Statistical modeling of images with fields of Gaussian scale mixtures

The local statistical properties of photographic images, when represented in a multi-scale basis, have been described using Gaussian scale mixtures (GSMs). Here, we use this local description to construct a global field of Gaussian scale mixtures (FoGSM). Specifically, we model subbands of wavelet coefficients as a product of an exponentiated homogeneous Gaussian Markov random field (hGMRF) and a second independent hGMRF. We show that parameter estimation for FoGSM is feasible, and that samples drawn from an estimated FoGSM model have marginal and joint statistics similar to wavelet coefficients of photographic images. We develop an algorithm for image denoising based on the FoGSM model, and demonstrate substantial improvements over current state-of-the-art denoising method based on the local GSM model.