Patent ID: 7469071

Claim:
A digital image processing device operable to blur an acquired image, comprising a controller and one or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied thereon, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method of creating blur in a digital image, the method comprising: (a) acquiring a first image of a scene taken at a first exposure level; (b) acquiring a second image of nominally the same scene taken at a second exposure level greater than said first exposure level, wherein at least one region of said second image includes one or more pixels having saturated intensity values, and wherein one or more corresponding pixels of the first image do not have saturated intensity values; (c) for at least one of said saturated pixels, extrapolating one or more values from said first image; (d) generating a third image comprising pixels of said second image having non-saturated values, and pixels having said one or more extrapolated values; (e) blurring at least a portion of the third image; and (f) re-scaling the blurred portion of the third image.