Patent ID: 7903900

Claim:
A method for color denoising a digital image comprising: retrieving a chrominance level for a plurality of current pixels in a filter window, the filter window including a first predetermined configuration and a second predetermined configuration, the first predetermined configuration being selected such that a pixel currently being processed, x(i, j) pixel, is at the center of a first group of current pixels to be sampled, each pixel in the first group of current pixels to be sampled being discontiguous with the x(i, j) pixel currently being processed; setting a predetermined first weight, a(x, y), for the x(i, j) pixel being processed; computing a weight for each pixel in the first group of current pixels to be sampled within the first predetermined configuration; summing the first weight, a(x, y), and the weights of the sampled pixels in the first group of current pixels within the first predetermined configuration resulting in a sum of weights; sampling and computing a weight to be added to the sum of weights for pixels one at a time from a second group of current pixels within the second predetermined configuration, the second predetermined configuration comprising pixels surrounding a boundary of the first predetermined configuration, pixels in the second group of current pixels to be sampled being discontiguous with sampled pixels in the first group of current pixels, the sampling and weight computing of pixels one at a time from the second group of current pixels and adding to the sum of weights continuing only until the sum of weights reaches a predetermined value, and if the predetermined value is not reached after all pixels in the second group of current pixels within the second predetermined configuration have been accounted for, increasing the first weight, a(x, y), until the predetermined value is reached; applying the computed weights to the chrominance levels for each sampled pixel; and repeating the above process for each pixel in the image.