Diffusion Models for Image Restoration

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Overview

This field studies how to recover useful images from noise, blur, low resolution, missing regions, and other degradations, including in medical and scientific imaging. Methods range from conditional diffusion and diffusion bridges to plug-and-play posterior sampling, which combines a learned image prior with consistency to the observed measurements. Recent work adapts pretrained models and uses physical, structural, or semantic guidance, while faster latent-space and one-step methods aim to make restoration practical. A central challenge is balancing fidelity to the input against realistic detail generation: strong generative priors can improve perceptual quality but may invent content, and inference cost and clinical validation remain concerns.

Latest papers

CardsList

189 papers17 papers in the last four weeks, up 42% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Bridging Restoration and Generation Manifolds in One-Step Diffusion for Real-World Super-Resolution

    Apr 27, 2026Shyang-En Weng, Yi-Cheng Liao, Yu-Syuan Xu +2Diffusion Model InversionDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan · MediaTek Inc., Taiwan

  2. ZID-Net: Zero-Inference Diffusion Prior Decoupling Network for Single Image Dehazing

    Apr 26, 2026Xinheng Li, Minghao Chen, Mengqing Wu +2Diffusion Models for Image RestorationDiffusion Model Distillation

    College of Information Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Changzhou, 213200, Jiangsu, China

  3. BurstGP: Enhancing Raw Burst Image Super Resolution with Generative Priors

    Apr 26, 2026Dong Huo, Tristan Aumentado-Armstrong, Samrudhdhi B. Rangrej +8Diffusion Models for Image RestorationImage Super-Resolution

    AI Center - Toronto, Samsung Electronics · University of Toronto · Vector Institute +2

  4. Multimodal Diffusion to Mutually Enhance Polarized Light and Low Resolution EBSD Data

    Apr 24, 2026Harry Dong, Timofey Efimov, Megna Shah +4Diffusion Models for Image RestorationMaterials Science

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA · Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, USA · Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA +1

  5. DiffNR: Diffusion-Enhanced Neural Representation Optimization for Sparse-View 3D Tomographic Reconstruction

    Apr 23, 2026Shiyan Su, Ruyi Zha, Danli Shi +2Diffusion Models for Image RestorationSparse-View CT Reconstruction

    1Monash University · 2The Australian National University · 3Hong Kong Polytechnic University

  6. Diffusion Autoencoder for Unsupervised Artifact Restoration in Handheld Fundus Images

    Apr 17, 2026Mathumetha Palani, Kavya Puthumana, Ayantika Das +1Diffusion Models for Image RestorationUnsupervised Image Restoration

    Nuvo AI, Chennai, India · Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India

  7. Remote Sensing Image Super-Resolution for Imbalanced Textures: A Texture-Aware Diffusion Framework

    Apr 15, 2026Enzhuo Zhang, Sijie Zhao, Dilxat Muhtar +3Remote Sensing Image Super-ResolutionImage Super-Resolution

    Nanjing University, China

  8. LiveMoments: Reselected Key Photo Restoration in Live Photos via Reference-guided Diffusion

    Apr 14, 2026Clara Xue, Zizheng Yan, Zhenning Shi +5Geometry-Guided Image RestorationImage Restoration

    vivo BlueImage Lab · College of Computer Science, Nankai University

  9. Domain-Specific Latent Representations Improve the Fidelity of Diffusion-Based Medical Image Super-Resolution

    Apr 14, 2026Sebastian Cajas, Ashaba Judith, Rahul Gorijavolu +8Medical Image Super-ResolutionDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    MIT Critical Data, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. · Department of Biomedical Engineering, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. · School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. +10

  10. Degradation-Aware and Structure-Preserving Diffusion for Real-World Image Super-Resolution

    Apr 13, 2026Yang Ji, Zonghao Chen, Zhihao Xue +1Degradation-Aware Image RestorationImage Super-Resolution

    KUNBYTE Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China · GOLDMYE Xuhui District, Shanghai, China

  11. Energy-oriented Diffusion Bridge for Image Restoration with Foundational Diffusion Models

    Apr 13, 2026Jinhui Hou, Zhiyu Zhu, Junhui HouDiffusion Models for Image RestorationDiffusion Models

    Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong · Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)

  12. EEG2Vision: A Multimodal EEG-Based Framework for 2D Visual Reconstruction in Cognitive Neuroscience

    Apr 9, 2026Emanuele Balloni, Emanuele Frontoni, Chiara Matti +3EEG-Based Visual DecodingEEG Decoding

    Department of Civil Engineering Building and Architecture (DICEA), Universit`a Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche 12, Ancona, 60131, Italy · Department of Political Sciences, Communication and International Relations, University of Macerata, Via Don Minzoni 22A, Macerata, 62100, Italy · Horizon Intelligence Labs +1

  13. Distilling Photon-Counting CT into Routine Chest CT through Clinically Validated Degradation Modeling

    Apr 8, 2026Junqi Liu, Xinze Zhou, Wenxuan Li +10Medical Image SynthesisComputed Tomography

    Johns Hopkins University · University of California, San Francisco · Harvard Medical School +3

  14. Leveraging Image Editing Foundation Models for Data-Efficient CT Metal Artifact Reduction

    Apr 7, 2026Ahmet Rasim Emirdagi, Süleyman Aslan, Mısra Yavuz +5Computed TomographyImage Reconstruction

    Codeway AI Research

  15. Single-Stage Signal Attenuation Diffusion Model for Low-Light Image Enhancement and Denoising

    Apr 7, 2026Ying Liu, Junchao Zhang, Caiyun WuLow-Light Image EnhancementDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China · Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Optic-Electronic Intelligent Measurement and Control, Changsha 410083, China

  16. Your Pre-trained Diffusion Model Secretly Knows Restoration

    Apr 6, 2026Sudarshan Rajagopalan, Vishal M. PatelDiffusion Models for Image RestorationAll-in-One Image Restoration

    Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD 21218, USA

  17. VOSR: A Vision-Only Generative Model for Image Super-Resolution

    Apr 3, 2026Rongyuan Wu, Lingchen Sun, Zhengqiang Zhang +4Image Super-ResolutionDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · OPPO Research Institute

  18. LumaFlux: Lifting 8-Bit Worlds to HDR Reality with Physically-Guided Diffusion Transformers

    Apr 3, 2026Shreshth Saini, Hakan Gedik, Neil Birkbeck +3HDR ImagingDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    The University of Texas at Austin · Google, Inc.

  19. A2BFR: Attribute-Aware Blind Face Restoration

    Mar 31, 2026Chenxin Zhu, Yushun Fang, Lu Liu +5Geometry-Guided Image RestorationImage Restoration

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China · Xiaohongshu Inc., Shanghai, China

  20. Cone-Beam CT Image Quality Enhancement Using A Latent Diffusion Model Trained with Simulated CBCT Artifacts

    Mar 27, 2026Naruki Murahashi, Mitsuhiro Nakamura, Megumi NakaoCone-Beam CTDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8507, JAPAN

  21. InstanceRSR: Real-World Super-Resolution via Instance-Aware Representation Alignment

    Mar 25, 2026Zixin Guo, Kai Zhao, Luyan ZhangReference-Based Image Super-ResolutionImage Super-Resolution

    Tongji University · Western Sydney University · Independent Researcher

  22. Gimbal360: Canonicalizing Planar Diffusion for Spherical Panorama Completion

    Mar 24, 2026Yuqin Lu, Haofeng Liu, Yang Zhou +4Diffusion ModelsDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

  23. PhySe-RPO: Physics and Semantics Guided Relative Policy Optimization for Diffusion-Based Surgical Smoke Removal

    Mar 24, 2026Zining Fang, Cheng Xue, Chunhui Liu +3Geometry-Guided Image RestorationImage Restoration

    School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University · Zhongda Hospital,Southeast University · School of Future Technology, South China University of Technology

  24. TAFG-MAN: Timestep-Adaptive Frequency-Gated Latent Diffusion for Efficient and High-Quality Low-Dose CT Image Denoising

    Mar 21, 2026Tangtangfang Fang, Yang Jiao, Xiangjian He +2LDCT DenoisingDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China

  25. NEC-Diff: Noise-Robust Event-RAW Complementary Diffusion for Seeing Motion in Extreme Darkness

    Mar 20, 2026Haoyue Liu, Jinghan Xu, Luxin Feng +4Low-Light Image EnhancementImage Denoising

    National Key Lab of Multispectral Information Intelligent Processing Technology School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology · School of Computing, National University of Singapore

  26. FUMO: Prior-Modulated Diffusion for Single Image Reflection Removal

    Mar 19, 2026Telang Xu, Chaoyang Zhang, Guangtao Zhai +1Diffusion Models for Image RestorationSingle-Image Reflection Removal

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China · Shanghai Innovation Institute, Shanghai, China · Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

  27. MeInTime: Bridging Age Gap in Identity-Preserving Face Restoration

    Mar 19, 2026Teer Song, Yue Zhang, Yu Tian +6Image RestorationDiffusion Models for Image Restoration

    Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications · Department of Computer Science and Technology, Institute for AI, Tsinghua University · Minzu University of China +1

  28. Remote Sensing Image Dehazing: A Systematic Review of Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

    Mar 18, 2026Heng Zhou, Xiaoxiong Liu, Zhenxi Zhang +6Image DehazingPhysics-Guided Image Restoration

    School of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China · Josef Kittler Research Institute on Artificial Intelligence, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China · School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China +3

  29. Joint Degradation-Aware Arbitrary-Scale Super-Resolution for Variable-Rate Extreme Image Compression

    Mar 18, 2026Xinning Chai, Zhengxue Cheng, Xin Li +2Learned Image CompressionGenerative Image Compression

    School of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Department of Electronic Engineer and Information Science, University of Science and Technology of China · School of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the MoE Key Lab of Artificial Intelligence, AI Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

  30. Adaptive Moments are Surprisingly Effective for Plug-and-Play Diffusion Sampling

    Mar 17, 2026Christian Belardi, Justin Lovelace, Kilian Q. Weinberger +1Diffusion SamplingDiffusion Model Guidance

    Cornell University