Fast Hdr Image Upscaling Using Locally Adapted Linear Filters

A new method for upscaling high dynamic range (HDR) images is introduced in this paper. Overshooting artifact is the common problem when using linear filters such as bicubic interpolation. This problem is visually more noticeable while working on HDR images where there exist more transitions from dark to bright. Our proposed method is capable of handling these artifacts by computing a simple gradient map which enables the filter to be locally adapted to the image content. This adaptation consists of first, clustering pixels into regions with similar edge structures and second, learning the shape and length of our symmetric linear filter for each of these pixel groups. This new filter can be implemented in a separable fashion which perfectly fits hardware implementations. Our experimental results show that training our filter with HDR images can effectively reduce the overshooting artifacts and improve upon the visual quality of the existing linear upscaling approaches.