Towards Real-Time Hyperspectral Multi-Image Super-Resolution Reconstruction Applied to Histological Samples

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Feb 7;23(4):1863. doi: 10.3390/s23041863.

Abstract

Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) is increasingly adopted in medical applications for the usefulness of understanding the spectral signature of specific organic and non-organic elements. The acquisition of such images is a complex task, and the commercial sensors that can measure such images is scarce down to the point that some of them have limited spatial resolution in the bands of interest. This work proposes an approach to enhance the spatial resolution of hyperspectral histology samples using super-resolution. As the data volume associated to HSI has always been an inconvenience for the image processing in practical terms, this work proposes a relatively low computationally intensive algorithm. Using multiple images of the same scene taken in a controlled environment (hyperspectral microscopic system) with sub-pixel shifts between them, the proposed algorithm can effectively enhance the spatial resolution of the sensor while maintaining the spectral signature of the pixels, competing in performance with other state-of-the-art super-resolution techniques, and paving the way towards its use in real-time applications.

Keywords: computational histology; hyperspectral imaging; image processing; remote sensing; super-resolution.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Environment, Controlled*
  • Histological Techniques
  • Hyperspectral Imaging
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Government and European Union as part of the TALENT-HExPERIA (HypErsPEctRal Imaging for Artificial intelligence applications) project (PID2020-116417RB-C42). Moreover, this work was completed while Laura Quintana was beneficiary of the pre-doctoral grant given by the “Agencia Canaria de Investigacion, Innovacion y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI)” of the “Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento y Empleo”, which is part-financed by the European Social Fund (FSE) (POC 2014-2020, Eje 3 Tema Prioritario 74 (85%)), and Himar Fabelo was beneficiary of the FJC2020-043474-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union “NextGenerationEU/PRTR”.