Patent ID: 8339468

Claim:
An image processing device, comprising: a smoothed image generating section for generating multiple smoothed images having space frequency components different from each other and resolutions different from each other, based on an input image, by differentiating cut-off frequencies; a base component image generating section for generating a base component image having a resolution equal to a resolution of the input image, based on the multiple smoothed images; a compression characteristic generating section for generating a compression characteristic being uniquely determined by coordinate values of two terminal points and a coordinate value of a point between the two terminal points, the compression characteristic for use in compressing the base component image, the compression characteristic generating section generating the coordinate value of at least one of the three points based on one of the multiple smoothed images, the coordinate values indicated by two axes of pixel value before compression and pixel value after compression; a base component image compressing section for applying the compression characteristic generated in the compression characteristic generating section to the base component image to generate a compressed base component image having a dynamic range smaller than a dynamic range of the base component image; and a compressed image generating section for generating a compressed image having a dynamic range smaller than a dynamic range of the input image, the compressed image generating section dividing the input image by the base component image and then adding thereto the compressed base component image to generate the compressed image.