Correcting defects in a digital image caused by a pre-existing defect in a pixel of an image sensor

A method for correcting for defects in a digital image taken by a full frame CCD when there is a pre-existing defect in at least one pixel in the full frame CCD which causes a line of pixels in the digital image to have corrupted data, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a defect map which identifies the position of the defective pixel in the full frame CCD and specifies the line of pixels which during readout will be caused to have corrupted data;
• (b) capturing the digital image in the fall frame CCD and reading out such digital image to provide the digital image with the line of pixels having corrupted data;
• (c) computing classifiers based on adjacent non-corrupted pixel data which indicate that there is a horizontal edge or a diagonal edge feature which passes through the defective column;
• and
• (d) adaptively replacing the data in the corrupted image pixels by selecting an algorithm which correponds to the edge feature identified by the classifier and using the valid data in the neighboring non-corrupted pixels of the selected edge feature.

A method for correcting for defects in a digital image taken by a full frame color CCD having a plurality of different colored pixels wherein there is a pre-existing defect in at least one color pixel in the full frame color CCD which causes a line of pixels of different colors in the digital image to have corrupted data, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a defect map which identifies the position of the defective pixel in the full frame color CCD and specifies the line of pixels which during readout will be caused to have corrupted data;
• (b) capturing the digital image in the full frame color CCD and reading out such digital image to provide the colored digital image with the line of pixels having corrupted data;
• (c) computing classifiers based on adjacent non-corrupted pixel data which indicate that there is a horizontal edge or a diagonal edge feature which passes through the defective column;
• and
• (d) adaptively replacing the data in the corrupted image pixels by selecting an algorithm which correponds to the edge feature identified by the classifier and using the valid data in the neighboring non-corrupted pixels of the selected edge feature.