Patent ID: 7209595

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for processing input pixel data and for outputting the processed input pixel data as output pixel data comprising: noise-amount estimating means comprising: variance calculation means for processing in units of a predetermined number of pixels and for calculating the variance of a plurality of pixel data in a local area including each pixel data; histogram generating means for generating the histogram of the variance calculated for each pixel data, in units of the predetermined number of pixels; noise-amount calculation means for obtaining the amount of noise included in the pixel data according to the histogram, in units of the predetermined number of pixels; input reliability calculation means for calculating an input reliability indicating the reliability of the input pixel data according to the estimated amount of noise; output reliability calculation means for calculating an output reliability indicating the reliability of the output pixel data; and processing means for processing the input pixel data according to the input reliability and the output reliability and for outputting the output pixel data.