Patent ID: 7755701

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for processing first image data to output second image data which has higher quality than the first image data, comprising: down-converting means for down-converting input image data by decreasing the number of pixels of the input image data; image conversion means for converting the first image data into the second image data by using the input image data down-converted by the down-converting means as the first image data; and determining means for determining a type of the input image data, in case the determining means determines that the type of the input image data is up-converted image data obtained by up-converting image data by increasing a number of pixels of the image data, the down-converting means down-converts the input image data by decreasing the number of pixels of the input image data, wherein the image conversion means includes prediction tap extracting means for extracting, as prediction taps, a plurality of pixels used for predicting a subject pixel of the second image data from the first image data, class tap extracting means for extracting, as class taps, a plurality of pixels used for classifying the subject pixel into one of a plurality of classes from the first image data, classification means for classifying the subject pixel based on the class taps, coefficient output means for outputting a coefficient corresponding to the class of the subject pixel from among coefficients corresponding to the plurality of classes, the coefficients being determined beforehand by learning, and calculation means for determining the subject pixel by performing prediction calculations by using the coefficient corresponding to the class of the subject pixel and the prediction taps.