A unifying approach to isotropic and anisotropic total variation denoising models

Total variation minimisation is a well-established method for digital image restoration. Its implicit preservation of edges permits the derivation of anisotropic models for a qualitative improvement at corners. This paper is a synopsis of anisotropic models with state-of-the-art insights into the numerics of isotropic models. We generalise two representative models from both branches of research. This formulation leads to a general convergent algorithm and a general highly efficient algorithm which apply for both cases. A transfer of the discretisation from the anisotropic model to the isotropic setting results in an improvement of rotational invariance. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.