Patent ID: 8179445

Claim:
A method for using low resolution images and at least one high resolution image of a scene captured by the same image capture device to provide an improved high resolution image, comprising: a) using the image capture device to capture a plurality of low resolution images of the scene and at least one high resolution image of the scene having a resolution greater than that of the low resolution images; b) combining the low resolution images to provide an aggregate low resolution image; and c) combining the high resolution image with the aggregate low resolution image to provide the improved high resolution image by: i) interpolating the aggregate low resolution image to provide an aggregate high resolution image; ii) reducing the resolution of the high resolution image to provide a representative low resolution image that could have been captured by the image capture device; iii) interpolating the representative low resolution image to producing a blurred high resolution image; iv) calculating an image difference map from the aggregate high resolution image and the blurred high resolution image; and v) using the image difference map along with the aggregate high resolution image and the high resolution image to produce an improved high resolution image.