IP Library Granted Patent US 12,450,697
Granted Patent B2
US 12,450,697 · App. 17/958,198 · Granted Oct 21, 2025

Volume denoising with feature selection

Inventors: Marios Papas (Zurich, CH); Xianyao Zhang (Zurich, CH); Melvin Ott (Zurich, CH); Marco Manzi (Zurich, CH)
Assignees: Disney Enterprises, Inc.; ETH ZURICH (EIDGENÖSSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZÜRICH)
G06T5/70G06N20/20G06T2207/20081
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,450,697
App. No.
17/958,198
Granted
Oct 21, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A system includes a hardware processor and a system memory storing software code and one or more machine learning (ML) models. The hardware processor is configured to execute the software code to train a first ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoising feature selector, generate, using the trained first ML model a plurality of candidate feature sets, and identify a best volumetric feature set of the plurality of candidate feature sets using a predetermined selection criterion. The hardware processor is further configured to execute the software code to train, using the identified best volumetric feature set, one of the first ML model or a second ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoiser, receive an image including noise due to rendering, and denoise, using the trained denoiser, the noise due to rendering to produce a denoised image.

Claims (55)

1. A system comprising:

a hardware processor and a system memory storing a software code and one or more machine learning (ML) models;

the hardware processor configured to execute the software code to:

train a first ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoising feature selector;

generate, using the trained first ML model, a plurality of candidate feature sets;

identify a best volumetric feature set of the plurality of candidate feature sets using a predetermined selection criterion;

train, using the identified best volumetric feature set, one of the first ML model or a second ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoiser;

receive a noisy image including a noise due to rendering; and

transform the noisy image to a denoised image;

wherein transforming the noisy image to the denoised image comprises:

decomposing color included in the noisy image into a surface contribution to the color and a volumetric contribution to the color;

denoising, using the trained denoiser, the volumetric contribution to the color to provide a denoised volumetric color result;

separately denoising the surface contribution to the color to provide a denoised surface color result; and

combining the denoised surface color result with the denoised volumetric color result.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first ML model is trained as the denoiser.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more ML models include the first ML model and the second ML model, and wherein the second ML model is trained as the denoiser.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein generating the plurality of candidate feature sets comprises generating candidate feature sets of different sizes.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein generating the plurality of candidate feature sets comprises generating candidate feature sets of progressively increasing size.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined selection criterion is a smallest denoising error.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined selection criterion is a predetermined balance between a denoising quality and a volumetric feature set size.

8. A method for use by a system including a hardware processor and a system memory storing a software code and one or more machine learning (ML) models, the method comprising:

training, by the software code executed by the hardware processor, a first ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoising feature selector;

generating, by the software code executed by the hardware processor and using the trained first ML model, a plurality of candidate feature sets;

identifying, by the software code executed by the hardware processor, a best volumetric feature set of the plurality of candidate feature sets using a predetermined selection criterion;

training, by the software code executed by the hardware processor and using the identified best volumetric feature set, one of the first ML model or a second ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoiser;

receiving a noisy image, by the software code executed by the hardware processor, the noisy image including a noise due to rendering; and

transforming, by the software code executed by the hardware processor, the noisy image to a denoised image

wherein transforming the noisy image to the denoised image comprises:

decomposing color included in the noisy image into a surface contribution to the color and a volumetric contribution to the color;

denoising, using the trained denoiser, the volumetric contribution to the color to provide a denoised volumetric color result;

separately denoising the surface contribution to the color to provide a denoised surface color result; and

combining the denoised surface color result with the denoised volumetric color result.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first ML model is trained as the denoiser.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more ML models include the first ML model and the second ML model, and wherein the second ML model is trained as the denoiser.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein generating the plurality of candidate feature sets comprises generating candidate feature sets of different sizes.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein generating the plurality of candidate feature sets comprises generating candidate feature sets of progressively increasing size.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the predetermined selection criterion is a smallest denoising error.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the predetermined selection criterion is a predetermined balance between a denoising quality and a volumetric feature set size.

15. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a hardware processor, instantiates a method comprising:

training a first ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoising feature selector;

generating, using the trained first ML model, a plurality of candidate feature sets;

identifying a best volumetric feature set of the plurality of candidate feature sets using a predetermined selection criterion;

training, using the identified best volumetric feature set, one of the first ML model or a second ML model of the one or more ML models as a denoiser;

receiving a noisy image including a noise due to rendering; and

transforming the noisy image to a denoised image;

wherein transforming the noisy image to the denoised image comprises:

decomposing color included in the noisy image into a surface contribution to the color and a volumetric contribution to the color;

denoising, using the trained denoiser, the volumetric contribution to the color to provide a denoised volumetric color result;

separately denoising the surface contribution to the color to provide a denoised surface color result; and

combining the denoised surface color result with the denoised volumetric color result.

16. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the first ML model is trained as the denoiser.

17. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more ML models include the first ML model and the second ML model, and wherein the second ML model is trained as the denoiser.

18. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15 , wherein generating the plurality of candidate feature sets comprises generating candidate feature sets of different sizes.

19. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15 , wherein generating the plurality of candidate feature sets comprises generating candidate feature sets of progressively increasing size.

20. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the predetermined selection criterion is one of a smallest denoising error or a predetermined balance between a denoising quality and a volumetric feature set size.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 20, 2022
From: PAPAS, MARIOS; ZHANG, XIANYAO; OTT, MELVIN; MANZI, MARCO
To: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY (SWITZERLAND) GMBH; ETH ZURICH (EIDGENÖSSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZÜRICH)
Reel/Frame 061484/0217 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 20, 2022
From: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY (SWITZERLAND) GMBH
To: DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.
Reel/Frame 061484/0256 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63251249 · Oct 1, 2021
Related Publication 20230109328A1 · Apr 6, 2023
References Cited (29)
US 10096088B2 · Bitterli · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 10475165B2 · Vogels · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 10572979B2 · Vogels · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20170270653A1 · Garnavi · 2017 [cited by examiner]
US 20180293496A1 · Vogels · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190304067A1 · Vogels · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190304068A1 · Vogels · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190304069A1 · Vogels · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20200027198A1 · Vogels · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20230080693A1 · Hu · 2023 [cited by examiner]
B. Du et al. “Stacked Convolutional Denoising Auto-Encoders for Feature Representation,” in IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 1017-1027, Apr. 2017, doi: 10.1109/TCYB.2016.2536638. (Year: 2017). [cited by examiner]
Marco Ancona, Cengiz Oztireli, Markus Gross “Explaining Deep Neural Networks with a Polynomial Time Algorithm for Shapley Values Approximation” Proceedings of the 36 [cited by applicant]
Steve Bako, Thijs Vogels, Brian McWilliams, Mark Meyer, Jan Novak, Alex Harvill, Predeep Sen, Tony DeRose, Fabrice Rousselle “Kernel-Predicting Convolutional Networks for Denoising Monte Carlo Renderings” ACM Trans. Gra… [cited by applicant]
Benedikt Bitterli, Fabrice Rousselle, Bochang Moon, Jone A. Iglesias-Guitian, David Adler, Kenny Mitchell, Wojciech Jarosz, Jan Novak “Nonlinearly Weighted First-order Regression for Denoising Monte Carlo Renderings” Eu… [cited by applicant]
Antoni Buades, Bartomeu, Jean-Michel Morel “A non-local algorithm for image denoising” 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05), San Diego, CA, USA, 2005, pp. 60-65 vol.… [cited by applicant]
Javier castro, Daniel Gomez, Juan Tejada “Polynomial calculation of the Shapley value based on sampling” Computers & Operations Research vol. 36, Issue 5, May 2009, 3 Pgs. [cited by applicant]
Chakravarty R. Alla Chaitanya, Anton S. Kaplanyan, Christoph Schied, Marco Salvi, aaron Lefofn, Derek Nowrouzezahrai, Timo Aila “Interactove Reconstruction of Monte Carlo Image Sequences using a Recurrent Denoising Auto… [cited by applicant]
Shay Cohen, Eytan Ruppin, Gideon Dror “Feature Selection Based on the Shapley Value” Proceedings of the 19 [cited by applicant]
Michael Gharbi, Tzu-Mao Li, Miika Aittala, Jaakko Lehtinen, Fredo Durand “Sample-based Monte Carlo Denoising using a Kernel-Splattering Network” ACM Trans. Graph., vol. 38, No. 4, Article 125. Jul. 2019 12 Pgs. [cited by applicant]
Jie Guo, Mengtian, Quewei Li, Yuting Qiang, Bingyang Hu, Yanwen Guo, Ling-Qi Yan “Gradnet Unsupervised deep screened poisson reconstruction for gradient-domain rendering” ACM Transactions on Graphics, vol. 38, Issue 6, … [cited by applicant]
Nikolai Hofmann, Jana Martschinke, Klaus Engel, Marc Stamminger “Neural Denoising for Path Tracing of Medical Volumetric Data” Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, vol. 3, issue 2, Aug… [cited by applicant]
Diederik P. Kingma, Jimmy Lei Ba “Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization” 3 [cited by applicant]
Scott M. Lundberg, Su-In Lee “A Unified Approach to Interpreting Model Predictions” Proceedings of the 31 [cited by applicant]
Olaf Ronneberger, Philipp Fischer, Thimas Broz “U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation” Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention 2015 8 pgs. [cited by applicant]
Fabrice Rousselle, Marco Manzi, Matthias Zwicker “Robust Denoising using Feature and Color Information” Pacific Graphics, vol. 32, No. 7 2013 10 pgs. [cited by applicant]
L.S. Shapley“A Value for n-Person Games” Contributions to the Theory of Games 1953 4 Pgs. [cited by applicant]
Thijs Vogels, Fabrice Rousselle, Brian McWilliams, Gerhard Rothlin, Alex Harvill, David Adler, Mark Meyer, Jan Novak “Denoising with Kernel Prediction and Asymmetric Loss Functions” ACM Trans. Graph. 37, 4, Article 124,… [cited by applicant]
Z. Wang, E.P. Simoncelli, A.C. Bovik “Multiscale structural similarity for image quality assessment” The Thrity-Seventh Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems & Computers, Pacific Grove, CA, 2003, 3 Pgs. vol. 2. [cited by applicant]
Zilin Xu, Qiang Sun, Ku Wang “Unsupervised Image Reconstruction for Gradient-Domain Volumetric Rendering” Computer Graphics Forum Nov. 24, 2020 3 Pgs. [cited by applicant]