Methods and Apparatus for Demosaicing Images with Highly Correlated Color Channels

An apparatus comprising:

• a first image sensor having an active area with a first matrix of first camera pixels;
• a first color filter array over the first matrix of the first pixels, the first color filter array to assign one of a plurality of colors to each of the first camera pixels;
• an image processor coupled to the first image sensor to receive the first matrix of first camera pixels, the image processor including
• a correlation detector to detect spatial correlation of intensity information between a pair of colors in pixel data of the first matrix of first camera pixels and to control demosaicing of the first camera pixels into first tri-color pixels with improved resolution.

An apparatus comprising:

• a first display device displaying a first image captured within a body cavity formed by a first matrix of a first plurality of first display pixels;
• wherein at least one display pixel of the first plurality of first display pixels having improved resolution in response to correlation between a pair of color channels;
• and
• wherein the first image includes a tissue image portion.

A non-transitory machine readable media have stored thereon instructions that when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations comprising:

• capturing a first image from a surgical site within a patient, the first image including first pixel data of a first plurality of first camera pixels;
• assigning single color information to the first pixel data of each of the first plurality of camera pixels;
• detecting first spatial correlation of intensity information between a pair of colors in the first pixel data of a first array of camera pixels;
• and
• variably demosaicing each camera pixel in the first array of camera pixels with neighboring camera pixels to generate first full color pixel data for each first camera pixel in response to the first spatial correlation.