Patent ID: 8339516

Claim:
A method for noise reduction in a current image frame, wherein the current image frame is a part of a sequence of image frames, comprising: comparing a current pixel value of a pixel within the current image frame with a corresponding pixel value of the pixel in at least one adjacent image frame; determining a piled-up value of the current pixel value and the corresponding pixel value if a pixel difference between the current pixel value and the corresponding pixel value is below a pixel threshold, wherein the pixel threshold depends on the corresponding pixel value and/or the current pixel value; dividing the current image frame and the at least one adjacent image frame into a plurality of blocks; determining a current block piled-up value based on current pixel values of a respective block, which comprises the pixel; determining a corresponding block piled-up value based on corresponding pixel values the respective block; comparing the current block piled-up value with the corresponding block piled-up value; and determining the piled-up value if a block difference between the current block piled-up value and the former block piled-up value is below a predetermined block threshold.