Edge sensing measure for raw image processing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016284053-A1
Application number	US-201514671453-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 27, 2015
Priority date	Mar 27, 2015
Publication date	Sep 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system for performing a demosaic operation are described. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises: a plurality of interpolation modules to perform a plurality of interpolation operations to generate color pixel values of a first color for a plurality of pixel locations in an image region that do not have color pixel values of the first color; a first module to generate a set of color pixel values of the first color for the image region, one or more color pixel values in the set of pixel values being generated based on color pixel values of the first color from one of the plurality of interpolation modules; and a second module to select the one interpolation module based on an interpolation direction determined by color intensity gradient calculations that involve pixel values of the first color and at least one other color.

First claim

We claim:

1 . An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of interpolation modules to perform a plurality of interpolation operations to generate color pixel values of a first color for a plurality of pixel locations in an image region that do not have color pixel values of the first color; a first module to generate a set of color pixel values of the first color for the image region, one or more color pixel values in the set of pixel values being generated based on color pixel values of the first color from one of the plurality of interpolation modules; and a second module to select the one interpolation module based on an interpolation direction determined by color intensity gradient calculations that involve pixel values of the first color and at least one other color.

2 . The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the first module is a blending module that blends pixel values from the one interpolation module selected by the second module with a second interpolation module of the plurality of interpolation modules.

3 . The apparatus defined in claim 2 wherein the plurality of interpolation modules comprise:
a horizontal interpolation module to perform a horizontal interpolation operation by interpolating two pixel values at first adjacent locations to each location with a missing color pixel value in the image region, the first adjacent locations being left and right of the location with the missing color pixel value;
a vertical interpolation module to perform a vertical interpolation operation by interpolating two pixel values at second adjacent locations to said each location with the missing color pixel value in the image region, the second adjacent locations being above and below of the location with the missing color pixel value; and
a non-directional interpolation module to perform a non-directional interpolation operation to generate a pixel value for each of the missing color pixel values in the image region.

4 . The apparatus defined in claim 3 wherein second module is operable to select either the horizontal interpolation module or the vertical module second module as the one interpolation module, and the blending module is operable to blend pixel values from the one interpolation module with pixels values from the non-directional interpolation module.

5 . The apparatus defined in claim 4 wherein the non-directional interpolation module to operable to perform an averaging operation to average a set of pixel values of the first color in the image region to produce said each missing color pixel value in the image region.

6 . The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein second module uses an inter-color intensity domain for the gradient calculations.

7 . The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the gradient calculations comprises a horizontal gradient score and a vertical gradient score, and further wherein the second module is to select the one interpolation module based on a comparison of the horizontal and vertical gradient scores.

8 . The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the pixel values of the image region are from an output of a color filter array.

9 . The apparatus defined in claim 8 wherein the color filter array is a Bayer color filter array.

10 . The apparatus defined in claim 1 further comprising a third module to generate missing color pixel values of a second color and a third color for the image region.

11 . A system comprising:
an image capture unit having a color filter array and an image capture sensor; and an image processing unit comprising a demosaic module having
a plurality of interpolation modules to perform a plurality of interpolation operations to generate color pixel values of a first color for a plurality of pixel locations in an image region that do not have color pixel values of the first color,
a first module to generate a set of color pixel values of the first color for the image region, one or more color pixel values in the set of pixel values being generated based on color pixel values of the first color from one of the plurality of interpolation modules; and
a second module to select the one interpolation module based on an interpolation direction determined by color intensity gradient calculations that involve pixel values of the first color and at least one other color.

12 . The system defined in claim 11 wherein the first module is a blending module that blends pixel values from the one interpolation module selected by the second module with a second interpolation module of the plurality of interpolation modules.

13 . The system defined in claim 12 wherein the plurality of interpolation modules comprise:
a horizontal interpolation module to perform a horizontal interpolation operation by interpolating two pixel values at first adjacent locations to each location with a missing color pixel value in the image region, the first adjacent locations being left and right of the location with the missing color pixel value;
a vertical interpolation module to perform a vertical interpolation operation by interpolating two pixel values at second adjacent locations to said each location with the missing color pixel value in the image region, the second adjacent locations being above and below of the location with the missing color pixel value; and
a non-directional interpolation module to perform a non-directional interpolation operation to generate a pixel value for each of the missing color pixel values in the image region.

14 . The system defined in claim 13 wherein second module is operable to select either the horizontal interpolation module or the vertical module second module as the one interpolation module, and the blending module is operable to blend pixel values from the one interpolation module with pixels values from the non-directional interpolation module.

15 . The system defined in claim 11 wherein the second module uses an inter-color intensity domain for gradient calculations.

17 . The system defined in claim 11 wherein the gradient calculations comprises a horizontal gradient score and a vertical gradient score, and further wherein the second module is to select the one interpolation module based on a comparison of the horizontal and vertical gradient scores.

18 . The system defined in claim 11 further comprising a third module to generate missing color pixel values of a second color and a third color for the image region.

19 . The system defined in claim 11 wherein the color filter array comprises a Bayer color filter array.

20 . A method comprising:
receiving image data captured using an image sensor with a color filter array; and performing a demosaicing operation on the image data, including selecting interpolated data based on an interpolation direction determined using color intensity gradient calculations that involve pixel values of the first color and at least one other color.

21 . The method defined in claim 20 wherein performing a demosaicing operation on the image data comprises generating missing green pixels from the image data generated by the color filtered array using interpolation data selected for blending based on the interpolation direction.

22 . The method defined in claim 20 wherein performing a demosaicing operation on the image data comprises using an inter-color intensity domain for the gradient calculations.

23 . The method defined in claim 20 further comprising:
capturing the image data using an image sensor and the color filter ar

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Nishimura Jun

Classifications

• G06T11/10

  Texturing; Colouring; Generation of textures or colours (retouching, inpainting or scratch removal G06T5/77) · CPC title

• G06T3/4015 Primary

  Image demosaicing, e.g. colour filter arrays [CFA] or Bayer patterns · CPC title

• G06T11/001

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T3/4007 Primary

  based on interpolation, e.g. bilinear interpolation (image demosaicing G06T3/4015; edge-driven or edge-based scaling G06T3/403) · CPC title

• G06T11/60

  Creating or editing images; Combining images with text · CPC title