by Manuel M. Oliveira,  Brian Bowen Richard McKenna        Yu-Sung Chang
Department of Computer Science
State University of New York at Stony Brook

Abstract

Reconstruction of missing or damaged portions of images is an ancient
practice used extensively in artwork restoration. Also known as inpainting
or retouching, this activity consists of filling in the missing areas or
modifying the damaged ones in a non-detectable way by an observer not
familiar with the original images. Applications of image inpainting range
from restoration of photographs, films and paintings, to removal of
occlusions, such as text, subtitles, stamps and publicity from images. In
addition, inpainting can also be used to produce special effects. We present
a very simple inpainting algorithm for reconstruction of small missing and
damaged portions of images that is two to three orders of magnitude faster
than current methods while producing comparable results.