Characterization and estimation of two-dimensional ARMA models

A class of finite-order two-dimensional autoregressive moving average (ARMA) is introduced that can represent any process with rational spectral density. In this model the driving noise is correlated and need not be Gaussian. Currently known classes of ARMA models or AR models are shown to be subsets of the above class. The three definitions of Markov property are discussed, and the class of ARMA models are precisely stated which have the noncausal and semicausal Markov property without imposing any specific boundary conditions. Next two approaches are considered to estimate the parameters of a model to fit a given image. The first method uses only the empirical correlations and involves the solution of linear equations. The second method is the likelihood approach. Since the exact likelihood function is difficult to compute, we resort to approximations suggested by the toroidal models. Numerical experiments compare the quality of the two estimation schemes. Finally the problem of synthesizing a texture obeying an ARMA model is considered.