An Introduction to Super-Resolution Imaging

“Super-resolution” is the term used to denote the subset of imaging processing that tries to estimate a high-resolution image of a scene, given a set of low-resolution observations (Fig. 1). Colloquially, when superresolution researchers try to describe what they do to family, friends, and loved ones, we can use the example from the TV show CSI: whenever someone on CSI looks at low-resolution security camera footage, pushes the magic “Enhance” button, and then suddenly the footage is crystal clear, that character is using super-resolution. The programs that we write in super-resolution research are like the real-life version of the “Enhance” button.