Project description
Innovative models for the digital restoration of old photographs and videos
Digital heritage encompasses computer-based materials of lasting significance, such as photographs and videos, that require preservation for future generations. Techniques like digital restoration, which include colourisation and artefact removal, can greatly enhance these materials. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the XIDHIR project targets two restoration challenges within digital heritage: colourisation and image enhancement of old photographs and videos. Leveraging deep learning methods, the project aims to improve explainability and engage users more effectively. Ultimately, XIDHIR seeks to develop models that enable user interaction, facilitating digital heritage image restoration and ensuring high-quality, user-centric outcomes through active user involvement in the enhancement process.
Objective
Digital heritage are computer-based materials of enduring value that should be kept for future generations, for example photographs and videos. As an asset of our times, historical photographs and videos can greatly benefit from digital restoration techniques, from colorization or color enhancement to the removal of scratches or other artefacts. In this project, we focus on two cases for digital heritage restoration: colorization and color image enhancement of old photographs and videos. Historically, image enhancement methods were rooted in tailor-made priors using well-understood physics and/or statistical models. Now, deep learning approaches leverage large amounts of data to train generative models that can hallucinate on the generated images. However, the useful versatility of deep learning approaches faces two main problems:
(a) Deep models are black boxes whose inner behaviors are difficult to interpret, which is an important drawback when assessing their reliability, studying failure cases, and improving their robustness. This hinders their direct adoption in the digital heritage restoration process. Thus, explainability is a highly desirable characteristic for image enhancement models.
(b) Image enhancement problems are ill-conditioned, especially for digital heritage photos (e.g. there are many plausible colorizations of a grayscale image). Yet, users rarely have a say in the process of enhancement with deep models, which is typically decided by the model based on statistical decisions. Thus, physically plausible or realistic solutions should be favored, as well as allowing the end user to explore and guide the algorithm towards the intended solution.
In this project, we propose to confront the ill-posed nature of image enhancement problems by a comprehensive involvement of the user in the loop, shifting the important decision-making from the model to the user. This will lead to results that are user oriented and achieve higher quality.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08193 Cerdanyola del Valles
Spain
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