Patent ID: 8532428

Claim:
A noise reducing apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a flat area detecting section implemented by the at least one processor to detect a flat area from an image; a noise component analyzing section implemented by the at least one processor to extract a noise frequency band component from said flat area, by filtering a predetermined specific spatial frequency component; and a noise component suppressing section implemented by the at least one processor to suppress a noise component of said image based on said noise frequency band component, wherein said noise component analyzing section comprises: an flat area band component extracting section configured to extract a band component vector from said flat area by applying a frequency band filter for a predetermined number; a statistic calculating section configured to find the band component vector with a maximum value of absolute values from the band component vectors for predetermined pixels for every band and output the maximum absolute value as a band component vector statistic amount; a visual characteristic weighting section configured to output a noise characteristic vector obtained by performing weighting on said band vector statistic amount to reflect a visual characteristic; and a noise characteristic vector storing section configured to store said noise characteristic vector, and wherein said noise component suppressing section comprises: a concerned pixel band component extracting section configured to scan said image and extract the band component vector to a peripheral area of a concerned pixel; a band suppression vector calculating section configured to calculate a band suppression vector by comparing said noise characteristic vector and said band component vector of said concerned pixel; and a pixel value correcting section configured to subtract said band suppression vector from a pixel value of said concerned pixel.