High-Performance Image Restoration with SpectraNet: A Lightweight CNN Architecture

Deep learning-based image restoration faces significant challenges when deployed on resource-constrained platforms due to the computational demands and large number of parameters in existing models. The high computational load and extensive memory requirements make it difficult to implement these models on devices with limited processing power and storage capacity, such as mobile phones and embedded systems. Additionally, maintaining real-time performance while ensuring high-quality image restoration is a critical challenge, as traditional deep learning models often fail to meet the stringent latency and efficiency requirements of such platforms. This paper introduces a new, lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture tailored for efficient pixelation detection and restoration. Our approach combines a pre-trained MobileNetV2 with finetuning for pixelation detection, and SpectraNet, a architecture incorporating depth-wise separable convolutions for image restoration. The proposed architecture was trained on the HQ-50k dataset, with 70% of the data used for training and 30% for testing. It achieved a Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) of 17-23, outperforming 10 state-of-the-art architectures in both efficiency and image quality. This design addresses the dual problems of high computational load and extensive memory usage, prioritizing real-time performance and resource efficiency. The proposed architecture is ideal for deployment on mobile and embedded devices since it maintains high accuracy while significantly reducing the number of trainable parameters. Our findings advance the feasibility of deploying advanced image restoration techniques in real-world, resource-constrained environments.