Enhancement by image-dependent warping

All image warping algorithms to date are image-independent, namely, relate only to the geometry of the image plane, ignoring the content of the image, We show that taking the image content into account yields elaborate warpin g schemes which may be used to enhance, sharpen and scale images. Sharpenin g the image is achieved by "squashing" the pixels in edge areas, and "stret ching" the pixels in flat areas. Since image pixels are only moved, not mod ified, some drawbacks of classical linear filtering methods are avoided. We also lay the mathematical foundation for the use of an image-dependent war ping scheme in traditional warping applications, such as distortion minimiz ation.