Patent ID: 8577184

Claim:
A system for improving the quality of color images by combining the content of a plurality of frames of the same subject comprising: at least one processor; the at least one processor operatively connected to a memory for storing a plurality of frames of a subject; the frames containing imperfect images of the subject due being affected by translation and/or rotational movement; the at least one processor operating to align and combine the content of plurality of frames of the subject into a combined multicolored image; the at least one processor operating to convert at least two multicolored frames into monochromatic predetermined color frames; the at least one processor operating to estimate the optimal orientation by using the at least two monochromatic frames and by estimating optimal alignment of the two monochromatic frames at the frame and subpixel levels; at the frame level, the at least one processor operating to perform a gross shift process in which the gross shift translation of one monochromatic predetermined color frame is determined relative to another monochromatic predetermined color frame; at the subpixel level, the at least one processor operating to perform a subpixel shift process utilizing a correlation method to determine the translational and/or rotational differences of one monochromatic predetermined color frame to the other monochromatic predetermined color frame to estimate sub-pixel shifts and/or rotations between the frames; the at least one processor combining the at least two multicolored frames into a multicolored color image based upon the results of the monochromatic gross shift and subpixel shift processes; and checking to determine whether the resolution of the resulting combined multicolored image is of sufficient resolution; the checking process operating to determine the validity of the gross shift and subpixel shift processes to produce at least one high-resolution multicolored image.