Patent ID: 7039254

Claim:
In an image comprising pixels arranged in columns and rows, an interpolating method for interpolating a pixel at an intermediate position between a first original pixel, having pixel data d 1 , and a second original pixel, having pixel data d 2 , adjacent to the first original pixel, the image interpolating method by comprising: a first step of calculating an edge component E for judging whether or not an interpolated pixel exists in the vicinity of an edge position of original image data, the edge component E calculated according to the equation E=−d 3 +d 1 +d 2 −d 4 , wherein d 3 is pixel data for a third original pixel adjacent to the first original pixel, d 4 is pixel data for a fourth original pixel adjacent to the second original pixel, and wherein the first, second, third and fourth original pixels are arranged in a column; a second step of finding a range where pixel data on the interpolated pixel is settable on the basis of the calculated edge component and pixel data on the first and second original pixels; a third step of selecting a plurality of sets of opposed pixels between which the interpolated pixel is sandwiched diagonally, and finding, for each of the sets, the pixel data on the interpolated pixel in a case where a correlation value represented by the sum of the absolute values of the differences between the pixel data on the interpolated pixel and pixel data on the opposed pixels is the minimum in the range where the pixel data on the interpolated pixel is settable and the minimum correlation value; and a fourth step of finding the pixel data on the interpolated pixel on the basis of the pixel data on the interpolated pixel in the case where the correlation value is the minimum and the minimum correlation value which are found for each of the sets.