Patent ID: 8085322

Claim:
A defect pixel correction circuit comprising: a defect pixel determination unit configured to determine whether a noteworthy pixel is a defect pixel referring to a plurality of pixels of a referring pixel group that excludes the noteworthy pixel, the plurality of pixels and noteworthy pixel lining up in one direction, and the plurality of pixels being dividable into a first referring pixel group and a second referring pixel group; and a defect pixel correcting unit configured to generate a correcting pixel value on the basis of a first approximation from at least two pixels of the first referring pixel group, a second approximation from at least two pixels of the second referring pixel group, and replace a noteworthy pixel value that is pixel value of the noteworthy pixel with the correcting pixel value, when the noteworthy pixel is a defect pixel, wherein in the case where the noteworthy pixel is placed among the referring pixel group, one side is made the first referring pixel group, and the other side is made the second referring pixel group, the defect pixel correction circuit further comprises a guess pixel value generation unit configured to guess a guess pixel value that is a guess value of the noteworthy pixel value, the guess pixel value generation unit comprises: a first guess pixel value generation unit to which a first guess pixel value that is a guess value of the noteworthy pixel value is guessed from the first approximation by a collinear approximation; a second guess pixel value generation unit to which a second guess pixel value that is a guess value of the noteworthy pixel value is guessed from the second approximation by the collinear approximation; a first maximum value acquiring unit configured to extract a maximum value from among the first guess pixel value and the second guess pixel value; a first minimum value acquiring unit configured to extract a minimum value from among the first guess pixel value and the second guess pixel value; a second maximum value acquiring unit configured to extract a maximum value from among the referring pixel group; a second minimum value acquiring unit configured to extract a minimum value from among the referring pixel group; a third maximum value acquiring unit configured to extract a pixel maximum value that is a maximum value of as a result of the first maximum value acquiring unit and as a result of the second maximum value acquiring unit; and a third minimum value acquiring unit configured to extract a pixel minimum value that is a minimum value of as a result of the first minimum value acquiring unit and as a result of the second minimum value acquiring unit; and the defect pixel determination unit comprises a determination unit configured to determine whether the noteworthy pixel value is included from the pixel minimum value to the pixel maximum value.