Image processing apparatus, imaging apparatus, image processing method, and program

• US 20070115370A1
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Muraki, Jun, Sakamoto, Shohei
• Granted Patent: US 7,821,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/60 Colour correction or control H04N1/54 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/643 Hue control means, e.g. flesh tone control

Abstract

The present invention includes a coordinate rotating circuit which executes a coordinate rotating conversion based on a predetermined rotation matrix, on each of two color difference signals to obtain two color difference rotated signals, a normalizing circuit which divides the color difference rotated signal by a luminance signal to obtain a color difference normalized signal, a subtractor and an absolute value calculating circuit which calculate a color saturation degree-of-deviation signal from a difference between the color difference normalized signal and a coefficient, and a tangent circuit and an absolute value calculating circuit which divide the color difference rotated signal by the color difference rotated signal to calculate a hue degree-of-deviation signal from a resulting quotient.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a degree-of-deviation deriving unit which derives, for each predetermined unit area, a degree of deviation of a color of the unit area from a specific color corresponding to a predetermined characteristic amount of a subject; and

a correcting unit which corrects a color for each predetermined unit area on the basis of a correction value corresponding to the degree of deviation derived by the degree-of-deviation deriving unit.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the degree-of-deviation deriving unit comprises:

a rotational converting unit which executes a coordinate rotating conversion based on a predetermined rotation matrix, on each of two color difference signals in an image signal for a luminance-color difference system;

a normalizing unit which divides one of the color difference rotated signals obtained by the rotational converting unit by a luminance signal in the image signal to normalize the color difference rotated signal to obtain a color difference normalized signal;

a color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating unit which calculates a color saturation degree-of-deviation signal from a difference between the color difference normalized signal obtained by the normalizing unit and a predetermined coefficient; and

a hue degree-of-deviation calculating unit which divides the other of the color difference rotated signals obtained by the rotational converting unit by the one of the color difference rotated signals to calculate a hue degree-of-deviation signal from a resulting quotient.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the rotational converting unit executes the coordinate rotating conversion based on the rotation matrix using a coefficient determined by the specific color.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating unit and the hue degree-of-deviation calculating unit outputs an absolute value of the calculation.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the correcting unit comprises:

a gain control unit which uses at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and the hue degree-of-deviation signal to output a gain control signal for contour emphasis such that gain decreases consistently with an absolute value of the at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and the hue degree-of-deviation signal.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the rotational converting unit selects one of a plurality of specific colors to be detected and sets a coefficient corresponding to the selected specific color.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a plurality of systems each comprising the rotational converting unit, the normalizing unit, the color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating unit, and the hue degree-of-deviation calculating unit are arranged in parallel in association with a plurality of specific colors to be detected, and coefficients corresponding to the different specific colors are set for the respective systems.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the degree-of-deviation deriving unit derives the degree of deviation of the color of the unit area from the specific color on the basis of two color difference signals in the image signal for the luminance-color difference system.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a selecting unit which selects whether or not the correcting unit corrects a color for each predetermined unit area on the basis of the correction value corresponding to the degree of deviation derived by the degree-of-deviation deriving unit.

10. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image taking unit which takes an image of a subject to obtain an image signal for a luminance-color difference system;

a rotational converting unit which executes a coordinate rotating conversion based on a predetermined rotation matrix, on each of two color difference signals in the image signal obtained by the image taking unit;

a normalizing unit which divides one of the color difference rotated signals obtained by the rotational converting unit by a luminance signal in the image signal to normalize the color difference rotated signal to obtain a color difference normalized signal;

a color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating unit which calculates a color saturation degree-of-deviation signal from a difference between the color difference normalized signal obtained by the normalizing unit and a predetermined coefficient;

a hue degree-of-deviation calculating unit which divides the other of the color difference rotated signals obtained by the rotational converting unit by the one of the color difference rotated signals to calculate a hue degree-of-deviation signal from a resulting quotient;

an image processing unit which executes image processing on the image signal using at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and hue degree-of-deviation signal; and

a recording unit which records an image signal obtained by the image processing unit.

11. An image processing method comprising:

a rotational converting step of executing a coordinate rotating conversion based on a predetermined rotation matrix, on each of two color difference signals an image signal for a luminance-color difference system;

a normalizing step of dividing one of the color difference rotated signals obtained in the rotational converting step by a luminance signal in the image signal to normalize the color difference rotated signal to obtain a color difference normalized signal;

a color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating step of calculating a color saturation degree-of-deviation signal from a difference between the color difference normalized signal obtained in the normalizing step and a predetermined coefficient; and

a hue degree-of-deviation calculating step of dividing the other of the color difference rotated signals obtained in the rotational converting step by the one of the color difference rotated signals to calculate a hue degree-of-deviation signal from a resulting quotient.

12. The image processing method according to claim 11, wherein the rotational converting step executes the coordinate rotating conversion based on the rotation matrix using a coefficient determined by the specific color.

13. The image processing method according to claim 12, wherein at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating step and the hue degree-of-deviation calculating step outputs an absolute value of the calculation.

14. The image processing method according to claim 11, further comprising a gain control step of using at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and the hue degree-of-deviation signal to output a gain control signal for contour emphasis such that gain decreases consistently with an absolute value of the at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and the hue degree-of-deviation signal.

15. The image processing method according to claim 12, wherein the rotational converting step selects one of a plurality of specific colors to be detected and sets a coefficient corresponding to the selected specific color.

16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a plurality of systems each comprising the rotational converting step, the normalizing step, the color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating step, and the hue degree-of-deviation calculating step are arranged in parallel in association with a plurality of specific colors to be detected, and coefficients corresponding to the different specific colors are set for the respective systems.

17. A program allowing a computer to execute:

a rotational converting step of executing a coordinate rotating conversion based on a predetermined rotation matrix, on each of two color difference signals an image signal for a luminance-color difference system;

a normalizing step of dividing one of the color difference rotated signals obtained in the rotational converting step by a luminance signal in the image signal to normalize the color difference rotated signal to obtain a color difference normalized signal;

a color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating step of calculating a color saturation degree-of-deviation signal from a difference between the color difference normalized signal obtained in the normalizing step and a predetermined coefficient; and

a hue degree-of-deviation calculating step of dividing the other of the color difference rotated signals obtained in the rotational converting step by the one of the color difference rotated signals to calculate a hue degree-of-deviation signal from a resulting quotient.

18. The program according to claim 17, wherein the rotational converting step executes the coordinate rotating conversion based on the rotation matrix using a coefficient determined by the specific color.

19. The program according to claim 17, wherein at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation calculating step and the hue degree-of-deviation calculating step outputs an absolute value of the calculation.

20. The program according to claim 17, further comprising a gain control step of using at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and the hue degree-of-deviation signal to output a gain control signal for contour emphasis such that gain decreases consistently with an absolute value of the at least one of the color saturation degree-of-deviation signal and the hue degree-of-deviation signal.