Random Is All You Need: Random Noise Injection on Feature Statistics for Generalizable Deep Image Denoising

Recent advancements in generalizable deep image denoising have catalyzed the development of robust noise-handling models. The current state-of-the-art, Masked Training (MT), constructs a masked SwinIR model which is trained exclusively on Gaussian noise (σ =15) but can achieve commendable denoising performance across various noise types (i.e. speckle noise, poisson noise). However, this method, while focusing on content reconstruction, often produces over-smoothed images and poses challenges in mask ratio optimization, complicating its integration with other methodologies. In response, this paper introduces RNINet, a novel architecture built on a streamlined encoder-decoder framework to enhance both efficiency and overall performance. Initially, we train a pure RNINet (only simple encoder-decoder) on individual noise types, observing that feature statistics such as mean and variance shift in response to different noise conditions. Leveraging these insights, we incorporate a noise injection block that injects random noise into feature statistics within our framework, significantly improving generalization across unseen noise types. Our framework not only simplifies the architectural complexity found in MT but also delivers superior performance. Comprehensive experimental evaluations demonstrate that our method outperforms MT in various unseen noise conditions in terms of denoising effectiveness and computational efficiency (lower MACs and GPU memory usage), achieving up to 10 times faster inference speeds and underscoring it's capability for large scale deployments.