Disocclusion by Joint Interpolation of Vector Fields and Gray Levels

Abstract

In this paper we study a variational approach for filling in regions of missing data in two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital images. Applications of this technique include the restoration of old photographs and removal of superimposed text like dates, subtitles, or publicity, or the zooming of images. The approach presented here, initially introduced in [IEEE Trans. Image Process., 10 (2001), pp. 1200--1211] is based on a joint interpolation of the image gray levels and gradient/isophotes directions, smoothly extending the isophote lines into the holes of missing data. The process underlying this approach can be considered as an interpretation of the Gestaltist's principle of good continuation. We study the existence of minimizers of our functional and its approximation by minima of smoother functionals. Then we present the numerical algorithm used to minimize it and display some numerical experiments.