Abstract: Estimating and/or compensating motion in a video image is provided wherein an image segment of the video image is selected, a search area is defined around the image segment, the defining being based on a range of possible motion vectors for the image segment, and image data related to said search area is retrieved. The search area is defined to have its center offset from a center of the image segment. The offset may be determined by a global motion parameter.

Abstract: The quality of recorded images with for example a high speed camera can be detoriated by light modulation which is a consequence of for example gas-discharge lamps running at a lower frequency with respect to the camera. A camera according to the invention provides light modulation removal by handling fields of the image different depending on the light modulation.

Abstract: Known N-dimensional filters 100 and methods for N-dimensionally filtering apply noise reduction to an original image pixel. However, carrying out only noise reduction to a pixel of an image is often not enough when a good picture quality is required. Thus, additionally, sharpness enhancement (peaking) is carried out. However, noise reduction and peaking have contrasting spectral behaviors which lead to non-optimal results when both operations, noise reduction and peaking, are implemented in series. By appropriately defining coefficients ?(p, n) or ?(p, n) of the transmission function, the transmission function is capable of applying both noise reduction and sharpness enhancement to the input signal of the N-dimensional filter 100.

Abstract: Noise reduction is an important feature in consumer television. This is realized by spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal filters. Spatial filters require pixels from within one image, while temporal filters require samples from two or more successive images. The spatio-temporal filter unit (100) integrates spatial and implicit motion-compensated temporal noise reduction in one filter. For the motion compensation, no motion vectors are required. The spatio-temporal filter unit (100) is provided with a sigma filter (112) having one filter kernel (107) designed to operate on the pixels from both a current image and from the output of the spatio-temporal filter unit, being a temporally recursive filtered image. The operation of the spatio-temporal filter unit (100) can be adjusted by varying the thresholds of the sigma filter (112) and the selection of pixels. The adjustments can be controlled by a motion estimator (222), a motion detector (224) and a noise estimator (220).

Abstract: An electronic circuit 100 and method for enhancing an image, in particular, for use in TV-applications, includes a N-dimensional image enhancement filter 130 for receiving an image signal and at least one further image signal, all image signals representing different pixels of said image. An intermediate signal output from the N-dimensional image enhancement filter 130 is combined with a high-frequency component of the image signal in order to generate an enhanced image output signal. The electronic circuit also includes at least one adjusting element 140-1, 140-2 for adjusting the intermediate signal and/or said high-frequency component in response to a determined amount of image enhancement applied to the image signal in the image enhancement filter 130 before being combined.

Abstract: A processing circuit for motion compensated de-interlacing of video signals, having a line memory 21, a de-interlacing circuit 22, a frame memory 24, and a cache memory 25, further includes a pixel mixer 29 interposed between the cache memory 25 and the de-interlacing circuit 22.

Abstract: High definition video signals are pre-filtered and down-sampled by a video converter system to standard definition picture sizes. Standard definition motion estimators employed for field rate up-conversion are then utilized to estimate motion vectors for the standard definition pictures. The resulting motion vectors are scaled and post-processed for motion smoothness for use in motion compensated up-conversion of the field rate for the high definition pictures. The associated memory size and bandwidth requirements and overall cost render consumer electronics implementations for motion compensated field rate up-conversion of film material to high definition video commercially viable while preserving picture quality.

Abstract: A method of filtering a video signal comprised of a luminance component (Y) and two multiplexed chrominance components (U, V), a same filter architecture being used for forming a luminance signal and a chrominance signal, wherein for both the luminance component and two multiplexed chrominance components it holds that for horizontally filtering at least two non-zero filtering coefficients are used. Preferably, the filter architecture is a low-pass filter arranged to average neighboring pixel data with a weighting coefficient chosen such that the ratio between the sum of the even coefficients and the sum of the odd coefficients is 1:1. Thus the overall weighting of the two chrominance components will be equal. Alternatively, the filter architecture is a low-pass filter with horizontal chrominance weighting coefficients of 1,0,1. This allows processing for the luminance at the same time as allowing low-pass chrominance filtering in the horizontal direction.

Abstract: Estimating and/or compensating motion in a video image is provided wherein an image segment (B12) of the video image is selected, a search area (S) is defined around the image segment, the defining being based on a range of possible motion vectors (V) for the image segment, and image data related to said search area is retrieved. The search area is defined to have its center offset from a center of the image segment. The offset may be determined by a global motion parameter.

Abstract: The invention provides detecting a static area in video images wherein frame difference information (6) and displaced frame difference information (4) are calculated, and the static area is detected using the frame difference information (6) and the displaced frame difference information (4) in combination.

Abstract: The invention relates to an electronic circuit 100 and method for enhancing an image, in particular used in TV-applications. The known circuit comprises a N-dimensional image enhancement filter 130 for receiving a low-pass-filtered image signal and at least one also—low-pass-filtered—further image signal; all image signals representing different pixels of said image. An intermediate signal output from said filter 130 is combined with a high-frequency component of said image signal in order to generate an enhanced image output signal. It is the object of the invention to improve an electronic circuit 100 and method for enhancing an image such that the costs for their implementation are reduced without loss of quality in the output image signal.

Abstract: The invention relates to known N-dimensional filters (100) and methods for N-dimensionally filtering for applying noise reduction to an original image pixel. However, carrying out only noise reduction to a pixel of an image is often not enough when a good picture quality is required. Thus, additionally sharpness enhancement (peaking) is carried out. However, noise reduction and peaking have contrasting spectral behaviors which leads to non-optimal results when both operations noise reduction and peaking are implemented in series. Starting from that prior art it is the object of the invention to provide noise reduction and sharpness enhancement to the original pixel in an easier and cheaper manner. This object is solved according to the present invention by defining coefficients &agr;(p, n) or &bgr;(p, n) of said transmission function such that the transmission function is capable of applying noise reduction as well as sharpness enhancement to the input signal of said N-dimensional filter (100).

Abstract: Noise reduction is an important feature in consumer television. This is realized by spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal filters. Spatial filters require pixels from within one image, while temporal filters require samples from two or more successive images. The spatio-temporal filter unit (100) according to this invention integrates spatial and implicit motion-compensated temporal noise reduction in one filter. For the motion compensation no motion vectors are required. The spatio-temporal filter unit (100) is provided with a sigma filter (112) comprising one filter kernel (107) designed to operate on the pixels from both a current image and from the output of the spatio-temporal filter unit, being a temporally recursive filtered image. The operation of the spatio-temporal filter unit (100) can be adjusted by varying the thresholds of the sigma filter (112) and the selection of pixels. The adjustments can be controlled by a motion estimator (222), a motion detector (224) and a noise estimator (220).

Abstract: High definition video signals are pre-filtered and down-sampled by a video converter system to standard definition picture sizes. Standard definition motion estimators employed for field rate up-conversion are then utilized to estimate motion vectors for the standard definition pictures. The resulting motion vectors are scaled and post-processed for motion smoothness for use in motion compensated up-conversion of the field rate for the high definition pictures. The associated memory size and bandwidth requirements and overall cost render consumer electronics implementations for motion compensated field rate up-conversion of film material to high definition video commercially viable while preserving picture quality.

Abstract: A processing circuit for motion compensated de-interlacing of video signals, the processing circuit comprising: a line memory 21, a de-interlacing circuit 22, a frame memory 24, and a cache memory 25, in which a pixel mixer 29 is interposed between the cache memory 25 and the de-interlacing circuit 22.

Abstract: The quality of recorded images with for example a high speed camera can be detonated by light modulation which is a consequence of for example gas-discharge lamps running at a lower frequency with respect to the camera.