Image interpolation using a variation-based approach

The goal of image interpolation is to produce a high-resolution image from its low-resolution counterpart. It has significant applications in video sensor network, where the resolution of images usually need to be enhanced at the end user due to the limited transmission bandwidth. The key challenge of image interpolation is to preserve the edge structure of the image. In this paper, a new image interpolation approach is proposed to adaptively adjust the interpolation according to the directional variations of images. More specifically, at each pixel position to be interpolated, its neighboring pixels are projected according to a number of proposed patterns. Then the direction of which the variation is smallest is chosen as the direction to perform image interpolation. Experimental results are provided to show that the proposed approach outperforms several conventional edge-directed image interpolation algorithms.