Patent ID: 8018504

Claim:
A method of reducing noise in a digital image generated by an imaging device, the digital image including a plurality of pixels, each pixel having a respective signal value, noise being unwanted random variations in the digital image, the method comprising: obtaining information which specifies a predetermined level of unwanted random variations as a function of field position for the digital image; and applying a noise reducing algorithm to the digital image to reduce the level of unwanted random variations while varying one or more parameters of the noise reducing algorithm as a function of field position in the digital image based on the obtained predetermined level of unwanted random variations as a function of field position, wherein the application of the noise reducing algorithm to the digital image includes: defining a window over a pixel to be filtered, the window comprising a portion of the plurality of pixels in the digital image: determining a filter range, the filter range being a function of the predetermined level of unwanted random variations at the field position of the window: determining an average signal value, the average signal value being an average of the signal values of those pixels within the window having signal values within the filter range of the signal value of the pixel to be filtered; and replacing the signal value of the pixel to be filtered with the average signal value.