mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Waving Goodbye to Low-Res: A Diffusion-Wavelet Approach for Image Super-Resolution

arXiv 2304.01994 ↗First posted 4 Apr 2023cs.CV cs.AI cs.LGcited by 19

On the map: Diffusion models → Inverse problems and image restoration

Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a novel Diffusion-Wavelet (DiWa) approach for Single-Image Super-Resolution (SISR). It leverages the strengths of Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs) and Discrete Wavelet Transformation (DWT). By enabling DDPMs to operate in the DWT domain, our DDPM models effectively hallucinate high-frequency information for super-resolved images on the wavelet spectrum, resulting in high-quality and detailed reconstructions in image space. Quantitatively, we outperform state-of-the-art diffusion-based SISR methods, namely SR3 and SRDiff, regarding PSNR, SSIM, and LPIPS on both face (8x scaling) and general (4x scaling) SR benchmarks. Meanwhile, using DWT enabled us to use fewer parameters than the compared models: 92M parameters instead of 550M compared to SR3 and 9.3M instead of 12M compared to SRDiff. Additionally, our method outperforms other state-of-the-art generative methods on classical general SR datasets while saving inference time. Finally, our work highlights its potential for various applications.

Key facts. Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Inverse problems and image restoration, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 45 of its 67 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Apr 2023.

Builds on

45 of 67 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2022Face Super-Resolution Using Stochastic Differential Equations24 Sep
  2. 2021Deblurring via Stochastic Refinement5 Dec
  3. 2021SRDiff: Single Image Super-Resolution with Diffusion Probabilistic Models30 Apr

Other references · 42

  1. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 51,809
  2. 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 36,960
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  4. 2015U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentationcited by 19,604
  5. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
  6. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
  7. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,005
  8. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,539
  9. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,322
  10. 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,986
  11. 2021Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generationcited by 4,276
  12. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,736
30 more
  1. 2017Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variationcited by 2,967
  2. 2018Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesiscited by 2,609
  3. 2016Photo-Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Networkcited by 1,898
  4. 2017Enhanced Deep Residual Networks for Single Image Super-Resolutioncited by 1,543
  5. 2021Image Super-Resolution via Iterative Refinementcited by 1,506
  6. 2020DiffWave: A Versatile Diffusion Model for Audio Synthesiscited by 1,339
  7. 2018ESRGAN: Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 1,250
  8. 2014Image Super-Resolution Using Deep Convolutional Networkscited by 1,218
  9. 2022Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applicationscited by 1,107
  10. 2021Tackling the Generative Learning Trilemma with Denoising Diffusion GANscited by 515
  11. 2016Accelerating the Super-Resolution Convolutional Neural Networkcited by 393
  12. 2018Recovering Realistic Texture in Image Super-resolution by Deep Spatial Feature Transformcited by 369
  13. 2020PULSE: Self-Supervised Photo Upsampling via Latent Space Exploration of Generative Modelscited by 358
  14. 2019High Frequency Component Helps Explain the Generalization of Convolutional Neural Networkscited by 310
  15. 2022Perception Prioritized Training of Diffusion Modelscited by 301
  16. 2020SRFlow: Learning the Super-Resolution Space with Normalizing Flowcited by 209
  17. 2022Predictability and Surprise in Large Generative Modelscited by 209
  18. 2018Multi-level Wavelet-CNN for Image Restorationcited by 184
  19. 2017FSRNet: End-to-End Learning Face Super-Resolution with Facial Priorscited by 170
  20. 2019RankSRGAN: Generative Adversarial Networks with Ranker for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 145
  21. 2020Structure-Preserving Super Resolution with Gradient Guidancecited by 116
  22. 2022Wavelet Diffusion Models are fast and scalable Image Generatorscited by 116
  23. 2022MR Image Denoising and Super-Resolution Using Regularized Reverse Diffusioncited by 66
  24. 2022Wavelet Score-Based Generative Modelingcited by 61
  25. 2021Adversarial Text-to-Image Synthesis: A Reviewcited by 52
  26. 2019Natural and Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution with Explicit Natural Manifold Discriminationcited by 32
  27. 2021SDWNet: A Straight Dilated Network with Wavelet Transformation for Image Deblurringcited by 26
  28. 2021A Comprehensive Review of Deep Learning-based Single Image Super-resolutioncited by 23
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  30. 2022Flexible Style Image Super-Resolution using Conditional Objectivecited by 9

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 1; 2024: 6; 2025: 7; 2026: 5.

19 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2024Diffusion Models, Image Super-Resolution And Everything: A Surveycited by 63
  2. 2023Spatial-Frequency U-Net for Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 7
  3. 2024A Study in Dataset Pruning for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 6
  4. 2024High Frequency Matters: Uncertainty Guided Image Compression with Wavelet Diffusioncited by 4
  5. 2024Frequency-Domain Refinement with Multiscale Diffusion for Super Resolutioncited by 3
  6. 2024SeeClear: Semantic Distillation Enhances Pixel Condensation for Video Super-Resolutioncited by 3
  7. 2026FiDeSR: High-Fidelity and Detail-Preserving One-Step Diffusion Super-Resolutioncited by 3
  8. 2025Quaternion Wavelet-Conditioned Diffusion Models for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 2
  9. 2025Towards General Modality Translation with Contrastive and Predictive Latent Diffusion Bridgecited by 2
  10. 2024Multi-scale Generative Modeling for Fast Samplingcited by 1
  11. 2025Computationally Efficient Diffusion Models in Medical Imaging: A Comprehensive Reviewcited by 1
  12. 2025Trustworthy Image Super-Resolution via Generative Pseudoinversecited by 1
7 more
  1. 2025Diffusion Transformer meets Multi-level Wavelet Spectrum for Single Image Super-Resolutioncited by 1
  2. 2026Everything at Every Scale: Scale-Invariant Diffusion with Continuous Super-Resolutioncited by 1
  3. 2025Unsupervised Image Super-Resolution Reconstruction Based on Real-World Degradation Patternscited by 0
  4. 2025HDW-SR: High-Frequency Guided Diffusion Model based on Wavelet Decomposition for Image Super-Resolutioncited by 0
  5. 2026Rethinking Refinement: Correcting Generative Bias without Noise Injectioncited by 0
  6. 2026Single Image Super-Resolution via Bivariate `A Trous Wavelet Diffusioncited by 0
  7. 2026Structured Diffusion Bridges: Inductive Bias for Denoising Diffusion Bridgescited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2023SinSR: Diffusion-Based Image Super-Resolution in a Single Step
  2. 2023ACDMSR: Accelerated Conditional Diffusion Models for Single Image Super-Resolution
  3. 2024SAM-DiffSR: Structure-Modulated Diffusion Model for Image Super-Resolution
  4. 2023ResDiff: Combining CNN and Diffusion Model for Image Super-Resolution
  5. 2025TinySR: Pruning Diffusion for Real-World Image Super-Resolution
  6. 2024Taming Diffusion Prior for Image Super-Resolution with Domain Shift SDEs
  7. 2024Arbitrary-steps Image Super-resolution via Diffusion Inversion
  8. 2026TOC-SR: Task-Optimal Compact diffusion for Image Super Resolution