# US 2020/0401859 A1 · Image processing device, imaging device, and image processing method > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2020/0401859 A1 - Document ID: US20200401859A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 17/013,385 - Filed: 2020-09-04 - Published: 2020-12-24 - Earliest claimed: 2015-01-08 - Assignees: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation - Applicants: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation - Inventors: Kazuhiro Hoshino - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20200401859A1 ## CPC - G08G 1/04: using optical or ultrasonic detectors - G06T 1/00: General purpose image data processing - G06T 5/50: using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction - G06T 5/70: Denoising; Smoothing - G06T 5/73: Deblurring; Sharpening - G06T 7/223: using block-matching - G06T 7/74: {involving reference images or patches} - G06V 10/147: Details of sensors, e.g. sensor lenses (fingerprint or palmprint sensors G06V40/13; vascular sensors G06V40/145; eye sensors G06V40/19) - G06V 10/20: Image preprocessing - G06V 10/56: relating to colour - G06V 10/60: relating to illumination properties, e.g. using a reflectance or lighting model - G06V 20/52: Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) - G06V 20/62: Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images - G08G 1/0175: {by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules} - H04N 5/144: {Movement detection (for video coding H04N19/503; analysis of motion in general G06T7/20)} - H04N 5/208: for compensating for attenuation of high frequency components, e.g. crispening, aperture distortion correction - H04N 7/18: Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast - H04N 9/646: {for image enhancement, e.g. vertical detail restoration, cross-colour elimination, contour correction, chrominance trapping filters} - H04N 23/11: for generating image signals from visible and infrared light wavelengths - H04N 23/56: provided with illuminating means - H04N 25/131: including elements passing infrared wavelengths - H04N 25/135: {based on four or more different wavelength filter elements} - H04N 25/618: for random or high-frequency noise - G06T 2207/10016: Video; Image sequence - G06T 2207/10024: Color image - G06T 2207/10048: Infrared image - G06T 2207/20192: Edge enhancement; Edge preservation - G06V 10/143: Sensing or illuminating at different wavelengths - G06V 20/625: {License plates} - G06V 2201/08: Detecting or categorising vehicles - H04N 2209/045: using mosaic colour filter - H04N 2209/046: Colour interpolation to calculate the missing colour values - G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93}) - G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION ## Abstract Visibility of a license plate and color reproducibility of a vehicle body are improved in a monitoring camera. A vehicle body area detection unit detects a vehicle body area of a vehicle from an image signal. A license plate area detection unit detects a license plate area of the vehicle from the image signal. A vehicle body area image processing unit performs processing of the image signal corresponding to the detected vehicle body area. A license plate area image processing unit performs processing different from the processing of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area on the image signal corresponding to the detected license plate area. A synthesis unit synthesizes the processed image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area and the processed image signal corresponding to the license plate area. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An image processing device comprising: a vehicle body area detector configured to perform object motion detection to detect a first portion of an image signal, the first portion of the image signal corresponding to a vehicle body area of an image; a license plate area detector configured to detect a second portion of the image signal, the second portion of the image signal corresponding to a license plate area of the image; and a processor configured to perform a first processing on the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area to modify first pixels corresponding to the vehicle body area of the image, and to perform a second processing on the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area to modify second pixels corresponding to the license plate area of the image, the first processing being different from the second processing, wherein a detection procedure performed by the vehicle body detector to detect the vehicle body area of the image occurs independently of a detection procedure performed by the license plate area detector to detect the license plate area of the image. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, further comprising: a synthesizer configured to synthesize a processed image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area modified by the first processing and a processed image signal corresponding to the license plate area modified by the second processing. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the second processing includes luminance signal conversion processing to convert the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area to a luminance signal corresponding to the license plate area. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The image processing device according to claim 3, wherein the second processing includes edge enhancement processing to enhance an edge portion of the luminance signal corresponding to the license plate area. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The image processing device according to claim 3, wherein the second processing includes two-dimensional noise reduction processing to remove noise in the luminance signal corresponding to the license plate area by attenuating high-frequency components of luminance signals belonging to a same frame. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the first processing includes luminance/chrominance signal conversion processing to convert the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area to a luminance signal corresponding to the vehicle body area and a chrominance signal corresponding to the vehicle body area. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The image processing device according to claim 6, wherein the first processing includes three-dimensional noise reduction processing to remove noise in the luminance signal corresponding to the vehicle body area and the chrominance signal corresponding to the vehicle body area by using luminance signals and chrominance signals belonging to a plurality of continuous frames. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the image signal includes image signals corresponding to red light, green light, blue light, and infrared light, the first processing includes processing of the image signals corresponding to the red light, the green light, and the blue light included in the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area, and the second processing includes processing of the image signal corresponding to the infrared light included in second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The image processing device according to claim 8, wherein the image signal further includes an image signal corresponding to white light, and the first processing includes processing of the image signals corresponding to the red light, the green light, the blue light, and the white light included in the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the image signal includes image signals corresponding to red light, green light, blue light, and infrared light, the image processing device further comprises a saturation detector configured to detect whether the image signal corresponding to the infrared light included in the image signal is saturated, and the second processing includes: (i) processing of the image signal corresponding to the infrared light included in the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area in a case where the saturation detector detects that the image signal corresponding to the infrared light is not saturated, and (ii) processing of the image signals corresponding to the red light, the green light, and the blue light included in second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area in a case where the saturation detector detects that the image signal corresponding to the infrared light is saturated. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein any combination of the vehicle body area detector, the license plate area detector, and the processor is implemented using hardware. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the image processing device further comprises a microcomputer coupled to a digital signal processor (DSP), and wherein any combination of the vehicle body area detector, the license plate area detector, and the processor is implemented using software executable by the microcomputer. ### Claim 13 An imaging device comprising: an image sensor configured to generate an image signal; and image processing circuitry configured to: detect a first portion of the image signal corresponding to a vehicle body area of an image by performing object motion detection; detect a second portion of the image signal corresponding to a license plate area of the image; perform a first processing on the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area to modify first pixels corresponding to the vehicle body area of the image; and perform a second processing on the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area to modify second pixels corresponding to the license plate area of the image, the second processing being different from the first processing, wherein a detection procedure performed by the image processing circuitry to detect the vehicle body area of the image occurs independently of a detection procedure performed by the image processing circuitry to detect the license plate area of the image. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The image processing device according to claim 13, wherein the image processing circuitry is further configured to synthesize a processed image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area modified by the first processing and a processed image signal corresponding to the license plate area modified by the second processing. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The image processing device according to claim 13, wherein the second processing includes luminance signal conversion processing to convert the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area to a luminance signal corresponding to the license plate area. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The image processing device according to claim 13, wherein the first processing includes luminance/chrominance signal conversion processing to convert the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area to a luminance signal corresponding to the vehicle body area and a chrominance signal corresponding to the vehicle body area. ### Claim 17 (depends on 13) The image processing device according to claim 13, wherein the image signal includes image signals corresponding to red light, green light, blue light, and infrared light, the first processing includes processing of the image signals corresponding to the red light, the green light, and the blue light included in the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area, and the second processing includes processing of the image signal corresponding to the infrared light included in second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area. ### Claim 18 (depends on 13) The image processing device according to claim 13, wherein the image signal includes image signals corresponding to red light, green light, blue light, and infrared light, the image processing circuitry is further configured to detect whether the image signal corresponding to the infrared light included in the image signal is saturated, and the second processing includes: (i) processing of the image signal corresponding to the infrared light included in the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area in a case where the image signal corresponding to the infrared light is detected to be not saturated, and (ii) processing of the image signals corresponding to the red light, the green light, and the blue light included in second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area in a case where the image signal corresponding to the infrared light is detected to be saturated. ### Claim 19 An image processing method comprising: detecting a first portion of an image signal by performing object motion detection, the first portion of the image signal corresponding to a vehicle body area of an image; detecting a second portion of the image signal, the second portion of the image signal corresponding to a license plate area of the image; performing a first processing on the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area to modify first pixels corresponding to the vehicle body area of the image; and performing a second processing on the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area to modify second pixels corresponding to the license plate area of the image, the second processing being different from the first processing, wherein the detecting of the first portion of the image signal corresponding to the vehicle body area of the image occurs independently of the detecting of the second portion of the image signal corresponding to the license plate area of the image.