VISUAL PROCESSING APPARATUS, VISUAL PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM, RECORDING MEDIUM, DISPLAY DEVICE, AND INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

• US 20110122148A1
• Filed: 01/31/2011
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Haruo Yamashita, Takeshi Ito, Yusuke Monobe
• Inventors: Monobe, Yusuke, Ito, Takeshi, Yamashita, Haruo
• Granted Patent: US 8,401,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/611
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20012 Locally adaptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20192 Edge enhancement; Edge preservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/004 Unsharp masking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/75 Unsharp masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/142 Edging; Contouring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/20 Circuitry for controlling amplitude response

Abstract

It is possible to inhibit side effects even when an image that has sharp edge regions has been input, using a spatial processing portion (10) outputting surrounding image information US from an input image signal, a control signal generation portion (40) outputting an effect adjustment signal MOD according to a degree of flatness of an edge proximal region, and an effect adjustment portion (20) outputting a synthesized signal MUS that is synthesized by changing a ratio of the image signal IS and the surrounding image information US according to the effect adjustment signal MOD. Further, the side effects are inhibited using a visual processing portion (30) visually processing the image signal IS based on the synthesized signal MUS and the image signal IS.

Claims

1-12. -12. (canceled)

13. A visual processing device, comprising:

a spatial processing portion operable to perform a predetermined spatial processing on an image signal that has been input using pixels surrounding a target pixel and output a processed signal; and

a visual processing portion operable to receive the image signal and the processed signal and output an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast,

wherein the visual processing portion controls an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

14. The visual processing device according to claim 13, wherein the flat region that is proximal to the edge is determined by detecting an edge of an unsharp signal of the image signal.

15. The visual processing device according to claim 14, wherein the unsharp signal is the processed signal.

16. An image display device, comprising:

a spatial processing portion operable to perform a predetermined spatial processing on an image signal that has been input using pixels surrounding a target pixel and output a processed signal;

a visual processing portion operable to receive the image signal and the processed signal and output an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast; and

a display portion operable to display the output signal,

wherein the visual processing portion controls an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

17. A television device comprising:

a reception portion operable to receive a video signal;

a decoding portion operable to decode the video signal and output an image signal;

a spatial processing portion operable to perform a predetermined spatial processing on the image signal using pixels surrounding a target pixel and output a processed signal;

a visual processing portion operable to receive the image signal and the processed signal and output an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast; and

a display portion operable to display the output signal,

wherein the visual processing portion controls an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

18. A portable information terminal device, comprising:

a reception portion operable to receive a video signal;

a decoding portion operable to decode the video signal and output an image signal;

a spatial processing portion operable to perform a predetermined spatial processing on the image signal using pixels surrounding a target pixel and output a processed signal;

a visual processing portion operable to receive the image signal and the processed signal and output an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast; and

a display portion operable to display the output signal,

wherein the visual processing portion controls an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

19. A camera, comprising:

an imaging portion operable to capture an image and generate an image signal;

a spatial processing portion operable to perform a predetermined spatial processing on the image signal using pixels surrounding a target pixel and output a processed signal;

a visual processing portion operable to receive the image signal and the processed signal and output an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast; and

a display portion operable to display the output signal,

wherein the visual processing portion controls an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

20. A visual processing method, comprising:

a spatial processing step of performing a predetermined spatial processing on an image signal that has been input using pixels surrounding a target pixel and outputting a processed signal; and

a visual processing step of receiving the image signal and the processed signal and outputting an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast,

wherein the visual processing step includes controlling an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

21. An integrated circuit used for an image output device, executing:

a spatial processing step of performing a predetermined spatial processing on an image signal that has been input using pixels surrounding a target pixel and outputting a processed signal; and

a visual processing step of receiving the image signal and the processed signal and outputting an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast,

wherein the visual processing step includes controlling an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having an image processing program stored thereon, the image processing program for performing a visual processing by a computer, and the image processing program causing a computer to execute a visual processing method comprising:

a spatial processing step of performing a predetermined spatial processing on an image signal that has been input using pixels surrounding a target pixel and outputting a processed signal; and

a visual processing step of receiving the image signal and the processed signal and outputting an output signal that has been visually processed for an enhancement of a local contrast,

wherein the visual processing step includes controlling an effect of the enhancement of the local contrast to be reduced with respect to a flat region in the image signal that is proximal to an edge.