Edge-directed Interpolation Method Research Articles

Global motion based video super-resolution reconstruction using discrete wavelet transform

Different from the existing super-resolution (SR) reconstruction approaches working under either the frequency-domain or the spatial- domain, this paper proposes an improved video SR approach based on both frequency and spatial-domains to improve the spatial resolution and recover the noiseless high-frequency components of the observed noisy low-resolution video sequences with global motion. An iterative planar motion estimation algorithm followed by a structure-adaptive normalised convolution reconstruction method are applied to produce the estimated low-frequency sub-band. The discrete wavelet transform process is employed to decompose the input low-resolution reference frame into four sub-bands, and then the new edge-directed interpolation method is used to interpolate each of the high-frequency sub-bands. The novelty of this algorithm is the introduction and integration of a nonlinear soft thresholding process to filter the estimated high-frequency sub-bands in order to better preserve the edges and remove potential noise. Another novelty of this algorithm is to provide flexibility with various motion levels, noise levels, wavelet functions, and the number of used low-resolution frames. The performance of the proposed method has been tested on three well-known videos. Both visual and quantitative results demonstrate the high performance and improved flexibility of the proposed technique over the conventional interpolation and the state-of-the-art video SR techniques in the wavelet- domain.

Autocorrelation-based interlaced to progressive format conversion

To generate a high resolution image from a low resolution one, interpolation plays a crucial role. However, conventional interpolation methods including edge-based interpolation methods have some drawbacks such as the limited number of edge directions, imprecise edge detection, and inefficient interpolation. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose a new edge-directed interpolation method, which has three aims: various edge directions, reliable edge detection, and outstanding interpolation. Since the number of candidate edge directions in the proposed method is flexible, we can use several edges included in the high resolution image. To accurately determine the edge direction, we use autocorrelation of neighboring pixels for candidate directions based on the duality between a high resolution image and its corresponding low resolution image. For the interpolation step, we utilize a Blackman–Harris windowed-sinc weighted average filter where we use correlation values obtained in the edge detection step as weights. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional methods in terms of both the subjective and the objective results.

An edge-directed interpolation method for fetal spine MR images

BackgroundFetal spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a prenatal routine for proper assessment of fetus development, especially when suspected spinal malformations occur while ultrasound fails to provide details. Limited by hardware, fetal spine MR images suffer from its low resolution.High-resolution MR images can directly enhance readability and improve diagnosis accuracy. Image interpolation for higher resolution is required in clinical situations, while many methods fail to preserve edge structures. Edge carries heavy structural messages of objects in visual scenes for doctors to detect suspicions, classify malformations and make correct diagnosis. Effective interpolation with well-preserved edge structures is still challenging.MethodIn this paper, we propose an edge-directed interpolation (EDI) method and apply it on a group of fetal spine MR images to evaluate its feasibility and performance. This method takes edge messages from Canny edge detector to guide further pixel modification. First, low-resolution (LR) images of fetal spine are interpolated into high-resolution (HR) images with targeted factor by bi-linear method. Then edge information from LR and HR images is put into a twofold strategy to sharpen or soften edge structures. Finally a HR image with well-preserved edge structures is generated. The HR images obtained from proposed method are validated and compared with that from other four EDI methods. Performances are evaluated from six metrics, and subjective analysis of visual quality is based on regions of interest (ROI).ResultsAll these five EDI methods are able to generate HR images with enriched details. From quantitative analysis of six metrics, the proposed method outperforms the other four from signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structure similarity index (SSIM), feature similarity index (FSIM) and mutual information (MI) with seconds-level time consumptions (TC). Visual analysis of ROI shows that the proposed method maintains better consistency in edge structures with the original images.ConclusionsThe proposed method classifies edge orientations into four categories and well preserves structures. It generates convincing HR images with fine details and is suitable in real-time situations. Iterative curvature-based interpolation (ICBI) method may result in crisper edges, while the other three methods are sensitive to noise and artifacts.

Modified edge-directed interpolation for images

We present a modification of the new edge-directed interpolation method that eliminates the prediction error accumulation problem by adopting a modified training window structure, and extending the covariance matching into multiple directions to suppress the covariance mismatch problem. Simulation results show that the proposed method achieves remarkable subjective performance in preserving the edge smoothness and sharpness among other methods in the literaturé. It also demonstrates consistent objective performance among a variety of images.

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.

Markov Random Field Model-Based Edge-Directed Image Interpolation

This paper presents an edge-directed image interpolation algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, the edge directions are implicitly estimated with a statistical-based approach. In opposite to explicit edge directions, the local edge directions are indicated by length-16 weighting vectors. Implicitly, the weighting vectors are used to formulate geometric regularity (GR) constraint (smoothness along edges and sharpness across edges) and the GR constraint is imposed on the interpolated image through the Markov random field (MRF) model. Furthermore, under the maximum a posteriori-MRF framework, the desired interpolated image corresponds to the minimal energy state of a 2-D random field given the low-resolution image. Simulated annealing methods are used to search for the minimal energy state from the state space. To lower the computational complexity of MRF, a single-pass implementation is designed, which performs nearly as well as the iterative optimization. Simulation results show that the proposed MRF model-based edge-directed interpolation method produces edges with strong geometric regularity. Compared to traditional methods and other edge-directed interpolation methods, the proposed method improves the subjective quality of the interpolated edges while maintaining a high PSNR level.

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.