  Sparse coding in learned dictionaries has been established as a successful
approach for signal denoising, source separation and solving inverse problems
in general. A dictionary learning method adapts an initial dictionary to a
particular signal class by iteratively computing an approximate factorization
of a training data matrix into a dictionary and a sparse coding matrix. The
learned dictionary is characterized by two properties: the coherence of the
dictionary to observations of the signal class, and the self-coherence of the
dictionary atoms. A high coherence to the signal class enables the sparse
coding of signal observations with a small approximation error, while a low
self-coherence of the atoms guarantees atom recovery and a more rapid residual
error decay rate for the sparse coding algorithm. The two goals of high signal
coherence and low self-coherence are typically in conflict, therefore one seeks
a trade-off between them, depending on the application. We present a dictionary
learning method with an effective control over the self-coherence of the
trained dictionary, enabling a trade-off between maximizing the sparsity of
codings and approximating an equiangular tight frame.
