# US 9,436,979 B2 · Image processing device, imaging device, image processing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium

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- Number: US 9,436,979 B2
- Document ID: US9436979B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/831,610
- Filed: 2015-08-20
- Published: 2015-12-10
- Granted: 2016-09-06
- Earliest claimed: 2012-05-28
- Assignees: FUJIFILM Corporation
- Applicants: FUJIFILM Corporation
- Inventors: Koichi Tanaka
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9436979B2

## CPC

- G06T 5/70: Denoising; Smoothing
- G06T 5/50: using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
- G06T 5/75: Unsharp masking
- H04N 5/2621: {Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability}
- H04N 5/2628: {Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation}
- H04N 5/272: Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay
- H04N 23/743: Bracketing, i.e. taking a series of images with varying exposure conditions
- H04N 23/81: for suppressing or minimising disturbance in the image signal generation
- G06T 2207/10004: Still image; Photographic image
- G06T 2207/20182: Noise reduction or smoothing in the temporal domain; Spatio-temporal filtering
- G06T 2207/20221: Image fusion; Image merging
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

## Abstract

A device includes: an image acquisition device acquiring a taken image in which a subject is imaged; a smoothing device generating a smoothed image by smoothing the taken image; a noise extraction device extracting a difference noise component from a difference between the taken image and the smoothed image; a noise addition device adding the difference noise component to the smoothed taken image; a map acquisition device acquiring a blurring strength map that represents a distribution of blurring strengths for the taken image; and an image combining device combining the taken image with the smoothed image on the basis of the blurring strength map, and generating an output image.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An image processing device, comprising:
an image acquisition device acquiring a taken image in which a subject is imaged;
a smoothing device generating a smoothed image by smoothing the taken image;
a noise extraction device extracting a difference noise component from a difference between the taken image and the smoothed image;
a noise addition device adding the difference noise component to the smoothed image;
a map acquisition device acquiring a distance map that represents a distribution of distances on a pixel-by-pixel basis or a region-by-region basis in the taken image; and
an image combining device combining the taken image with the smoothed image on the basis of the distance map, and generating an output image.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

An imaging device, comprising the image processing device according to claim 1.

### Claim 3

An image processing method, comprising:
a step, executed by a processor, of acquiring a taken image in which a subject is imaged,
a step, executed by the processor, of generating a smoothed image by smoothing the taken image;
a step, executed by the processor, of acquiring a noise image that represents noise included in the taken image;
a step, executed by the processor, of generating a smoothed noise image by smoothing the noise image with the smoothing strength used for smoothing the taken image;
a step, executed by the processor, of extracting a difference noise component from a difference between the noise image and the smoothed noise image;
a step, executed by the processor, of adding the difference noise component to the smoothed image;
a step, executed by the processor, of acquiring a distance map that represents a distribution of distances on a pixel-by-pixel basis or a region-by-region basis in the taken image; and
a step, executed by the processor, of combining the taken image with the smoothed image on the basis of the distance map, and generating an output image.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program causing the processor to execute the image processing method according to claim 3.