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Is it possible to turn a low quality image into a high quality one with Python?

I made a tif image based on a 3d model of a woodsheet. (x, y, z) represents a point in a 3d space. I simply map (x, y) to a pixel position in the image and (z) to the greyscale value of that pixel. It worked as I have imagined. Then I ran into a low-resolution problem when I tried to print it. The tif image would get pixilated badly as soon as it zooms out. My research suggests that I need to increase the resolution of the image. So I tried a few super-resolution algos found from online sources, including this one https://learnopencv.com/super-resolution-in-opencv/
The final image did get a lot bigger in resolution (10+ times larger in either dimension) but the same problem persists - it gets pixilated as soon as it zooms out, just about the same as the original image.
Looks like quality of an image has something to do not only with resolution of it but also something else. When I say quality of image, I mean how clear the wood texture is in the image. And when I enlarge it, how sharp/clear the texture remains in the image. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thank you.
original tif
The algo generated tif is too large to be included here (32M)
Gigapixel enhanced tif
Update - Here is a recently achieved result: with a GAN-based solution
It has restored/invented some of the wood grain details. But the models need to be retrained.

In short, it is possible to do this via deep learning reconstruction like the Super Resolution package you referred to, but you should understand what something like this is trying to do and whether it is fit for purpose.
Generic algorithms like the Super Resolution is trained on variety of images to "guess" at details that is not present in the original image, typically using generative training methods like using the low vs high resolution version of the same image as training data.
Using a contrived example, let's say you are trying to up-res a picture of someone's face (CSI Zoom-and-Enhance style!). From the algorithm's perspective, if a black circle is always present inside a white blob of a certain shape (i.e. a pupil in an eye), then next time it the algorithm sees the same shape it will guess that there should be a black circle and fill in a black pupil. However, this does not mean that there is details in the original photo that suggests a black pupil.
In your case, you are trying to do a very specific type of up-resing, and algorithms trained on generic data will probably not be good for this type of work. It will be trying to "guess" what detail should be entered, but based on a very generic and diverse set of source data.
If this is a long-term project, you should look to train your algorithm on your specific use-case, which will definitely yield much better results. Otherwise, simple algorithms like smoothing will help make your image less "blocky", but it will not be able to "guess" details that aren't present.

calculate particle size distribution from AFM measurements

I am trying to obtain a radius and diameter distribution from some AFM (Atomic force microscopy) measurements. So far I am trying out Gwyddion, ImageJ and different workflows in Matlab.
At the moment the best results I have found is to use Gwyddion and to take the Phase image, high pass filter it and then try an edge detection with 'Laplacian of Gaussian'. The result is shown in figure 3. However this image is still too noisy and doesnt really capture the edges of all the particles. (some are merged together others do not have a clear perimeter).
In the end I need an image which segments each of the spherical particles which I can use for blob detection/analysis to obtain size/radius information.
Can anyone recommend a different method?
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I would definitely try a Granulometry, it was designed for something really similar. There is a good explanation of granulometry here starting page 158.
The granulometry will perform consecutive / increasing openings that will erase the different patterns according to their dimensions. The bigger the pattern, the latter it will be erased. It will give you a curve that represent the pattern dimension distributions in your image, so exactly what you want.
However, it will not give you any information about the position inside the image. If you want to have a rough modeling of the blobs present in your image, you can take a look to the Ultimate Opening.

Maybe you can use Avizo, it's a powerful software for dealing with image issues, especially for three D data (CT)

Using external pose estimates to improve stationary marker contour tracking

Suppose that I have an array of sensors that allows me to come up with an estimate of my pose relative to some fixed rectangular marker. I thus have an estimate as to what the contour of the marker will look like in the image from the camera. How might I use this to better detect contours?
The problem that I'm trying to overcome is that sometimes, the marker is occluded, perhaps by a line cutting across it. As such, I'm left with two contours that if merged, would yield the marker. I've tried opening and closing to try and fix the problem, but it isn't robust to the different types of lighting.
One approach that I'm considering is to use the predicted contour, and perform a local convolution with the gradient of the image, to find my true pose.
Any thoughts or advice?

The obvious advantage of having a pose estimate is that it restricts the image region for searching your target.
Next, if your problem is occlusion, you then need to model that explicitly, rather than just try to paper it over with image processing tricks: add to your detector objective function a term that expresses what your target may look like when partially occluded. This can be either an explicit "occluded appearance" model, or implicit - e.g. using an algorithm that is able to recognize visible portions of the targets independently of the whole of it.

Find pixel coordinates of grid intersection points

I am trying to find a repeatable process to find the coordinates of grid intersection points from an image. The image is a montage of many smaller images. Each 'tile' of the montage has inconsistent contrast, so my naive methods are failing (the tile boundary is being selected) . A small example:
I have had minor advances from the ideas explained in How to remove convexity defects in a Sudoku square? and Grid detection in matlab
However, the grid lines are NOT necessarily straight over the entire image, so cannot approximate as a grid of straight lines. I am familiar with imageJ or Gatan digitalMicrograph software, if anyone knows of a simple solution. Otherwise matlab/python Opencv would be useful

My first idea: write a script to chop your image into tiles, and apply some contrast normalization such as CLAHE to each one. Then reassemble the tiles using the Stitching plugin with the Linear Blending option on, to avoid the sharp tile lines. After that, segmenting the grid will become much easier; see ImageJ's Segmentation page for an introduction.
This is the kind of image analysis problem that is better discussed on the ImageJ Forum where people can throw ideas and script snippets back and forth, to converge on a solution.

Horizontal and vertical edge profiles using python-opencv

I am trying to detect a vehicle in an image (actually a sequence of frames in a video). I am new to opencv and python and work under windows 7.
Is there a way to get horizontal edges and vertical edges of an image and then sum up the resultant images into respective vectors?
Is there a python code or function available for this.
I looked at this and this but would not get a clue how to do it.
You may use the following image for illustration.
EDIT
I was inspired by the idea presented in the following paper (sorry if you do not have access).
Betke, M.; Haritaoglu, E. & Davis, L. S. Real-time multiple vehicle detection and tracking from a moving vehicle Machine Vision and Applications, Springer-Verlag, 2000, 12, 69-83

I would take a look at the squares example for opencv, posted here. It uses canny and then does a contour find to return the sides of each square. You should be able to modify this code to get the horizontal and vertical lines you are looking for. Here is a link to the documentation for the python call of canny. It is rather helpful for all around edge detection. In about an hour I can get home and give you a working example of what you are wanting.

Do some reading on Sobel filters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobel_operator
You can basically get vertical and horizontal gradients at each pixel.
Here is the OpenCV function for it.
http://docs.opencv.org/modules/imgproc/doc/filtering.html?highlight=sobel#sobel
Once you get this filtered images then you can collect statistics column/row wise and decide if its an edge and get that location.

Typically geometrical approaches to object detection are not hugely successful as the appearance model you assume can quite easily be violated by occlusion, noise or orientation changes.
Machine learning approaches typically work much better in my opinion and would probably provide a more robust solution to your problem. Since you appear to be working with OpenCV you could take a look at Casacade Classifiers for which OpenCV provides a Haar wavelet and a local binary pattern feature based classifiers.
The link I have provided is to a tutorial with very complete steps explaining how to create a classifier with several prewritten utilities. Basically you will create a directory with 'positive' images of cars and a directory with 'negative' images of typical backgrounds. A utiltiy opencv_createsamples can be used to create training images warped to simulate different orientations and average intensities from a small set of images. You then use the utility opencv_traincascade setting a few command line parameters to select different training options outputting a trained classifier for you.
Detection can be performed using either the C++ or the Python interface with this trained classifier.
For instance, using Python you can load the classifier and perform detection on an image getting back a selection of bounding rectangles using:
image = cv2.imread('path/to/image')
cc = cv2.CascadeClassifier('path/to/classifierfile')
objs = cc.detectMultiScale(image)