Patent ID: 7593066

Claim:
A method of enhancing color saturation of an input image having a plurality of pixels, wherein the image has a maximum chrominance value and a minimum chrominance value, the method comprising: generating a scaled saturation enhancement factor with a color saturation unit using a base saturation enhancement factor by calculating a maximum U enhancement factor; calculating a maximum V enhancement factor; and setting the scaled saturation enhancement factor to a smallest value from among the maximum U enhancement factor, the maximum V enhancement factor, and the base saturation enhancement factor; generating a saturation enhanced U chrominance value with the color saturation unit by multiplying a current U chrominance value of a current pixel by the scaled saturation enhancement factor, wherein the saturation enhanced U chrominance value is within a range bounded by maximum chrominance value and the minimum chrominance value inclusive; generating a saturation enhanced V chrominance value with the color saturation unit by multiplying a current V chrominance value of the current pixel by the scaled saturation enhancement factor, wherein the saturation enhanced V chrominance value within a range bounded by maximum chrominance value and the minimum chrominance value inclusive; and wherein the saturation enhanced U chrominance value divided by the saturation enhanced V chrominance value is equal to the current U chrominance value divided by the current V chrominance value of the current pixel; and wherein the saturation enhanced U chrominance value and the saturation enhanced V chrominance value are used in an output image.