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Main Authors: Grünbaum, F. Alberto, Xu, Tondgi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08059
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author Grünbaum, F. Alberto
Xu, Tondgi
author_facet Grünbaum, F. Alberto
Xu, Tondgi
contents The remarkable results for denoising in computer vision using diffusion models given in \cite{SDWMG,HJA,HHG} yield a robust mathematical justification for algorithms based on crucial properties of a sequence of Gaussian independent $N(0,1)$ random variables. In particular the derivations use the fact that a Gaussian distribution is determined by its mean and variance and that the sum of two Gaussians is another Gaussian. \bigskip The issue raised in this short note is the following: suppose we use the algorithm without any changes but replace the nature of the noise and use, for instance, uniformly distributed noise or noise with a Beta distribution, or noise which is a random superposition of two Gaussians with very different variances. One could, of course, try to modify the algorithm keeping in mind the nature of the noise, but this is not what we do. Instead we study the performance of the algorithm when used with noise that is very far in nature from the Gaussian case, where it is designed to work well. Usually these algorithms are implemented on very powerful computers. Our experiments are all carried out on a small laptop and for the smallest possible image size. Exploring how our observations are confirmed or changed when dealing in different situations remains an interesting challenge.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_08059
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The relative importance of being Gaussian
Grünbaum, F. Alberto
Xu, Tondgi
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Probability
68T05, 68T45, 60J60, 82C22, 82C31
The remarkable results for denoising in computer vision using diffusion models given in \cite{SDWMG,HJA,HHG} yield a robust mathematical justification for algorithms based on crucial properties of a sequence of Gaussian independent $N(0,1)$ random variables. In particular the derivations use the fact that a Gaussian distribution is determined by its mean and variance and that the sum of two Gaussians is another Gaussian. \bigskip The issue raised in this short note is the following: suppose we use the algorithm without any changes but replace the nature of the noise and use, for instance, uniformly distributed noise or noise with a Beta distribution, or noise which is a random superposition of two Gaussians with very different variances. One could, of course, try to modify the algorithm keeping in mind the nature of the noise, but this is not what we do. Instead we study the performance of the algorithm when used with noise that is very far in nature from the Gaussian case, where it is designed to work well. Usually these algorithms are implemented on very powerful computers. Our experiments are all carried out on a small laptop and for the smallest possible image size. Exploring how our observations are confirmed or changed when dealing in different situations remains an interesting challenge.
title The relative importance of being Gaussian
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Probability
68T05, 68T45, 60J60, 82C22, 82C31
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08059