Methods and systems for noise reduction and image enhancement
First Claim
1. A system for enhancing an input image, said system comprising:
- an edge-preserving filter for generating, from an input image, a first image comprising image content, from said input image, to sharpen and a second image comprising image content, from said input image, to attenuate;
a noise estimator for determining a noise estimate associated with said input image, wherein said noise estimator comprises;
an image-noise statistic estimator for estimating at least one of grain noise, sensor noise and thermal noise in said input image, thereby producing an image-noise statistic;
a codec-noise statistic estimator for estimating compression noise in said input image, thereby producing a codec-noise statistic;
a combiner for combining said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic; and
wherein said noise estimate is based on said combined said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic; and
wherein a parameter value associated with said edge-preserving filter is based on said noise estimate.
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Abstract
Aspects of the present invention are related to systems and methods for image enhancement, wherein an input image may be separated into two images: a first image comprising image content, from the input image, which may be sharpened; and a second image comprising image content, from the input image, which may be attenuated. One aspect of the present invention relates to determining a noise estimate associated with the input image and using the noise estimate to control the separation of the input image into the two images. Another aspect of the present invention relates to controlling the image separation based on the level of sharpening being applied to the first image.
73 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A system for enhancing an input image, said system comprising:
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an edge-preserving filter for generating, from an input image, a first image comprising image content, from said input image, to sharpen and a second image comprising image content, from said input image, to attenuate; a noise estimator for determining a noise estimate associated with said input image, wherein said noise estimator comprises; an image-noise statistic estimator for estimating at least one of grain noise, sensor noise and thermal noise in said input image, thereby producing an image-noise statistic; a codec-noise statistic estimator for estimating compression noise in said input image, thereby producing a codec-noise statistic; a combiner for combining said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic; and wherein said noise estimate is based on said combined said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic; and wherein a parameter value associated with said edge-preserving filter is based on said noise estimate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system for enhancing an input image, said system comprising:
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an edge-preserving filter for generating, from an input image, a first image comprising image content, from said input image, to sharpen and a second image comprising image content, from said input image, to attenuate; a noise estimator for determining a noise estimate associated with said input image, wherein said noise estimate is based on a combination of an image-noise statistic and a codec-noise statistic; a sharpener for sharpening said first image; an attenuator for attenuating said second image; a combiner for combining said sharpened first image and said attenuated second image; a sharpening compensator for compensating said combination of said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic to account for a level of sharpening associated with said sharpener; and wherein a parameter value associated with said edge-preserving filter is based on said compensated combination of said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification