Adaptive sparse coding and dictionary selection

Abstract

The sparse coding is approximation/representation of signals with the minimum number of coefficients using an overcomplete set of elementary functions. This kind of approximations/ representations has found numerous applications in source separation, denoising, coding and compressed sensing. The adaptation of the sparse approximation framework to the coding problem of signals is investigated in this thesis. Open problems are the selection of appropriate models and their orders, coefficient quantization and sparse approximation method. Some of these questions are addressed in this thesis and novel methods developed. Because almost all recent communication and storage systems are digital, an easy method to compute quantized sparse approximations is introduced in the first part. The model selection problem is investigated next. The linear model can be adapted to better fit a given signal class. It can also be designed based on some a priori information about the model. Two novel dictionary selection methods are separately presented in the second part of the thesis. The proposed model adaption algorithm, called Dictionary Learning with the Majorization Method (DLMM), is much more general than current methods. This generality allowes it to be used with different constraints on the model. Particularly, two important cases have been considered in this thesis for the first time, Parsimonious Dictionary Learning (PDL) and Compressible Dictionary Learning (CDL). When the generative model order is not given, PDL not only adapts the dictionary to the given class of signals, but also reduces the model order redundancies. When a fast dictionary is needed, the CDL framework helps us to find a dictionary which is adapted to the given signal class without increasing the computation cost so much. Sometimes a priori information about the linear generative model is given in format of a parametric function. Parametric Dictionary Design (PDD) generates a suitable dictionary for sparse coding using the parametric function. Basically PDD finds a parametric dictionary with a minimal dictionary coherence, which has been shown to be suitable for sparse approximation and exact sparse recovery. Theoretical analyzes are accompanied by experiments to validate the analyzes. This research was primarily used for audio applications, as audio can be shown to have sparse structures. Therefore, most of the experiments are done using audio signals.