Edge detection and sharpening process for an image
First Claim
1. A method of compensating for distortion at an edge of an image during image processing, said method comprising:
- detecting the edge in the image; and
sharpening the detected edge, wherein the degree of sharpening is directly proportional to a degree of distortion in the image.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and device for sharpening detected edges in an image to compensate for a corruption that occurs during the scanning and printing processes. Edges are enhanced by increasing the contrast between two sides of an edge region according to the amount of distortion in the image signal at that location. Each pixel in the image is analyzed in the context of neighboring pixels in the image to determine the presence of an edge and the degree of sharpening required. A filter is applied to adjust the intensity value of pixels in an edge region to correct for distortion and to emphasize the edge. The resulting final image contains sharpened edges with little effect on the smooth transition regions of the image.
85 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method of compensating for distortion at an edge of an image during image processing, said method comprising:
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detecting the edge in the image; and
sharpening the detected edge, wherein the degree of sharpening is directly proportional to a degree of distortion in the image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of sharpening edges within an image during image processing, said method comprising:
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detecting an edge in the image, said edge being characterized by an area of high contrast between an area of low intensity and an area of high intensity in the image; and
applying a filter to the image at the detected edge, wherein said filter adjusts the intensity of pixel values near an edge in order to compensate for a blurring effect that occurs at the edges during scanning of the image. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19)
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16. A method of sharpening edges within an image during image processing, said method comprising:
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detecting an edge in the image, said edge being characterized by an area of contrast between an area of low intensity and an area of high intensity in the image;
applying a filter to the image at the detected edge, whereby said filter adjusts the intensity of pixel values near the edge to compensate for error that occurs during printing of the image.
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20. A method of sharpening edges within an image during image processing, said method comprising:
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defining a window of pixels within the image, said window comprising a first pixel, a first set of context pixels located immediately adjacent to said first pixel in a first direction, a second pixel located immediately adjacent to said first pixel in a second direction, and a second set of context pixels located immediately adjacent to the second pixel in the second direction;
detecting an edge within the window of pixels, said edge being characterized by an area of high contrast between pixels of low intensity and pixels of high intensity;
sharpening the detected edge;
shifting the window in a linear direction in order to detect and sharpen additional edges of the image. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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28. An electronic device comprising:
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a scanner for scanning an original image and converting the image into a digital image signal comprised of pixels having an intensity value that ranges from a minimum intensity to a maximum intensity;
a printer for printing a copy of the original image onto a print medium by converting the image signal to a half-tone image using an error diffuser to sequentially process the pixels;
a digital signal processor for processing the image signal after scanning and before printing, wherein said digital signal processor includes a filter for sharpening edges of the image in order to compensate for distortion of the edges that occurs during scanning and printing of the image.
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Specification