Patent ID: 8295596

Claim:
A method for processing a video signal, comprising: deriving a histogram of a received signal of an image using a histogram updater, wherein the histogram comprises pixel luminance information associated with pixels in the image, and wherein the histogram defines a range of luminance values; processing the histogram with an equalizer by: dividing the histogram into regions corresponding to pre-determined sub-ranges of the defined range of luminance values, wherein each region comprises a portion of the pixel luminance information; and equalizing each region to provide equalized pixel luminance values, wherein a given region is equalized based on a cumulative density function that calculates a probability of a pixel in the given region having a luminance value equal to or less than a given luminance value; calculating a mean luminance value for each region, wherein the mean luminance value of each respective region depends only on the portion of the pixel luminance information associated with that region; calculating a weighting factor for each region based on the mean luminance value of that region using a weighting factor calculator; and providing output pixel luminance values, with the equalizer, based on a weighted average of the pixel luminance information and the equalized pixel luminance values in accordance with each of the weighting factors.