Abstract:
An adaptive deflicker method for use in converting a non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data is disclosed. The method includes the steps of receiving a non-interlacing scan data, wherein the non-interlacing scan data includes plural scan lines, proceeding a deflicker operation on an edge line of the non-interlacing scan data, exempting a non-edge line of the non-interlacing scan data from the deflicker operation, and converting the non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data. In addition, an adaptive deflicker filter for use in converting a non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data is also disclosed. The adaptive deflicker filter includes an edge-line detector and a deflicker filter.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an adaptive deflicker method, and more particularly to an adaptive deflicker method for use in the process of converting a non-interlacing scan data to an interlacing scan data. The present invention also relates to an adaptive deflicker filter, and more particularly to an adaptive deflicker filter for deflickering image in order to convert a non-interlacingly scanned image data to an interlacingly scanned image data without deteriorating image quality. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Nowadays, many electrical appliances are widely used with computers due to the amazing power of computers. For example, video compact disks (VCDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs) are able to be played by a personal computer. Since the size of a typical computer monitor is not large enough to exhibit the spectacular video effect of the VCD or DVD disks, it is preferred that the signals be outputted from the personal computer to a TV set to be displayed on the relatively large TV screen. The purpose can be achieved by employing a display adapter. 
       FIG. 1A  is a partial functional block diagram of a typical display adapter. The pixel parallel digital signals from a graphic chip  10  are selectively converted into a proper format of analog signals via either a random access memory digital-to-analog converter (RAM DAC)  11  or a TV encoder  12 , and delivered to a computer monitor  13  or a TV screen  14 , respectively, for display. Further, for TV analog signals, two formats, i.e. the NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) standard and the PAL (Phase Alternate Line) standard, are involved. 
     The functional block diagram of the TV encoder  12  can be seen in  FIG. 1B . The pixel parallel digital signals from the graphic chip  10  is processed by a data capture device  121 , a color space converter  122 , a scaler and deflicker  123 , an NTSC/PAL encoder  124  and a digital-to-analog converter  125  to produce the TV analog signals either in the NTSC or PAL standard. 
     The functional block diagram of a conventional scaler and deflicker  123  can be seen in  FIG. 1C . In the NTSC standard and the PAL standard, the numbers of horizontal scan lines are 525 and 625 per frame, respectively, either of which is different from that in the computer monitor standard, e.g. 600 per frame or 768 per frame. Thus, the image data outputted from the color space converter  122  needs to be scaled to be of a proper number of horizontal scan lines by a scaler  1231 . The scaling step is usually proceeded by a bilinear algorithm. For example, when five scan lines are scaled into four scan lines, the color space values of the resulting second scan line correlates to those of the original second and third scan lines. Likewise, the color space values of the resulting third scan line correlates to those of the original third and fourth scan lines. For easily understanding the bilinear algorithm operation, each scan line mentioned in the above is represented by a pixel, and the conversion is illustrated as shown in  FIG. 2A . The color space values of the resulting pixel P 41  is equal to that of the original pixel P 51 . The color space values of the resulting pixels P 42 , P 43  and P 44  are obtained by the operations of 3(P 52 )/4+1(P 53 )/4, 2(P 53 )/4+2(P 54 )/4 and 1(P 54 )/4+3(P 55 )/4, respectively, in which (P 52 ), (P 53 ), (P 54 ) and (P 55 ) are respective color space values of the original pixels P 52 , P 53 , P 54  and P 55 . In addition, because the TV frame is displayed in a manner of interlacing scanning, the scaled image data needs to be divided into two fields, i.e. an odd field and an even field, which are interlacingly displayed. Hence, when a non-interlacingly scanned image data is converted into an interlacing image data, a horizontal scan line of a single pixel height only appears in one of fields so as to cause a flicker phenomenon when displaying. For ruling out this phenomenon, a deflicker  1232  performs a filter process with a predetermined coefficient of [¼, ½, ¼] on each of received horizontal scan lines. In other words, each horizontal scan line is re-defined by weightingly calculating an immediately above and an immediately below scan lines, and the scan line itself. Please refer to the pixels shown in  FIG. 2B . The color space value of the pixel P 2 ′ is re-defined by (P 1 )/4+(P 2 )/2+(P 3 )/4, in which (P 1 ), (P 2 ), and (P 3 ) are respective color space values of the original pixels P 1 , P 2 , and P 3 . Therefore, the color feature of the scan line will appear in both fields, so the flicker phenomenon can be avoided or minimized. 
     Along with the increasing number of horizontal scan lines in each computer monitor frame, for example up to 768, 864, 1024 or even 1200 scan lines, the scaler  1231  needs to proceed a quite large vertical reduction rate. When the scaling factor is down to a value smaller than about 0.7, the line-loss problem could occur. That is, some horizontal scan lines will not be referred by any of the re-defined scan lines, or the re-defined image data will not incorporate therein the data of the lost line. As shown in  FIG. 2C , the pixel P 12  indicates a lost pixel that is referred by neither the pixel P 22  nor the pixel P 21 . Thus, the color data of P 12  will be lost because of the scaling procedure, resulting in a poor image quality. Furthermore, the image quality will become worse after the color data is processed by the aforementioned deflickering operation of the device  1232 . 
     Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to develop a method and a device for adaptively deflickering to deal with the above situations encountered in the prior art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An object of the present invention is to provide an adaptive deflicker method and an adaptive deflicker filter for performing deflickering operations on certain scan lines only in order to achieve deflickering effects while avoiding over blurization so as to assure of good image quality. 
     According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an adaptive deflicker method for use in converting a non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data. The method includes the steps of receiving a non-interlacing scan data, wherein the non-interlacing scan data includes plural scan lines, proceeding a deflicker operation on an edge line of the non-interlacing scan data, exempting a non-edge line of the non-interlacing scan data from the deflicker operation, and converting the non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data. 
     In an embodiment, the edge line is a horizontal scan line segment having a length larger than or equal to a threshold value. 
     Preferably, the deflicker operation is proceeded by replacing a color space value of a selected pixel of the edge line with a combination value of those of the selected pixel and pixels of scan lines immediately above and below the edge line at positions corresponding to the selected pixel. The combination value is preferably a linear combination value of color space values of three pixels of three consecutive scan lines, respectively, at corresponding positions. For example, the linear combination value is obtained with a linear combination coefficient of [¼, ½, ¼]. 
     Preferably, the edge line is determined by the steps of comparing a color space value of a first pixel of a selected one of the scan lines with that of a second pixel of another scan line immediately adjacent to the selected scan line at a position corresponding to the first pixel, determining the first pixel to be an edge point when the norm of a color space value difference of the first and second pixels is larger than or equal to a preset value, and determining the selected scan line to be the edge line when a count of consecutive edge points included in the selected scan line is-larger than or equal to a threshold value N. The another scan line immediately adjacent to the selected scan line can be above or below the selected scan line. A middle point of each group consisting of N consecutive edge points is defined as a large-edge point, and the deflicker operation is performed on the large-edge point of the edge line. 
     Preferably, before the deflicker operation the adaptive deflicker method further includes the steps of replacing color space values of a selected one of the scan lines in the non-interlacing scan data with a combination of color space values of the selected scan line and at least one adjacent scan line to obtain a blurringly filtered non-interlacing scan data, and scaling the blurringly filtered non-interlacing scan data according to a bilinear algorithm. 
     Preferably, the combination is a linear combination of color space values of the selected scan line and two adjacent scan lines. 
     For example, the coefficient of the linear combination can be [¼, ½, ¼] or [⅓, ⅓, ⅓]. 
     According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an adaptive deflicker filter for use in converting a non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data. The adaptive deflicker filter includes an edge-line detector for receiving a non-interlacing scan data and outputting an enable signal when an edge line segment having a length larger than or equal to a threshold value N is detected in the non-interlacing scan data, and a deflicker filter electrically connected to the edge-line detector for proceeding a deflicker operation on the edge line segment in response to the enable signal. 
     Preferably, the edge line segment consists of a plurality of consecutive edge points, each of which is a pixel having a color space value difference with a corresponding pixel of another scan line immediately adjacent to the selected scan line larger than or equal to a preset value, and the deflicker operation is performed on a middle one of every N consecutive edge points of the edge line segment. The another scan line immediately adjacent to the selected scan line can be the one above or below the selected scan line. 
     Preferably, the deflicker operation is performed by a linear combination of color space values of the middle edge point of the edge line segment and respective two pixels of two scan lines immediately adjacent to the edge line segment with a certain linear combination coefficient. 
     Preferably, the deflicker filter proceeds a [0, 1, 0] linear combination in the absence of the enable signal, and proceeds the linear combination with the certain linear combination coefficient in response to the enable signal. For example, the certain linear combination coefficient can be [¼, ½, ¼] or [⅓, ⅓, ⅓]. 
     Preferably, the adaptive deflicker filter further includes a register electrically connected to the edge-line detector for storing the linear combination coefficient. 
     According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an adaptive deflicker method for use in converting a non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data. The method includes the steps of receiving a non-interlacing scan data, proceeding a deflicker operation only on large-edge points of the non-interlacing scan data, each of which follows a threshold number of consecutive edge points and precedes the threshold number of consecutive edge points, and converting the non-interlacing scan data into an interlacing scan data. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention may best be understood through the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1A  is a partial functional block diagram illustrating a typical display adapter; 
         FIG. 1B  is a functional block diagram illustrating the TV encoder in  FIG. 1A ; 
         FIG. 1C  is a functional block diagram illustrating the scaler and deflicker in  FIG. 1B ; 
         FIG. 2A  is a diagram illustrating a conventional bilinear algorithm; 
         FIG. 2B  is a schematic diagram illustrating a deflickering operation; 
         FIG. 2C  is a schematic diagram illustrating a line-loss situation for a relatively low scaling factor; 
         FIG. 3A  is a functional block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a TV encoder according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3B  is a functional block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of the blurring filter device in  FIG. 3A ; 
         FIG. 3C  is a diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a blurring operation according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a functional block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of an adaptive deflicker filter according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram exemplifying the pixels of an edge line to be deflickered according to an adaptive deflicker method of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 3A  which is a schematic functional block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of a TV encoder according to the present invention. After being inputted into a color space converter  322 , a non-interlacing scan data consisting of horizontal scan lines is received and processed by a blurring filter device  323 . The color space value of each scan line, indicated by a single pixel in the figure for simplification purpose, in the non-interlacing scan data is replaced by a combination value of that of the line and the adjacent lines to obtain a blurringly filtered non-interlacing scan data. Subsequently, the blurringly filtered non-interlacing scan data is scaled by a scaler  324 , processed by an adaptive deflicker filter  325  and then converted into an interlacing scan data. 
       FIG. 3B  is a functional block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of the blurring filter device in  FIG. 3A . The blurring filter device  323  includes two line buffers  3231  and  3232 , which are used for storing two continuous horizontal scan lines of the non-interlacing scan data, respectively. When next line enters, the color space values of the coming horizontal scan line and two previously stored horizontal scan lines are processed by a filter operation to execute a linear combination under the coefficient [¼, ½, ¼]. The resulting color space value replaces the original one of the immediately scan line to realize a blurringly filtered scan line. That is, the color space value of each horizontal scan line is re-defined by a weighting operation of the color space values of the selected horizontal scan line and two immediately adjacent horizontal scan lines above and below the selected scan lines, respectively. Then, a blurringly filtered non-interlacing scan data is obtained. It is to be noted that the coefficient of the linear combination can be modified according to the practical requirement. For the easy understanding of the present invention, an example is given herein with reference to the diagram of  FIG. 3C  to describe the present invention in details. In order to simplify the drawing, each scan line is represented by a pixel, and the blurringly filtering conversion is illustrated as shown in  FIG. 3C . First of all, the color data of the original pixels P 1  and P 2  is stored in the line buffers  3232  and  3231 , respectively. When the color data of the original pixel P 3  is inputted to the blurring filter device  323 , the color space value of the resulting pixel P 2 ′ is obtained by the operation of (P 1 )/4+(P 2 )/2+(P 3 )/4, in which (P 1 ), (P 2 ) and (P 3 ) are respective color space values of the original pixels P 1 , P 2  and P 3 . Subsequently, the color data of the original pixels P 2  and P 3  is stored in the line buffers  3232  and  3231 , respectively. Likewise, when the color data of the original pixel P 4  is inputted to the blurring filter, the color space value of the resulting pixel P 3 ′ is obtained by the operation of (P 2 )/4+(P 3 )/2+(P 4 )/4, in which (P 2 ), (P 3 ) and (P 4 ) are respective color space values of the original pixels P 2 , P 3  and P 4 . Thus, the color space value of the resulting pixel P 2 ′ is defined by the combination value of the color space values of the pixel itself, i.e. (P 2 ), the above-adjacent pixel, i.e. (P 1 ) and the below-adjacent pixel, i.e. (P 3 ). Likewise, the color space value of the resulting pixel P 3 ′ is defined by the combination value of the color space values of the pixel itself (P 3 ), the above-adjacent pixel (P 2 ) and the below-adjacent pixel (P 4 ). Similarly, the color space value of the resulting pixel P 4 ′ is equal to (P 3 )/4+(P 4 )/2+(P 5 )/4. According to the above embodiment, the color data of the original pixel P 3  is incorporated in those of the resulting pixels P 2 ′, P 3 ′ and P 4 ′. Hence, after the blurringly filtering procedure, the color character of each scan line will be imparted to the adjacent scan lines. Even though a relatively large vertical reduction rate is required for scaling and a line-loss problem is rendered, the color data of the lost line can be revealed by other scan lines. Thus, good image quality can be assured after scaling. 
     For avoiding a flicker phenomenon occurring when the image is converted to the interlacing scan data, the blurringly filtered and scaled non-interlacing scan data is subject to a deflicker operation as mentioned above with reference to  FIG. 2B . However, the image will be even blurry so as to deteriorate the image quality after such deflicker operation. Hence, the adaptive deflicker filter  325  of the present invention is provided to solve this problem. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 4  which is a functional block diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of an adaptive deflicker filter according to the present invention. The first edge-line detector  3251  reads thereinto two scan lines, i.e. a selected horizontal scan line and another horizontal scan line immediately above the selected scan line for the detector  3251 . The second edge-line detector  3252  reads thereinto two scan lines, i.e. the selected horizontal scan line and another horizontal scan line immediately below the selected scan line for the detector  3252 . When the color space value difference of a pixel of the selected horizontal scan line and a pixel of the horizontal scan line immediately above or below the selected scan line at a corresponding pixel position is larger than or equal to a preset value, the pixel of the selected horizontal scan line is determined to be an edge point. Furthermore, when the count of consecutive edge points included in the selected horizontal scan line is larger than or equal to a threshold value, the consecutive edge points of the selected horizontal scan line is determined to be an edge line. If the scan line inputted into the deflicker filter  3253  is not determined to be an edge line, the deflicker problem is generally not serious, so it is not necessary to deflicker the scan line. Therefore, the linear combination coefficient [a0,a1,a2] outputted to the deflicker filter  3253  from the register  3254  would be [0,1,0] in order not to change the feature of the non-edge scan line. When it is the edge line inputted into the deflicker filter  3253 , the coefficient of [a0, a1, a2] stored in the register  3254  is changed from [0,1,0] to a predetermined value such as [¼, ½, ¼] or [⅓,⅓,⅓] for proceeding the linear combination operation on the edge line. By the linear combination operation, the color space value of the edge line is re-defined by weightingly calculating the immediately above and the immediately below horizontal scan lines, and the edge line itself to be a linear combination value. That is, the edge line is incorporated thereinto the features of the adjacent scan lines so as to avoid the flicker phenomenon. 
     In another embodiment, a deflicker operation is only proceeded on large-edge points of a non-interlacing scan data. The term “large-edge points” indicates the pixels exhibiting significant contrast to their neighbors. For easily understanding how to determine the large-edge points, an example is described with reference to  FIG. 5 . Each lattice represents a pixel of a horizontal scan line. When the threshold value for determining the large-edge point is set to be 11, a sliding window of 11 units in width is used. First, edge points are determined by comparing pixels of three consecutive scan lines at corresponding positions as mentioned above, and pixels  10 – 22  are found to be edge points. When the count of the consecutive edge points of a certain scan line is larger than the threshold value  11 , the scan line is determined to be an edge line. In this case, the scan line as shown is apparently an edge line due to the 13 edge points included therein. The 11-pixel sliding window passes through the edge line to find large-edge points. A pixel will be defined as a large-edge point when its left 5 pixels and its right 5 pixels as well as the pixel itself are edge points. For example, the edge-point pixel  15  is an large-edge point because its left 5 pixels  10 – 14  and right 5 pixels  16 – 20  are edge points. Similarly, the pixels  16  and  17  are also large-edge points. Therefore, according to this embodiment, only the large-edge points  15 ,  16  and  17  will be blurred, i.e. be subject to the deflicker operation, while the other pixels remain unchanged. 
     While the invention has been described in terms of what are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention need not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.