mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

The 2018 PIRM Challenge on Perceptual Image Super-resolution

arXiv 1809.07517 ↗First posted 20 Sep 2018cs.CVcited by 155

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Cited by 25 in Diffusion models, but placed by its own abstract, which didn’t fit.

Abstract (arXiv)

This paper reports on the 2018 PIRM challenge on perceptual super-resolution (SR), held in conjunction with the Perceptual Image Restoration and Manipulation (PIRM) workshop at ECCV 2018. In contrast to previous SR challenges, our evaluation methodology jointly quantifies accuracy and perceptual quality, therefore enabling perceptual-driven methods to compete alongside algorithms that target PSNR maximization. Twenty-one participating teams introduced algorithms which well-improved upon the existing state-of-the-art methods in perceptual SR, as confirmed by a human opinion study. We also analyze popular image quality measures and draw conclusions regarding which of them correlates best with human opinion scores. We conclude with an analysis of the current trends in perceptual SR, as reflected from the leading submissions.

Key facts. Cited by 155 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 20 Sep 2018.

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Citing papers per year: 2021: 31; 2022: 29; 2023: 31; 2024: 26; 2025: 23; 2026: 15.

155 papers.

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  1. 2021Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Datacited by 961
  2. 2021Designing a Practical Degradation Model for Deep Blind Image Super-Resolutioncited by 524
  3. 2021Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Facial Priorcited by 347
  4. 2023TOPIQ: A Top-down Approach from Semantics to Distortions for Image Quality Assessmentcited by 220
  5. 2021Investigating Tradeoffs in Real-World Video Super-Resolutioncited by 133
  6. 2023Low-Light Image Enhancement with Wavelet-based Diffusion Modelscited by 126
  7. 2023Diff-Retinex: Rethinking Low-light Image Enhancement with A Generative Diffusion Modelcited by 118
  8. 2023Diffusion Models for Image Restoration and Enhancement: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 108
  9. 2022DifFace: Blind Face Restoration with Diffused Error Contractioncited by 96
  10. 2022RestoreFormer: High-Quality Blind Face Restoration from Undegraded Key-Value Pairscited by 85
  11. 2024Arbitrary-steps Image Super-resolution via Diffusion Inversioncited by 85
  12. 2021Fourier Space Losses for Efficient Perceptual Image Super-Resolutioncited by 72
38 more
  1. 2024LightenDiffusion: Unsupervised Low-Light Image Enhancement with Latent-Retinex Diffusion Modelscited by 70
  2. 2022CiaoSR: Continuous Implicit Attention-in-Attention Network for Arbitrary-Scale Image Super-Resolutioncited by 69
  3. 2023Reti-Diff: Illumination Degradation Image Restoration with Retinex-based Latent Diffusion Modelcited by 69
  4. 2021Structure-Preserving Deraining with Residue Channel Prior Guidancecited by 63
  5. 2021Perceptual Image Quality Assessment with Transformerscited by 54
  6. 2021A Theory of the Distortion-Perception Tradeoff in Wasserstein Spacecited by 52
  7. 2024Efficient Real-world Image Super-Resolution Via Adaptive Directional Gradient Convolutioncited by 36
  8. 2022UCL-Dehaze: Towards Real-world Image Dehazing via Unsupervised Contrastive Learningcited by 35
  9. 2023RestoreFormer++: Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration from Undegraded Key-Value Pairscited by 33
  10. 2021Best-Buddy GANs for Highly Detailed Image Super-Resolutioncited by 30
  11. 2021A Practical Contrastive Learning Framework for Single-Image Super-Resolutioncited by 30
  12. 2022Mitigating Artifacts in Real-World Video Super-Resolution Modelscited by 29
  13. 2021Blind Image Super-resolution with Elaborate Degradation Modeling on Noise and Kernelcited by 27
  14. 2021Optimal Transport for Unsupervised Denoising Learningcited by 24
  15. 2021A Comprehensive Review of Deep Learning-based Single Image Super-resolutioncited by 23
  16. 2022AnimeSR: Learning Real-World Super-Resolution Models for Animation Videoscited by 23
  17. 2021LTT-GAN: Looking Through Turbulence by Inverting GANscited by 21
  18. 2022Learning to Adapt to Lightcited by 21
  19. 2022Hitchhiker's Guide to Super-Resolution: Introduction and Recent Advancescited by 21
  20. 2022Perception-Oriented Single Image Super-Resolution using Optimal Objective Estimationcited by 21
  21. 2024HSIGene: A Foundation Model For Hyperspectral Image Generationcited by 21
  22. 2025UnfoldIR: Rethinking Deep Unfolding Network in Illumination Degradation Image Restorationcited by 21
  23. 2021A Systematic Survey of Deep Learning-based Single-Image Super-Resolutioncited by 19
  24. 2024Low-light Image Enhancement via CLIP-Fourier Guided Wavelet Diffusioncited by 19
  25. 2021NTIRE 2021 Challenge on Perceptual Image Quality Assessmentcited by 18
  26. 2021SOUP-GAN: Super-Resolution MRI Using Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 18
  27. 2022Evaluating the Generalization Ability of Super-Resolution Networkscited by 18
  28. 2022Self-Supervised Image Restoration with Blurry and Noisy Pairscited by 17
  29. 2021Clean Images are Hard to Reblur: Exploiting the Ill-Posed Inverse Task for Dynamic Scene Deblurringcited by 16
  30. 2024AGLLDiff: Guiding Diffusion Models Towards Unsupervised Training-free Real-world Low-light Image Enhancementcited by 16
  31. 2025Iterative Predictor-Critic Code Decoding for Real-World Image Dehazingcited by 16
  32. 2021Toward Interactive Modulation for Photo-Realistic Image Restorationcited by 15
  33. 2022Invertible Rescaling Network and Its Extensionscited by 15
  34. 2023LLDiffusion: Learning Degradation Representations in Diffusion Models for Low-Light Image Enhancementcited by 15
  35. 2021A Latent Encoder Coupled Generative Adversarial Network (LE-GAN) for Efficient Hyperspectral Image Super-resolutioncited by 14
  36. 2021RankSRGAN: Super Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks with Learning to Rankcited by 13
  37. 2022Deep Learning Serves Traffic Safety Analysis: A Forward-looking Reviewcited by 13
  38. 2022Optimally Controllable Perceptual Lossy Compressioncited by 13

50 most cited of 155 All 155 (JSON)