  Local learning of sparse image models has proven to be very effective to
solve inverse problems in many computer vision applications. To learn such
models, the data samples are often clustered using the K-means algorithm with
the Euclidean distance as a dissimilarity metric. However, the Euclidean
distance may not always be a good dissimilarity measure for comparing data
samples lying on a manifold. In this paper, we propose two algorithms for
determining a local subset of training samples from which a good local model
can be computed for reconstructing a given input test sample, where we take
into account the underlying geometry of the data. The first algorithm, called
Adaptive Geometry-driven Nearest Neighbor search (AGNN), is an adaptive scheme
which can be seen as an out-of-sample extension of the replicator graph
clustering method for local model learning. The second method, called
Geometry-driven Overlapping Clusters (GOC), is a less complex nonadaptive
alternative for training subset selection. The proposed AGNN and GOC methods
are evaluated in image super-resolution, deblurring and denoising applications
and shown to outperform spectral clustering, soft clustering, and geodesic
distance based subset selection in most settings.
