Patent ID: 7792384

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for processing input-image data into output-image data, the apparatus comprising: a processor, including: a plurality of image processing units, each one of the plurality of image processing units being operable to (i) detect a respective edge-gradient direction having a largest gradient of a pixel value and a respective edge direction orthogonal to the edge-gradient direction for each pixel of the input-image data, (ii) perform edge-enhancement processing on the input-image data in the respective edge-gradient direction detected by that image processing unit, and (iii) perform smoothing processing on the input-image data in the respective edge direction detected by that image processing unit so that each one of the plurality of image processing units generates associated processed image data that is output by that image processing unit, and an integration unit operable to integrate the associated processed image data output from each one of the plurality of image processing units to generate the output-image data, wherein each one of the plurality of image processing units has respective characteristics set for its use with detecting the edge-gradient direction and the edge direction that are different than the respective characteristics set for any other of the plurality of image processing units.