Wired: Using Math to Turn Lo-Res Datasets Into Hi-Res Samples

[martin s]

Interesting article: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_algorithm/all/1

An example from the article:

Compressed sensing is a mathematical tool that creates hi-res data sets from lo-res samples. It can be used to resurrect old musical recordings, find enemy radio signals, and generate MRIs much more quickly. Here’s how it would work with a photograph.

 

[rxmd]

In this particular example it's not really much better than averaging over the nearest non-black neighbours. It works fine when the frequencies of your data are low (similarly to what JPEG-2000 is based on) but I wouldn't rely on it for my MRI if I knew that the structures they are trying to resolve are anywhere near the frequency of the noise. Could work fine for remote sensing etc. where bandwith is a problem.

 

[martin s]

It makes me chuckle a little, like when on CSI they zoom in on a license plate that's maybe 5x10 pixels and a complete blur - and turn it into a perfectly readable one... 😀

Wait, what are you saying? That's not the way it works?