Apparatus and method of compensating image-sequences for motion
First Claim
1. In an apparatus that utilizes an image sequence, a device for producing motion compensated enhancement for object points contained within the individual images of said image sequence, comprising:
- an estimating means, including a recursive filter, for estimating an instantaneous intensity and a temporal rate of change of intensity for said object points; and
an adjusting means for adjusting said recursive filter after each image in said image sequence, according to said intensity and said temporal rate of change as estimated by said estimating means, for an immediately preceding image in said image sequence to thereby compensate said image by substantially removing noise in the presence of motion.
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Abstract
The present invention apparatus and method uses a recursive filter to estimate the instantaneous intensity and temporal rate of change in intensity for object points in consecutive images of an image-sequence. The estimates of the intensity and its temporal rate of change are updated for each new image in the image sequence. The amount of smoothing introduced by the recursive filter is dependant upon the estimates computed for the intensity and temporal rate of change. As such, the recursive filter corrects the image sequence in accordance with each new set of estimates. Since motion in an image-sequence is implicit in the rate of change of intensity, the recursive filter is able to achieve motion compensated enhancements.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. In an apparatus that utilizes an image sequence, a device for producing motion compensated enhancement for object points contained within the individual images of said image sequence, comprising:
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an estimating means, including a recursive filter, for estimating an instantaneous intensity and a temporal rate of change of intensity for said object points; and an adjusting means for adjusting said recursive filter after each image in said image sequence, according to said intensity and said temporal rate of change as estimated by said estimating means, for an immediately preceding image in said image sequence to thereby compensate said image by substantially removing noise in the presence of motion. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. In an apparatus that utilizes an image sequence that contains images corrupted by noise, a device for reducing said noise in said images, comprising:
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an estimating means for estimating said noise in each said image of said image sequence, wherein said estimating means estimates an instantaneous intensity and a temporal rate of change of intensity for object points contained in each said image of said image sequence; and an adjustable recursive filter means for filtering said noise in each said image according to the value of said noise as estimated by said estimating means, for an immediately preceding image in said image sequence to thereby compensate said image by substantially removing noise in the presence of motion. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for providing motion-compensated enhancement for object points contained within each image of an image-sequence corrupted by noise, comprising the steps of:
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separating said object points in said image-sequence into two regions, a second region wherein the intensity of said object points vary substantially between consecutive images and a first region wherein the intensity of said object points, between consecutive images, varies slowly relative to said second region; estimating an instantaneous intensity and a temporal rate of change in intensity for said object points in each said image of said image sequence and estimating the amount of noise in said first region of each said image, using a recursive filter; and adjusting the amount of noise reduction introduced by said recursive filter to said first region of a given image according to the amount of noise estimated for an immediately preceding image in said image sequence. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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Specification