Abstract
At present, the deep learning super-resolution (SR) method has achieved excellent results, but it also faces problems such as large models, high computational cost, a large amounts of training data, and poor interpretability. However, traditional machine learning-based methods still have room for improvement in feature extraction and model structure. This paper constructs a gradient embedding cascade forest structure on the basis of random forest and proposes a limit gradient embedding cascaded forest SR (LGECFSR) model. In feature construction, we not only adopt the first-order gradient, the second-order gradient, and other features of the image but also fuse the information of the original LR image. In addition, image blocks of different sizes are used for training, which increases the model’s generalization ability. Compared with the state-of-the-art machine learning-based methods, our method achieves the best performance and the second-best computational speed. In addition, compared with some deep learning-based methods, our model has a similar reconstruction effect and the best computational speed. In detail, for some reconstruction tasks, the Multi-Adds of LGECFSR is one-tenth to one-4000th of that of some current models. However, the SR performance of LGECFSR is the same or slightly better than that of some current classical algorithms.





Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
References
N. Ahn, B. Kang, K.A. Sohn, Fast, accurate, and lightweight super-resolution with cascading residual network, in Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) (2018), pp. 252–268
P. Arbelaez, M. Maire, C. Fowlkes et al., Contour detection and hierarchical image segmentation. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 33(5), 898–916 (2010)
M. Bevilacqua, A. Roumy, C. Guillemot et al., Low-complexity single-image super-resolution based on nonnegative neighbor embedding (2012), p. 135-1
A.K. Bhunia, A.K. Bhunia, A. Sain et al., Improving document binarization via adversarial noise-texture augmentation, in 2019 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) (IEEE, 2019), pp. 2721–2725
T. Chen, C. Guestrin, Xgboost: a scalable tree boosting system, in Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (2016), pp. 785–794
X. Chu, B. Zhang, H. Ma et al., Fast, accurate and lightweight super-resolution with neural architecture search. arXiv preprint, arXiv:1901.07261 (2019)
C. Dong, C.C. Loy, K. He et al., Image super-resolution using deep convolutional networks. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 38(2), 295–307 (2015)
C. Dong, C.C. Loy, K. He et al., Learning a deep convolutional network for image super-resolution, in European Conference on Computer Vision (Springer, Cham, 2014), pp. 184–199
C. Dong, C.C. Loy, X. Tang, Accelerating the super-resolution convolutional neural network, in European Conference on Computer Vision (Springer, Cham, 2016), pp. 391–407
J. Gu, H. Lu, W. Zuo et al., Blind super-resolution with iterative kernel correction, in Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2019), pp. 1604–1613
P. Gu, C. Jiang, M. Ji et al., Low-dose computed tomography image super-resolution reconstruction via random forests. Sensors 19(1), 207 (2019)
Y. Guo, J. Chen, J. Wang et al., Closed-loop matters: dual regression networks for single image super-resolution, in Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2020), pp. 5407–5416
S. Gupta, P.P. Roy, D.P. Dogra et al., Retrieval of colour and texture images using local directional peak valley binary pattern. Pattern Anal. Appl. 23(4), 1569–1585 (2020)
J.B. Huang, A. Singh, N. Ahuja, Single image super-resolution from transformed self-exemplars, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2015), pp. 5197–5206
J. Kim, J. Kwon Lee, K. Mu Lee, Accurate image super-resolution using very deep convolutional networks, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and pattern Recognition (2016), pp. 1646–1654
J. Kim, J. Kwon Lee, K. Mu Lee, Deeply-recursive convolutional network for image super-resolution, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2016), pp. 1637–1645
S. Kim, D. Jun, B.G. Kim et al., Single image super-resolution method using CNN-based lightweight neural networks. Appl. Sci. 11(3), 1092 (2021)
W.S. Lai, J.B. Huang, N. Ahuja et al., Deep Laplacian pyramid networks for fast and accurate super-resolution, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2017), pp. 624–632
R. Lan, L. Sun, Z. Liu et al., Madnet: a fast and lightweight network for single-image super resolution. IEEE Trans. Cybern. 51(3), 1443–1453 (2020)
C. Ledig, L. Theis, F. Huszár et al., Photo-realistic single image super-resolution using a generative adversarial network, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2017), pp. 4681–4690
Y. Lee, D. Jun, B.G. Kim et al., Enhanced single image super resolution method using lightweight multi-scale channel dense network. Sensors 21(10), 3351 (2021)
H. Li, K.M. Lam, M. Wang, Image super-resolution via feature-augmented random forest. Signal Process.: Image Commun. 72, 25–34 (2019)
B. Lim, S. Son, H. Kim et al., Enhanced deep residual networks for single image super-resolution, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (2017), pp. 136–144
N. Liu, X. Xu, Y. Li et al., Sparse representation based image super-resolution on the KNN based dictionaries. Opt. Laser Technol. 110, 135–144 (2019)
Y. Matsui, K. Ito, Y. Aramaki et al., Sketch-based manga retrieval using manga109 dataset. Multimedia Tools Appl. 76(20), 21811–21838 (2017)
A. Mittal, P.P. Roy, P. Singh et al., Rotation and script independent text detection from video frames using sub pixel mapping. J. Vis. Commun. Image Represent. 46, 187–198 (2017)
P.P. Roy, A.K. Bhunia, U. Pal, Date-field retrieval in scene image and video frames using text enhancement and shape coding. Neurocomputing 274, 37–49 (2018)
J. Salvador, E. Perez-Pellitero, Naive Bayes super-resolution forest, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (2015), pp. 325–333
S. Schulter, C. Leistner, H. Bischof, Fast and accurate image upscaling with super-resolution forests, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2015), pp. 3791–3799
Y. Tai, J. Yang, X. Liu et al., Memnet: a persistent memory network for image restoration, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (2017), pp. 4539–4547
R. Timofte, V. De Smet, L. Van Gool, A+: adjusted anchored neighborhood regression for fast super-resolution, in Asian Conference on Computer Vision (Springer, Cham, 2014), pp. 111–126
S. Wang, L. Zhang, Y. Liang et al., Semi-coupled dictionary learning with applications to image super-resolution and photo-sketch synthesis, in 2012 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (IEEE, 2012), pp. 2216–2223
Y. Tai, J. Yang, X. Liu, Image super-resolution via deep recursive residual network, in: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) (2017), pp. 3147–3155
J. Yang, J. Wright, T.S. Huang et al., Image super-resolution via sparse representation. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 19(11), 2861–2873 (2010)
W. Yang, W. Wang, X. Zhang et al., Lightweight feature fusion network for single image super-resolution. IEEE Signal Process. Lett. 26(4), 538–542 (2019)
X. Yang, Z. Li, Y. Guo et al., Retinal vessel segmentation based on an improved deep forest. Int. J. Imaging Syst. Technol. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/ima.22610
X. Yang, L. Liu, C. Zhu et al., An improved anchor neighborhood regression SR method based on low-rank constraint. Vis. Comput. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-020-02022-0
X. Yang, T. Xie, L. Liu et al., Image super-resolution reconstruction based on improved Dirac residual network. Multidim. Syst. Signal Process. 1, 18 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11045-021-00773-0
X. Yang, Y. Zhang, Y. Guo et al., An image super-resolution deep learning network based on multi-level feature extraction module. Multimedia Tools Appl. 80(5), 7063–7075 (2021)
R. Zeyde, M. Elad et al., On single image scale-up using sparse representations, in International Conference on Curves and Surfaces (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010), pp. 711–730
R. Zeyde, M. Elad, M. Protter, On single image scale-up using sparse-representations, in International Conference on Curves and Surfaces (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010), pp. 711–730
C. Zhang, W. Liu, J. Liu et al., Sparse representation and adaptive mixed samples regression for single image super-resolution. Signal Process.: Image Commun. 67, 79–89 (2018)
K. Zhang, W. Zuo, L. Zhang, Learning a single convolutional super-resolution network for multiple degradations, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2018), pp. 3262–3271
M. Zhang, C. Desrosiers, High-quality image restoration using low-rank patch regularization and global structure sparsity. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 28(2), 868–879 (2018)
X. Zhang, X. Wu, Image interpolation by adaptive 2-D autoregressive modeling and soft-decision estimation. IEEE Trans. Image Process. 17(6), 887–896 (2008)
J. Zhao, H. Hu, F. Cao, Image super-resolution via adaptive sparse representation. Knowl.-Based Syst. 124, 23–33 (2017)
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61573182, 62073164), and by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NS2020025).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, X., Wu, C., Zhou, D. et al. Fast Image Super-Resolution Based on Limit Gradient Embedding Cascaded Forest. Circuits Syst Signal Process 41, 2007–2026 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-021-01869-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-021-01869-5