Patent ID: 7995868

Claim:
A method of processing an image, comprising: a step of inputting pixel signals for respective pixels, each of said pixel signals including a signal for at least one of a plurality of color components in a predetermined color space; a correlation step of judging a correlation of each of said pixels corresponding to said pixel signals by using pixel signals within a predetermined region surrounding each pixel, to determine a vertical correlation, a horizontal correlation, and a diagonal correlation; a pixel interpolation step of executing a pixel interpolation process upon each of said pixels corresponding to said pixel signals, the pixel interpolation process performing interpolation of the pixels in a direction that corresponds to a correlation direction determined by the correlation step; and a filtering step of executing a filtering process upon each of said pixels corresponding to an pixel signal subjected to said pixel interpolation step, to filter each of the pixels in a vertical direction, a horizontal direction, and a diagonal direction, respectively, by counting which interpolation direction the predetermined region was subjected to most frequently by said pixel interpolation step, and by using said most frequent interpolation direction as the filtering direction.