Image restoration using statistical wavelet models

In this paper, we propose an image restoration algorithm based on state-of-the-art wavelet domain statistical models. We present an efficient method to estimate the model parameters from the observations, and solve the restoration problem in orthonormal and translation-invariant (TI) wavelet domains. Substantial improvements over previous wavelet-based restoration methods are obtained. The use of a TI wavelet transform further enhances the restoration performance. We study the improvement from the viewpoint of Bayesian estimation theory and show that replacing an estimator with its TI version will reduce the expected risk if the signal and the degradation model are stationary.