Image super-resolution based on a novel edge sharpness prior

Edges are of significant importance in visual resolution perception. In this paper, we propose a novel image super-resolution method by enhancing the edges in the low resolution image. We first define a new edge sharpness feature: gradient profile sharpness (GPS), which considers both the absolute magnitude and the spatial scattering of edge gradient profile. Then we learn the relationship between GPSs in high resolution images and low resolution images, and we formulate a linear GPS transform to provide gradient prior for image reconstruction. Our GPS can represent edge sharpness perceptually well. And our super-resolution method can output harmonious and faithful images with better reconstruction quality.