Denoising: a powerful building block for imaging, inverse problems and machine learning

Denoising, the process of reducing random fluctuations in a signal to emphasize essential patterns, has been a fundamental problem of interest since the dawn of modern scientific inquiry. Recent denoising techniques, particularly in imaging, have achieved remarkable success, nearing theoretical limits by some measures. Yet, despite tens of thousands of research papers, the wide-ranging applications of denoising beyond noise removal have not been fully recognized. This is partly due to the vast and diverse literature, making a clear overview challenging. This article aims to address this gap. We present a clarifying perspective on denoisers, their structure and their desired properties. We emphasize the increasing importance of denoising and showcase its evolution into an essential building block for complex tasks in imaging, inverse problems and machine learning. Despite its long history, the community continues to uncover unexpected and groundbreaking uses for denoising, further solidifying its place as a cornerstone of scientific and engineering practice.This article is part of the theme issue 'Generative modelling meets Bayesian inference: a new paradigm for inverse problems'.