DIRformer: A Novel Image Restoration Approach Based on U-shaped Transformer and Diffusion Models

Image restoration (IR) involves the retrieval of missing or damaged image information and represents a significant challenge in the field of visual reconstruction. Currently, U-Net based Diffusion Models (DMs) display favorable results when utilized for IR tasks. However, the DM based on U-Net demonstrates shortcomings in capturing the global context for IR. To address this issue, we propose a Novel Image Restoration Approach Based on U-shaped Transformer and DMs (DIRformer). DIRformer enhances the modeling capacity for long-range dependencies within DMs. In particular, DIRformer replaces the traditional U-Net downsampling with Patch merging, dedicated to improving detail preservation, and replaces upsampling with Dual up-sample, strategically designed to alleviate checkerboard artifacts. Besides, as a lightweight and versatile transformer-based solution for IR, DIRformer incorporates time and degradation mapping into the transformer design, all while preserving the fundamental U-shaped structural framework. We assess the efficacy of DIRformer in a multi-tasking IR setting across four datasets. The experimental performance illustrates that DIRformer achieves competitive performance on distortion metrics, including PSNR and SSIM. Remarkably, our proposed approach is almost 25 \(\times\) smaller and 2 \(\times\) faster than the existing methods while achieving comparable high performance.