Denoising apparatus, system and method

A denoising method comprising:

• inputting pixel data of a correction target image into a denoising apparatus;
• and
• using the denoising apparatus to perform a weighted-average denoising process on the pixel data,
• wherein said weighted-average denoising comprises:
• setting a weight to a maximum value when a difference value between a correction target block and a comparison target block is zero, setting the weight to decrease linearly to zero as the difference value increases until it reaches a threshold value, and setting the weight to zero when the difference value is equal to or greater than the threshold value;
• assigning a corrected weight value to at least a guaranteed number of comparison target blocks whose difference value is greater than the threshold value;
• and
• averaging the correction target block and the comparison target blocks to which the corrected weight value has been assigned to reduce noise in the correction target block pixel data,
• wherein a correction target block for which the number of non-zero weight valued comparison target blocks is less than a predetermined guaranteed number is an impulse block.

A method for denoising pixels in a digital image, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving pixel data of a correction target image, wherein said correction target image includes a correction target block of pixels to be denoised, and one or more comparison target blocks of pixels;
• setting a weight to a maximum value when a difference value between the correction target block and a comparison target block is zero;
• setting the weight to decrease linearly to zero as the difference value increases until it reaches a threshold value;
• setting the weight to zero when the difference value is equal to or greater than the threshold value;
• assigning a corrected weight value to at least a guaranteed number of comparison target blocks whose difference value is greater than the threshold value;
• and
• averaging the correction target block and the comparison target blocks to which the corrected weight value has been assigned to reduce noise in the correction target block pixel data,
• wherein a correction target block for which the number of non-zero weight valued comparison target blocks is less than a predetermined guaranteed number is an impulse block.