Patent ID: 8891898

Claim:
A signal processing device that subjects a signal indicative of a moving image constituted by a plurality of temporarily consecutive frames to a sharpening process for the moving image, to output a signal indicative of a moving image thus sharpened, each of the frames including a plurality of block regions, each of the plurality of block regions include one or a plurality of adjacent pixels, the signal processing device configured or programmed to include: a motion detection section configured or programmed to detect motion between the frames with respect to each of the plurality of block regions; a first high-frequency component generation section configured or programmed to generate a harmonic produced by sharpening a signal indicative of a moving image of a block region from which the motion has been detected by the motion detection section; and a signal output section configured or programmed to output, with respect to the block region from which the motion has been detected by the motion detection section, the harmonic having been produced by sharpening a motion region signal that is a signal indicative of a moving image of the block region from which the motion has been detected by the motion detection section, while outputting, with respect to the block region from which the motion has not been detected by the motion detection section, a non-motion region signal that is a signal indicative of a moving image of the block region from which the motion has been detected by the motion detection section, the first high-frequency component generation section including: a first low-frequency component removing section configured or programmed to remove, from frequency components of the motion region signal, at least a direct current component, to generate and output a first low-frequency-free signal; a first nonlinear process section configured or programmed to receive the first low-frequency-free signal, to generate a first nonlinear process signal (i) in which positive and negative signs of the first low-frequency-free signal are retained and (ii) which broadly monotonically increases nonlinearly with respect to the first low-frequency-free signal when values of the first low-frequency-free signal are at least in the vicinity of 0, and to output the first nonlinear process signal; and an addition section configured or programmed to add the first nonlinear process signal to the motion region signal, to generate the harmonic.