US 7,009,623 B2Granted

Image processing apparatus and method, recording medium, and program thereof

AssigneeSony Corporation

InventorMichel Xavier

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An image processing apparatus is provided for accurately recognizing an edge direction to perform an accurate image interpolation. A direction determining unit recognizes an edge direction of a remarked pixel and outputs it with information on its position to a reliability ranking unit and a directional distribution generating unit. A direction interpolating unit interpolates the remarked pixel in terms of directional interpolation. The reliability ranking unit determines whether or not a interpolated pixel is properly interpolated by the direction interpolating unit, ranks its reliability, and outputs a result to a directional distribution generating unit. This directional distribution generating unit generates directional distribution based on directional information and reliability information. A direction selecting unit recognizes an edge direction based on the directional distribution generated by the directional distribution generating unit.

Claims1

Dependent claims

An image processing apparatus for converting a spatial resolution of an original image so as to respectively multiply Z times either in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction or both directions, the image processing apparatus comprising:

an energy calculating unit configured to calculate a central pixel energy at a pixel position of interest;
an edge enhancement unit configured to enhance an edge based on the central pixel energy calculated by the energy calculating unit;
an edge direction detecting unit configured to detect a direction of the edge enhanced by the edge enhancement unit;
a linear interpolation unit configured to interpolate a linear interpolated pixel at the pixel position of interest by linear interpolation;
a selected direction interpolating unit configured to interpolate a selected direction interpolated pixel in a selected direction at the pixel position of interest based on the edge direction detected by the edge direction detecting unit, and
a compositing and interpolating unit configured to interpolate a composition interpolated pixel by compositing the linear interpolated pixel and the selected direction interpolated pixel.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/081,602Filed 17 Mar 2005 · continuation
Priority: JP 2002-31827631 Oct 2002
Published: US 2005/0157951 A121 Jul 2005
Granted: 7 Mar 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G06T 3/403
Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting: edge-driven scaling; Edge-based scaling
G06T 5/20
Image enhancement or restoration: using local operators
G06T 5/73
Image enhancement or restoration: deblurring; Sharpening
G06T 2207/20192
Image enhancement details: edge enhancement; Edge preservation

Family

Application10/694,781Parent of this continuation · filed 29 Oct 2003
US 2005/0157951 A1Pre-grant publication · published 21 Jul 2005
US 2004/0160439 A1Published application
US 6,943,807 B2Related patent
US 7,009,623 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.