Speckle noise removal via learned variational models

In this paper, we address the image denoising problem in presence of speckle degradation typically arising in ultra-sound images. Variational methods and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are considered well-established methods for specific noise types, such as Gaussian and Poisson noise. Nonetheless, the advances achieved by these two classes of strategies are limited when tackling the de-speckle problem. In fact, variational methods for speckle removal typically amounts to solve a non-convex functional with the related issues from the convergence viewpoint; on the other hand, the lack of large datasets of noise-free ultra-sound images has not allowed the extension of the state-of-the-art CNN denoiser methods to the case of speckle degradation. Here, we aim at combining the classical variational methods with the predictive properties of CNNs by considering a weighted total variation regularized model; the local weights are obtained as the output of a statistically inspired neural network that is trained on a small and composite dataset of natural and synthetic images. The resulting non-convex variational model, which is minimized by means of the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is proven to converge to a stationary point. Numerical tests show the effectiveness of our approach for the denoising of natural and satellite images.