ABSTRACT Image upscaling is an efficient solution to eliminate the gap between image/video sizes and display resolutions. Generally, image-upscaling algorithms use computation-intensive edge detection and filtering to improve their performance with inefficient hardware performances. In this study, an image-upscaling algorithm for 1080p to 4K using gradient-based interpolation technique is proposed. It simply adopts the horizontal and vertical gradients among source pixels to consider the texture content among them. This technique inherits the textures from source pixels and further extends them to target pixels using spatial-correlation. Experiment results demonstrate that this study has better average peak-to-noise-ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM). The hardware architecture is realised using TSMC CMOS 0.18 μm technology. It comprises two core techniques: bubble-eliminating data scheduling (BEDS) and memory-efficient gradient generator (MEGG). BEDS can efficiently remove bubble cycles to improve hardware performances. MEGG can use compact memory capacity to produce gradient information. Its working frequency is 178 MHz with a power consumption of 9.43 mW. The maximum throughput is as high as 712 Mpixels/sec, which can sufficiently support 4K@60 fps. This study presents higher hardware efficiencies with better visual quality and object completeness in image upscaling for 1080p to 4K applications.

中文翻译：

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使用基于梯度的插值从 1080p 到 4K 的图像升级引擎

摘要 图像放大是消除图像/视频大小和显示分辨率之间差距的有效解决方案。通常，图像放大算法使用计算密集型边缘检测和过滤来提高其性能，但硬件性能低下。在这项研究中，提出了一种使用基于梯度的插值技术从 1080p 到 4K 的图像放大算法。它简单地采用源像素之间的水平和垂直梯度来考虑它们之间的纹理内容。该技术从源像素继承纹理，并使用空间相关性将它们进一步扩展到目标像素。实验结果表明，本研究具有较好的平均峰噪比（PSNR）和结构相似性（SSIM）。硬件架构采用台积电 CMOS 0.18 μm 技术实现。它包括两个核心技术：气泡消除数据调度（BEDS）和内存高效梯度生成器（MEGG）。BEDS 可以有效地消除气泡循环以提高硬件性能。MEGG 可以使用紧凑的内存容量来产生梯度信息。其工作频率为 178 MHz，功耗为 9.43 mW。最大吞吐量高达712 Mpixels/sec，足以支持4K@60 fps。这项研究在 1080p 到 4K 应用程序的图像放大中展示了更高的硬件效率和更好的视觉质量和对象完整性。其工作频率为 178 MHz，功耗为 9.43 mW。最大吞吐量高达712 Mpixels/sec，足以支持4K@60 fps。这项研究在 1080p 到 4K 应用程序的图像放大中展示了更高的硬件效率和更好的视觉质量和对象完整性。其工作频率为 178 MHz，功耗为 9.43 mW。最大吞吐量高达712 Mpixels/sec，足以支持4K@60 fps。这项研究在 1080p 到 4K 应用程序的图像放大中展示了更高的硬件效率和更好的视觉质量和对象完整性。