Apparatus for and method of processing image and information recording medium

An apparatus for processing an image comprising:

• an image input section for inputting an original image;
• a transform section for performing Fourier transform of the input image;
• an amplitude replacement section for replacing an amplitude distribution of points on a Fourier complex plane obtained by said transform section with a predetermined function;
• a smoothing transform section for performing equivalent smoothing transform of a phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by said transform section in one of a direction along the abscissa and a direction along the coordinate;
• a difference or differential detection section for extracting differences or differentials in the phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane processed by the equivalent smoothing transform performed by said smoothing transform section, the differences or differentials being extracted along the direction of the smoothing transform;
• a secondary difference or differential detection section for further extracting differences or differentials in a phase distribution obtained by extracting differences or differentials by said difference or differential detection section;
• a combining section for combining an amplitude distribution obtained by the replacement performed by said amplitude replacement section, and the secondary differences or differentials in the phase distribution detected by said secondary difference or differential detection section, said combining section replacing the amplitude distribution with the result of said combining;
• and
• an inverse transform section for forming an image corresponding to the original image by inverse Fourier transform from the phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by said transform section and from the amplitude distribution obtained by the combining performed by said combining section.

A method of processing an image comprising:

• an image input step of inputting an original image;
• a transform step of performing Fourier transform of the input image;
• a fractal dimension calculation step of calculating a fractal dimension of an amplitude distribution with respect to the distance from a center point of a Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform;
• an amplitude replacement step of replacing an amplitude distribution of points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform with a predetermined function using the fractal dimension;
• and
• an inverse transform step of forming an image by inverse Fourier transform from a phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform and from an amplitude distribution obtained by the replacement in said amplitude replacement step.

A method of processing an image comprising:

• an image input step of inputting an original image;
• a transform step of performing Fourier transform of the input image;
• an amplitude replacement step of replacing an amplitude distribution of points on a Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform with a predetermined function;
• a smoothing transform step of performing equivalent smoothing transform of a phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform in one of a direction along the abscissa and a direction along the coordinate;
• a difference or differential detection step of extracting differences or differentials in the phase distribution processed by the equivalent smoothing transform, the differences or differentials being extracted along the direction of the smoothing transform;
• a secondary difference or differential detection step of further extracting differences or differentials in a phase distribution obtained by extracting differences or differentials in said difference detection step;
• a combining step of combining an amplitude distribution obtained by the replacement with the predetermined function, and the secondary differences or differentials in the phase distribution, and replacing the amplitude distribution with the result of said combining;
• and
• an inverse transform step of forming an image corresponding to the original image by inverse Fourier transform from the phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform and from the amplitude distribution obtained by said combining.

An information recording medium having an image processing program stored therein, said image processing program being readable and executable by a computer which performs a process including an image input step of inputting an entire original image at a time, a transform step of performing Fourier transform of the input image, an amplitude replacement step of replacing an amplitude distribution of points on a Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform with a predetermined function, a smoothing transform step of performing equivalent smoothing transform of a phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform in one of a direction along the abscissa and a direction along the coordinate ordinate a difference or differential detection step of extracting differences or differentials in the phase distribution processed by the equivalent smoothing transform, the differences or differentials being extracted along the direction of the smoothing transform, a secondary difference or differential detection step of further extracting differences or differentials in a phase distribution obtained by extracting differences or differentials in the difference detection step, a combining step of combining an amplitude distribution obtained by the replacement with the predetermined function, and the secondary differences or differentials in the phase distribution, and replacing the amplitude distribution with the result of the combining, and an inverse transform step of forming an image corresponding to the original image by inverse Fourier transform from the phase distribution of the points on the Fourier complex plane obtained by the Fourier transform and from the amplitude distribution obtained by the combining.