Abstract: A noise elimination apparatus and method enable effective elimination of noise on each line in an image captured by a CCD provided with a Bayer-type color filter. A graduation device obtains the quantity of graduation for a target picture element by obtaining the difference between the mean value of the value of the target pixel and the value of a pixel around the target pixel and the value of the target pixel. A high frequency component detector detects the high frequency component of the target pixel using Laplacian filter based upon the target pixel and each of the pixels immediately adjacent to said target pixel are input. A high frequency component can be detected without being influenced by noise on each line by using a filter based upon each of the pixels immediately adjacent to said target pixel.

Abstract: A shelf for a vehicle interior is provided. The shelf comprises a front section configured to receive a visor, a center section structured to mount to the vehicle interior and a rear section configured to contact the vehicle interior. In one aspect of the invention, the shelf is attached to the vehicle interior only by the visor mounting system. When objects are placed on the shelf, a torque is produced about the mounting system and one edge of the shelf is designed to resist the torque.

Abstract: In a method for generating color image signals derived from an array of color image pixels, the array of color pixels are subsampled in order to generate an array of subsampled color pixels. An array of new, evenly spaced color pixels are interpolated from the subsampled color pixels using surrounding pixels of the same color, and the color image signals derived from the array of new color pixels are subsequently processed, e.g., in a color filter array interpolation. By providing this correction in a preprocessing step, the rest of the normal image processing hardware or software may be used on the resultant subsampled CFA image without developing the characteristic blocky and wavy artifacts caused by an irregular subsampling pattern.

Abstract: Improved processes for quantizing a set of mean-preserving Tone Transfer Functions (TTFs) for a multi-level halftoning system which minimize or at least significantly reduce the overall quantization error in the system as a function of a prespecified system halftone cell size, P, and the number of micro output levels, L.sub.y, supported by the multi-level halftoning system. The processes call for dividing the range of possible input contone representative intensity values into T subintervals, where T=PL.sub.y ; determining the values of the centers of the T-subintervals; and quantizing each of the normalized continuous mean preserving TTFs as a function of the values of the centers of the T-subintervals. According to a preferred embodiment, the quantizing is performed such that the quantized TTFs approximate the normalized continuous mean preserving TTFs and ideally satisfy the criteria that the maximum quantization error between any quantized and unquantized TTF is minimized.

Abstract: A data compression system can operate in a number of different configurations, and wherein the bit rate produced by a given configuration can be controlled over some finite range by a control signal from a rate controller for smoothly transitioning between the configurations so that discontinuous jumps in bit rate and distortion are minimized is provided by determining thresholds on the feedback control signals, the thresholds being used to determine when to switch in or out of each configuration; the thresholds furthermore being determined from the intersection points of the rate distortion curves for the available configurations.

Abstract: A method of improving image quality when using block transform image compression algorithms by applying a variable lowpass filter (blur) operation on block boundaries that is based on the coefficients of the transformed data. The method of reducing block artifacts results from adaptively blurring the block boundaries based on the frequency content of the blocks. Low frequency blocks are heavily blurred, while high frequency blocks should have very little blur.

Abstract: Apparatus and a method for generating a multi-level halftone image (104) from a digitally sampled continuous tone (contone) image (101). The apparatus includes a control circuit (140), a preference matrix (150) having as its matrix elements addresses of a plurality of look-up tables (160) and a plurality of look-up tables (160) in the form of a look-up table stack (155). The control circuit instructs the preference matrix to select a specific look-up table from the look-up table stack in a pre-defined manner. The selected table is used to convert an intensity value (102) into each multi-level pixel value (106) in the halftone image. To accomplish the conversion, each look-up table contains a quantized one-dimensional transfer function (165') having as an input the magnitude of the intensity value. The transfer functions are automatically generated such that the sum of the derivatives of the transfer functions equals the number of pixel values in a halftone cell.

Abstract: An electronic camera is adapted for processing images of different resolution to provide a user selectable image record size. A buffer memory is provided for storing color image pixels from a sensor corresponding to at least one image. Processing responsive to a resolution mode switch controls the order in which color image pixels are selected for output storage in both vertical and horizontal directions. The order selected by the resolution switch includes a full resolution mode, and at least one reduced resolution mode in which the low resolution color image pixels are calculated to exactly replicate the pixel geometry of the original CFA image. This simplifies the image processing for the rest of the imaging chain because the same algorithms can be used regardless of the selected image resolution.

Abstract: An electronic camera is disclosed that employs a color transformation stage 14 for transforming primary color signals into luminance and chrominance signals. The luminance signal is subjected to a lossy compression in the compression stage 16a, and then decoded in the decompression stage 32 to generate a feedback signal having lossy artifacts. The feedback signal is used in the generation of the chrominance signals prior to their compression, which causes the later-reconstructed chrominance signals to have fewer artifacts due to the compression algorithm.

Abstract: A block adaptive linear predictive coding method for encoding a signal having multi-dimensional correlation, such as an image signal as improved by employing multi-dimensional blocks of error signals for making the prediction. As a preferred mode, two statistical quantities are employed to select a quantizer from a set of minimum square error two-variable quantizers based on probability models of statistical quantities.

Abstract: An image processor performs error diffusion by thresholding an incoming gray pixel to black or white, comparing the difference between the black or white print value and the incoming pixel gray level and superimposing the difference on the next pixel gray level. The threshold value is read out from a threshold matrix which has been modulated with a pattern which is complementary to the known artifact pattern of the error diffusion process. Typically, the threshold matrix has sparce threshold values along one of its diagonals, the direction of the diagonal being perpendicular to the prevailing direction of artifacts generated by the error diffusion algorithm.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for discriminating between regions of text and continuous tone areas of mixed format documents and for selecting print/no-print decisions to be made by either an image processing algorithm optimized for text or an image processing algorithm optimized for continuous tone. A video signal of digital values indicative of pixels representing the image content of the document is applied to a two-level comparator to produce a preliminary text mode or continuous tone mode decision. A continuous tone preliminary decision is changed to a text decision if the pixel of interest is within a predetermined distance of a text pixel.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for discriminating between regions of text and continuous tone regions of mixed format documents and for selecting print/no-print decisions to be made by either an image processing algorithm optimized for text or an image processing algorithm optimized for continuous tone. A video signal of digital values indicative of pixels representing the image content of the document is generated. The video signal is applied to a two-level threshold discrimination network, to a processor having the text algorithm, and to a processor having the continuous tone algorithm. The continuous tone image processing algorithm is selected (1) when the video signal is above the lower discrimination threshold and the decision of the text algorithm is to print and (2) when the video signal value is below the upper discrimination threshold and the decision of the text algorithm is to not print. The text image processing algorithm is selected under any other condition.