Patent ID: 7570285

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for producing a restoration image wherein each pixel has all of a plurality of color components using a color and sensitivity mosaic image wherein each pixel has a sensitivity and one of the plurality of color components and a color mosaic image wherein each pixel has one of the plurality of color components, the image processing apparatus comprising: a sensitivity uniformization unit for uniformizing the sensitivities of the pixels of the color and sensitivity mosaic image; a first color difference image production unit for producing a first color difference image corresponding to the color mosaic image based on color mosaic pattern information which indicates an arrangement of the color components of the color mosaic image, wherein said first color difference image production unit includes: (a) a first smoothing unit for smoothing a first color component of the color mosaic image to produce a first smoothed image, (b) a second smoothing unit for smoothing a second color component of the color mosaic image to produce a second smoothed image, and (c) a first subtraction unit for subtracting color components of corresponding pixels of the first smoothed image and the second smoothed image to produce said first color difference image; and a second color difference image production unit for producing a second color difference image corresponding to the color mosaic image based on the color mosaic pattern information, wherein the second color difference image production unit includes: (a) a third smoothing unit for smoothing the first color component of the color mosaic image to produce a third smoothed image, (b) a fourth smoothing unit for smoothing the second color component of the color mosaic image to produce a fourth smoothed image, and (c) a second subtraction unit for subtracting color components of corresponding pixels of the third smoothed image and the fourth smoothed image to produce the second color difference image; and a luminance image production unit for producing a luminance image using: (i) the first color difference image; (ii) the second color difference image; and (iii) the color mosaic image; and a restoration unit for restoring all of the color components corresponding to each pixel using: (i) the first color difference image; (ii) the second color difference image; and (iii) the luminance image.