Computationally tractable stochastic image modeling based on symmetric Markov mesh random fields

In this paper, the properties of a new class of causal Markov random fields, named symmetric Markov mesh random field, are initially discussed. It is shown that the symmetric Markov mesh random fields from the upper corners are equivalent to the symmetric Markov mesh random fields from the lower corners. Based on this new random field, a symmetric, corner-independent, and isotropic image model is then derived which incorporates the dependency of a pixel on all its neighbors. The introduced image model comprises the product of several local 1D density and 2D joint density functions of pixels in an image thus making it computationally tractable and practically feasible by allowing the use of histogram and joint histogram approximations to estimate the model parameters. An image restoration application is also presented to confirm the effectiveness of the model developed. The experimental results demonstrate that this new model provides an improved tool for image modeling purposes compared to the conventional Markov random field models.