Method and apparatus for processing image data
AssigneeShell & Slate Software, Inc.
InventorBen Weiss
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention is a method and apparatus for improving image-processing applications. Embodiments of the invention provide methods for preserving computation results and offer intermediary computation steps to allow the processing of images at any location to take advantage of previously processed image areas. The preferred embodiment offers a method for building a median filter that significantly improves the processing speed over basic techniques. By building a histogram hierarchy, image data statistics are added and subtracted using a multiplicity of histograms from the histogram hierarchy, where each histogram describes an image area. Furthermore, a histogram hierarchy is built using multiple layers, each layer defining a level of statistical resolution.
Claims17
A method for processing image data comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of Assimilators each containing data from different subsets of image data;
- loading said plurality of Assimilators with a first image area data;
- computing a first output result from said plurality of Assimilators for said first image area data;
- partially updating said plurality of Assimilators with a second image area data;
- and computing a second output result from said plurality of Assimilators for said second image area data.
A method for processing image data comprising:
- obtaining a plurality of histogram hierarchies;
- loading said plurality of histogram hierarchies with a first set of image data from a first plurality of image areas;
- computing a plurality of first output results from said plurality of histogram hierarchies for said first plurality of image areas;
- partially updating said plurality of histogram hierarchies with a second set of image data from a second plurality of image areas;
- and,
- computing a second plurality of output results from said plurality of histogram hierarchies for said second plurality of image areas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.