Signal processing system

Abstract: An image processing system 20 comprises a format converter 21 for receiving a first signal having a larger bandwidth and a second signal having a smaller bandwidth, the first and second signals together representing an image. A processor 23 is arranged to process the first and second signals to produce signals representing a manipulated version of the image. The system further comprises a deriving circuit 25 which is arranged to derive from information in the larger bandwidth signal additional information for the smaller bandwidth signal. The deriving circuit derives an unknown value of a pixel as represented by the smaller bandwidth signal from known values of the pixel and the pixels adjacent thereto as represented by the larger bandwidth signal and from known values of the adjacent pixels as represented by the smaller bandwidth signal. The deriving circuit facilitates conversion of the first and second signals into another signal format representing the image.

Description: The invention relates to a signal processing system. More specifically the invention relates to a signal processing system for processing a pair of signals carrying related information with one of the signals having a larger bandwidth and the other of the signals having a smaller bandwidth. Images can be represented in an electrical environment by signals that define such image attributes as the intensity and colour of elements of the images. In the past, television pictures were represented by analog signals defining the luminance (Y) and the colour difference (R-Y) and (B-Y), ie chrominance, of the picture elements. More recently digital signals have been used to represent television pictures. Digital signals are highly resistant to degradation and can be readily processed to create special effects in the television picture. In one digital standard, the so-called D1 standard, a component signal is used consisting of luminance (Y) and chrominance (U, V) signals that are sampled at a ratio of 4:2:2. The luminance signal is sampled at a rate of 13.5 MHz and the two chrominance signals are each sampled at a rate of 6.75 MHz. That is to say, the digital luminance signal has a bandwidth of 13.5 MHz and the digital chrominance signals each have a bandwidth of 6.75 MHz. The bandwidth is a measure of the detail in the picture. Sampling in the 4:2:2 ratio means that the horizontal resolution of the colour in the television picture is halved, but because it is the luminance that contains the picture detail this reduction in horizontal colour resolution is an acceptable compromise that enables the data rate to be reduced. As a component signal, the D1 signal is well suited to studio and post-production work. However, under some circumstances unacceptable image degradation can occur as a direct consequence of the reduced chrominance bandwidth. Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings illustrates a simple picture 1 comprising two areas of different colours 2, 3, say yellow and black, with an abrupt transition 4 between the two areas. Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings shows a signal 5 of infinite bandwidth representing a line 6 in the picture 1. The infinite bandwidth of the signal 5 means that signal can represent exactly the transition 4 between the two areas 2, 3. Ideally, the luminance (Y) and chrominance (U, V) signals would represent the line 6 in this manner. However, this does not happen in practice because of the limited bandwidth of the signals. Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings shows a luminance signal 7 comprising multiple sample values at evenly spaced intervals. The effect of limiting the bandwidth in the signal 7 is to produce a transitional zone 9 in the signal extending to each side of the boundary 4 in the picture. Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings shows a signal 10 having half the bandwidth of the signal 7 and corresponding to one of the chrominance signals (U or B). The effect of halving the bandwidth of the signal 10 as compared to that of the signal 7 is to halve the number of sampling points 11 that comprise the signal 10 and to increase the size of the transitional zone 12 on each side of the boundary 4 in the picture. When the picture represented by the luminance signal 7 and chrominance signals 10 is displayed on a monitor the boundary 4 between the two areas 2, 3 will not be seen as a sharp line but will instead be seen as a blurred region that may contain unwanted colours between yellow and black. In some situations, especially when the image is static as opposed to part of a video sequence, this blurring of the boundary 4 is unacceptable. JP 60-201790 describes a static image camera that interpolates a chrominance signal according to the rate of change of a luminance signal to reduce the occurrence of pseudo colours. However, interpolation requires complex processing and is undesirable, particularly for moving images. The invention aims to minimise the above problems. According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a signal processing system according to claim 1. The above and further features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims and together with advantages thereof will become clearer from consideration of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention given with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings: Figure 1 illustrates a simple picture comprising two areas of different colours, as already described herein; Figure 2 shows a signal of infinite bandwidth representing a line in the picture of Figure 1, as already described herein; Figure 3 shows a signal of finite bandwidth representing luminance of the line in Figure 1, as already described herein; Figure 4 shows a signal of reduced finite bandwidth representing the line in Figure 1, as already described herein; Figure 5 is a schematic functional block diagram of a system embodying the invention; Figure 6 shows pixels comprising luminance and chrominance data elements; Figure 7 shows details of a deriving circuit used in the system of Figure 5; Figure 9 shows an embodiment of the selector circuit used in the deriving circuit of Figure 7; Figure 10 is a graph showing a portion of a luminance signal; Figure 11 is a graph showing a corresponding portion of a chrominance signal; Figure 12 is a graph showing a portion of a luminance signal; Figure 13 is a graph showing a corresponding portion of a chrominance signal; and Figure 14 shows another configuration of the deriving circuit. Referring now to Figure 5 of the drawings there is shown an image processing system 20 comprising a format converter 21 for receiving signals from an external source (not shown) and supplying signals to a store 22. The format converter 21 is provided to enable incoming signals to be supplied in any convenient format, eg RGB, CMYK, etc., and converted into a YUV format suitable for processing by the system. Format converters are per se well known and there is therefore no need to describe the format converter 21 in any further detail herein. The store 22 comprises two parts 22a, 22b respectively for storing data representing the luminance (Y) and chrominance (U, V) components of the data from the format convertor. The data in the store represents a multiplicity of pixels which together form a picture. As shown in Figure 6 of the accompanying drawings each pixel (pixel 0, pixel 1, pixel 2, etc.) has luminance data (Y 0 , Y 1 , Y 2 , etc.) associated with it. Every other pixel (pixel 0, pixel 2, pixel 4, etc.) has chrominance data (U 0 , V 0 , U 2 , V 2 , U 4 , V 4 , etc.) associated with it. The chrominance data is shared between two pixels (e.g. pixel 0 and pixel 1) as already described herein above. The system 20 further comprises a processor 23. The processor 23 is arranged to operate in the manner described in US Patent 4514818 and corresponding British Patent 2089625 and the system therefore includes a stylus and touch tablet device 24 to which the processor 23 is responsive. The YUV data in the store 22 is in a format suitable for processing by the processor 23 as described in the above mentioned patents. Thus, the processor 23 is arranged to respond to user manipulation of the stylus and touch tablet device to read data from the store 22, modify the data and write the modified data back to the store 22 replacing the data originally stored therein. In this way, retouching of an image by electronic "painting" or "drawing" can be effected. The system 20 further comprises a deriving circuit 25 connected to receive YUV data either directly from the store 22 or from the processor 23. As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the deriving circuit 25 is arranged to derive additional information for the UV signals from the corresponding Y signals so as to provide separate UV data for each pixel in the picture. That is to say, as shown in Figure 6, the deriving circuit 25 serves to derive UV data for pixel 1, pixel 3, pixel 5 etc. Data output from the deriving circuit 25 is received by another format converter 26 which converts the data into a desired format. For example, the format converter 26 may be arranged to convert the data into an RGB format for display of the image on a monitor 27, or it may be arranged to convert the data into a CMYK format for printing of the image by a printer 28. Of course, the converter 26 is not limited to converting into RGB or CMYK formats, and may for example be arranged to convert the data into the so-called D2 format for storage in a bulk store device such as a video tape recorder (VTR). Figure 7 of the accompanying drawings shows the deriving circuit 25 in greater detail. The deriving circuit comprises two subtractors 30, 31 connected to receive luminance values Y 0 , Y 1 and Y 2 for three adjacent pixels. The subtractor 30 is arranged to calculate the magnitude of the difference between Y 0 and Y 1 , i.e. |Y 1 - Y 0 |. The subtractor 32 is arranged to calculate |Y 2 - Y 0 |. The values from the subtractors 30, 31 are input to a divider circuit which calculates a value K as the ratio of |Y 1 - Y 0 | and |Y 2 - Y 0 | that is to say, the divider calculates Y 1 - Y 0 Y 2 - Y 0 . The value output from the divider 32 is a constant value K, and it will be noted that the constant value K is calculated purely from the luminance values of consecutive pixels Y 0 to Y 2 . The constant value K is input to a selecting circuit 33 together with chrominance values U 0 and U 2 for the zeroth pixel and the second pixel in the sequence of three adjacent pixels. In the remainder of this description reference will be made only to the U values of the chrominance signals because the V values of the chrominance signals are treated in exactly the same way as the U values. The selector circuit 33 calculates from U 0 , U 2 and K a value for use as the missing value for pixel 1, i.e. the selector calculates the value for U 1 . An embodiment of the selector 33 is shown in figure 9 of the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment the selector 33 comprises a first comparator 39 which compares the value K with a predetermined value X and outputs a signal if K is less than X. The selector 33 further comprises a second comparator 40 which compares the constant value K with a predetermined value Y and outputs a signal if K is greater than Y. The signals output from the comparators 39, 40 are applied to inverting inputs of an AND circuit 41 which therefore outputs a signal if X < K < Y. The chrominance signals U 0 and U 2 are input to a pair of shift registers 42, 43 and to respective tristate buffers 44, 45. The shift registers also receive the output from the AND circuit 41. In response to the AND circuit 41 outputting a signal the shift registers 42, 43 shift the digital values U 0 , U 2 one place to the left, that is the shift registers divide both the digital value U 0 and the digital value U 2 by two. The chrominance data output from the two shift registers is added together by an adder 46 which outputs a value equal to ½ U 0 + ½ U 2 . The output from the adder 46 is applied to a tristate buffer 47. The outputs from the tristate buffers 44, 45 and 47 are connected together at line 48. The tristate buffer 44 is driven by the output from the first comparator 39 and the tristate buffer 45 is driven by the output from the second comparator 40. The value U 1 output on line 48 is U 0 if K is less than X, is U 2 if K is greater than Y and is ½ U 0 + ½ U 2 if X < K < Y. Any value between 0 and 1 can of course be selected for X and Y, but in practice values of X = ¼ and Y = ¾ work well. These values of X and Y give equal spacing between known and unknown pixels in the calculation. The effect of calculating unknown chrominance values in the drive circuit 25 as above described is illustrated in Figures 10 and 11 of the accompanying drawings. Figure 10 shows how the luminance (Y) signal changes with distance (x) along a line in a picture. The luminance signal comprises plural samples 51 to 55 at equally spaced intervals along the line. The chrominance signal likewise comprises a plurality of evenly spaced samples 56 to 58, but the spacing between samples is twice that in the luminance signal. If one were simply to take as the unknown chrominance value the average between two known values one would develop a signal represented by the broken line 59 in Figure 11. The broken line 59 comprises unknown chrominance samples 60, 61 which are taken to lie on a straight line between adjacent samples 56, 57 and 57, 58. The true values of the unknown samples is represented by points 62 and 63 and it should be noted that there is a considerable difference between the true value 62 and the calculated average value 60 and between the true value 63 and the calculated average value 61. It will also be noted that the form of the luminance signal in Figure 10 is similar (albeit not identical) to that of the chrominance signal in Figure 11. The deriving circuit derives unknown pixel values using a constant calculated from the slope of the luminance signal. The effect of the calculation is therefore to produce unknown chrominance values such that the slope of the chrominance signal about the unknown chrominance value tends to follow the slope of the luminance signal at the corresponding point. Figures 12 and 13 of the accompanying drawings show a special case where an unknown chrominance value is at a position corresponding to a peak in the luminance signal. In this situation the deriving circuit 25 is reconfigured to the arrangement shown in Figure 14 of the accompanying drawings. Difference values between Y 1 and Y 0 and between Y 1 and Y 2 are calculated by way of subtractors 70, 71. The difference values output from the subtractors 70, 71 are compared by comparator 72 which is arranged to output a value K = 0 if the difference between Y 1 and Y 0 is less than the difference between Y 1 and Y 2 , and to output a value K = 1 if the difference between Y 1 and Y 0 is greater than the difference between Y 1 and Y 2 . The value K is input to a subtractor 73 which calculates the inverse value (1 - K). The values K and (1 - K) are applied to respective multipliers 74, 75 together with values for U 0 and U 2 . The signals output from the multiplier 74, 75 are added together by way of an adder 76 whose output corresponds to the value for U 1 . The effect of setting K either to 0 or to 1 is to cause the deriving circuit shown in Figure 14 to select either the value U 0 or the value U 2 as the value for U 1 . It will be appreciated from consideration of Figure 14 and the foregoing description that the value that is chosen for U 1 is the nearest of the values U 0 and U 2 . It will also be appreciated by those possessed of the appropriate skills that the Figure 14 circuit is equally applicable to calculating chrominance values in the vicinity of a trough or minimum in the luminance signal. Having thus described the present invention by reference to preferred embodiments it is to be well understood that the embodiments in question are exemplary only and that modifications and variations such as will occur to those possessed of appropriate knowledge and skills may be made without departure from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims: A signal processing system (20) for processing a pair of signals carrying related information with one of the signals having a larger bandwidth and the other of the signals having a smaller bandwidth, wherein each of the signals represents the information as a sequence of discrete data points (Y 0 , Y 1 , Y 2 , ... , U 0 , U 2 , ...), and a value of an unknown data point (U 1 ) at an instant of time in the smaller bandwidth signal is derived by referring to values of known data points (Y 0 , Y 1 , Y 2 ) in the larger bandwidth signal in a period of time surrounding the instant of the unknown data point (U 1 ) in the smaller bandwidth signal, and by referring to values of known data points (U 0 , U 2 ) in the smaller bandwidth signal; characterised in that if a normalised difference (K) between the known data points (Y 0 , Y 1 , Y 2 ), preceding the instant of the unknown data point (U 1 ), is less than a first predetermined value (X), the value of the unknown data point (U 1 ) is selected as that of the known data point (U 0 ) preceding the unknown data point (U 1 ) in the lower bandwidth signal; if the normalised difference (K) is greater than a second predetermined value (Y) greater than the first predetermined value (X), the value of the unknown data point (U 1 ) is selected as that of the known data point (U 2 ) succeeding the unknown data point (U 1 ) in the lower bandwidth signal; and if the normalised difference(K) is greater than the first predetermined value (X) and less than the second predetermined value (Y), the value of the unknown data point (U 1 ) is derived by averaging the values of the preceding data point (U 0 ) and the succeeding data point (U 2 ) in the lower bandwidth signal. A signal processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the normalised difference (K) is normalised by dividing by the difference in the larger bandwidth signal over said period of time. A signal processing system (20) as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the normalized difference (K) is normalized in the value range zero to unity and the predetermined values (X, Y) are selected to be in the value range zero to unity. A signal processing system (20) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the first predetermined value (X) is selected to be 0.25 and the second predetermined value (Y) is selected to be 0.75. A signal processing system (20) as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the signals represent an image. A signal processing system (20) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the larger bandwidth signal is a luminance signal and the smaller bandwidth signal is a chrominance signal. A signal processing system (20) as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the larger bandwidth signal has a bandwidth at least twice that of the smaller bandwidth signal.

Inventors: STEELE DAVID, THROUP DAVID, STEELE, DAVID, THROUP, DAVID
Applicants: QUANTEL LTD, QUANTEL LIMITED
Application year: 1997
Main classification: H04N9
IPC codes: H04N11, H04N9