This book functions as the definitive overview of the field of super-resolution imaging. Written by the leading researchers in the field of image and video super-resolution, it surveys the latest state-of-the-art techniques in super-resolution imaging. Each detailed chapter provides coverage of the implementations and applications of super-resolution imaging. Its 14 sections span a wide range of modern super-resolution imaging techniques and includes variational, Bayesian, feature-based, multi-channel, learning-based, locally adaptive, and nonparametric methods. It discusses, among others, medical, military, and remote-sensing applications. The book can be used as a reference, a basis for short-courses on the subject, or as part of a graduate course on digital image processing.
If you have never seen the movie Blade Runner, you should. Aside from being one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, it is uniquely relevant to the subject of this book: almost 30 years ago, the opening scene of this movie foresaw the idea of super-resolution. In the intervening years, a great deal has transpired: computing power has increased by orders of magnitude, digital cameras are everywhere, and of course digital displays have become magnificently detailed. Along with these advances, the public’s expectations for high-quality imagery has naturally intensified, often out of proportion with the state-of-the-art technology. In fact, in the last few years, the visual quality of captured images and video has not kept pace with these lofty expectations. By packing increasingly larger number of pixels into ever smaller spaces, and using less sophisticated optical elements, public, commercial, and official users alike have seen an overall decline in the visual quality of their recorded content. So despite what might at first seem like a losing battle against better and cheaper sensors, super-resolution technology (and image enhancement more generally) has really become more relevant than ever. Given that almost all recorded visual content is now enhanced in one form or another by just about every digital camera sold today, it is not entirely outrageous then to believe that before long, super-resolution will become the ”killer application” for imaging.