Abstract not found

This paper presents an account of the current state of sampling, 50 years after Shannon’s formulation of the sampling theorem. The emphasis is on regular sampling, where the grid is uniform. This topic has benefited from a strong research revival during the past few years, thanks in part to the mathematical connections that were made with wavelet theory. To introduce the reader to the modern, Hilbert-space formulation, we reinterpret Shannon’s sampling procedure as an orthogonal projection onto the subspace of band-limited functions. We then extend the standard sampling paradigm for a representation of functions in the more general class of “shift-invariant” functions spaces, including splines and wavelets. Practically, this allows for simpler—and possibly more realistic—interpolation models, which can be used in conjunction with a much wider class of (anti-aliasing) prefilters that are not necessarily ideal low-pass. We summarize and discuss the results available for the determination of the approximation error and of the sampling rate when the input of the system is essentially arbitrary; e.g., nonbandlimited. We also review variations of sampling that can be understood from the same unifying perspective. These include wavelets, multiwavelets, Papoulis generalized sampling, finite elements, and frames. Irregular sampling and radial basis functions are briefly mentioned. Keywords—Band-limited functions, Hilbert spaces, interpolation, least squares approximation, projection operators, sampling,

This paper describes a set of efficient filtering techniques for the processing and representation of signals in terms of continuous B-spline basis functions. We first consider the problem of determining the spline coefficients for an exact signal interpolation (direct B-spline transform). The reverse operation is the signal reconstruction from its spline coefficients with an optional zooming factor rn (indirect B-spline transform) . We derive general expressions for the z transforms and the equivalent continuous impulse responses of B-spline interpolators of order n. We present simple techniques for signal differentiation and filtering in the transformed domain. We then derive recursive filters that efficiently solve the problems of smoothing spline and least squares approximations. The smoothing spline technique approximates a signal with a complete set of coefficients subject to certain regularization or smoothness constraints. The least squares approach, on the other hand, uses a reduced number of B-spline coefficients with equally spaced nodes; this technique is in many ways analogous to the application of antialiasing low-pass filter prior to decimation in order to represent a signal correctly with a reduced number of samples.

Abstract—Based on the theory of approximation, this paper presents a unified analysis of interpolation and resampling techniques. An important issue is the choice of adequate basis functions. We show that, contrary to the common belief, those that perform best are not interpolating. By opposition to traditional interpolation, we call their use generalized interpolation; they involve a prefiltering step when correctly applied. We explain why the approximation order inherent in any basis function is important to limit interpolation artifacts. The decomposition theorem states that any basis function endowed with approximation order can be expressed as the convolution of a B-spline of the same order with another function that has none. This motivates the use of splines and spline-based functions as a tunable way to keep artifacts in check without any significant cost penalty. We discuss implementation and performance issues, and we provide experimental evidence to support our claims. Index Terms—Approximation constant, approximation order, B-splines, Fourier error kernel, maximal order and minimal support (Moms), piecewise-polynomials. I.

We present an automatic sub-pixel registration algorithm that minimizes the mean square intensity difference between a reference and a test data set, which can be either images (2-D) or volumes (3-D). It uses an explicit spline representation of the images in conjunction with spline processing, and is based on a coarse-to-fine iterative strategy (pyramid approach). The minimization is performed according to a new variation (ML*) of the Marquardt-Levenberg algorithm for non-linear least-square optimization. The geometric deformation model is a global 3-D affine transformation that can be optionally restricted to rigid-body motion (rotation and translation), combined with isometric scaling. It also includes an optional adjustment of image contrast differences. We obtain excellent results for the registration of intra-modality Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data. We conclude that the multi-resolution refinement strategy is more robust than a comparable single-stage method, being less likely to be trapped into a false local optimum. In addition, our improved version of the Marquardt-Levenberg algorithm is faster.

We propose a new method for the intermodal registration of images using a criterion known as mutual information. Our main contribution is an optimizer that we specifically designed for this criterion. We show that this new optimizer is well adapted to a multiresolution approach because it typically converges in fewer criterion evaluations than other optimizers. We have built a multiresolution image pyramid, along with an interpolation process, an optimizer, and the criterion itself, around the unifying concept of spline-processing. This ensures coherence in the way we model data and yields good performance. We have tested our approach in a variety of experimental conditions and report excellent results. We claim an accuracy of about a hundredth of a pixel under ideal conditions. We are also robust since the accuracy is still about a tenth of a pixel under very noisy conditions. In addition, a blind evaluation of our results compares very favorably to the work of several other researchers.

Abstract—This chapter presents a survey of interpolation and resampling techniques in the context of exact, separable interpolation of regularly sampled data. In this context, the traditional view of interpolation is to represent an arbitrary continuous function as a discrete sum of weighted and shifted synthesis functions—in other words, a mixed convolution equation. An important issue is the choice of adequate synthesis functions that satisfy interpolation properties. Examples of finite-support ones are the square pulse (nearest-neighbor interpolation), the hat function (linear interpolation), the cubic Keys' function, and various truncated or windowed versions of the sinc function. On the other hand, splines provide examples of infinite-support interpolation functions that can be realized exactly at a finite, surprisingly small computational cost. We discuss implementation issues and illustrate the performance of each synthesis function. We also highlight several artifacts that may arise when performing interpolation, such as ringing, aliasing, blocking and blurring. We explain why the approximation order inherent in the synthesis function is important to limit these interpolation artifacts, which motivates the use of splines as a tunable way to keep them in check without any significant cost penalty. I.

This paper presents a chronological overview of the developments in interpolation theory, from the earliest times to the present date. It brings out the connections between the results obtained in different ages, thereby putting the techniques currently used in signal and image processing into historical perspective. A summary of the insights and recommendations that follow from relatively recent theoretical as well as experimental studies concludes the presentation. Keywords—Approximation, convolution-based interpolation, history, image processing, polynomial interpolation, signal processing, splines. “It is an extremely useful thing to have knowledge of the true origins of memorable discoveries, especially those that have been found not by accident but by dint of meditation. It is not so much that thereby history may attribute to each man his own discoveries and others should be encouraged to earn like commendation, as that the art of making discoveries should be extended by considering noteworthy examples of it. ” 1 I.

Abstract—Interpolation is required in a variety of medical image processing applications. Although many interpolation techniques are known from the literature, evaluations of these techniques for the specific task of applying geometrical transformations to medical images are still lacking. In this paper we present such an evaluation. We consider convolution-based interpolation methods and rigid transformations (rotations and translations). A large number of sincapproximating kernels are evaluated, including piecewise polynomial kernels and a large number of windowed sinc kernels, with spatial supports ranging from two to ten grid intervals. In the evaluation we use images from a wide variety of medical image modalities. The results show that spline interpolation is to be preferred over all other methods, both for its accuracy and its relatively low computational cost. Keywords—Convolution-based interpolation, spline interpolation, piecewise polynomial kernels, windowed sinc kernels, geometrical transformation, medical images, quantitative evaluation. 1

Abstract—Causal exponentials play a fundamental role in classical system theory. Starting from those elementary building blocks, we propose a complete and self-contained signal processing formulation of exponential splines defined on a uniform grid. We specify the corresponding B-spline basis functions and investigate their reproduction properties (Green function and exponential polynomials); we also characterize their stability (Riesz bounds). We show that the exponential B-spline framework allows an exact implementation of continuous-time signal processing operators including convolution, differential operators, and modulation, by simple processing in the discrete B-spline domain. We derive efficient filtering algorithms for multiresolution signal extrapolation and approximation, extending earlier results for polynomial splines. Finally, we present a new asymptotic error formula that predicts the magnitude and the th-order decay of the P-approximation error as a function of the knot spacing. Index Terms—Continuous-time signal processing, convolution, differential operators, Green functions, interpolation, modulation, multiresolution approximation, splines. I.