Total variation regularized back-projection method for spatial resolution enhancement

Abstract

Iterative back-projection (IBP) technique is commonly utilized to minimize the error of the super resolution (SR) reconstruction and acquire a high spatial resolution image with appealing visual effect. However, the IBP-based SR method suffers from the chessboard and ringing effect around edges. In this paper, we employ the total variation as a part of the penalty function to minimize the reconstruction error, which helps to avoid across-edge smoothing and suppress the above-mentioned artifacts simultaneously. The experimental results validate that the proposed method leads to significant gain in terms of both the peak signal-to-noise ratio and the structural similarity index, and promotes the visual effect of the image considerably.