Non-Blind Image Deblurring Method Using Shear High Order Total Variation Norm

In this paper, we propose a shear high-order gradient (SHOG) operator by combining the shear operator and high-order gradient (HOG) operator. Compared with the HOG operator, the proposed SHOG operator can incorporate more directionality and detect more abundant edge information. Based on the SHOG operator, we extend the total variation (TV) norm to shear high-order total variation (SHOTV), and then propose a SHOTV deblurring model. We also study some properties of the SHOG operator, and show that the SHOG matrices are Block Circulant with Circulant Blocks (BCCB) when the shear angle is [see formula in PDF]. The proposed model is solved efficiently by the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms some state-of-the-art non-blind deblurring methods in both objective and perceptual quality.

Spectral Norm Regularization for Blind Image Deblurring

Blind image deblurring is a well-known ill-posed inverse problem in the computer vision field. To make the problem well-posed, this paper puts forward a plain but effective regularization method, namely spectral norm regularization (SN), which can be regarded as the symmetrical form of the spectral norm. This work is inspired by the observation that the SN value increases after the image is blurred. Based on this observation, a blind deblurring algorithm (BDA-SN) is designed. BDA-SN builds a deblurring estimator for the image degradation process by investigating the inherent properties of SN and an image gradient. Compared with previous image regularization methods, SN shows more vital abilities to differentiate clear and degraded images. Therefore, the SN of an image can effectively help image deblurring in various scenes, such as text, face, natural, and saturated images. Qualitative and quantitative experimental evaluations demonstrate that BDA-SN can achieve favorable performances on actual and simulated images, with the average PSNR reaching 31.41, especially on the benchmark dataset of Levin et al.

The enhanced deep Plug-and-play super-resolution algorithm with residual channel attention networks

In the field of super-resolution image reconstruction, as a learning-based method, deep plug-and-play super-resolution (DPSR) algorithm can be used to find the blur kernel by using the existing blind deblurring methods. However, DPSR is not flexible enough in processing images with high- and low-frequency information. Considering a channel attention mechanism can distinguish low-frequency information and features in low-resolution images, in this paper, we firstly introduce this mechanism and design a new residual channel attention networks (RCAN); then the RCAN is adopted to replace deep feature extraction part in DPSR to achieve the adaptive adjustment of channel characteristics. Through four test experiments based on Set5, Set14, Urban100 and BSD100 datasets, we find that, under different blur kernels and different scale factors, the average peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) values of our proposed method increase by 0.31dB and 0.55%, respectively; under different noise levels, the average PSNR and SSIM values increase by 0.26dB and 0.51%, respectively.

Frequency Disentanglement Distillation Image Deblurring Network

Due to the blur information and content information entanglement in the blind deblurring task, it is very challenging to directly recover the sharp latent image from the blurred image. Considering that in the high-dimensional feature map, blur information mainly exists in the low-frequency region, and content information exists in the high-frequency region. In this paper, we propose a encoder–decoder model to realize disentanglement from the perspective of frequency, and we named it as frequency disentanglement distillation image deblurring network (FDDN). First, we modified the traditional distillation block by embedding the frequency split block (FSB) in the distillation block to separate the low-frequency and high-frequency region. Second, the modified distillation block, we named frequency distillation block (FDB), can recursively distill the low-frequency feature to disentangle the blurry information from the content information, so as to improve the restored image quality. Furthermore, to reduce the complexity of the network and ensure the high-dimension of the feature map, the frequency distillation block (FDB) is placed on the end of encoder to edit the feature map on the latent space. Quantitative and qualitative experimental evaluations indicate that the FDDN can remove the blur effect and improve the image quality of actual and simulated images.

Fast Blind Deblurring of QR Code Images Based on Adaptive Scale Control

With the development of 5G technology, the short delay requirements of commercialization and large amounts of data change our lifestyle day-to-day. In this background, this paper proposes a fast blind deblurring algorithm for QR code images, which mainly achieves the effect of adaptive scale control by introducing an evaluation mechanism. Its main purpose is to solve the out-of-focus caused by lens shake, inaccurate focus, and optical noise by speeding up the latent image estimation in the process of multi-scale division iterative deblurring. The algorithm optimizes productivity under the guidance of collaborative computing, based on the characteristics of the QR codes, such as the features of gradient and strength. In the evaluation step, the Tenengrad method is used to evaluate the image quality, and the evaluation value is compared with the empirical value obtained from the experimental data. Combining with the error correction capability, the recognizable QR codes will be output. In addition, we introduced a scale control parameter to study the relationship between the recognition rate and restoration time. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has high recovery efficiency and well recovery effect, can be effectively applied in industrial applications.

Tracking by Deblatting

Objects moving at high speed along complex trajectories often appear in videos, especially videos of sports. Such objects travel a considerable distance during exposure time of a single frame, and therefore, their position in the frame is not well defined. They appear as semi-transparent streaks due to the motion blur and cannot be reliably tracked by general trackers. We propose a novel approach called Tracking by Deblatting based on the observation that motion blur is directly related to the intra-frame trajectory of an object. Blur is estimated by solving two intertwined inverse problems, blind deblurring and image matting, which we call deblatting. By postprocessing, non-causal Tracking by Deblatting estimates continuous, complete, and accurate object trajectories for the whole sequence. Tracked objects are precisely localized with higher temporal resolution than by conventional trackers. Energy minimization by dynamic programming is used to detect abrupt changes of motion, called bounces. High-order polynomials are then fitted to smooth trajectory segments between bounces. The output is a continuous trajectory function that assigns location for every real-valued time stamp from zero to the number of frames. The proposed algorithm was evaluated on a newly created dataset of videos from a high-speed camera using a novel Trajectory-IoU metric that generalizes the traditional Intersection over Union and measures the accuracy of the intra-frame trajectory. The proposed method outperforms the baselines both in recall and trajectory accuracy. Additionally, we show that from the trajectory function precise physical calculations are possible, such as radius, gravity, and sub-frame object velocity. Velocity estimation is compared to the high-speed camera measurements and radars. Results show high performance of the proposed method in terms of Trajectory-IoU, recall, and velocity estimation.

Blind Deblurring Based on Sigmoid Function

Blind image deblurring, also known as blind image deconvolution, is a long-standing challenge in the field of image processing and low-level vision. To restore a clear version of a severely degraded image, this paper proposes a blind deblurring algorithm based on the sigmoid function, which constructs novel blind deblurring estimators for both the original image and the degradation process by exploring the excellent property of sigmoid function and considering image derivative constraints. Owing to these symmetric and non-linear estimators of low computation complexity, high-quality images can be obtained by the algorithm. The algorithm is also extended to image sequences. The sigmoid function enables the proposed algorithm to achieve state-of-the-art performance in various scenarios, including natural, text, face, and low-illumination images. Furthermore, the method can be extended naturally to non-uniform deblurring. Quantitative and qualitative experimental evaluations indicate that the algorithm can remove the blur effect and improve the image quality of actual and simulated images. Finally, the use of sigmoid function provides a new approach to algorithm performance optimization in the field of image restoration.