Maximum likelihood parameter estimation for non-Gaussian prior signal models

For signals containing discontinuities, the usual assumptions of Gauss-Markov distributed signal sources do not hold. To preserve edges, non-Gaussian prior models have been developed for use in Bayesian restoration. These models are generally dependent upon two parameters, one controlling the size of reconstructed discontinuities, and the other controlling data smoothing. The authors propose a maximum likelihood technique for automatically estimating these parameters, resulting in the optimization of an expression dependent upon the prior model partition function. An exact expression is derived for the 1D signal model partition function, while an approximation is proposed for the 2D image model partition function. Parameters estimated from degraded signals result in high quality restorations