# A Plug-and-Play Method with Inpainting Network for Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification in Imaging

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.11200 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11200/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 21 Apr 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Task-Driven Uncertainty Quantification in Inverse Problems via Conformal Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.18527/) (2024)
- [Learning truly monotone operators with applications to nonlinear inverse problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.00390/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We contribute to an uncertainty quantification problem in imaging that evaluates a hypothesis test questioning the existence of local "artefacts" appearing in the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate (obtained from standard numerical tools). Such a method, called Bayesian uncertainty quantification by optimization (BUQO), was introduced a few years ago as an efficient and scalable alternative to sampling methods when per-pixel error-bars are not needed. BUQO formulates a hypothesis test for probing the existence of local structures in the MAP estimate as a minimization problem, that can be solved efficiently with standard optimization algorithms. In this context, BUQO requires a "mathematical" definition of the "local artefact". This definition can be interpreted as an inpainting of the structure. However, only simple hand-crafted techniques have been proposed so far due to the complexity of the problem. In this work, we propose a data-driven alternative to BUQO where the inpainting procedure in the algorithm is performed using a convolutional inpainting neural network (NN). This results in a plug-and-play algorithm, based on the primal-dual Condat-Vu iterations,where the inpainting procedure is performed with a NN. The proposed approach is assessed on two image reconstruction problems inspired by medicine. We specifically perform simulations on two Fourier undersampling problems (discrete and non-uniform) encountered in magnetic resonance imaging, as well as a computed tomography problem using the Radon measurement operator.