Patent ID: 7995840
Filing Date: 2011-08-09
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image processing apparatus that receives mosaic image data having settings of only one color component, among three color components R, G, and B corresponding to three primary colors of light, in each pixel and makes the received mosaic image data subject to a series of image processing to generate color image data with settings of all the three color components R, G, and B in each pixel, where the mosaic image data is expressed by a combination of pixel columns with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of the R component as another color component in a vertical direction, pixel columns with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of the B component as another color component in the vertical direction, pixel rows with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of the R component as another color component in a horizontal direction, and pixel rows with alternate arrangement of pixels of the G component and pixels of the B component as another color component in the horizontal direction, the image processing apparatus comprising: a processing unit and a memory; a vertical-direction color difference component computation module configured to obtain the G component in the pixel location of another color component or to obtain another color component in the G component pixel location using vertically neighboring available components in order to compute a vertical-direction color difference component between the G component and the another color component in each pixel included in each of the pixel columns of the mosaic image; a horizontal-direction color difference component computation module configured to obtain the G component in the pixel location of another color component or to obtain another color component in the G component pixel location using horizontally neighboring color components in order to compute a horizontal-direction color difference component between the G component and the another color component in each pixel included in each of the pixel rows of the mosaic image; an edge orientation detection module configured to select pixels of the R component and pixels of the B component from the mosaic image data and in each such pixel location to compare a variation of the vertical-direction color difference component with a variation of the horizontal-direction color difference component with regard to each of at least the selected pixels so as to detect edge orientations of the at least selected pixels; and a missing color component interpolation module configured to refer to the detected edge orientations and to interpolate a missing color component in each pixel of the mosaic image data with the settings of one color component in each pixel in the mosaic image data.