THE TOTAL VARIATION FLOW∗ Fuensanta Andreu and Jos´eM. Maz´on† Abstract We summarize in this lectures some of our results about the Min- imizing Total Variation Flow, which have been mainly motivated by problems arising in Image Processing. First, we recall the role played by the Total Variation in Image Processing, in particular the varia- tional formulation of the restoration problem. Next we outline some of the tools we need: functions of bounded variation (Section 2), par- ing between measures and bounded functions (Section 3) and gradient flows in Hilbert spaces (Section 4). Section 5 is devoted to the Neu- mann problem for the Total variation Flow. Finally, in Section 6 we study the Cauchy problem for the Total Variation Flow. 1 The Total Variation Flow in Image Pro- cessing We suppose that our image (or data) ud is a function defined on a bounded and piecewise smooth open set D of IRN - typically a rectangle in IR2. Gen- erally, the degradation of the image occurs during image acquisition and can be modeled by a linear and translation invariant blur and additive noise. The equation relating u, the real image, to ud can be written as ud = Ku + n, (1) where K is a convolution operator with impulse response k, i.e., Ku = k ∗ u, and n is an additive white noise of standard deviation σ. In practice, the noise can be considered as Gaussian. ∗Notes from the course given in the Summer School “Calculus of Variations”, Roma, July 4-8, 2005 †Departamento de An´alisis Matem´atico, Universitat de Valencia, 46100 Burjassot (Va- lencia), Spain,
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[email protected] 1 The problem of recovering u from ud is ill-posed.