Patent ID: 7978910

Claim:
A method of adaptively filtering an input image in color domain units, the method comprising: dividing an input image into a plurality of color domains according to a distribution of colors in the input image, different pixel class values being respectively allocated to the plurality, of color domains; respectively calculating a plurality of filter coefficients for the color domains; and adaptively filtering the color domains using the respective filter coefficients, wherein the respectively calculating comprises: (a) choosing a window size for a predetermined filter; (b) determining whether a pixel window with the window size comprises a plurality of color domains each of which has a different pixel class value; and (c) if the determining in (b) determines that the pixel window with the window size comprises the plurality of color domains each of which has a different pixel class value, determining a pattern of distribution of the color domains within the pixel window, and producing an attenuating filter coefficient according to the pattern of distribution.