Exploring the Relationship between 2D/3D Convolution for Hyperspectral Image Super-Resolution

Hyperspectral image super-resolution (SR) methods based on deep learning have achieved significant progress recently. However, previous methods lack the joint analysis between spectrum and horizontal or vertical direction. Besides, when both 2D and 3D convolution are in the network, the existing models cannot effectively combine the two. To address these issues, in this article, we propose a novel hyperspectral image SR method by exploring the relationship between 2D/3D convolution (ERCSR). Our method alternately employs 2D and 3D units to solve the problem of structural redundancy by sharing spatial information during reconstruction for existing model, which can enhance the learning ability of 2D spatial domain. Importantly, compared with the network using 3D units, i.e., 2D units are replaced by 3D units, it can not only reduce the size of the model but also improve the performance of the model. Furthermore, to exploit the spectrum fully, the split adjacent spatial and spectral convolution (SAEC) is designed to parallelly explore information between spectrum and horizontal or vertical direction in space. Experiments on widely used benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art SR algorithms across different scales in terms of quantitative and qualitative analysis.