Patent ID: 6091853
Filing Date: 2000-07-18
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
A local area linear dynamic range compression processor for processing video input data having a first word length and for generating video output data having a second word length, said processor comprising:a dynamic range compression RAM;a video histogram RAM; anda real-time state sequencer coupled to the dynamic range compression RAM and video histogram RAM, for receiving video input data having the first word length, for generating a histogram of the video input data for a predefined region of interest and for storing the histogram in the video histogram RAM, for determining upper and lower breakpoints of the histogram that correspond to predetermined occupied histogram bins, for computing a new dynamic range as a function of only the upper and lower breakpoints, for computing offset and compression terms and a single linear compression slope corresponding to the new dynamic range, and for writing the single linear compression slope into the dynamic range compression RAM starting at the computed offset value, which single linear compression slope is applied to the next field of video corresponding to the video output data.