Research map / Image generation
Image restoration: research map
1,184 accepted papers on Image restoration in Image generation, from ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, CVPR and AAAI (2016–2026), grouped into 4 clusters and 16 approaches. The busiest year so far is 2026.
Within Image generation, its share shrank from 14.9% in 2023–24 to 10.7% in 2025–26 (311 → 436 papers at ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR and AAAI, the venues with data for all four years).
Explore Image restoration in the interactive map
Working on something in this topic? Describe your idea in scime atlas to see which approach it falls under, the closest papers by meaning and how crowded the spot has become.
Approaches and key papers
removal · enhancement · color · 580 papers
Approaches in this cluster:
- Dehazing and deraining (118 papers)
Remove haze and rain using codebook priors, diffusion priors, and unpaired training. - Inverse imaging with learned priors (109 papers)
Solve compressive and inverse imaging problems with unrolled networks and generative priors. - Image harmonization and color transformation (102 papers)
Harmonize composites and decompose illumination using pixel-wise color transforms. - Reflection removal (95 papers)
Separate reflections from transmission using misaligned data, raw inputs, and flash cues. - Pansharpening and spectral fusion (84 papers)
Fuse panchromatic, multispectral, and hyperspectral images with spatial-spectral networks. - Low-light image enhancement (72 papers)
Brighten dark images with unsupervised, contrastive, and diffusion-based methods.
Most cited and most cited since 2024:
- Zero-Reference Deep Curve Estimation for Low-Light Image Enhancement (CVPR 2020 · 2,412 citations)
- Single-Image Crowd Counting via Multi-Column Convolutional Neural Network (CVPR 2016 · 2,321 citations)
- HVI: A New Color Space for Low-light Image Enhancement (CVPR 2025 · 212 citations)
- Text-IF: Leveraging Semantic Text Guidance for Degradation-Aware and Interactive Image Fusion (CVPR 2024 · 187 citations)
image restoration · degradation · degraded · 280 papers
Approaches in this cluster:
- Efficient restoration architectures (113 papers)
Design efficient, progressive, and frequency-based networks for general image restoration. - Priors for restoration networks (66 papers)
Use implicit priors, unrolling, and pretrained model priors for image restoration. - Diffusion-based universal restoration (61 papers)
Apply generative diffusion priors to unified blind image restoration. - Real-world restoration with unaligned data (40 papers)
Restore images in dynamic scenes, burst, and under-display cameras using pseudo-supervision.
Most cited and most cited since 2024:
- Restormer: Efficient Transformer for High-Resolution Image Restoration (CVPR 2022 · 4,037 citations)
- Learning Deep CNN Denoiser Prior for Image Restoration (CVPR 2017 · 2,114 citations)
- Omni-Kernel Network for Image Restoration (AAAI 2024 · 275 citations)
- Wavelet-based Fourier Information Interaction with Frequency Diffusion Adjustment for Underwater Image Restoration (CVPR 2024 · 187 citations)
image denoising · blur · noise · 227 papers
Approaches in this cluster:
- Image deblurring (73 papers)
Remove blur with blind, unsupervised, and kernel-aware deblurring networks. - Self-supervised image denoising (60 papers)
Denoise images without clean targets using blind-spot and Noise2Noise-style training. - Raw and low-light noise modeling (53 papers)
Model camera noise physics to train raw denoisers. - Diffusion priors for denoising and deblurring (41 papers)
Use diffusion models as priors for blind denoising and real-world deblurring.
Most cited and most cited since 2024:
- Noise2Void - Learning Denoising From Single Noisy Images (CVPR 2019 · 1,426 citations)
- Scale-Recurrent Network for Deep Image Deblurring (CVPR 2018 · 1,365 citations)
- Efficient Multi-scale Network with Learnable Discrete Wavelet Transform for Blind Motion Deblurring (CVPR 2024 · 78 citations)
- Unmixing Diffusion for Self-Supervised Hyperspectral Image Denoising (CVPR 2024 · 38 citations)
compression · distortion · coding · 97 papers
Approaches in this cluster:
- Learned image compression (69 papers)
Compress images with learned hyperprior entropy models and lossless or lossy coding. - Perceptual diffusion image compression (28 papers)
Use diffusion decoders to improve perceptual quality at ultra-low bitrates.
Most cited and most cited since 2024:
- Variational image compression with a scale hyperprior (ICLR 2018 · 1,378 citations)
- End-to-end Optimized Image Compression (ICLR 2017 · 1,342 citations)
- Generative Latent Coding for Ultra-Low Bitrate Image Compression (CVPR 2024 · 27 citations)
- Learned Image Compression with Dictionary-based Entropy Model (CVPR 2025 · 23 citations)
Related topics in Image generation
- Autoregressive and latent generation (1,747)
- GANs (515)
- Super-resolution (429)
- Editing and style transfer (988)
- Fast diffusion sampling (1,866)
- Text-to-image diffusion (1,310)