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US 11,115,610 B2Granted
Noise aware edge enhancement
AssigneeDePuy Synthes Products, Inc.
InventorsJohn Richardson, Donald M. Wichern
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for enhancing edges within an image in a light deficient environment, which utilizes knowledge of the expected noise pixel by pixel, to control the strength of the edge enhancement and thereby limit the impact of the enhancement on the perception of noise.
Claims26
A digital imaging method for use with an endoscope in ambient light deficient environments comprising:
- illuminating an environment using a source of electromagnetic radiation;
- sensing reflected electromagnetic radiation with a pixel array of a sensor, wherein said pixel array generates image data;
- creating an image frame from said image data;
- detecting image textures and edges within the image frame;
- enhancing textures and edges within the image frame;
- retrieving from memory properties pertaining to a pixel technology comprising a known-conversion gain for an individual pixel or a group of pixels and an applied sensor gain of the sensor to:
- determine a noise variance expectation for noise variance within the image frame created by said sensor;
- use said noise variance expectation to control the enhancing of the textures and edges within the image frame;
- and
- creating a stream of images by sequentially combining a plurality of image frames.
7 more elements
A digital imaging system comprising:
- an endoscopic device for use in ambient light deficient environments;
- a source of electromagnetic radiation for illuminating an environment;
- an image sensor that senses reflected electromagnetic radiation with a pixel array of the image sensor,
- wherein said pixel array generates image data;
- wherein an image frame is created from said image data;
- wherein a processor:
- detects one or more of image textures and edges within the image frame;
- enhances textures and edges within the image frame;
- retrieves from memory properties pertaining to a pixel technology comprising a known-conversion gain for an individual pixel or group of pixels and an applied sensor gain of the image sensor to determine a noise variance expectation for noise variance within the image frame created by said image sensor and using the noise variance expectation to control the enhancing of the textures and edges within the image frame;
- and
- wherein a stream of images is created by sequentially combining a plurality of image frames.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.