Patent ID: 7773823

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for eliminating noise from a digital image with edges maintained intact, the apparatus comprising: an input means for accepting input of a digital image; a noise amount determination unit for determining the amount of noise in the digital image, and setting noise elimination power that indicates a noise elimination level; a noise suppression unit for eliminating the noise from the digital image based on the noise elimination power determined by the noise amount determination unit; and an output means for outputting the digital image processed for the noise suppression, wherein the noise amount determination unit includes: a chrominance component separation unit for separating chrominance components from the digital image; a frequency transformation unit for transforming each of the separated chrominance components into the frequency domain; and a noise elimination power setting unit for calculating the amount of noise from each of the chrominance components transformed into the frequency domain, and setting the noise elimination power according the calculated amounts of noise, wherein: the noise elimination power setting unit includes: a first low pass filter (LPF) for extracting a low frequency component; and a second LPF for extracting low and intermediate frequency components; and the noise elimination power setting unit extracts the intermediate frequency component from the extraction results of the first and second LPFs, and calculates the amount of noise from the extracted intermediate frequency component.