Image processing apparatus

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• pixel number transforming means for processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• region decision value extraction means for extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs to with a region segmentation table having input parameters of characteristic amounts of a maximum density difference and a degree of discreteness in a block that includes the target pixel and surrounding pixels;
• control means for controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after a pixel number transformation of the region, dependent upon the pixel number transformation of the region increasing or reducing the number of pixels in the region;
• and
• region decision value transforming means for calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation.

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• pixel number transforming means for processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• region decision value extraction means for extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs to with a region segmentation table having input parameters of characteristic amounts of a maximum density difference and a degree of discreteness in a block that includes the target pixel and surrounding pixels;
• control means for controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after a pixel number transformation of the region, dependent upon the pixel number transformation of the region increasing or reducing the number of pixels in the region;
• and
• region decision value transforming means for calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation,
• wherein when the extracted region decision value indicates a probability that the target pixel belongs to each region, said region decision value transforming means performs an interpolation of the region decision value by one of a primary interpolation method and an Nth order interpolation method.

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• pixel number transforming means for processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• region decision value extraction means for extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs to with a region segmentation table having input parameters of characteristic amounts of a maximum density difference and a degree of discreteness in a block that includes the target pixel and surrounding pixels;
• control means for controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after a pixel number transformation of the region, dependent upon the pixel number transformation of the region increasing or reducing the number of pixels in the region;
• and
• region decision value transforming means for calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation,
• wherein said region decision value extraction means computes a difference in density between pixels with respect to each combination of two adjacent pixels in a predetermined direction in a block composed of a target pixel and adjacent pixels, and computes a sum of the differences in the predetermined direction, and carries out these operations in each of a plurality of directions, thereby obtaining a minimum value among the resulting values as a degree of discreteness.

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• pixel number transforming means for processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• region decision value extraction means for extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs to with a region segmentation table having input parameters of characteristic amounts of a maximum density difference and a degree of discreteness in a block that includes the target pixel and surrounding pixels;
• control means for controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after pixel number transformation processing of the region, wherein, when a pixel number transformation to be applied to a region is a pixel number reducing process, the filtering process is applied before the pixel number reducing process is applied to the region, and vice versa, if a pixel number increasing process is applied;
• and
• region decision value transforming means for calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation.

A method of image processing, comprising:

• processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs, based on characteristic amounts representing characteristics of a block including the target pixel and a plurality of pixels around the target pixel, each pixel of the image data being separately considered as the target pixel;
• controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after a pixel number transformation of the region, dependent upon the pixel number transformation of the region increasing or reducing the number of pixels in the region;
• and
• calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation, by an interpolation of the region decision value extracted from the input image data.

A method of image processing, comprising:

• processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs to with a region segmentation table having input parameters of characteristic amounts of a maximum density difference and a degree of discreteness in a block that includes the target pixel and surrounding pixels;
• controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after a pixel number transformation of the region, dependent upon the pixel number transformation of the region increasing or reducing the number of pixels in the region;
• and
• calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation.

A method of image processing, comprising:

• processing input image data composed of a plurality of regions, each region including a plurality of pixels with a pixel number transformation, by performing an interpolation on a pixel;
• extracting a region decision value of a region that a target pixel belongs to with a region segmentation table having input parameters of characteristic amounts of a maximum density difference and a degree of discreteness in a block that includes the target pixel and surrounding pixels;
• controlling whether a filtering process is to be applied to a region before or after pixel number transformation processing of the region, wherein, when the pixel number transformation process to be applied to a region is a pixel number reducing process, the filtering process is performed prior to the pixel number reducing process, and vice versa if a pixel number increasing process is applied;
• and
• calculating a region decision value of each pixel processed with the pixel number transformation.