Patent ID: 8103117

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a recursive filtering unit adapted to perform recursive filtering that multiplies image data of a recursive frame read out from a memory by a, multiplies image data of the present frame by (1−a), adds the resultants together, and substitutes the resultant of the addition for the recursive frame in the memory, wherein a is a recursive filtering coefficient in the range of 0<a<1; and a spatial filtering unit adapted to perform spatial filtering on the recursively filtered image data using a spatial filter modified in accordance with the recursive filtering coefficient and the number of times the recursive filtering has been performed, wherein the image data is image data of a captured video, and a noise damping rate of the image data processed by the recursive filtering unit is calculated based on information on the recursive filtering coefficient, and on one of information indicating at least what number frame the image data of the present frame is relative to when imaging was commenced and information indicating what number frame the image data of the present frame is relative to when the recursive filtering was commenced.