Generating In-Between Images Through Learned Latent Space Representation Using Variational Autoencoders

Image interpolation is often implemented using one of two methods: optical flow or convolutional neural networks. These methods are typically pixel-based; they do not work well on objects between images far apart. Because they either rely on a simple frame average or pixel motion, they do not have the required knowledge of the semantic structure of the data. In this paper, we propose a method for image interpolation based on latent representations. We use a simple network structure based on a variational autoencoder and an adjustable hyperparameter that imposes the latent space distribution to generate accurate interpolation. To visualize the effects of the proposed approach, we evaluate a synthetic dataset. We demonstrate that our method outperforms both pixel-based methods and a conventional variational autoencoder, with particular improvements in nonsuccessive images.