Hyperspectral super-resolution: Combining low rank tensor and matrix structure

Hyperspectral super-resolution refers to the task of fusing a hyperspectral image (HSI) and a multispectral image (MSI) in order to produce a super-resolution image (SRI) that has high spatial and spectral resolution. Popular methods leverage matrix factorization that models each spectral pixel as a convex combination of spectral signatures belonging to a few endmembers. These methods are considered state-of-the-art, but several challenges remain. First, multiband images are naturally three dimensional (3-d) signals, while matrix methods usually ignore the 3-d structure, which is prone to information losses. Second, these methods do not provide identifiability guarantees under which the reconstruction task is feasible. Third, a tacit assumption is that the degradation operators from SRI to MSI and HSI are known - which is hardly the case in practice. Recently [1], [2] proposed a coupled tensor factorization approach to handle these issues. In this work we propose a hybrid model that combines the benefits of tensor and matrix factorization approaches. We also develop a new algorithm that is mathematically simple, enjoys identifiability under relaxed conditions and is completely agnostic of the spatial degradation operator. Experimental results with real hyperspectral data showcase the effectiveness of the proposed approach.