Efficient methods for scratch removal in image sequences

Scratches are one of the most frequent defects appearing in digital film restoration, usually resolved as missing information in subsequent frames of an image sequence in a vertical area of each frame. We describe some methods for line scratch removal in digital image sequences, based on the idea of using an image model as simple as possible in order to interpolate scratch pixels, evaluating the displacement of such model from the real model in a neighbourhood of the scratch not affected by the defect, and correcting the reconstruction by adding the estimated displacement. Experimental results on real images are shown.