Patent ID: 8334931

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a characteristic extraction unit that extracts a characteristic value of a luminance in relation to respective input images constituting an input video and detects the presence of a scene change between adjacent input images; a control unit that determines a gamma correction curve to be applied to output images corresponding to the respective input images on the basis of a magnitude of the characteristic value extracted by said characteristic extraction unit; and a gamma correction unit that corrects a luminance of the respective output images, using the gamma correction curve determined by said control unit, wherein, when a difference in the characteristic value between a first input image and a subsequent second input image is larger than a predetermined value and a scene change does not exist between the first input image and the second input image, said control unit determines a gamma correction curve having an intermediate correction characteristic between a gamma correction curve corresponding to a characteristic value of the first input image and a gamma correction curve corresponding to a characteristic value of the second input image as the gamma correction curve to be applied to an output image corresponding to the second input image, and when the difference in the characteristic value is smaller than the predetermined value or a scene change exists between the first input image and the second input image, said control unit determines the gamma correction curve corresponding to the characteristic value of the second input image as the gamma correction curve to be applied to the output image corresponding to the second input image.