Gradation control apparatus and gradation control method

• US 7,940,333 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2010
• Issued: 05/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Harold; Jefferey
• Assistant Examiner(s): DESIR, JEAN WICEL
• Application Number:
  US12/711,971
• Publication Number:
  US 20100220236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 440 Days
• Field of Search: 348/627, 348/607, 348/687, 348/672, 348/701, 348/671, 348/254, 348/252, 382/274, 382/275, 382/268, 382/264, 358/521, 358/522, 358/447, 358/3.26, 358/3.27, 345/690, 345/77
• US Class Current: 348/627
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/144 Movement detection for video coding H04N19/503; analysis of motion in general G06T7/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/20 Circuitry for controlling amplitude response
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/69 for modifying the colour signals by gamma correction controlling camera response for colour signals H04N23/83
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/77 Circuits for processing the brightness signal and the chrominance signal relative to each other, e.g. adjusting the phase of the brightness signal relative to the colour signal, correcting differential gain or differential phase circuits for matrixing H04N9/67

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a gradation control apparatus comprises a coring module configured to change the coring amount of a video signal according to the degree of movement of the video signal, a smoothing module configured to perform a gradation smoothing process on the video signal, and a parameter controller configured to obtain a frame difference histogram as the degree of movement of the video signal and change an effect parameter for the gradation smoothing process according to the result of weighting the histogram.

Claims

1. A gradation control apparatus comprising:

a coring module configured to change a coring amount of a video signal such that the coring amount increases as the degree of movement of the video signal becomes higher;

a smoothing module configured to perform a gradation smoothing process on the video signal; and

a parameter controller configured to obtain a frame difference histogram as the degree of movement of the video signal, weight the frame difference histogram so as to have a characteristic in which a frequency increases as a difference value becomes larger, and change an effect parameter for the gradation smoothing process according to a sum of weighted frequencies.

2. The gradation control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter controller is configured to perform the weighting using a weighting factor which increases the effect of gradation smoothing as the degree of movement becomes larger and decreases the effect of gradation smoothing as the degree of movement becomes smaller.

3. The gradation control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter controller gives the parameter for the gradation smoothing process an offset that causes the change of the effect parameter for the gradation smoothing process to be omitted in a specific range where the degree of movement is small.

4. The gradation control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter controller is configured to set an initial value set by the user as the effect parameter for the gradation smoothing process.

5. The gradation control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the smoothing module is provided behind the coring module.

6. The gradation control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the smoothing module is provided in front of the coring module.

7. The gradation control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter controller includes a histogram acquisition module which is provided commonly to the smoothing module and the coring module and obtains a frame difference histogram as the degree of movement of a video signal.

8. A gradation control method which changes a coring amount of a video signal such that the coring amount increases as the degree of movement of the video signal becomes higher, and performs a gradation smoothing process on the video signal, the method comprising:

obtaining a frame difference histogram as the degree of movement of the video signal, and

weighting the frame difference histogram so as to have a characteristic in which a frequency increases as a difference value becomes larger, and changing an effect parameter for the gradation smoothing process according to a sum of weighted frequencies.