A de-interlacing algorithm using Markov random field model.

In this paper, a motion-compensated de-interlacing algorithm using the Markov random field (MRF) model is proposed. The de-interlacing problem is formulated as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) MRF problem. The MAP solution is the one that minimizes an energy function, which imposes discontinuity-adaptive smoothness (DAS) spatial constraint on the de-interlaced frame. The edge direction information, which is used to formulate the DAS constraint, is implicitly indicated by weight vectors (weights for 16 digitized directions). Generally, large weights are assigned to along-edge directions and relatively small weights are assigned to across-edge directions. As a local statistical-based method, the proposed weighting method should be more robust than traditional edge-directed interpolation methods in deciding local edge directions. The proposed algorithm is implemented by an iterative optimization process, which guarantees convergence. However, a global optimal solution is not guaranteed due to computational complexity concern. Simulation results compare the proposed algorithm to other motion compensated de-interlacing algorithms. Significant improvements of de-interlaced edges are observed.     

Selective Data Pruning-Based Compression Using High-Order Edge-Directed Interpolation

This paper proposes a selective data pruning-based compression scheme to improve the rate-distortion relation of compressed images and video sequences. The original frames are pruned to a smaller size before compression. After decoding, they are interpolated back to their original size by an edge-directed interpolation method. The data pruning phase is optimized to obtain the minimal distortion in the interpolation phase. Furthermore, a novel high-order interpolation is proposed to adapt the interpolation to several edge directions in the current frame. This high-order filtering uses more surrounding pixels in the frame than the fourth-order edge-directed method and it is more robust. The algorithm is also considered for multiframe-based interpolation by using spatio-temporally surrounding pixels coming from the previous frame. Simulation results are shown for both image interpolation and coding applications to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.      

一种边缘定向平滑图像插值算法

针对传统图像放大算法边缘处理效果较差,自适应图像插值方法存在高计算复杂度的问题,该文提出一种有效增强图像边缘轮廓的插值放大算法。该算法结合边缘定向平滑滤波器和双线性插值的特点,使得图像在平坦和非平坦区域均能取得理想效果。仿真测试结果表明,与基于统计特征的自适应插值算法相比,该文提出算法能显著提高插值速度,平均运行时间降低8.33 s;与双三次插值算法相比,图像峰值信噪比平均增加0.30 dB。     

New edge-directed interpolation

This paper proposes an edge-directed interpolation algorithm for natural images. The basic idea is to first estimate local covariance coefficients from a low-resolution image and then use these covariance estimates to adapt the interpolation at a higher resolution based on the geometric duality between the low-resolution covariance and the high-resolution covariance. The edge-directed property of covariance-based adaptation attributes to its capability of tuning the interpolation coefficients to match an arbitrarily oriented step edge. A hybrid approach of switching between bilinear interpolation and covariance-based adaptive interpolation is proposed to reduce the overall computational complexity. Two important applications of the new interpolation algorithm are studied: resolution enhancement of grayscale images and reconstruction of color images from CCD samples. Simulation results demonstrate that our new interpolation algorithm substantially improves the subjective quality of the interpolated images over conventional linear interpolation.     

基于Curvelet的纹理方向自适应图像插值

为提高纹理复杂图像的插值放大质量,提出一种纹理方向自适应的图像插值算法。首先利用Curvelet变换提取图像的4个方向因子矩阵,然后对不同类插值点选择相应的2个方向因子构造权重系数进行线性插值,从而自适应地重建各类待插值点。分析比较了本文与现有插值算法对平滑与纹理复杂区域的插值重建质量。实验结果表明,本文算法能有效抑制传统插值方法重建图像时出现的边缘模糊和锯齿现象,重构的图像效果优于传统方法,纹理丰富图像的重构质量可提高2dB以上。     

基于结构成分双向扩散的图像插值算法

该文提出一种基于结构成分双向扩散的插值方法,有效地减小了插值图像的边缘扩散,从而获得更为清晰的边缘。该方法采用改进的耦合双向扩散滤波器对轮廓模板插值图像进行边缘增强。其中,为了使滤波器更精确地作用于边缘轮廓,利用形态成分分析(MCA)分离出初始插值图像中的结构分量再实行滤波;同时,改进双向扩散模型,使其能够根据边缘梯度自适应地调整边缘扩散程度,且更加柔和地控制梯度方向的像素值变化。实验结果表明,对比传统的插值方法、相关的边缘自适应插值方法以及几种应用普遍的商用软件,该方法获得的插值图像主、客观质量均有明显提升,不仅有效提高图像锐度,且边缘光滑、过渡自然,避免产生边缘锯齿和过度的人工效应。     

一种基于边缘方向的双线性插值方法

针对传统的双线性插值存在的图像边缘模糊问题,本文提出一种改进方法。首先根据插值点的几何位置及邻点的灰度大小,确定插值点灰度的梯度方向和边缘方向,然后沿边缘方向进行双线性插值。该方法可实现沿任意边缘方向的插值,并且计算简单。实验结果表明,该方法与传统的双线性插值法相比,插值图像的平均梯度增加而均方误差减小,有效地提高了插值图像的质量。     

Morphological Image Enlargements

This paper presents a method based in mathematical morphology to enlarge images. It does not make the low pass assumption which is common to all linear interpolation methods and which does not often hold for images. Pixels in smooth areas are properly interpolated by linear methods while those at the edges are not. The method begins with a linear interpolation and a gradient computation. The gradient serves as a measure of confidence about the linear interpolation. Then, the proposed algorithm processes the pixels in a certain order: first pixels with high confidence (smooth zones) of the image and those with a low one (edges) at the end. By doing so, it preserves both slow variations and sharp edges. The method can be applied to other image processing problems, such as edge enhancement or motion vector estimation, where there is an image and confidence information about each pixel.     

自适应边缘保持图像缩放及VLSI设计

提出的自适应边缘保持图像缩放方法,以自适应的方式对传统的线性插值方法非线性修正,使得不同位置的像素采用相应的插值方法.边缘保持插值算法能消除图像边缘模糊,锯齿效应,棋盘效应等,达到增强插值图像的效果.本算法处理后的放大图像的边缘更加锐利,能够实现图像的无级放大,可应用于实际的数字视频处理芯片中.     

Edge Preserving Interpolation of Digital Images Using Fuzzy Inference

This paper presents a novel edge preserving interpolation method for digital images. This new method reduces drastically the blurring and jaggy artifacts at the high-contrast edges, which are generally found in the interpolated images using conventional methods. This high performance is achieved by two proposed operations: a fuzzy-inference based edge preserving interpolator and a highly oblique edge compensation scheme developed based on an edge orientation detector. The former synthesizes the interpolated pixels to match the image local characteristics. Hence, edge sharpness can be retained. However, due to the small footage of the fuzzy interpolation method, it cannot avoid edge jaggedness along the highly oblique edges that have very sharp angles against one of the coordinates. Therefore, a segment matching technique is developed to identify precisely the orientation of the highly oblique edges. Combining these two techniques, we improve significantly the visual quality of the interpolated images, particularly at the high-contrast edges. Both the synthesized images (such as letters) and the natural scenes (captured by camera) have been tested and the results are very promising.     

Edge-based image restoration.

In this paper, we propose a new image inpainting algorithm that relies on explicit edge information. The edge information is used both for the reconstruction of a skeleton image structure in the missing areas, as well as for guiding the interpolation that follows. The structure reconstruction part exploits different properties of the edges, such as the colors of the objects they separate, an estimate of how well one edge continues into another one, and the spatial order of the edges with respect to each other. In order to preserve both sharp and smooth edges, the areas delimited by the recovered structure are interpolated independently, and the process is guided by the direction of the nearby edges. The novelty of our approach lies primarily in exploiting explicitly the constraint enforced by the numerical interpretation of the sequential order of edges, as well as in the pixel filling method which takes into account the proximity and direction of edges. Extensive experiments are carried out in order to validate and compare the algorithm both quantitatively and qualitatively. They show the advantages of our algorithm and its readily application to real world cases.     

一种基于边缘判决的空域差错掩盖算法

提出了一种基于边缘判决的解码视频空域差错掩盖算法。该算法首先对丢失块邻域中的像素进行边缘检测,并对检测出的边缘判断其是否会穿过丢失块。然后使用方向选择过程提取多个候选插值方向,并通过边界像素灰度差决定最终插值方向。实验结果表明本算法有效地提高了错误图像的掩盖效果。     

An improved image interpolation algorithm

The paper sets forth an improved edge-directed image interpolation algorithm with low time complexity which is the combination of Newton’s method and edge-directed method. It first partitions images into homogeneous areas and edge areas by setting a preset threshold value based on the local structure characteristics, and then specified algorithms are assigned to interpolate each classified areas, respectively. In this way, it achieves the goals of real-time interpolation and good subjective quality. The interpolated images have higher peak signal noise ratios (PSNR) and better visual effects using proposed method than that of using other algorithms referred to in this paper. Experimental results show that proposed method is highly performed in image interpolation.

Feature preserving image interpolation by adaptive bidirectional flow

Most image interpolation algorithms currently used suffer visually to some extent the effects of blurred edges and jagged artifacts in the image. This letter presents an adaptive feature preserving bidirectional flow process, where an inverse diffusion is performed to enhance edges along the normal directions to the isophote lines （edges）, while a normal diffusion is done to remove artifacts （＂jaggies＂） along the tangent directions. In order to preserve image features such as edges, angles and textures, the nonlinear diffusion coefficients are locally adjusted according to the first order and the second order directional derivatives of the image. Experimental results on the Lena image demonstrate that our interpolation algorithm substantially improves the subjective quality of the interpolated images over conventional interpolations.     

使用方向参数的双三次图像内插方法

传统的双三次内插方法仅在水平和垂直方向估计丢失的像素,易在边缘或纹理区域产生抖动、振铃等现象。为了克服这种现象,提出一种新的使用方向参数的双三次图像内插方法。对待内插的像素,首先在其邻域计算水平、垂直、45°和135°四个方向的梯度,以提取图像局部边缘的强度和方向。对强边缘上的像素,直接沿边缘方向采用对应方向的双三次内插模型估计像素值;否则,先分别沿梯度较大的两个方向采用相应方向的双三次内插模型估计像素,然后采用适当的权系数对所得结果加权平均。此外,为减小计算复杂度,方法中还根据图像局部方差的大小,动态使用双线性内插方法。相比于双三次内插,提出的方法能有效地保存图像边缘和细节;同时,提出的方法还能够实现任意倍数的放大。实验结果表明,与现有的边缘导向的图像内插方法相比,提出的方法具有更好的主观和客观效果,同时计算复杂度并不高。      

非局部特征方向图像插值方法研究

提出了一种非局部的特征方向图像插值方法,有效地保持了插值图像轮廓的光滑,抑制了图像边缘的模糊.这种方法把非局部Hessian矩阵的特征向量视为图像特征方向,使图像能量泛函沿这个方向进行扩散,其扩散强度由图像局部Hessian矩阵特征值参与控制.它克服了传统方法以梯度方向指示图像特征方向的局部性,使图像能量泛函沿正确方向扩散,避免了对图像特征的模糊.数值实验结果显示,该方法既能很好地重建插值图像的边缘,又不会在插值图像中产生伪影或图像边缘失真.     

基于小波的方向自适应图像插值

图像插值是图像处理的一项重要技术,经典的插值算法会产生细节模糊和边缘锯齿现象。该文提出一种基于小波的方向自适应图像插值方法,将小波变换思想和局部方向自适应插值方法结合。为了获得清晰的细节部分,对图像实施改进的方向自适应双线性插值;结合小波方法,提高插值图像的高频细节信息,并进行相关后处理,增强视觉效果。实验结果表明,该文方法插值后的图像边缘清晰光滑,有效抑制了边缘模糊和锯齿现象,相比较传统方法,插值图像的客观质量和视觉效果都得到明显增强,更加适合人眼视觉系统。     

双层约束下基于局部和全局信息的图像插值新模型

该文提出一种双层约束的图像插值模型,模型在原始未插值图像梯度模约束下同时基于局部和全局信息处理。使用偏微分方程处理边缘像素,锐化边缘同时平滑边缘块状效应;平滑区域像素点的插值操作使用非局部均值模型,非局部均值模型通过对原始图像全局信息加权平均得到待处理图像像素值,图像平滑。使用双层约束模型处理纹理图像可以保持纹理特征,平滑纹理部分线形特征位置的块状效应。最后理论和实验结果证明使用双层控制模型可以直接将噪声图像插值放大。     

Nonlocal low-rank matrix completion for image interpolation using edge detection and neural network

In this paper, we propose a nonlocal low-rank matrix completion method using edge detection and neural network to effectively exploit the nonlocal inter-pixel correlation for image interpolation and other possible applications. We first interpolate the images using some basic techniques, such as bilinear and edge-directed methods. Then, each image patch is categorized as smooth regions, edge regions, or texture regions and adaptive interpolating mechanisms are applied to each specific type of regions. Finally, for each specific type of regions, neural networks and low-rank matrix completion are employed to accurately update the results. An iteratively re-weighted minimization algorithm is used to solve the low-rank energy minimization function. Our experiments on benchmark images clearly indicate that the proposed method produces much better results than some existing algorithms using a variety of image quality metric in terms of both objective image quality assessment and subjective quality assessment.     

Real-time artifact-free image upscaling

The problem of creating artifact-free upscaled images appearing sharp and natural to the human observer is probably more interesting and less trivial than it may appear. The solution to the problem, often referred to also as "single-image super-resolution," is related both to the statistical relationship between low-resolution and high-resolution image sampling and to the human perception of image quality. In many practical applications, simple linear or cubic interpolation algorithms are applied for this task, but the results obtained are not really satisfactory, being affected by relevant artifacts like blurring and jaggies. Several methods have been proposed to obtain better results, involving simple heuristics, edge modeling, or statistical learning. The most powerful ones, however, present a high computational complexity and are not suitable for real-time applications, while fast methods, even if edge adaptive, are not able to provide artifacts-free images. In this paper, we describe a new upscaling method (iterative curvature-based interpolation) based on a two-step grid filling and an iterative correction of the interpolated pixels obtained by minimizing an objective function depending on the second-order directional derivatives of the image intensity. We show that the constraints used to derive the function are related with those applied in another well-known interpolation method, providing good results but computationally heavy (i.e., new edge-directed interpolation (NEDI). The high quality of the images enlarged with the new method is demonstrated with objective and subjective tests, while the computation time is reduced of one to two orders of magnitude with respect to NEDI so that we were able, using a graphics processing unit implementation based on the nVidia Compute Unified Device Architecture technology, to obtain real-time performances.