IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20100328690A1
• Filed: 06/17/2010
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kajihara, Rie, Ono, Mitsuhiro, Goto, Fumitaka, Yamada, Akitoshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,013,750 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/56 Processing of colour picture signals H04N1/52 takes precedence

Abstract

An image processing device processes image data, which expresses an image and is edited to image data including, in correspondence with each pixel of the image, a pixel value field that holds a pixel value of the pixel and an attribute value field that holds an attribute value. The image processing device includes a first and a second image processing module, and a connection module that is connected to the first and second image processing modules, and moves the image data from one image processing module to the other image processing module. At least one of the image processing modules has a first function to output an image processing result for a pixel value of the input image data as an output pixel value, and a second function to output an image processing result for a pixel value of the input image data as an output attribute value.

Claims

1. An image processing device for processing image data, which expresses an image and is edited to image data including, in correspondence with each pixel of the image, a pixel value field that holds a pixel value of the pixel and an attribute value field that holds an attribute value, said device comprising:

a first image processing module;

a second image processing module; and

a connection module which is connected to said first image processing module and said second image processing module, and moves the image data from one image processing module to the other image processing module,

wherein at least one of said first image processing module and said second image processing module has a first function of outputting an image processing result for a pixel value of image data input from said connection module as an output pixel value, and a second function of outputting an image processing result for a pixel value of image data input from said connection module as an output attribute value.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein, in the second function, a pixel value of the image data input from said connection module are output as an output pixel value.

3. The device according to claim 1, further comprising a register configured to designate an order of movement of the image data,

wherein said connection module moves the image data according to the order of movement designated by said register.

4. The device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an input buffer configured to input image data;

an output buffer configured to output image data; and

an arbiter configured to arbitrate said input buffer and said output buffer.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein said first image processing module outputs a bright/dark part detection process result as an output attribute value using the second function, and

said second image processing module inputs the output attribute value output from said first image processing module, and executes a noise reduction process using the first function.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the attribute value field is assigned to each of color components of a pixel.

7. An image processing apparatus comprising:

an image processing device according to claim 1;

a memory configured to hold the image data processed by said image processing device; and

a control unit configured to control said image processing device.