Patent ID: 8600188

Claim:
A system for enhancing an input image, said system comprising: an edge-preserving filter for generating, from an input image, a first image comprising image content, from said input image, to sharpen and a second image comprising image content, from said input image, to attenuate; a noise estimator for determining a noise estimate associated with said input image, wherein said noise estimator comprises: an image-noise statistic estimator for estimating at least one of grain noise, sensor noise and thermal noise in said input image, thereby producing an image-noise statistic; a codec-noise statistic estimator for estimating compression noise in said input image, thereby producing a codec-noise statistic; a combiner for combining said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic; and wherein said noise estimate is based on said combined said image-noise statistic and said codec-noise statistic; and wherein a parameter value associated with said edge-preserving filter is based on said noise estimate.