Patent Document ID: 8687894
Application ID: 12905367
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A device comprising a plurality of elements, including logical elements, wherein the elements are configured to perform the operations of: in a neighborhood of pixels surrounding a particular pixel, applying a filter to multiple groups of pixels in the neighborhood to generate a matrix of filtered values; computing, from the matrix of filtered values, a first set of gradients along a first direction and a second set of gradients along a second and different direction; determining how many directional changes are experienced by the gradients in the first set of gradients and the gradients in the second set of gradients; based, at least in part, upon magnitudes of at least some of the gradients in the first set of gradients and how many directional changes are experienced by the gradients in the first set of gradients, computing a first value for the first direction; based, at least in part, upon magnitudes of at least some of the gradients in the second set of gradients and how many directional changes are experienced by the gradients in the second set of gradients, computing a second value for the second direction; and based, at least in part, upon the first and second values, computing an overall texture characterization value for the particular pixel that indicates a type of image environment in which the particular pixel is located, wherein the overall texture characterization value differentiates between a flat image environment, a detail image environment, and an edge image environment; wherein an edge image environment is one in which gradient magnitudes are large, and gradient directional changes are monotonic; wherein a flat image environment is one in which gradient magnitudes are small, and gradient directional changes are chaotic; and wherein a detail image environment is one in which gradient magnitudes are smaller than for an edge image environment, but larger than for a flat image environment, and gradient directional changes are more chaotic than for an edge image environment, but less chaotic than for a flat image environment.