Patent ID: 7656436

Claim:
A flicker reduction method for reducing a fluorescent light flicker component in a video signal or a luminance signal obtained by photographing a subject through an XY addressing type image pickup element under an illumination of a fluorescent lamp, comprising: a step of integrating the video signal or the luminance signal, as an input image signal, throughout a duration of time equal to or longer than one horizontal period, a step of normalizing the integrated value or a difference value between the integrated values of adjacent fields or adjacent frames, a step of extracting a spectrum of the normalized integrated value or the normalized difference value, wherein a signal component other than a flicker component is extracted as the normalized integrated value or the normalized difference value, a step of estimating a flicker component from the extracted spectrum, wherein the estimated flicker component is approximated under the illumination of the fluorescent lamp to a predetermined order; wherein an amplitude and an initial phase of the estimated flicker component is estimated for each order, and a step of performing a calculation operation on the estimated flicker component and the input image signal to cancel out the estimated flicker component.