Comparison of direct methods for restoration of motion blurred images

Simple filters used to restore blurred images require knowledge of the point spread function (PSF) of the blurring system. Unfortunately such knowledge is usually not available when the blur is caused by relative motion between the camera and the scene. Various methods addressing this problem were developed in the last four decades. These methods can be divided into two types: Direct methods whereby the restoration process is performed in a one step fashion, and indirect methods whereby the restoration process is performed by an iterative technique. Direct methods usually require identification of the PSF as a first step, and then use it to restore the blurred image with a simple filter. Lately, a new direct method was developed. As a result of this development, direct restoration methods (given only a single blurred image) are studied and compared in this paper for a variety of motion types. Various criteria such as quality of restoration, sensitivity to noise and computation requirements are considered.