Method of producing a high quality, high resolution image from a sequence of low quality, low resolution images that are undersampled and subject to jitter

A method of processing low resolution input frames containing undersampled views of an optically imaged scene to produce a higher quality, higher resolution output frames comprising the steps of:

• obtaining a previous low resolution input frame containing a previous undersampled view of an optically imaged scene;
• obtaining a new low resolution input frame containing a new undersampled view of the optically imaged scene due that is different from the previous undersampled view;
• measuring a displacement between the new and previous low resolution input frames to sub-pixel precision to produce a measured displacement;
• dividing the measured displacement into an integer displacement portion and a fractional displacement portion;
• providing a high resolution working frame;
• coarsely registering the high resolution working frame with the new low resolution input frame based on the integer displacement portion of the measured displacement;
• providing a kernel;
• fractionally adjusting the kernel based on the fractional displacement value to form a fractionally-shifted kernel;
• finely registering the new low resolution input frame with the high resolution working frame by expanding the new low resolution input frame into a new high resolution input frame using the fractionally-shifted kernel;
• and
• merging the new high resolution input frame into the high resolution working frame.