Image processing method

An image processing method comprising:

• a feature value calculation step of calculating feature values of micro regions in a specified region having a pixel of interest at a center, from pickup results of an image pickup device that has a color filter with a particular color at each of pixels arrayed two-dimensionally;
• a binarization step of binarizing the feature values of the micro regions calculated by the feature value calculation step;
• a contour detection step of detecting a contour using the feature values binarized by the binarization step;
• and
• an image signal value correction step of correcting an image signal value of the pixel of interest using image signal values of a plurality of pixels including the pixel of interest in a same direction as the contour detected by the contour detection step.

An image processing method comprising:

• a feature value calculation step of calculating feature values of micro regions in a specified region having a pixel of interest at a center, from pickup results of an image pickup device that has a color filter with a particular color at each of pixels arrayed two-dimensionally;
• a binarization step of binarizing the feature values of the micro regions calculated by the feature value calculation step;
• a contour detection step of detecting a contour using the feature values binarized by the binarization step;
• and
• a first image signal value correction step of correcting, when the contour is detected by the contour detection step, an image signal value of the pixel of interest using image signal values of a plurality of pixels including the pixel of interest in a same direction as the contour detected by the contour detection step;
• an edge intensity value calculation step of calculating, when the contour is not detected by the contour detection step, an edge intensity value in a neighborhood of the pixel of interest from the feature values of the micro regions calculated by the feature value calculation step;
• a filter value calculation step of calculating a low-pass filter value of the pixel of interest from the image signal values of neighboring pixels which have a same color component as the pixel of interest;
• and
• a second image signal value correction step of correcting the image signal value of the pixel of interest by using the edge intensity value calculated by the edge intensity value calculation step and the low-pass filter value calculated by the filter value calculation step.