# Blind Super Resolution with Reference Images and Implicit Degradation Representation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13915 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13915/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 25 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Perceptual Losses for Real-Time Style Transfer and Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.08155/) (2016)
- [Photo-Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.04802/) (2016)
- [Enhanced Deep Residual Networks for Single Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.02921/) (2017)
- [Learning Texture Transformer Network for Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.04139/) (2020)
- [Deeply-Recursive Convolutional Network for Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.04491/) (2015)
- ["Zero-Shot" Super-Resolution using Deep Internal Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06087/) (2017)
- [Deep Unfolding Network for Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.10428/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Fast and Accurate Image Super-Resolution with Deep Laplacian Pyramid Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.01992/) (2017)
- [MASA-SR: Matching Acceleration and Spatial Adaptation for Reference-Based Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02299/) (2021)
- [Robust Reference-based Super-Resolution via C2-Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.01863/) (2021)
- [Unpaired Image Super-Resolution using Pseudo-Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.11397/) (2020)
- [Unsupervised Learning for Real-World Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.09629/) (2019)
- [RZSR: Reference-based Zero-Shot Super-Resolution with Depth Guided Self-Exemplars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.11313/) (2022)
- [Joint Learning Content and Degradation Aware Feature for Blind Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.13436/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Previous studies in blind super-resolution (BSR) have primarily concentrated on estimating degradation kernels directly from low-resolution (LR) inputs to enhance super-resolution. However, these degradation kernels, which model the transition from a high-resolution (HR) image to its LR version, should account for not only the degradation process but also the downscaling factor. Applying the same degradation kernel across varying super-resolution scales may be impractical. Our research acknowledges degradation kernels and scaling factors as pivotal elements for the BSR task and introduces a novel strategy that utilizes HR images as references to establish scale-aware degradation kernels. By employing content-irrelevant HR reference images alongside the target LR image, our model adaptively discerns the degradation process. It is then applied to generate additional LR-HR pairs through down-sampling the HR reference images, which are keys to improving the SR performance. Our reference-based training procedure is applicable to proficiently trained blind SR models and zero-shot blind SR methods, consistently outperforming previous methods in both scenarios. This dual consideration of blur kernels and scaling factors, coupled with the use of a reference image, contributes to the effectiveness of our approach in blind super-resolution tasks.