# Prior Knowledge Distillation Network for Face Super-Resolution

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.14385 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14385/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in General knowledge distillation methods, one of 12 directions in Knowledge distillation.
- Builds on 14 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Sep 2024.

## Placed in

- Knowledge distillation / [General knowledge distillation methods](https://mlsanity.com/distill/general-knowledge-distillation-methods/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.7766/) (2014)
- [Image Super-Resolution Using Very Deep Residual Channel Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.02758/) (2018)
- [Accurate Image Super-Resolution Using Very Deep Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.04587/) (2015)
- [Residual Dense Network for Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.08797/) (2018)
- [BiSeNet: Bilateral Segmentation Network for Real-time Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00897/) (2018)
- [FSRNet: End-to-End Learning Face Super-Resolution with Facial Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.10703/) (2017)
- [HiFaceGAN: Face Renovation via Collaborative Suppression and Replenishment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.05005/) (2020)
- [Learning Spatial Attention for Face Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.01211/) (2020)
- [Deep Face Super-Resolution with Iterative Collaboration between Attentive Recovery and Landmark Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.13063/) (2020)
- [GCFSR: a Generative and Controllable Face Super Resolution Method Without Facial and GAN Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.07319/) (2022)
- [Face Hallucination via Split-Attention in Split-Attention Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11575/) (2020)
- [FacialPulse: An Efficient RNN-based Depression Detection via Temporal Facial Landmarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03499/) (2024)
- [Super-Resolving Face Image by Facial Parsing Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02923/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The purpose of face super-resolution (FSR) is to reconstruct high-resolution (HR) face images from low-resolution (LR) inputs. With the continuous advancement of deep learning technologies, contemporary prior-guided FSR methods initially estimate facial priors and then use this information to assist in the super-resolution reconstruction process. However, ensuring the accuracy of prior estimation remains challenging, and straightforward cascading and convolutional operations often fail to fully leverage prior knowledge. Inaccurate or insufficiently utilized prior information inevitably degrades FSR performance. To address this issue, we propose a prior knowledge distillation network (PKDN) for FSR, which involves transferring prior information from the teacher network to the student network. This approach enables the network to learn priors during the training stage while relying solely on low-resolution facial images during the testing stage, thus mitigating the adverse effects of prior estimation inaccuracies. Additionally, we incorporate robust attention mechanisms to design a parsing map fusion block that effectively utilizes prior information. To prevent feature loss, we retain multi-scale features during the feature extraction stage and employ them in the subsequent super-resolution reconstruction process. Experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate that our PKDN approach surpasses existing FSR methods in generating high-quality face images.