Image processing apparatus and method for filtering an image

Abstract

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for filtering an image. Said apparatus comprises an image input (3) for obtaining a first and a second image of the same object, the first and second images comprising a plurality of voxels and being interrelated by a noise covariance, each voxel having a voxel value including a signal value and a noise value. A joint bilateral filter (3) is provided for filtering the first image, wherein a first voxel of the first image is filtered by a filter function including a relative voxel-specific weight, said weight including a likelihood of obtaining the voxel values of said first voxel and a second voxel in the first image and of a first voxel and a second voxel in the second image, assuming that the signal value of said first voxel of the first image is identical to the signal value of a second voxel of the first image and that the signal value of the first voxel of the second image is identical to the signal value of a second voxel of the second image. Said filtered image is provided at an image output (4).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.