Optimal selection of the regularization function in a generalized total variation model. Part I: Modelling and theory

Abstract

A generalized total variation model with a spatially varying regularization weight is considered. Existence of a solution is shown, and the associated Fenchel-predual problem is derived. For automatically selecting the regularization function, a bilevel optimization framework is proposed. In this context, the lower-level problem, which is parameterized by the regularization weight, is the Fenchel predual of the generalized total variation model and the upper-level objective penalizes violations of a variance corridor. The latter object relies on a localization of the image residual as well as on lower and upper bounds inspired by the statistics of the extremes.