Patent ID: 8457433

Claim:
A method of image noise filtering comprising: generating a plurality of sub-images of a digital image; applying a noise filter with small support to each sub-image; and generating a filtered digital image by merging the filtered sub-images, wherein generating a plurality of sub-images comprises generating each sub-image I ij(x′,y′) as I 13 ij(x′,y′)=I(x′*m+i,y′*n+j) for x′=0 . . . W/m−1, y′=0 . . . H/n−1 wherein W is a width in pixels in the digital image I(x, y), H is a height in pixels of the digital image I(x, y), m is a horizontal sub-sampling factor of each sub-image, n is a vertical sub-sampling factor of each sub-image, i=0 . . . m−1, and j=0 . . . n−1.