Method and apparatus for detecting red eyes

A method of detecting a red eye, the method comprising:

• determining an eye area from an input image;
• obtaining redness by using Equation 1 with respect to a pixel of the eye area,
• Redness=(r−b)×(r−g)×(r+b−g)/[(g+b)×(g+b)+1], (1)
• in which “r”, “g”, and “b”, respectively, denote R, G, B image data of pixels;
• obtaining red-eye pixels corresponding to a reference redness from the eye area;
• and
• obtaining a red-eye area by using the red-eye pixels.

An apparatus for detecting a red eye, the apparatus comprising:

• an eye determination unit for determining an eye area from an input image;
• a redness obtaining unit for obtaining redness by using Equation 1 with respect to a pixel of the eye area,
• Redness=(r−b)×(r−g)×(r+b−g)/[(g+b)×(g+b)+1], (1)
• in which “r”, “g”, and “b”, respectively, denote R, G, B image data of the pixel;
• a red-eye area obtaining unit for obtaining a red-eye area including red-eye pixels corresponding to a reference redness from the eye area.

An apparatus for detecting a red eye, the apparatus comprising:

• an eye area determination unit for determining an eye area from an input image;
• a maximum redness pixel obtaining unit for obtaining a pixel having a maximum redness from the eye area;
• a first mask area generation unit for generating a first mask area having a predetermined size including the pixel from the eye area;
• an image data average obtaining unit for obtaining an average of image data from pixels in the first mask area;
• a red-eye pixel obtaining unit for obtaining a red-eye pixel corresponding to the image data average from the eye area;
• and
• a red-eye area determination unit for determining a red-eye area by using the red-eye pixel.