Patent ID: 7245782

Claim:
Process for smoothing dark regions of an image sequence having undergone temporal filtering, a noise level being associated with each image, a luminance value being associated with each pixel of an image, wherein, at least one predetermined threshold value is calculated as a function of the noise level of the image and a zero value is added to the calculated values, at least two predetermined limiting values which delimit at least one smoothing range, for each pixel of the image, the pixel currently being analyzed being referred to as the current pixel, the luminance of the said pixel is compared with the said predetermined limiting values delimiting, if the luminance of the current pixel lies in one of the said smoothing ranges, the luminance of a plurality of analysis pixels, in a neighborhood window, centered on the current pixel, is compared with the said limiting values, if the luminance of at least a predetermined minimum number of analysis pixels lies in the same range as the value of the luminance of the current pixel, the value of the luminance of the current pixel (P) is modified as a function of the said at least one threshold value.