Leveraging Advanced Diffusion Model Techniques for Super-Resolution in Sports Broadcast Images

Abstract

This thesis investigates the application of diffusion models to the task of image super-resolution, a crucial process for enhancing the quality of low-resolution images. Diffusion models, known for their success in generative tasks, are examined for their potential to outperform traditional super-resolution methods. The study begins with an overview of generative models, including Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) and their hierarchical variants, and introduces the core principles of diffusion models, detailing key processes such as forward diffusion, reverse denoising, and their three equivalent interpretations. The literature review covers both regression-based and generative-based super-resolution methods, highlighting the strengths and limitations of techniques like Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and various diffusion-based models. Notably, models such as SR3 (Super-Resolution via Iterative Refinement) and Latent Diffusion Models (LDMs) are examined for their efficiency and performance. A proof-of-concept implementation of the SR3 model is conducted to demonstrate the practical application and effectiveness of diffusion models in super-resolution tasks, particularly when compared to the regression-based method A 2N, with a focus on reconstructing facial images. The thesis introduces and compares advanced models, Efficient Diffusion Model for Image Super-resolution by Residual Shifting (ResShift) and Diffusion-Based Image Super-Resolution in a Single Step (SinSR), which offer significant improvements in inference speed and image quality. Specifically, an implementation of SinSR on top of ResShift is proposed. An effective data pipeline utilizing blind super-resolution techniques, along with random cropping and resizing, is proposed for training the implemented SinSR model. This pipeline is compared to a simpler cropping-only approach showing the importance of the training data scale that are given to the model as input. Extensive experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed methods, focusing particularly on sports broadcast and facial image data. The evaluation includes an assessment of the performance of the used VQGAN within the SinSR model, an experiment evaluating the model’s performance relative to varying input face sizes, and a study comparing the training of the model on blurry versus non-blurry images.