Real time image enhancement with adaptive noise reduction and edge detection

• US 7,088,351 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2003
• Issued: 08/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LSI Logic Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Shi-Chang
• Primary Examiner(s): Hjerpe, Richard
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABDULSELAM, ABBAS I
• Application Number:
  US10/385,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20040174350A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,248 Days
• Field of Search: 345204-213, 345/667, 345/671, 345/670, 345/393.1, 358/532, 358/533, 382298-299, 382/300, 348/625, 348/561
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/02 Improving the quality of display appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/12 Frame memory handling
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/142 Edging; Contouring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/208 for compensating for attenuation of high frequency components, e.g. crispening, aperture distortion correction

Abstract

Systems and methods for controlling a display device include receiving a source video signal from a video source; storing video pixels in one or more line buffers; enhancing the video signal on the fly using data stored in the line buffers; if image enhancement is not necessary, rendering the source video signal and otherwise rendering the enhanced video signal.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a display device, comprising:

receiving a source video signal from a video source;

storing video pixels of the source video signal in one or more line buffers;

generating an enhanced video signal on the fly using data stored in the one or more line buffers;

generating a control signal in response to noise/edge detection performed using the stored data in the one or more line buffers; and

multiplexing the source video signal and the enhanced video signal in response to the control signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the enhanced video signal comprises minimizing noise artifacts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the enhanced video signal comprises sharpening or unsharpening the source video signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the enhanced video signal comprises digitally filtering the source video signal.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading multiple vertical pixels simultaneously.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the noise/edge detection comprises detecting an edge using multiple vertical pixels.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the edge on an object in a picture is detected by applying predetermined weights on a plurality of directions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the directions are selected from the group consisting of top, bottom, left, right, top right, top left, bottom right, and bottom left.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising post-processing on video data going to the display device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said post-processing comprises adjusting contrast, adjusting brightness, adjusting hue and saturation, reducing noise, performing gamma correction, or enhancing a video image.

11. A system for controlling a display device, comprising:

means for receiving a source video signal from a video source;

means for storing video pixels in one or more line buffers;

means for generating an enhance video signal on the fly using data stored in the one or more line buffers;

means for generating a control signal in response to noise/edge detection performed using the stored data in the one or more line buffers; and

means for multiplexing the source video signal and the enhanced video signal in response to the control signal.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein generating the enhanced video signal comprises minimizing noise artifacts.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein generating the enhanced video signal comprises sharpening or unsharpening the video signal.

14. A liquid crystal display (LCD) controller, comprising:

a buffer to receive image data, the buffer having a fullness measure;

a buffer controller coupled to the buffer to snoop the fullness of the buffer, compare the fullness to an LCD horizontal sync (HSYNC) signal, and adjust the HSYNC period to avoid buffer overflow or underflow; and

a circuit coupled to the controller to minimize noise and to sharpen the image data.

15. The LCD controller of claim 14, wherein circuit is configured to digitally filter the image data.

16. The LCD controller of claim 14, wherein the circuit is configured to read multiple vertical pixels simultaneously.

17. The LCD controller of claim 14, wherein the circuit is configured to detect an edge from multiple vertical pixels.

18. The LCD controller of claim 17, wherein the circuit is further configured to detect the edge on an object in a picture by applying predetermined weights on a plurality of directions.

19. The LCD controller of claim 18, wherein the predetermined weights are applied to directions selected from the group consisting of top, bottom, left, right, top right, top left, bottom right, and bottom left for each pixel.

20. The LCD controller of claim 14, further comprising a post-processing block configured to present video data to the display device.