Patent ID: 6823078
Filing Date: 2004-11-23
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
An image processing method for noise filtering an image sequence representing a threadlike structure on a background, including an acquisition of point data in first and second sequence images and an estimation of the corresponding filtered point data for constructing a filtered second image, the point data being the intensities associated to co-ordinates of image points, said method comprising, performed in each sequence image, the steps of:extracting the threadlike structure points, forming strings from said extracted points, temporally filtering the data of the points located outside the strings denoted as background points, spatially filtering the data of the string points, constructing the filtered second image data by performing an insertion of the spatially filtered data of the string points into the temporally filtered data of the background points, based on the string formation performed in said sequence images, providing a binary control signal formed of a list of the string points with their running number on the strings and their co-ordinates in the processed image, which determines whether the current point is a string point or a non-string point regarded as a background point, supplying said binary control signal for controlling the insertion of the spatially filtered data of the string points into the temporally filtered data of the background points, and delivering said binary control signal for controlling the insertion operation through a logic OR operation, whose inputs are first and second binary control signals related to the first and the second sequence images, said OR operation triggering the spatially filtered data when at least one of the first and second binary control signals corresponds to a string point.