Patent ID: 7616830

Claim:
A method, comprising: parsing an incident digital image comprising an incident x by y array of image pixels into a first x by y sub-array of pixels that includes a first group of image pixels from the incident x by y array and a second x by y sub-array of pixels that includes a second group of image pixels from the incident x by y array that are different from the first group; displacing the second x by y sub-array relative to the first x by y sub-array by m vertical pixel locations and n horizontal pixel locations; reconstituting a final x by y array of pixels for an output digital image to include first group image pixels at their corresponding locations from the first x by y sub-array of pixels and second group image pixels at their corresponding displaced locations from the second x by y sub-array of image pixels selectively chosen as a function of a substitution information value; and determining the substitution information value by determining whether the image pixels in the incident digital image situated at locations adjacent to a pixel location in the final x by y array being considered are sufficiently uniform, and wherein reconstituting comprises choosing either a second group image pixel from the displaced second x by y sub-array of pixels or a substitution pixel determined from a weighted combination of the second group image pixel and a correspondingly located image pixel from of the incident x by y array depending on the value of the substitution information; wherein x and y are both greater than 1, and m+n is even and non-zero.