Frame Rate Up Conversion Based on Variational Image Fusion

This paper presents a new framework for motion compensated frame rate up conversion (FRUC) based on variational image fusion. The proposed algorithm consists of two steps: 1) generation of multiple intermediate interpolated frames and 2) fusion of those intermediate frames. In the first step, we determine four different sets of the motion vector field using four neighboring frames. We then generate intermediate interpolated frames corresponding to the determined four sets of the motion vector field, respectively. Multiple sets of the motion vector field are used to solve the occlusion problem in motion estimation. In the second step, the four intermediate interpolated frames are fused into a single frame via a variational image fusion process. For effective fusion, we determine fusion weights for each intermediate interpolated frame by minimizing the energy, which consists of a weighted- L1-norm based data energy and gradient-driven smoothness energy. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm improves the performance of FRUC compared with the existing algorithms.