# Real-Time Video Super-Resolution on Smartphones with Deep Learning, Mobile AI 2021 Challenge: Report

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.08826 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.08826/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 38 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 May 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 38)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Searching for MobileNetV3](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02244/) (2019)
- [Quantization and Training of Neural Networks for Efficient Integer-Arithmetic-Only Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05877/) (2017)
- [Real-Time Single Image and Video Super-Resolution Using an Efficient Sub-Pixel Convolutional Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.05158/) (2016)
- [MnasNet: Platform-Aware Neural Architecture Search for Mobile](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.11626/) (2018)
- [EDVR: Video Restoration with Enhanced Deformable Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02716/) (2019)
- [FBNet: Hardware-Aware Efficient ConvNet Design via Differentiable Neural Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03443/) (2018)
- [BasicVSR: The Search for Essential Components in Video Super-Resolution and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02181/) (2020)
- [ZeroQ: A Novel Zero Shot Quantization Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.00281/) (2020)
- [Bi-Real Net: Enhancing the Performance of 1-bit CNNs With Improved Representational Capability and Advanced Training Algorithm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00278/) (2018)
- [MetaPruning: Meta Learning for Automatic Neural Network Channel Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.10258/) (2019)
- [Lightweight Image Super-Resolution with Information Multi-distillation Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.11856/) (2019)
- [ACNet: Strengthening the Kernel Skeletons for Powerful CNN via Asymmetric Convolution Blocks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.03930/) (2019)
- [Frame-Recurrent Video Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.04590/) (2018)
- [DSLR-Quality Photos on Mobile Devices with Deep Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.02470/) (2017)
- [Quantization Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.09464/) (2019)
- [FBNetV2: Differentiable Neural Architecture Search for Spatial and Channel Dimensions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05565/) (2020)
- [Replacing Mobile Camera ISP with a Single Deep Learning Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05509/) (2020)
- [Trained Quantization Thresholds for Accurate and Efficient Fixed-Point Inference of Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.08066/) (2019)
- [NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Real-World Image Super-Resolution: Methods and Results](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.01996/) (2020)
- [AI Benchmark: All About Deep Learning on Smartphones in 2019](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.06663/) (2019)
- [AI Benchmark: Running Deep Neural Networks on Android Smartphones](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.01109/) (2018)
- [Efficient Video Super-Resolution through Recurrent Latent Space Propagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.08080/) (2019)
- [Learning Filter Basis for Convolutional Neural Network Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.08932/) (2019)
- [Rendering Natural Camera Bokeh Effect with Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.05698/) (2020)
- [NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Real Image Denoising: Dataset, Methods and Results](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.04117/) (2020)
- [Revisiting Temporal Modeling for Video Super-resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.05765/) (2020)
- [AIM 2020 Challenge on Learned Image Signal Processing Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.04994/) (2020)
- [PIRM Challenge on Perceptual Image Enhancement on Smartphones: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.01641/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Efficient and Accurate Quantized Image Super-Resolution on Mobile NPUs, Mobile AI & AIM 2022 challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.05910/) (2022)
- [Learned Smartphone ISP on Mobile GPUs with Deep Learning, Mobile AI & AIM 2022 Challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.03885/) (2022)
- [Online Video Super-Resolution with Convolutional Kernel Bypass Graft](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.02470/) (2022)
- [AIM 2024 Challenge on Efficient Video Super-Resolution for AV1 Compressed Content](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17256/) (2024)
- [A Survey of Deep Learning Video Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03216/) (2025)
- [Efficient Single-Image Depth Estimation on Mobile Devices, Mobile AI & AIM 2022 Challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.04470/) (2022)
- [Sliding Window Recurrent Network for Efficient Video Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.11608/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Mask-based Pyramid Network for Realistic Bokeh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.16078/) (2022)
- [Power Efficient Video Super-Resolution on Mobile NPUs with Deep Learning, Mobile AI & AIM 2022 challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.05256/) (2022)
- [NeuriCam: Key-Frame Video Super-Resolution and Colorization for IoT Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12496/) (2022)
- [Realistic Bokeh Effect Rendering on Mobile GPUs, Mobile AI & AIM 2022 challenge: Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.06769/) (2022)
- [F2IDiff: Real-world Image Super-resolution using Feature to Image Diffusion Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.24473/) (2025)
- [Sleep Stage Classification Using a Pre-trained Deep Learning Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.07182/) (2023)
- [Dynamic and Super-Personalized Media Ecosystem Driven by Generative AI: Unpredictable Plays Never Repeating The Same](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12412/) (2024)
- [Cascaded Temporal Updating Network for Efficient Video Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.14244/) (2024)
- [Real-Time Neural-Enhancement for Online Cloud Gaming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06880/) (2025)
- [MoViDNN: A Mobile Platform for Evaluating Video Quality Enhancement with Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04402/) (2022)
- [Medical Image Classification Using Transfer Learning and Chaos Game Optimization on the Internet of Medical Things](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07437/) (2023)
- [RepNet-VSR: Reparameterizable Architecture for High-Fidelity Video Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15649/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Video super-resolution has recently become one of the most important mobile-related problems due to the rise of video communication and streaming services. While many solutions have been proposed for this task, the majority of them are too computationally expensive to run on portable devices with limited hardware resources. To address this problem, we introduce the first Mobile AI challenge, where the target is to develop an end-to-end deep learning-based video super-resolution solutions that can achieve a real-time performance on mobile GPUs. The participants were provided with the REDS dataset and trained their models to do an efficient 4X video upscaling. The runtime of all models was evaluated on the OPPO Find X2 smartphone with the Snapdragon 865 SoC capable of accelerating floating-point networks on its Adreno GPU. The proposed solutions are fully compatible with any mobile GPU and can upscale videos to HD resolution at up to 80 FPS while demonstrating high fidelity results. A detailed description of all models developed in the challenge is provided in this paper.