mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Blind Image Super-Resolution: A Survey and Beyond

arXiv 2107.03055 ↗First posted 7 Jul 2021cs.CVcited by 93

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Abstract (arXiv)

Blind image super-resolution (SR), aiming to super-resolve low-resolution images with unknown degradation, has attracted increasing attention due to its significance in promoting real-world applications. Many novel and effective solutions have been proposed recently, especially with the powerful deep learning techniques. Despite years of efforts, it still remains as a challenging research problem. This paper serves as a systematic review on recent progress in blind image SR, and proposes a taxonomy to categorize existing methods into three different classes according to their ways of degradation modelling and the data used for solving the SR model. This taxonomy helps summarize and distinguish among existing methods. We hope to provide insights into current research states, as well as to reveal novel research directions worth exploring. In addition, we make a summary on commonly used datasets and previous competitions related to blind image SR. Last but not least, a comparison among different methods is provided with detailed analysis on their merits and demerits using both synthetic and real testing images.

Key facts. Cited by 93 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 52 of its 105 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Jul 2021.

Builds on

52 of 105 references.

References · 52

  1. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
  2. 2016Density estimation using Real NVPcited by 2,029
  3. 2017Arbitrary Style Transfer in Real-time with Adaptive Instance Normalizationcited by 1,998
  4. 2016Photo-Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Networkcited by 1,898
  5. 2017Enhanced Deep Residual Networks for Single Image Super-Resolutioncited by 1,543
  6. 2018Image Super-Resolution Using Very Deep Residual Channel Attention Networkscited by 1,256
  7. 2018ESRGAN: Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 1,250
  8. 2016Real-Time Single Image and Video Super-Resolution Using an Efficient Sub-Pixel Convolutional Neural Networkcited by 1,199
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  10. 2014NICE: Non-linear Independent Components Estimationcited by 1,052
  11. 2015Accurate Image Super-Resolution Using Very Deep Convolutional Networkscited by 902
  12. 2017Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation using Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Networkscited by 707
38 more
  1. 2018Real-world Anomaly Detection in Surveillance Videoscited by 570
  2. 2021Designing a Practical Degradation Model for Deep Blind Image Super-Resolutioncited by 524
  3. 2017Learning Deep CNN Denoiser Prior for Image Restorationcited by 407
  4. 2019Toward Real-World Single Image Super-Resolution: A New Benchmark and A New Modelcited by 400
  5. 2016Accelerating the Super-Resolution Convolutional Neural Networkcited by 393
  6. 2018Recovering Realistic Texture in Image Super-resolution by Deep Spatial Feature Transformcited by 369
  7. 2015Deeply-Recursive Convolutional Network for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 317
  8. 2017"Zero-Shot" Super-Resolution using Deep Internal Learningcited by 285
  9. 2020Deep Unfolding Network for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 253
  10. 2016Plug-and-Play ADMM for Image Restoration: Fixed Point Convergence and Applicationscited by 244
  11. 2020Component Divide-and-Conquer for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 243
  12. 2017Learning a Single Convolutional Super-Resolution Network for Multiple Degradationscited by 227
  13. 2019Blind Super-Resolution With Iterative Kernel Correctioncited by 203
  14. 2016EnhanceNet: Single Image Super-Resolution Through Automated Texture Synthesiscited by 177
  15. 2021Unsupervised Degradation Representation Learning for Blind Super-Resolutioncited by 177
  16. 2019Blind Super-Resolution Kernel Estimation using an Internal-GANcited by 175
  17. 2017FSRNet: End-to-End Learning Face Super-Resolution with Facial Priorscited by 170
  18. 2017DSLR-Quality Photos on Mobile Devices with Deep Convolutional Networkscited by 156
  19. 2019RankSRGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks with Ranker for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 145
  20. 2018Unsupervised Image Super-Resolution using Cycle-in-Cycle Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 133
  21. 2020Unfolding the Alternating Optimization for Blind Super Resolutioncited by 129
  22. 2019Frequency Separation for Real-World Super-Resolutioncited by 115
  23. 2019Deep Plug-and-Play Super-Resolution for Arbitrary Blur Kernelscited by 112
  24. 2018To learn image super-resolution, use a GAN to learn how to do image degradation firstcited by 94
  25. 2020Unsupervised Real-world Image Super Resolution via Domain-distance Aware Trainingcited by 83
  26. 2020NTIRE 2020 Challenge on Real-World Image Super-Resolution: Methods and Resultscited by 83
  27. 2021MASA-SR: Matching Acceleration and Spatial Adaptation for Reference-Based Image Super-Resolutioncited by 79
  28. 2021Flow-based Kernel Prior with Application to Blind Super-Resolutioncited by 74
  29. 2020Unpaired Image Super-Resolution using Pseudo-Supervisioncited by 67
  30. 2018Wide Activation for Efficient and Accurate Image Super-Resolutioncited by 64
  31. 2020Unified Dynamic Convolutional Network for Super-Resolution with Variational Degradationscited by 61
  32. 2019Camera Lens Super-Resolutioncited by 56
  33. 2017Super-FAN: Integrated facial landmark localization and super-resolution of real-world low resolution faces in arbitrary poses with GANscited by 55
  34. 2020Deep Face Super-Resolution with Iterative Collaboration between Attentive Recovery and Landmark Estimationcited by 53
  35. 2020Channel Attention based Iterative Residual Learning for Depth Map Super-Resolutioncited by 40
  36. 2020KOALAnet: Blind Super-Resolution using Kernel-Oriented Adaptive Local Adjustmentcited by 37
  37. 2019Correction Filter for Single Image Super-Resolution: Robustifying Off-the-Shelf Deep Super-Resolverscited by 35
  38. 2019AIM 2019 Challenge on Real-World Image Super-Resolution: Methods and Resultscited by 34

50 most cited of 52 All 52 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 6; 2022: 21; 2023: 19; 2024: 25; 2025: 14; 2026: 8.

93 papers.

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  1. 2021Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Datacited by 961
  2. 2024Scaling Up to Excellence: Practicing Model Scaling for Photo-Realistic Image Restoration In the Wildcited by 281
  3. 2023DiffBIR: Towards Blind Image Restoration with Generative Diffusion Priorcited by 255
  4. 2022Efficient and Degradation-Adaptive Network for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 96
  5. 2023CoSeR: Bridging Image and Language for Cognitive Super-Resolutioncited by 66
  6. 2024Diffusion Models, Image Super-Resolution And Everything: A Surveycited by 63
  7. 2024A Survey on All-in-One Image Restoration: Taxonomy, Evaluation and Future Trendscited by 58
  8. 2023Masked Image Training for Generalizable Deep Image Denoisingcited by 57
  9. 2024Towards Realistic Data Generation for Real-World Super-Resolutioncited by 56
  10. 2025Pixel to Gaussian: Ultra-Fast Continuous Super-Resolution with 2D Gaussian Modelingcited by 47
  11. 2022N-Gram in Swin Transformers for Efficient Lightweight Image Super-Resolutioncited by 46
  12. 2023Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models for Robust Image Super-Resolution in the Wildcited by 46
38 more
  1. 2021Reflash Dropout in Image Super-Resolutioncited by 41
  2. 2024NTIRE 2024 Challenge on Image Super-Resolution (x4): Methods and Resultscited by 40
  3. 2024Efficient Real-world Image Super-Resolution Via Adaptive Directional Gradient Convolutioncited by 36
  4. 2022MM-RealSR: Metric Learning based Interactive Modulation for Real-World Super-Resolutioncited by 33
  5. 2022Learning the Degradation Distribution for Blind Image Super-Resolutioncited by 27
  6. 2024Unveiling Hidden Details: A RAW Data-Enhanced Paradigm for Real-World Super-Resolutioncited by 25
  7. 2025The Evolution of Dataset Distillation: Toward Scalable and Generalizable Solutionscited by 24
  8. 2022AnimeSR: Learning Real-World Super-Resolution Models for Animation Videoscited by 23
  9. 2024You Only Need One Step: Fast Super-Resolution with Stable Diffusion via Scale Distillationcited by 23
  10. 2023Image Super-Resolution with Text Prompt Diffusioncited by 22
  11. 2022Hitchhiker's Guide to Super-Resolution: Introduction and Recent Advancescited by 21
  12. 2023Crafting Training Degradation Distribution for the Accuracy-Generalization Trade-off in Real-World Super-Resolutioncited by 21
  13. 2021Discovering Distinctive "Semantics" in Super-Resolution Networkscited by 20
  14. 2021A Systematic Survey of Deep Learning-based Single-Image Super-Resolutioncited by 19
  15. 2024Low-Res Leads the Way: Improving Generalization for Super-Resolution by Self-Supervised Learningcited by 19
  16. 2022Evaluating the Generalization Ability of Super-Resolution Networkscited by 18
  17. 2023Efficient Test-Time Adaptation for Super-Resolution with Second-Order Degradation and Reconstructioncited by 18
  18. 2024Unleashing the Power of One-Step Diffusion based Image Super-Resolution via a Large-Scale Diffusion Discriminatorcited by 18
  19. 2024Beyond Pixels: Text Enhances Generalization in Real-World Image Restorationcited by 17
  20. 2023Networks are Slacking Off: Understanding Generalization Problem in Image Derainingcited by 14
  21. 2023Image Super-resolution Via Latent Diffusion: A Sampling-space Mixture Of Experts And Frequency-augmented Decoder Approachcited by 13
  22. 2024Taming Diffusion Prior for Image Super-Resolution with Domain Shift SDEscited by 13
  23. 2022NTIRE 2022 Challenge on Stereo Image Super-Resolution: Methods and Resultscited by 12
  24. 2022Combining Attention Module and Pixel Shuffle for License Plate Super-Resolutioncited by 12
  25. 2021FreqNet: A Frequency-domain Image Super-Resolution Network with Dicrete Cosine Transformcited by 11
  26. 2022Shadow-Aware Dynamic Convolution for Shadow Removalcited by 11
  27. 2022Meta-Learning based Degradation Representation for Blind Super-Resolutioncited by 11
  28. 2022Infrared Image Super-Resolution: Systematic Review, and Future Trendscited by 10
  29. 2023Super-Resolution of License Plate Images Using Attention Modules and Sub-Pixel Convolution Layerscited by 9
  30. 2023Learning from Multi-Perception Features for Real-Word Image Super-resolutioncited by 9
  31. 2024DaLPSR: Leverage Degradation-Aligned Language Prompt for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 9
  32. 2022Real-World Light Field Image Super-Resolution via Degradation Modulationcited by 8
  33. 2023Iterative Token Evaluation and Refinement for Real-World Super-Resolutioncited by 8
  34. 2024Enhancing License Plate Super-Resolution: A Layout-Aware and Character-Driven Approachcited by 8
  35. 2023VCISR: Blind Single Image Super-Resolution with Video Compression Synthetic Datacited by 7
  36. 2025MRI Super-Resolution with Deep Learning: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 7
  37. 2023Learning Many-to-Many Mapping for Unpaired Real-World Image Super-resolution and Downscalingcited by 6
  38. 2024Deep Blind Super-Resolution for Satellite Videocited by 6

50 most cited of 93 All 93 (JSON)