Apparatus, Method, and Program for Video Signal Processing, and Storage Medium

• US 20080278630A1
• Filed: 04/28/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ogata, Masami, KIMURA, Seiji
• Granted Patent: US 9,100,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/607
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/21 Circuitry for suppressing or minimising disturbance, e.g. moiré or halo
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/911 for the suppression of noise H04N5/932 takes precedence

Abstract

A video signal processing method includes the steps of processing an input video signal and outputting an output video signal, detecting a temporal feature from the input video signal, smoothing the temporal feature by filtering and outputting the smoothed temporal feature, and controlling processing performed in the processing step in accordance with the temporal feature smoothed in the smoothing step. In this method, the smoothing step switches a characteristic of the filtering in accordance with the attribute of the input video signal.

Claims

1. A video signal processing apparatus comprising:

a video signal processing unit configured to process an input video signal and output an output video signal;

a temporal feature detecting unit configured to detect a temporal feature from the input video signal;

a smoothing unit configured to smooth the temporal feature by filtering and output the smoothed temporal feature; and

a controlling unit configured to control processing performed in the video signal processing unit in accordance with the smoothed temporal feature,

wherein the smoothing unit switches a characteristic of the filtering in accordance with the attribute of the input video signal.

2. A video signal processing method comprising the steps of:

processing an input video signal and outputting an output video signal;

detecting a temporal feature from the input video signal;

smoothing the temporal feature by filtering and outputting the smoothed temporal feature; and

controlling processing performed in the processing step in accordance with the smoothed temporal feature,

wherein the smoothing step switches a characteristic of the filtering in accordance with the attribute of the input video signal.

3. The video signal processing method of claim 2,

wherein the detecting step includes the steps of:

delaying the input video signal to generate a delayed video signal;

generating a difference signal corresponding to a difference between the delayed video signal and the input video signal; and

detecting the temporal feature from the difference signal by processing the difference signal.

4. The video signal processing method of claim 3,

wherein the detecting step includes the steps of:

detecting the temporal feature from the difference signal in units of blocks set in the input video signal; and

performing statistical processing on the temporal feature detected in units of blocks, for each of images of the input video signal and detecting the temporal feature.

5. The video signal processing method of claim 3,

wherein a delay time in the delaying step is set as a predetermined field period or frame period.

6. The video signal processing method of claim 2, wherein the smoothing steps performs filtering on the temporal feature using an order statistic filter.

7. The video signal processing method of claim 2,

wherein the smoothing step determines the attribute of the input video signal from attribute information of the input video signal.

8. The video signal processing method of claim 2,

wherein the detecting step includes the steps of:

detecting a feature from the input video signal; and

detecting an inter-field difference or an inter-frame difference in the feature and detecting the temporal feature.

9. The video signal processing method of claim 2, further comprising the step of dividing one image of the input video signal into blocks and outputting the input video signal from a plurality of channels,

wherein in the processing step, the detecting step, the smoothing step, and the controlling steps, the input video signal is processed for each of the channels, and

wherein the video signal processing method further includes the step of integrating results of processing of the plurality of channels performed in the processing step into one channel corresponding no the input video signal.

10. A program for a video signal processing method in which an input video signal is processed and an output video signal is generated, the program comprising the steps of:

processing the input video signal and generating the output video signal;

detecting a temporal feature from the input video signal;

smoothing the temporal feature by filtering and outputting the smoothed temporal feature; and

controlling processing performed in the processing step in accordance with the smoothed temporal feature,

wherein the smoothing step switches a characteristic of the filtering in accordance with the attribute of the input video signal.

11. A storage medium storing a program for a video signal processing method in which an input video signal is processed and an output video signal is generated, the program comprising the steps of:

processing the input video signal and generating the output video signal;

detecting a temporal feature from the input video signal;

smoothing the temporal feature by filtering and outputting the smoothed temporal feature; and

controlling processing performed in the processing step in accordance with the smoothed temporal feature,

wherein the smoothing step switches a characteristic of the filtering in accordance with the attribute of the input video signal.