Method, apparatus, and system for multilevel bilateral noise filtering

An image processing apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors in communication with an image sensor;
• one or more memory devices in communication with the one or more processors;
• wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
• receive from the image sensor an image frame including a color mosaic having a color filter array (CFA) pattern;
• decompose the image frame into at least one color plane image for each of a plurality of color planes;
• sequentially and separately reduce noise in the at least one color plane image by performing multilevel bilateral noise filtering of the at least one color plane image;
• and
• reconstruct the at least one color plane image to generate a noise filtered image frame.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

• receive from the image sensor an image frame including a color mosaic having a color filter array (CFA) pattern;
• decompose the image frame into at least one color plane image for each of a plurality of color planes;
• sequentially and separately reduce noise in the at least one color plane image by performing multilevel bilateral noise filtering of the at least one color plane image;
• and
• reconstruct the at least one color plane image to generate a noise filtered image frame.