Patent ID: 6973219

Claim:
A method for reducing noise in a discrete pixel image, the method comprising the steps of: (a) shrinking a first initial image and a second initial image by a given factor to produce a first shrunken image and a second shrunken image; (b) determining a threshold for a parameter associated with the second shrunken image; (c) determining one or more indicated regions of the second shrunken image in which the parameter exceeds the threshold; (d) determining one or more selected regions in the first shrunken image which correspond in part with the one or more indicated regions of the second shrunken image; (e) processing the first shrunken image to reduce image noise by selectively processing the one or more selected regions of the first shrunken image and differentially processing one or more non-selected regions of the first shrunken image such that a processed image results; (f) expanding the processed image by the given factor to produce an expanded image; and (g) blending the one or more selected regions in the expanded image with one or more corresponding regions of the first initial image.