Multi-task learning with self-learning weight for image denoising

Abstract

Background Image denoising technology removes noise from the corrupted image by utilizing different features between image and noise. Convolutional neural network (CNN)-based algorithms have been the concern of the recent progress on diverse image restoration problems and become an efficient solution in image denoising. Objective Although a quite number of existing CNN-based image denoising methods perform well on the simplified additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) model, their performance often degrades severely on the real-world noisy images which are corrupted by more complicated noise. Methods In this paper, we utilized the multi-task learning (MTL) framework to integrate multiple loss functions for collaborative training of CNN. This approach aims to improve the denoising performance of CNNs on real-world images with non-Gaussian noise. Simultaneously, to automatically optimize the weights of individual sub-tasks within the MTL framework, we incorporated a self-learning weight layer into the CNN. Results Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach effectively enhances the denoising performance of CNN-based image denoising algorithms on real-world images. It reduces excessive image smoothing, improves quantitative metrics, and enhances visual quality in the restored images. Conclusion Our method shows the effectiveness of the improved performance of denoising CNNS for real-world image denoising processing.