Reconstruction of sparse data

Abstract

A dense guide image or signal is used to inform the reconstruction of a target image from a sparse set of target points. The guide image and the set of target points are assumed to be derived from a same real world subject or scene. Potential discontinuities (e.g., tears, edges, gaps, etc.) are first detected in the guide image. The potential discontinuities may be borders of Voronoi regions, perhaps computed using a distance in data space (e.g., color space). The discontinuities and sparse set of points are used to reconstruct the target image. Specifically, pixels of the target image may be interpolated smoothly between neighboring target points, but where neighboring target points are separated by a discontinuity, the interpolation may jump abruptly (e.g., by adjusting or influencing relaxation) at the discontinuity. The target points may be used to select only a subset of the discontinuities to be used during reconstruction.