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David L Donoho

Publications and source records attributed to David L Donoho.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Sparse nonnegative solution of underdetermined linear equations by linear programming.

Consider an underdetermined system of linear equations y = Ax with known y and d x n matrix A. We seek the nonnegative x with the fewest nonzeros satisfying y = Ax. In general, this problem is NP-hard. However, for many matrices A there is a threshold phenomenon: if the sparsest solution is sufficiently sparse, it can be found by linear programming. We explain this by the theory of convex polytopes. Let a(j) denote the jth column of A, 1 < or = j < or = n, let a0 = 0 and P denote the convex hull of the a(j). We say the polytope P is outwardly k-neighborly if every subset of k vertices not including 0 spans a face of P. We show that outward k-neighborliness is equivalent to the statement that, whenever y = Ax has a nonnegative solution with at most k nonzeros, it is the nonnegative solution to y = Ax having minimal sum. We also consider weak neighborliness, where the overwhelming majority of k-sets of a(j)s not containing 0 span a face of P. This implies that most nonnegative vectors x with k nonzeros are uniquely recoverable from y = Ax by linear programming. Numerous corollaries follow by invoking neighborliness results. For example, for most large n by 2n underdetermined systems having a solution with fewer nonzeros than roughly half the number of equations, the sparsest solution can be found by linear programming.

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Neighborliness of randomly projected simplices in high dimensions.

Let A be a d x n matrix and T = T(n-1) be the standard simplex in Rn. Suppose that d and n are both large and comparable: d approximately deltan, delta in (0, 1). We count the faces of the projected simplex AT when the projector A is chosen uniformly at random from the Grassmann manifold of d-dimensional orthoprojectors of Rn. We derive rhoN(delta) > 0 with the property that, for any rho < rhoN(delta), with overwhelming probability for large d, the number of k-dimensional faces of P = AT is exactly the same as for T, for 0 < or = k < or = rhod. This implies that P is left floor rhod right floor-neighborly, and its skeleton Skel(left floor rhod right floor)(P) is combinatorially equivalent to Skel( left floor rhod right floor)(T). We also study a weaker notion of neighborliness where the numbers of k-dimensional faces f(k)(P) > or = f(k)(T)(1-epsilon). Vershik and Sporyshev previously showed existence of a threshold rhoVS(delta) > 0 at which phase transition occurs in k/d. We compute and display rhoVS and compare with rhoN. Corollaries are as follows. (1) The convex hull of n Gaussian samples in Rd, with n large and proportional to d, has the same k-skeleton as the (n-1) simplex, for k < rhoN (d/n)d(1 + oP(1)). (2) There is a "phase transition" in the ability of linear programming to find the sparsest nonnegative solution to systems of underdetermined linear equations. For most systems having a solution with fewer than rhoVS(d/n)d(1 + o(1)) nonzeros, linear programming will find that solution.

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Deblocking of block-transform compressed images using weighted sums of symmetrically aligned pixels.

A new class of related algorithms for deblocking block-transform compressed images and video sequences is proposed in this paper. The algorithms apply weighted sums on pixel quartets, which are symmetrically aligned with respect to block boundaries. The basic weights, which are aimed at very low bit-rate images, are obtained from a two-dimensional function which obeys predefined constraints. Using these weights on images compressed at higher bit rates produces a deblocked image which contains blurred "false" edges near real edges. We refer to this phenomenon as the ghosting effect. In order to prevent its occurrences, the weights of pixels, which belong to nonmonotone areas, are modified by dividing each pixel's weight by a predefined factor called a grade. This scheme is referred to as weight adaptation by grading (WABG). Better deblocking of monotone areas is achieved by applying three iterations of the WABG scheme on such areas followed by a fourth iteration which is applied on the rest of the image. We refer to this scheme as deblocking frames of variable size (DFOVS). DFOVS automatically adapts itself to the activity of each block. This new class of algorithms produces very good subjective results and PSNR results which are competitive relative to available state-of-the-art methods.

Algorithms↗

Image decomposition via the combination of sparse representations and a variational approach.

The separation of image content into semantic parts plays a vital role in applications such as compression, enhancement, restoration, and more. In recent years, several pioneering works suggested such a separation be based on variational formulation and others using independent component analysis and sparsity. This paper presents a novel method for separating images into texture and piecewise smooth (cartoon) parts, exploiting both the variational and the sparsity mechanisms. The method combines the basis pursuit denoising (BPDN) algorithm and the total-variation (TV) regularization scheme. The basic idea presented in this paper is the use of two appropriate dictionaries, one for the representation of textures and the other for the natural scene parts assumed to be piecewise smooth. Both dictionaries are chosen such that they lead to sparse representations over one type of image-content (either texture or piecewise smooth). The use of the BPDN with the two amalgamed dictionaries leads to the desired separation, along with noise removal as a by-product. As the need to choose proper dictionaries is generally hard, a TV regularization is employed to better direct the separation process and reduce ringing artifacts. We present a highly efficient numerical scheme to solve the combined optimization problem posed by our model and to show several experimental results that validate the algorithm's performance.

Algorithms↗

Hessian eigenmaps: locally linear embedding techniques for high-dimensional data.

We describe a method for recovering the underlying parametrization of scattered data (m(i)) lying on a manifold M embedded in high-dimensional Euclidean space. The method, Hessian-based locally linear embedding, derives from a conceptual framework of local isometry in which the manifold M, viewed as a Riemannian submanifold of the ambient Euclidean Space R(n), is locally isometric to an open, connected subset Θ of Euclidean space R(d). Because Θ does not have to be convex, this framework is able to handle a significantly wider class of situations than the original ISOMAP algorithm. The theoretical framework revolves around a quadratic form H(f) = ∫(M)||H(f)(m)||²(F)dm defined on functions f: M--> R. Here Hf denotes the Hessian of f, and H(f) averages the Frobenius norm of the Hessian over M. To define the Hessian, we use orthogonal coordinates on the tangent planes of M. The key observation is that, if M truly is locally isometric to an open, connected subset of R(d), then H(f) has a (d + 1)-dimensional null space consisting of the constant functions and a d-dimensional space of functions spanned by the original isometric coordinates. Hence, the isometric coordinates can be recovered up to a linear isometry. Our method may be viewed as a modification of locally linear embedding and our theoretical framework as a modification of the Laplacian eigenmaps framework, where we substitute a quadratic form based on the Hessian in place of one based on the Laplacian.

Journal Article↗

Optimally sparse representation in general (nonorthogonal) dictionaries via l minimization.

Given a dictionary D = {d(k)} of vectors d(k), we seek to represent a signal S as a linear combination S = summation operator(k) gamma(k)d(k), with scalar coefficients gamma(k). In particular, we aim for the sparsest representation possible. In general, this requires a combinatorial optimization process. Previous work considered the special case where D is an overcomplete system consisting of exactly two orthobases and has shown that, under a condition of mutual incoherence of the two bases, and assuming that S has a sufficiently sparse representation, this representation is unique and can be found by solving a convex optimization problem: specifically, minimizing the l(1) norm of the coefficients gamma. In this article, we obtain parallel results in a more general setting, where the dictionary D can arise from two or several bases, frames, or even less structured systems. We sketch three applications: separating linear features from planar ones in 3D data, noncooperative multiuser encoding, and identification of over-complete independent component models.

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