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arXiv:2307.06542 · Frontiers in Computer Science

Quantum image denoising: a framework via Boltzmann machines, QUBO, and quantum annealing

Phillip Kerger, Ryoji Miyazaki

Published Oct 19, 2023• 9 citations
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Abstract

We investigate a framework for binary image denoising via restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) that introduces a denoising objective in quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) form well-suited for quantum annealing. The denoising objective is attained by balancing the distribution learned by a trained RBM with a penalty term for derivations from the noisy image. We derive the statistically optimal choice of the penalty parameter assuming the target distribution has been well-approximated, and further suggest an empirically supported modification to make the method robust to that idealistic assumption. We also show under additional assumptions that the denoised images attained by our method are, in expectation, strictly closer to the noise-free images than the noisy images are. While we frame the model as an image denoising model, it can be applied to any binary data. As the QUBO formulation is well-suited for implementation on quantum annealers, we test the model on a D-Wave Advantage machine, and also test on data too large for current quantum annealers by approximating QUBO solutions through classical heuristics.

DOI
10.3389/fcomp.2023.1281100

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We investigate a framework for binary image denoising via restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) that introduces a denoising objective in quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) form well-suited for quantum annealing. The denoising objective is attained by balancing the distribution learned by a trained RBM with a penalty term for derivations from the noisy image. We derive the statistically optimal choice of the penalty parameter assuming the target distribution has been well-approximated, and further suggest an empirically supported modification to make the method robust to that idealistic assumption. We also show under additional assumptions that the denoised images attained by our method are, in expectation, strictly closer to the noise-free images than the noisy images are. While we frame the model as an image denoising model, it can be applied to any binary data. As the QUBO formulation is well-suited for implementation on quantum annealers, we test the model on a D-Wave Advantage machine, and also test on data too large for current quantum annealers by approximating QUBO solutions through classical heuristics.
Understanding how the D-Wave quantum computer could be used for machine learning problems is of growing interest. Our work explores the feasibility of using the D-Wave as a sampler for a machine learning task. We describe a hybrid method that combines a classical deep neural network autoencoder with a quantum annealing Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) using the D-Wave for image generation. Our method overcomes two key limitations in the 2000-qubit D-Wave processor, namely the limited number of qubits available to accommodate typical problem sizes for fully connected quantum objective functions, and samples that are binary pixel representations. As a consequence of these limitations we are able to show how we achieved nearly a 22-fold compression factor of grayscale 28 x 28 sized images to binary 6 x 6 sized images with a lossy recovery of the original 28 x 28 grayscale images. We further show how generating samples from the D-Wave after training the RBM, resulted in 28 x 28 images that were variations of the original input data distribution, as opposed to recreating the training samples. We evaluated the quality of this method by using a downstream classification method. We formulated a MNIST classification problem using a deep convolutional neural network that used samples from the quantum RBM to train the MNIST classifier and compared the results with a MNIST classifier trained with the original MNIST training data set, as well as a MNIST classifier trained using classical RBM samples. We also explored using a secondary dataset, the MNIST Fashion dataset and demonstrate the first quantum-generated fashion. Our hybrid autoencoder approach indicates advantage for RBM results relative to the use of a current RBM classical computer implementation for image-based machine learning and even more promising results for the next generation D-Wave quantum system. Our method for compression and image mappings is not constrained to RBMs, the autoencoder part of this method could be coupled with other quantum-based algorithms.
We simulate Quantum Annealing on a variational manifold defined by a parametric family of wavefunctions represented by a Restricted Boltzmann Machine architecture. By iteratively lowering the transverse field and optimizing the neural network parameters, we prove the effectiveness of our methods for a challenging class of real-world Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) instances, namely the Job Shop Scheduling Problem. Our methods outperform a straightforward optimization of the same problem without simulated quantum fluctuations. Despite the QUBO model being equivalent to a frustrated Ising spin glass, we obtain exact solutions up to 50-100 binary variables and empirically outperform results obtained with D-Wave quantum annealers.
This paper proposes an integrated QUBO-based quantum-annealing optimization framework for next-generation cloud computing. First, for resource-demand forecasting, we blend Autoregressive (AR) models with Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) and solve the resulting problem via Simulated Annealing; monthly-scale tests reveal superior trend-capture accuracy compared with classical predictors. Second, we embed quantum optimization into Support Vector Machines by casting kernel selection and penalty-parameter tuning as QUBO instances; evaluations on the Iris benchmark—and on synthetically enlarged variants—show marked gains in both classification accuracy and training speed, especially under large-data regimes. Third, we extend the same paradigm to deep learning: a QUBO-formulated quantum-annealing routine optimizes weight initialization and layer-wise learning rates in convolutional networks for image classification, yielding higher top-1 accuracy and reduced wall-clock training time. Across all tasks the hybrid quantum-classical solver consistently outperforms its classical counterparts while maintaining linear scalability in cloud environments. These results show the practical potential of quantum - enhanced algorithms for resource prediction, classification, and deep learning, and pave the way for wider use of quantum technologies in cloud - based AI services.
Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) have been proposed for developing neural networks for a variety of unsupervised machine learning applications such as image recognition, drug discovery, and materials design. The Boltzmann probability distribution is used as a model to identify network parameters by optimizing the likelihood of predicting an output given hidden states trained on available data. Training such networks often requires sampling over a large probability space that must be approximated during gradient based optimization. Quantum annealing has been proposed as a means to search this space more efficiently which has been experimentally investigated on D-Wave hardware. D-Wave implementation requires selection of an effective inverse temperature or hyperparameter ([Formula: see text]) within the Boltzmann distribution which can strongly influence optimization. Here, we show how this parameter can be estimated as a hyperparameter applied to D-Wave hardware during neural network training by maximizing the likelihood or minimizing the Shannon entropy. We find both methods improve training RBMs based upon D-Wave hardware experimental validation on an image recognition problem. Neural network image reconstruction errors are evaluated using Bayesian uncertainty analysis which illustrate more than an order magnitude lower image reconstruction error using the maximum likelihood over manually optimizing the hyperparameter. The maximum likelihood method is also shown to out-perform minimizing the Shannon entropy for image reconstruction.
This paper explores the applications of quantum annealing (QA) and classical simulated annealing (SA) to a suite of combinatorial optimization problems in machine learning, namely feature selection, instance selection, and clustering. We formulate each task as a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem and implement both quantum and classical solvers to compare their effectiveness. For feature selection, we propose several QUBO configurations that balance feature importance and redundancy, showing that quantum annealing (QA) produces solutions that are computationally more efficient. In instance selection, we propose a few novel heuristics for instance-level importance measures that extend existing methods. For clustering, we embed a classical-to-quantum pipeline, using classical clustering followed by QUBO-based medoid refinement, and demonstrate consistent improvements in cluster compactness and retrieval metrics. Our results suggest that QA can be a competitive and efficient tool for discrete machine learning optimization, even within the constraints of current quantum hardware.
This paper describes the components and configurations available in a new quantum-assisted machine learning (QAML) framework. QAML is an open source package that provides a new and flexible test-bed for algorithms to train and evaluate Boltzmann machines (BMs) using quantum annealers. Quantum annealing processors enable the training capabilities for both restricted (RBM) and general Boltzmann machines (BM). These methods rely on the fidelity of samples from those devices, which approximate the characteristic Boltzmann distribution of the BM models. The models and optimization functions are built on top of the PyTorch and D-Wave Ocean libraries. The goal of this paper is to introduce developers and researchers to a familiar, yet flexible, software development framework, to explore the use of quantum computing in machine learning applications. The framework is open-source and has been made publicly available.