Method of super-resolving images
First Claim
1. A method of super-resolving images comprising the steps of:
- a) inputting multiple undersampled low resolution input images of the same scene with unknown/known and irregular/regular sub-pixel shifts among images into an image processor;
b) applying a gross shift estimation algorithm to the undersampled input low resolution images to obtain the overall shift of each image with respect to a reference image on the image processor;
c) aligning the undersampled input images according to the gross shift estimates on the image processor;
d) applying a sub-pixel shift estimation algorithm on the image processor to the aligned undersampled input images to obtain the sub-pixel shift of each image with respect to a reference image; and
e) applying an error-energy reduction algorithm to the undersampled input low resolution images with the estimated sub-pixel shifts among images to produce a high-resolution (alias-free) output image from the image processor.
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Abstract
This invention presents a super-resolution image reconstruction from a sequence of aliased imagery. The sub-pixel shifts (displacement) among the images are unknown due to uncontrolled natural jitter of the imager. A correlation method is utilized to estimate sub-pixel shifts between each low resolution aliased image with respect to a reference image. An error-energy reduction algorithm is derived to reconstruct the high-resolution alias-free output image. The main feature of this proposed error-energy reduction algorithm is that we treat the spatial samples from low-resolution images that possess unknown and irregular (uncontrolled) sub-pixel shifts as a set of constraints to populate an over-sampled (sampled above the desired output bandwidth) processing array. The estimated sub-pixel locations of these samples and their values constitute a spatial domain constraint. Furthermore, the bandwidth of the alias-free image (or the sensor imposed bandwidth) is the criterion used as a spatial frequency domain constraint on the over-sampled processing array.
67 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of super-resolving images comprising the steps of:
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a) inputting multiple undersampled low resolution input images of the same scene with unknown/known and irregular/regular sub-pixel shifts among images into an image processor; b) applying a gross shift estimation algorithm to the undersampled input low resolution images to obtain the overall shift of each image with respect to a reference image on the image processor; c) aligning the undersampled input images according to the gross shift estimates on the image processor; d) applying a sub-pixel shift estimation algorithm on the image processor to the aligned undersampled input images to obtain the sub-pixel shift of each image with respect to a reference image; and e) applying an error-energy reduction algorithm to the undersampled input low resolution images with the estimated sub-pixel shifts among images to produce a high-resolution (alias-free) output image from the image processor. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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2. A method of super-resolving images on an image processor comprising the steps of:
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a) providing multiple low resolution input images of substantially the same scene with sub-pixel shifts among images; b) dividing the input images into sub-patches in the spatial domain, where each sub-patch contains multiple small images; c) for each sub-patch; i) applying a gross shift estimation algorithm to obtain an overall gross shift estimate for each small image with respect to a reference small image; ii) aligning the small images according to the gross shift estimate; iii) applying a sub-pixel shift estimation algorithm to the aligned small images to obtain the estimated sub-pixel shift of each small image with respect to the reference small image; and iv) applying an error-energy reduction algorithm to the small images with the estimated sub-pixel shifts to produce a high-resolution (substantially alias-free) sub-patch image; and d) combining all super-resolved sub-patch images to form a high-resolution output image. - View Dependent Claims (3, 6)
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4. A method of super-resolving images on an image processor comprising the steps of:
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a) providing multiple low resolution input images of the same scene with unknown/known and irregular/regular sub-pixel shifts among images; b) applying a gross shift estimation algorithm to the input low resolution images to obtain the overall shift of each image with respect to a reference image comprising the substeps of; i. providing two input images, denoting the reference image to be the first input image and the selected image the second input image; ii. applying the Fourier transform to the first input image; iii. applying the Fourier transform to the second input image; iv. obtaining the conjugate of the second Fourier transformed image; v. correlating the first Fourier transformed image with the second conjugated Fourier transformed image; vi. applying a low-pass windowing to the said correlated image to obtain the low-pass correlated image; vii. applying the inverse Fourier transform to the said low-pass correlated image to obtain the inverse correlated image; viii. finding the peak of the said inverse correlated image; and ix. outputting the peak as the spatial overall shift of the selected image with respect to the reference image c) aligning the input images according to the gross shift estimates; d) applying a sub-pixel shift estimation algorithm to the aligned input images to obtain the sub-pixel shift of each image with respect to a reference image; and e) applying an error-energy reduction algorithm to the input low resolution images with the estimated sub-pixel shifts among images to produce a high-resolution (alias-free) output image.
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5. A method of super-resolving images on an image processor comprising the steps of:
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a) providing multiple low resolution input images of the same scene with unknown/known and irregular/regular sub-pixel shifts among images; b) applying a gross shift estimation algorithm to the input low resolution images to obtain the overall shift of each image with respect to a reference image; c) aligning the input images according to the gross shift estimates; d) applying a sub-pixel shift estimation algorithm to the aligned input images to obtain the sub-pixel shift of each image with respect to a reference image comprising the substeps of i) providing two input low resolution images, denoting the reference image to be the first input image and the selected image the second input image; ii) applying the Fourier transform to the first image; iii) applying an upsample procedure to the first Fourier transformed image to obtain the first upsampled image; iv) applying the Fourier transform to the second image; v) applying an upsampling procedure to the second Fourier transformed image to obtain the second upsampled image; vi) obtaining the conjugate of the second upsampled image; vii) correlating the first upsampled image with the second conjugated upsampled image to obtain an upsampled correlated image; viii) applying a low-pass windowing to the upsampled correlated image to obtain a low-pass upsampled correlated image; ix) applying the inverse Fourier transform to the low-pass upsampled correlated image to obtain an inverse upsampled correlated image; x) finding the peak of the inverse upsampled correlated image; and xi) outputting the peak as the sub-pixel shift of the selected image with respect to the reference image; and e) applying an error-energy reduction algorithm to the input low resolution images with the estimated sub-pixel shifts among images to produce a high-resolution (alias-free) output image.
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7. A method of super-resolving images on an image processor comprising the steps of:
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a) providing multiple low resolution input images of the same scene with unknown/known and irregular/regular sub-pixel shifts among images; b) applying a gross shift estimation algorithm to the input low resolution images to obtain the overall shift of each image with respect to a reference image; c) aligning the input images according to the gross shift estimates; d) applying a sub-pixel shift estimation algorithm to the aligned input images to obtain the sub-pixel shift of each image with respect to a reference image; and e) applying an error-energy reduction algorithm to the input low resolution images with the estimated sub-pixel shifts among images to produce a high-resolution (alias-free) output image, wherein said step of applying an error-energy reduction algorithm further includes the steps of; i) initializing a processing array by populating the grids using the input image values and sub-pixel shift estimates;
ii) applying the 2D Fourier transform to the said processing array;iii) applying spatial frequency domain constraints to the Fourier transformed processing array to obtain the constrained spatial frequency domain processing array; iv) applying the inverse 2D Fourier transform to the constrained spatial frequency domain processing array to obtain the inverse processing array; v) applying spatial domain constraints to the inverse processing array to obtain the constrained spatial domain processing array; vi) checking the error-energy reduction condition; vii) if the stopping criterion is not satisfied, going back to the step of applying the 2D Fourier transform; viii) if the stopping criterion is satisfied, going to the next step;
ix) reducing the bandwidth from the processing array to the desired output array; andx) outputting the super-resolved image with the desired bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of super-resolution reconstruction on an image processor that includes the following steps in the following order:
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a) providing multiple low resolution input images with sub-pixel shifts among images; b) dividing input images into sub-sequences; c) for each sub-sequence, applying a super-resolution image reconstruction algorithm to generate a high-resolution (alias-free) output image; d) re-group the output images to form a new sequence; e) dividing the new sequence into sub-sequences; f) for each new sub-sequence, applying the super-resolution image reconstruction algorithm to generate a high-resolution (alias-free) output image; g) checking if the resolution of the desired output image is reached; h) if the resolution of the desired output image is not reached, going to the step of re-group the said output images to form a new sequence; and i) if the resolution of the desired output image is reached, outputting the desired high-resolution output image.
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13. A method of resolving images taken by a camera subjected to uncontrolled movement, comprising:
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inputting frames of low resolution images of a scene into a processor;
at least one of the frames being affected by uncontrolled movement of the camera;estimating the sub-pixel shift among the image frames due to the movement of the camera using the processor; applying an error-energy reduction algorithm using the processor to the low-resolution input images utilizing the estimated sub-pixel shift to obtain a high-resolution output image. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification