Hallucinating Face Image by Regularization Models in High-Resolution Feature Space

In this paper, we propose two novel regularization models in patch-wise and pixel-wise, respectively, which are efficient to reconstruct high-resolution (HR) face image from low-resolution (LR) input. Unlike the conventional patch-based models which depend on the assumption of local geometry consistency in LR and HR spaces, the proposed method directly regularizes the relationship between the target patch and corresponding training set in the HR space. It avoids dealing with the tough problem of preserving local geometry in various resolutions. Taking advantage of kernel function in efficiently describing intrinsic features, we further conduct the patch-based reconstruction model in the high-dimensional kernel space for capturing nonlinear characteristics. Meanwhile, a pixel-based model is proposed to regularize the relationship of pixels in the local neighborhood, which can be employed to enhance the fuzzy details in the target HR face image. It privileges the reconstruction of pixels along the dominant orientation of structure, which is useful for preserving high-frequency information on complex edges. Finally, we combine the two reconstruction models into a unified framework. The output HR face image can be finally optimized by performing an iterative procedure. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed face hallucination method produces superior performance than the state-of-the-art methods.