PSO-based Fusion Method for Video Super-Resolution

In this study, video super-resolution using particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to super-resolve low-resolution (LR) frames. The proposed super-resolution method consists of three main modules, i.e., supersampling, spatio-temporal classification, and frame fusion using PSO. In the proposed method, the LR frames are super-resolved to high-resolution frames through the fusion of four full-resolution frames. One of four full-resolution frames is obtained using direct spatial interpolation, and the other three are obtained using motion compensation with given reference frames. The essence of the proposed method is the spatio-temporal classification mechanism that exploits the temporal variation between frames and the spatial energy inside the frame. Using the classification results, PSO is used to determine the optimal weights for frame fusion. Simulation results show that the proposed fusion method successfully improves the perceptual quality and the average peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) in super-resolved frames.