A novel adaptive image zooming scheme via weighted least-squares estimation

A critical issue in image interpolation is preserving edge detail and texture information in images when zooming. In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive image zooming algorithm using weighted least-square estimation that can achieve arbitrary integer-ratio zoom (WLS-AIZ) For a given zooming ratio n, every pixel in a low-resolution (LR) image is associated with an n x n block of high-resolution (HR) pixels in the HR image. In WLS-AIZ, the LR image is interpolated using the bilinear method in advance. Model parameters of every nxn block are worked out through weighted least-square estimation. Subsequently, each pixel in the n x n block is substituted by a combination of its eight neighboring HR pixels using estimated parameters. Finally, a refinement strategy is adopted to obtain the ultimate HR pixel values. The proposed algorithm has significant adaptability to local image structure. Extensive experiments comparing WLS-AIZ with other state of the art image zooming methods demonstrate the superiority of WLS-AIZ. In terms of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM) and feature similarity index (FSIM), WLS-AIZ produces better results than all other image integer-ratio zoom algorithms.