Learning linear transformations for fast image and video style transfer

Given a random pair of images, a universal style transfer method extracts the feel from a reference image to synthesize an output based on the look of a content image. Recent algorithms based on second-order statistics, however, are either computationally expensive or prone to generate artifacts due to the trade-off between image quality and runtime performance. In this work, we present an approach for universal style transfer that learns the transformation matrix in a data-driven fashion. Our algorithm is efficient yet flexible to transfer different levels of styles with the same auto-encoder network. It also produces stable video style transfer results due to the preservation of the content affinity. In addition, we propose a linear propagation module to enable a feed-forward network for photo-realistic style transfer. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on three tasks: Artistic style, photo-realistic and video style transfer, with comparisons to state-of-the-art methods.