Image processing apparatus for correcting defect pixel in consideration of distortion aberration

An image processing apparatus comprising:

• an optical system having distortion aberration characteristics for expanding a central part and compressing a peripheral part of an image plane;
• an image sensor for photodetecting an optical image via the optical system, converting the optical image to image signals, and outputting the image signals;
• a defect pixel detection circuit for detecting a defect pixel;
• a peripheral pixel position output circuit for outputting positions of peripheral pixels with respect to the detected defect pixel;
• a characteristic value output circuit for outputting characteristic values assigned to the defect pixel and the peripheral pixels with respect to the distortion aberration characteristics;
• a pixel selecting circuit for comparing the characteristic values of the defect pixel and each peripheral pixel with each other, and selecting one of the peripheral pixels which has the characteristic value producing the minimum difference between it and the characteristic value of the defect pixel;
• and
• a correction value computing circuit for substituting the image signal of the peripheral pixel selected by the pixel selecting circuit for the image signal with respect to the defect pixel, so as to correct this image signal of the defect pixel.