High-resolution image generation using warping transformations

High-resolution image generation using warping transformations

In recent years the emphasis for applications of 3D modelling has shifted from measurement to visualization. New communication and visualization technologies have created an important demand for photo-realistic content in 3D real-time animations, interactive fly-overs and walk-arounds, panoramic images, visualizations and simulations based on real-world data.

These image-based approaches require acquisition procedures that are simple and flexible with the use of consumer photo- or video-cameras. Ideally the user should be able to move freely while acquiring the images with any device ranging from a mobile phone to a video camera. In this context, a device independent algorithm for the estimation of an enhanced resolution image from multiple low-resolution and distorted compressed video images having arbitrary views is proposed in this paper.

This process of spatial image enhancement is demonstrated here in a controlled scenario whereby the different views of the same scene are warped, firstly, to a common orientation so that a rigorous least squares area-based matching technique can then compute the registration parameters needed for their accurate combination. The sequence is acquired using a digital camera in video mode, which samples the image of a static scene from different angles.

The warping is an iterative process relying on manual intervention and is used here to compensate for the different range of scales and orientations of the low-resolution imagery. Once this imagery is brought into registration and complies with pre-established image correlation criteria, they are combined to recover a high-resolution composite. Although the quality and resolution of the sensor arrays used to capture digital data continue to evolve, it is important that any technique used to enhance spatial resolution must be device independent, thus capable of using input from not only low-resolution images but also from higher resolution devices.

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