Resolution enhancement of monochrome and color video using motion compensation

We propose an iterative algorithm for enhancing the resolution of monochrome and color image sequences. Various approaches toward motion estimation are investigated and compared. Improving the spatial resolution of an image sequence critically depends upon the accuracy of the motion estimator. The problem is complicated by the fact that the motion field is prone to significant errors since the original high-resolution images are not available. Improved motion estimates may be obtained by using a more robust and accurate motion estimator, such as a pel-recursive scheme instead of block matching, in processing color image sequences, there is the added advantage of having more flexibility in how the final motion estimates are obtained, and further improvement in the accuracy of the motion field is therefore possible. This is because there are three different intensity fields (channels) conveying the same motion information. In this paper, the choice of which motion estimator to use versus how the final estimates are obtained is weighed to see which issue is more critical in improving the estimated high-resolution sequences. Toward this end, an iterative algorithm is proposed, and two sets of experiments are presented. First, several different experiments using the same motion estimator but three different data fusion approaches to merge the individual motion fields were performed. Second, estimated high-resolution images using the block matching estimator were compared to those obtained by employing a pel-recursive scheme. Experiments were performed on a real color image sequence, and performance was measured by the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR).