ``oscillating patterns'', which are present in many natural images, help to explain nonlinear equations, and are pivotal in studying chirps and frequency-modulated signals. The first chapter of this book considers image processing, moreprecisely algorithms of image compression and denoising. This research is motivated in particular by the new standard for compression of still images known as JPEG-2000. The second chapter has new results on the Navier-Stokes and other nonlinear evolution equations. Frequency-modulated signals and theiruse in the detection of gravitational waves are covered in the final chapter. In the book, the author describes both what the oscillating patterns are and the mathematics necessary for their analysis. It turns out that this mathematics involves new properties of various Besov-type function spaces and leads to many deep results, including new generalizations of famous Gagliardo-Nirenberg and Poincare inequalities. This book is based on the ``Dean Jacqueline B. Lewis Memorial Lectures'' given bythe author at Rutgers University. It can be used either as a textbook in studying applications of wavelets to image processing or as a supplementary resource for studying nonlinear evolution equations or frequency-modulated signals. Most of the material in the book did not appear previously inmonograph literature.

This text provides insight into the design of optimal image processing operators for implementation directly into digital hardware. Starting with simple restoration examples and using the minimum of statistics, the book provides a design strategy for a wide range of image processing applications. The text is aimed principally at electronics engineers and computer scientists, but will also be of interest to anyone working with digital images.

Mathematical Nonlinear Image Processing deals with a fast growing research area. The development of the subject springs from two factors: (1) the great expansion of nonlinear methods applied to problems in imaging and vision, and (2) the degree to which nonlinear approaches are both using and fostering new developments in diverse areas of mathematics. Mathematical Nonlinear Image Processing will be of interest to people working in the areas of applied mathematics as well as researchers in computer vision. Mathematical Nonlinear Image Processing is an edited volume of original research. It has also been published as a special issue of the Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision. (Volume 2, Issue 2/3).

This unique text/reference presents a fresh look at nonlinear processing through nonlinear eigenvalue analysis, highlighting how one-homogeneous convex functionals can induce nonlinear operators that can be analyzed within an eigenvalue framework. The text opens with an introduction to the mathematical background, together with a summary of classical variational algorithms for vision. This is followed by a focus on the foundations and applications of the new multi-scale representation based on non-linear eigenproblems. The book then concludes with a discussion of new numerical techniques for finding nonlinear eigenfunctions, and promising research directions beyond the convex case. Topics and features: introduces the classical Fourier transform and its associated operator and energy, and asks how these concepts can be generalized in the nonlinear case; reviews the basic mathematical notion, briefly outlining the use of variational and flow-based methods to solve image-processing and computer vision algorithms; describes the properties of the total variation (TV) functional, and how the concept of nonlinear eigenfunctions relate to convex functionals; provides a spectral framework for one-homogeneous functionals, and applies this framework for denoising, texture processing and image fusion; proposes novel ways to solve the nonlinear eigenvalue problem using special flows that converge to eigenfunctions; examines graph-based and nonlocal methods, for which a TV eigenvalue analysis gives rise to strong segmentation, clustering and classification algorithms; presents an approach to generalizing the nonlinear spectral concept beyond the convex case, based on pixel decay analysis; discusses relations to other branches of image processing, such as wavelets and dictionary based methods. This original work offers fascinating new insights into established signal processing techniques, integrating deep mathematical concepts from a range of different fields, which will be of great interest to all researchers involved with image processing and computer vision applications, as well as computations for more general scientific problems.