Image Processing and Analysis: Variational, PDE, Wavelet, and Stochastic Methods

At no other time in human history have the influence and impact of image processing on modern society, science, and technology been so explosive. Image processing has become a critical component in contemporary science and technology and has many important applications. This book develops the mathematical foundation of modern image processing and low-level computer vision, and presents a general framework from the analysis of image structures and patterns to their processing. The core mathematical and computational ingredients of several important image processing tasks are investigated. The book bridges contemporary mathematics with state-of-the-art methodologies in modern image processing while organizing the vast contemporary literature into a coherent and logical structure.

Image processing has traditionally been built on the machinery of Fourier and spectral analysis; however, in the past few decades numerous novel competing methods and tools have emerged. These diversified approaches, although seemingly distinct, are in fact intrinsically connected. The authors integrate this diversity of modern image processing approaches by revealing the few common threads connecting them. Some newer emergent integration efforts have also been highlighted and analyzed.

Image Processing and Analysis: Variational, PDE, Wavelet, and Stochastic Methods is systematic and well organized. The authors first investigate the geometric, functional, and atomic structures of images and then rigorously develop and analyze several image processors. The book is comprehensive and integrative, covering the four most powerful classes of mathematical tools in contemporary image analysis and processing while exploring their intrinsic connections and integration. The material is balanced in theory and computation, following a solid theoretical analysis of model building and performance with computational implementation and numerical examples.

About the Authors

Tony F. Chan is Professor of Mathematics and currently also Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include mathematical and computational methods in image processing and computer vision, brain mapping, and VLSI physical design.

Jianhong (Jackie) Shen is Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. In addition to doing extensive research in imaging and vision sciences, he is interested in multiscale structures and patterns in scientific data analysis as well as modeling, analysis, and computation in biological and medical sciences.