A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss

Convolutional neural networks for single-image super-resolution have been widely used with great success. However, most of these methods use L1 loss to guide network optimization, resulting in blurry restored images with sharp edges smoothed. This is because L1 loss limits the optimization goal of t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shuran Lin, Chunjie Zhang, Yanwu Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. 2023-12-01
Series:BenchCouncil Transactions on Benchmarks, Standards and Evaluations
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772485923000650
_version_ 1797287590960824320
author Shuran Lin
Chunjie Zhang
Yanwu Yang
author_facet Shuran Lin
Chunjie Zhang
Yanwu Yang
author_sort Shuran Lin
collection DOAJ
description Convolutional neural networks for single-image super-resolution have been widely used with great success. However, most of these methods use L1 loss to guide network optimization, resulting in blurry restored images with sharp edges smoothed. This is because L1 loss limits the optimization goal of the network to the statistical average of all solutions within the solution space of that task. To go beyond the L1 loss, this paper designs an image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss. We impose additional constraints by considering the high-order gradient level of the image so that the network can focus on the recovery of fine details such as texture during the learning process. This helps to alleviate the problem of restored image texture over-smoothing to some extent. During network training, we extract the second-order gradient map of the generated image and the target image of the network by minimizing the distance between them, this guides the network to pay attention to the high-frequency detail information in the image and generate a high-resolution image with clearer edge and texture. Besides, the proposed loss function has good embeddability and can be easily integrated with existing image super-resolution networks. Experimental results show that the second-order gradient loss can significantly improve both Learned Perceptual Image Patch Similarity (LPIPS) and Frechet Inception Distance score (FID) performance over other image super-resolution deep learning models.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T18:35:33Z
format Article
id doaj.art-b2d2757381ac451fb261dc1754786e7b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2772-4859
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T18:35:33Z
publishDate 2023-12-01
publisher KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.
record_format Article
series BenchCouncil Transactions on Benchmarks, Standards and Evaluations
spelling doaj.art-b2d2757381ac451fb261dc1754786e7b2024-03-02T04:55:24ZengKeAi Communications Co. Ltd.BenchCouncil Transactions on Benchmarks, Standards and Evaluations2772-48592023-12-0134100148A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient lossShuran Lin0Chunjie Zhang1Yanwu Yang2Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Information Science and Network Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China; Institute of Information Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Information Science and Network Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China; Institute of Information Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China; Correspondence to: Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Information Science and Network Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, No.3 Shangyuancun, Haidian District, Beijing, China.School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, ChinaConvolutional neural networks for single-image super-resolution have been widely used with great success. However, most of these methods use L1 loss to guide network optimization, resulting in blurry restored images with sharp edges smoothed. This is because L1 loss limits the optimization goal of the network to the statistical average of all solutions within the solution space of that task. To go beyond the L1 loss, this paper designs an image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss. We impose additional constraints by considering the high-order gradient level of the image so that the network can focus on the recovery of fine details such as texture during the learning process. This helps to alleviate the problem of restored image texture over-smoothing to some extent. During network training, we extract the second-order gradient map of the generated image and the target image of the network by minimizing the distance between them, this guides the network to pay attention to the high-frequency detail information in the image and generate a high-resolution image with clearer edge and texture. Besides, the proposed loss function has good embeddability and can be easily integrated with existing image super-resolution networks. Experimental results show that the second-order gradient loss can significantly improve both Learned Perceptual Image Patch Similarity (LPIPS) and Frechet Inception Distance score (FID) performance over other image super-resolution deep learning models.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772485923000650Single-image super-resolutionGradientTextureLoss function
spellingShingle Shuran Lin
Chunjie Zhang
Yanwu Yang
A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss
BenchCouncil Transactions on Benchmarks, Standards and Evaluations
Single-image super-resolution
Gradient
Texture
Loss function
title A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss
title_full A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss
title_fullStr A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss
title_full_unstemmed A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss
title_short A pluggable single-image super-resolution algorithm based on second-order gradient loss
title_sort pluggable single image super resolution algorithm based on second order gradient loss
topic Single-image super-resolution
Gradient
Texture
Loss function
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772485923000650
work_keys_str_mv AT shuranlin apluggablesingleimagesuperresolutionalgorithmbasedonsecondordergradientloss
AT chunjiezhang apluggablesingleimagesuperresolutionalgorithmbasedonsecondordergradientloss
AT yanwuyang apluggablesingleimagesuperresolutionalgorithmbasedonsecondordergradientloss
AT shuranlin pluggablesingleimagesuperresolutionalgorithmbasedonsecondordergradientloss
AT chunjiezhang pluggablesingleimagesuperresolutionalgorithmbasedonsecondordergradientloss
AT yanwuyang pluggablesingleimagesuperresolutionalgorithmbasedonsecondordergradientloss