Patent ID: 8081224

Claim:
A method of image processing for image stabilization, comprising: capturing an image of a scene using a plurality of frames, each frame captured using an exposure time that is a fraction of a determined exposure time for the scene; spatially filtering pixels in a current one of the captured frames; temporally filtering pixels in the current captured frame; detecting motion of the pixels in the current frame relative to the pixels in a previous, temporarily-stored, filtered frame; combining results of the spatial and temporal filtering of the current captured frame based on detected motion; and storing the filtered current frame, wherein the motion detecting includes the steps of: detecting block motion between the current frame and the previous, temporarily-stored, filtered frame; and detecting pixel motion between the current frame and the previously-filtered frame, and wherein: the current input frame is the defined by a function ƒ(x,y,k); the spatial filtering of the current input frame produces a result ƒ sp (x,y,k); the pixel motion detecting of the current input frame produces a result pm(x,y,k); the temporal filtering of the current input frame produces a result ƒ tp (x,y,k); and the results of the spatial and temporal filtering are combined as a result ƒ out (x,y,k) defined by the equation: ƒ out (x,y,k)=(1−pm(x,y,k))·ƒ tp (x,y,k) +pm(x,y,k)·ƒ sp (x,y,k).