Seminar: Two Nonlocal Variational Models for Retinex Image Decomposition

Date: Thursday, 22nd of February

Speaker: Frank W. Hammond

Title: Two Nonlocal Variational Models for Retinex Image Decomposition

Abstract:

Retinex theory assumes that an image can be decomposed into illumination and reflectance components. In this work, we introduce two variational models to solve the ill-posed inverse problem of estimating illumination and reflectance from a given observation. Nonlocal regularization exploiting image self-similarities is used to estimate the reflectance, since it is assumed to contain fine details and texture. The difference between the proposed models comes from the selected prior for the illumination. Specifically, Tychonoff regularization, which promots smooth solutions, and the total variation, which favours piecewise constant solutions, are independently proposed. A comprehensive theoretical analysis of the resulting functionals is presented within appropriate functional spaces, complemented by an experimental validation for thorough examination.