Patent ID: 8369646

Claim:
An image correction circuit configured to correct input image data on the basis of an input/output characteristic in each image frame, the input/output characteristic obtained by adaptively changing a predetermined reference input/output characteristic line, the image correction circuit comprising: a luminance distribution acquiring means for acquiring a black-side intermediate luminance distribution as a luminance distribution in a region between a lowest luminance in a given intermediate luminance region in a luminance distribution of input image data in an image frame and a reference luminance provided in the center of the intermediate luminance region, and a black-side luminance distribution as a luminance distribution in a region of luminance lower than the lowest luminance in the intermediate luminance region; a determining means for determining a low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve on the basis of the acquired black-side intermediate luminance distribution, the low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve passing through a reference point, in the reference input/output characteristic line, determined in accordance with the reference luminance and through a minimum luminance point of the reference input/output characteristic line, and for increasing a gain of the low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve, which is determined on the basis of only the black-side intermediate luminance distribution of the acquired luminance distributions, only in the region of luminance lower than the lowest luminance in the intermediate luminance region based on the acquired black-side luminance distribution; and a correction executing means for executing image correction on input image data having a luminance which is lower than the reference luminance, on the basis of the determined low-luminance-region input/output characteristic curve, wherein the reference luminance corresponds to a value equal to a sum of a product of luminance and frequency divided by a sum of frequencies in a luminance distribution of the image frame.