{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:17:44Z","timestamp":1760059064905,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,19]],"date-time":"2025-05-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747612800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Key Projects of Natural Science Research in Anhui Colleges and Universities","award":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"]}]},{"name":"University Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province","award":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"]}]},{"name":"Opening Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Intelligence","award":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"]}]},{"name":"Program of Anhui Education Department","award":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023AH051546","2022AH010085","COGOS-2023HE02","2024jsqygz83"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Imaging"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Image super-resolution (SR) models based on the generative adversarial network (GAN) face challenges such as unnatural facial detail restoration and local blurring. This paper proposes an improved GAN-based model to address these issues. First, a Multi-scale Hybrid Attention Residual Block (MHARB) is designed, which dynamically enhances feature representation in critical face regions through dual-branch convolution and channel-spatial attention. Second, an Edge-guided Enhancement Block (EEB) is introduced, generating adaptive detail residuals by combining edge masks and channel attention to accurately recover high-frequency textures. Furthermore, a multi-scale discriminator with a weighted sub-discriminator loss is developed to balance global structural and local detail generation quality. Additionally, a phase-wise training strategy with dynamic adjustment of learning rate (Lr) and loss function weights is implemented to improve the realism of super-resolved face images. Experiments on the CelebA-HQ dataset demonstrate that the proposed model achieves a PSNR of 23.35 dB, a SSIM of 0.7424, and a LPIPS of 24.86, outperforming classical models and delivering superior visual quality in high-frequency regions. Notably, this model also surpasses the SwinIR model (PSNR: 23.28 dB \u2192 23.35 dB, SSIM: 0.7340 \u2192 0.7424, and LPIPS: 30.48 \u2192 24.86), validating the effectiveness of the improved model and the training strategy in preserving facial details.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jimaging11050163","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,19]],"date-time":"2025-05-19T11:54:26Z","timestamp":1747655666000},"page":"163","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Improved Face Image Super-Resolution Model Based on Generative Adversarial Network"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-9774-808X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qingyu","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, Huainan Normal University, Huainan 232038, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4510-9192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yeguo","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Finance and Mathematics, Huainan Normal University, Huainan 232038, China"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, Huainan Normal University, Huainan 232038, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1807-6906","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, Huainan Normal University, Huainan 232038, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Deng, X., Zhang, H., and Li, X. 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