Patent ID: 8154629
Filing Date: 2012-04-10
Classification: G06K,G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. A noise canceling circuit that takes an image of a subject incident through an imaging lens by means of an image pickup device, generates a digital video signal based on an imaging signal, and sequentially performs noise canceling of pixel values of the digital video signal, the noise canceling circuit comprising: a sharp/flat-part determining unit that determines whether a neighborhood of a target pixel in the digital video signal is a sharp part or a flat part by calculating a sharpness value indicating sharpness and an approximate noise value approximately indicating a noise value included in the target pixel, based on pixel values of the target pixel and a predetermined number of pixels inputted immediately before and after the target pixel, and comparing the sharpness value and the approximate noise value; a noise extracting unit that extracts the noise value of the target pixel by selecting one of two noise extractions each using a one-dimensional filter according to a result of the determination performed by the sharp/flat-part determining unit and performing the selected noise extraction to the target pixel and the predetermined number of the pixels inputted immediately before and after the target pixel; and a correcting unit that corrects the pixel value of the target pixel by using the extracted noise value of the target pixel.