Smoothness of Nonlinear Median-Interpolation Subdivision

We give a refined analysis of the Hölder regularity for the limit functions arising from a nonlinear pyramid algorithm for robust removal of non-Gaussian noise proposed by Donoho and Yu 6,7,17]. The synthesis part of this algorithm can be interpreted as a nonlinear triadic subdivision scheme where new points are inserted based on local quadratic polynomial median interpolation and imputation. We introduce the analogon of the Donoho–Yu scheme for dyadic refinement, and show that its limit functions are in C for >log₄(128/31)=1.0229.... In the triadic case, we improve the lower bound of >log₂(135/121)=0.0997... previously obtained in 6] to >log₃(135/53)=0.8510.... These lower bounds are relatively close to the anticipated upper bounds of log₂(16/7)=1.1982... in the dyadic, respectivly 1 in the triadic cases, and have been obtained by deriving recursive inequalities for the norm of second rather than first order differences of the sequences arising in the subdivision process.