In this paper, we present a fast algorithm for filling unknown regions in an image using the strategy of exemplarmatching. Unlike the original exemplar-based method using exhaustive search, we decompose exemplars into the frequency coefficients and select fewer coefficients which are the most significant to evaluate the matching score. We have also developed a local gradient-based algorithm to fill the unknown pixels in a query image block. These two techniques bring the ability of input with varied dimensions to the fast query of similar image exemplars. The fast query is based on a search-array data structure, and can be conducted very efficiently. Moreover, the evaluation of search-arrays runs in parallel maps well on the modern graphics hardware with Graphics Processing Units (GPU). The functionality of the approach has been demonstrated by experimental results on real photographs.
Tsz-Ho Kwok, Hoi Sheung, Charlie C. L. Wang