Restoration and resolution enhancement of a single image from a vibration-distorted image sequence

In many applications such as in airborne and terrestrial reconnaissance, robotics, medical imaging, and machine vision systems, the images of a video sequence are severely distorted by vibrations. Superresolution algorithms are suitable for restoring an image from a low-frequency vibrated sequence because of high correlation between the frames and inherent interframe motion. However, we show that super resolution algorithms, which were developed for general types of blur, should be adapted to the specific characteristics of low-frequency vibration blur. We demonstrate that in the case of image sequences distorted by vibration, the images should be selected prior to processing. We find empirical selection criteria and propose a selection procedure, (C) 2000 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [S0091-3286(00)03309-2].