Patent ID: 8208045

Claim:
A method for reducing noise in image data, comprising the steps of: (a) detecting a parameter indicative of a type of noise in the image data; and (b) deciding, based on the detected parameter, whether to perform a transformation on the image data before performing spatial noise reduction for transforming the type of noise in the image data, wherein if it is decided in step (b) to perform the transformation, (c) performing the transformation on the image data before performing the spatial noise reduction for transforming the type of noise in the image data, (d) performing the spatial noise reduction on the image, (e) performing an inverse transformation on the spatial noise reduced image data before applying gamma correction, and (f) applying a gamma correction on the spatial noise reduced image data, and if it is decided in step (b) not to perform the transformation, performing steps (d) and (f) without performing steps (c) and (e).