# LightBSR: Towards Lightweight Blind Super-Resolution via Discriminative Implicit Degradation Representation Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22710 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.22710/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 28 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [Representation Learning with Contrastive Predictive Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03748/) (2018)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [SGDR: Stochastic Gradient Descent with Warm Restarts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.03983/) (2016)
- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [A ConvNet for the 2020s](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.03545/) (2022)
- [Gaussian Error Linear Units (GELUs)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.08415/) (2016)
- [SwinIR: Image Restoration Using Swin Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10257/) (2021)
- [FitNets: Hints for Thin Deep Nets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6550/) (2014)
- [Beyond a Gaussian Denoiser: Residual Learning of Deep CNN for Image Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.03981/) (2016)
- [Real-Time Single Image and Video Super-Resolution Using an Efficient Sub-Pixel Convolutional Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.05158/) (2016)
- [Designing a Practical Degradation Model for Deep Blind Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14006/) (2021)
- [Learning a Single Convolutional Super-Resolution Network for Multiple Degradations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06116/) (2017)
- [Blind Super-Resolution With Iterative Kernel Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03377/) (2019)
- [Unsupervised Degradation Representation Learning for Blind Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00416/) (2021)
- [Blind Super-Resolution Kernel Estimation using an Internal-GAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.06581/) (2019)
- [Unfolding the Alternating Optimization for Blind Super Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02631/) (2020)
- [Dual Aggregation Transformer for Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03364/) (2023)
- [Efficient and Degradation-Adaptive Network for Real-World Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14216/) (2022)
- [Unified Dynamic Convolutional Network for Super-Resolution with Variational Degradations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.06965/) (2020)
- [Deep Constrained Least Squares for Blind Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.07508/) (2022)
- [KOALAnet: Blind Super-Resolution using Kernel-Oriented Adaptive Local Adjustment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.08103/) (2020)
- [Knowledge Distillation based Degradation Estimation for Blind Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16928/) (2022)
- [A Dynamic Kernel Prior Model for Unsupervised Blind Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15620/) (2024)
- [Degradation-Aware Self-Attention Based Transformer for Blind Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04180/) (2023)
- [Meta-Learning based Degradation Representation for Blind Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.13963/) (2022)
- [Rethinking Multi-view Representation Learning via Distilled Disentangling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10897/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Implicit degradation estimation-based blind super-resolution (IDE-BSR) hinges on extracting the implicit degradation representation (IDR) of the LR image and adapting it to LR image features to guide HR detail restoration. Although IDE-BSR has shown potential in dealing with noise interference and complex degradations, existing methods ignore the importance of IDR discriminability for BSR and instead over-complicate the adaptation process to improve effect, resulting in a significant increase in the model's parameters and computations. In this paper, we focus on the discriminability optimization of IDR and propose a new powerful and lightweight BSR model termed LightBSR. Specifically, we employ a knowledge distillation-based learning framework. We first introduce a well-designed degradation-prior-constrained contrastive learning technique during teacher stage to make the model more focused on distinguishing different degradation types. Then we utilize a feature alignment technique to transfer the degradation-related knowledge acquired by the teacher to the student for practical inferencing. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of IDR discriminability-driven BSR model design. The proposed LightBSR can achieve outstanding performance with minimal complexity across a range of blind SR tasks. Our code is accessible at: https://github.com/MJ-NCEPU/LightBSR.