On the computational aspects of Gibbs-Markov random field modeling of missing-data in image sequences

Gibbs-Markov random field (GMRF) modeling has been shown to be a robust method in the detection of missing-data in image sequences for a video restoration application. However, the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) estimation of the GMRF model requires computationally expensive optimization algorithms in order to achieve an optimal solution. The continuous relaxation labeling (RL) is explored in this paper as an efficient approach for solving the optimization problem. The conversion of the original combinatorial optimization into a continuous RL formulation is presented. The performance of the RL formulation is analyzed and compared with that of other optimization methods such as stochastic simulated annealing, iterated conditional modes, and mean field annealing. The results show that RL holds out promise as an optimization algorithm for problems in image sequence processing.