An image colorization algorithm using sparse optimization

This paper proposes a new digital image colorization algorithm using the sparse optimization. We deal with the colorization problem where a grayscale image is colorized using a full color image with a similar composition, and formulate this problem as the sparse optimization problem. We also provide an iterative reweighted least squares (IRLS) algorithm to solve this problem approximately, and the full color image is obtained in practical time. Numerical examples show that the proposed algorithm colorizes a grayscale image well.