Error diffusion-based image processing

An apparatus comprising:

• an image signal processor that includes,
• a first accelerator unit to perform at least a part of an error diffusion operation on a first pixel of an image based on fractional error values from surrounding pixels, wherein the error diffusion operation on the first pixel comprises computing an error value for error diffusion derived from the surrounding pixels for distribution to the first pixel;
• and
• a second accelerator unit to perform at least a part of an error diffusion operation on a second pixel of the image, partially in parallel with the error diffusion by the first accelerator unit, based on fractional values from surrounding pixels, wherein the error diffusion operation on the second pixel comprises computing an error value for error diffusion derived from the surrounding pixels for distribution to the second pixel.

A system comprising:

• a charge-coupled device sensor to capture an approximately continuous-tone image;
• and
• an image signal processor that includes,
• an input processor element to receive a first pixel and a second pixel of the approximately continuous-tone image;
• a first accelerator unit to perform operations for error diffusion for the first pixel and for the second pixel based on fractional error values from surrounding pixels;
• a second accelerator unit to perform operations for the error diffusion for the first pixel and for the second pixel, at overlapping times with the operations by the first accelerator unit, based on fractional error values from surrounding pixels, wherein the error diffusion for the first pixel and for the second pixel comprises computing an error value for error diffusion derived from the surrounding pixels for distribution to the first pixel and the second pixel;
• and
• an output processor element to output values for the first pixel and the second pixel after the error diffusion to an output device having a color range that is less than a color range of the approximately continuous-tone image.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause said one or more processors to perform at least some portion of the following operations comprising:

• receiving multiple pixels of an image, each of the multiple pixels neighboring each other;
• and
• performing, partially in parallel, error diffusion for the multiple pixels, wherein the error diffusion comprises:
• computing two or more error values, at overlapping times, derived from neighboring pixels for distribution to the multiple pixels of the image;
• and
• sharing intermediate error values of the neighboring pixels for use in computing the two or more error values in overlapping error diffusion operations.