A Novel Hardware-Based UHD Video Up-Scaler Based on Local Structure Estimation

A novel HW-based video up-scaling method proposed in this paper performs the video image up-scaling. Based on the geometry similarity between the original image and the target image, the proposed algorithm produces new pixels by exploiting the directional weights from the errors estimated by a preset interpolation model in the local area, and using the weights to combine two pixel values predicted by the same model. The algorithm can well preserve the local structure, the edge sharpness in particular, and effectively reduce artifacts such as jaggies and ringings. Based on this method, an efficient HW architecture is developed which is capable of processing at real-time up-scaling to HD or UHD@30fps. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method even outperforms some methods using more complex algorithms in both objective and subjective image qualities. In addition, the low complexity of the algorithm simplifies the hardware implementation, which makes real-time enlargement of video image practical.