Patent ID: 7043091

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for converting the resolution of an original image in such a manner as to increase the spatial resolution of said original image by a factor of Z in each of vertical and horizontal directions, said image processing apparatus comprising: energy calculating means for calculating local energy of said original image based on two rows of pixels in said original image; detection means for detecting the direction of an edge based on said local energy calculated by said energy calculating means; interpolation means for interpolating a new pixel from a pixel of said original image based on the direction of the edge detected by said detection means; edge enhancement means for performing an edge enhancement process based on said local energy calculated by said energy calculating means; and consistency judging means for judging the consistency in terms of the local structure of the new pixel interpolated by said interpolation means, wherein said interpolation means performs linear interpolation to generate a second new pixel from two pixels lying along the detected direction of the edge when said consistency judging means determines that a value obtained by multiplying a first difference and a second difference is negative, wherein the first difference is obtained by subtracting the new pixel value from the pixel value of a pixel located at the center of the upper row, and wherein the second difference is obtained by subtracting the pixel value of a pixel located at the center of the lower row from the new pixel value.