Deep video frame interpolation using cyclic frame generation

Video frame interpolation algorithms predict intermediate frames to produce videos with higher frame rates and smooth view transitions given two consecutive frames as inputs. We propose that: synthesized frames are more reliable if they can be used to reconstruct the input frames with high quality. Based on this idea, we introduce a new loss term, the cycle consistency loss. The cycle consistency loss can better utilize the training data to not only enhance the interpolation results, but also maintain the performance better with less training data. It can be integrated into any frame interpolation network and trained in an end-to-end manner. In addition to the cycle consistency loss, we propose two extensions: motion linearity loss and edge-guided training. The motion linearity loss approximates the motion between two input frames to be linear and regularizes the training. By applying edge-guided training, we further improve results by integrating edge information into training. Both qualitative and quantitative experiments demonstrate that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. The source codes of the proposed method and more experimental results will be available at https://github.com/alex04072000/CyclicGen.