Abstract: An image de-blocking method includes in a first stage, obtaining at least de-blocking pixel data of the first row of pixels and the second row of pixels according to at least the decompressed pixel data of a second row of pixels adjacent upward to a horizontal boundary, a first row of pixels adjacent upward to the second row of pixels and a third row of pixels adjacent downward to the horizontal boundary; and in a second stage, obtaining at least de-blocking pixel data corresponding to the third row of pixels and the fourth row of pixels according to at least the de-blocking pixel data of the second row of pixels adjacent upward to the horizontal boundary and the decompressed pixel data of the third row of pixels adjacent downward to the horizontal boundary and a fourth row of pixels adjacent downward to the third row of pixels.

Abstract: Demosaicing of graphical content is provided. In an illustrative implementation a demosaicing engine executing one or more demosaicing algorithms is employed to operate on graphical content to provide better quality and higher resolution images. In operation, the demosaicing engine operates in two modes, a training/learning mode, and a run time mode. During training, training-images are analyzed to generate a codebook of mosaic filter table entries, such that each table entry has an associated list of similar training pixel blocks and their associated filters. During run time, a run-time image is broken into pixel blocks. Each pixel block is then compared with the entries of the codebook to find the closest match filter. The list associated with the entry is then processed using a least-squares algorithm to locate the optimal mosaic filter. As a result, higher resolution is achieved without requiring more pixels.

Abstract: A method classifies pixels in an image by first partitioning the image into blocks. A variance of an intensity is determined for each pixel, and for each block the pixel with the maximum variance is identified. Then, the blocks are classified into classes according to the maximum variance.

Abstract: A class sorting section obtains a class code CL indicating a class to which pixel data y of a target position in an image signal Vb belongs using motion compensation vector information mi stored in a buffer memory in pair with pixel data of an image signal Va corresponding to the pixel data y. An estimated prediction calculation circuit obtains the pixel data y based on an estimation equation, using pixel data xi of a prediction tap and coefficient data Wi read from a coefficient memory. The coefficient data Wi has been obtained beforehand by a learning executed by use of a student signal which corresponds to the image signal Va and contains the same encoded noise as of the image signal Va, and a teacher signal which corresponds to the image signal Vb and contains no encoded signal.

Abstract: Input pixels are input to a thinning processing circuit. When thinning is performed at the thinning processing circuit, minimum values are selected in order to reduce the pixel data, whereby loss of thin lines is prevented. The thinned image data are input to a binarization processing circuit. Although the image having been thinned through selection of minimum values becomes dark as a whole, collapse of characters can be suppressed, because the binarization processing circuit dynamically changes a binarization threshold by employing, as the binarization threshold, the average of maximum and minimum values in each local region. In a density flat portion, the local maximum value and the local minimum value assume the same value. Therefore, when the difference between the local maximum value and the local minimum value is not greater than a predetermined range, binarization is performed by use of a fixed threshold value.

Abstract: A deblocking filter, an image encoder, and an image decoder perform edge-filtering of moving-image data which can be divided into blocks, on groups of a predetermined number of pixels arrayed across edges between the blocks, and include: a processing unit concurrently performing column-direction-edge filtering on more than one first group of pixels which are arrayed in rows across ones of the edges oriented in a column direction, the ones of the edges belonging to a macroblock to be currently processed; and an rearrangement unit rearranging pixels being included in the more than one first group of pixels and the macroblock and having been processed by the processing unit, into more than one second group of pixels in respective columns.

Abstract: A graphics system has a mode of operation in which real samples and virtual samples are generated for anti-aliasing pixels. Each virtual sample identifies a set of real samples associated with a common primitive that covers a virtual sample location within a pixel. The virtual samples provide additional coverage information that may be used to adjust the weights of real samples.

Abstract: A method is disclosed which reduces the boundary effects on an image based on maintaining local gray. The image is first halftoned and an adjustment is then made at the boundary region to minimize the brightness deviation of the halftone from the original contone. The adjustment is composed of three steps. First, a low-pass filtering is performed in halftones in the boundary regions, which are typically a few pixels wide along the boundary. The filtering result is then compared to the original contone image and an error map is generated. Finally, the pixels in the boundary regions are adjusted to reduce the magnitudes of the errors.

Abstract: In a method for automatic determination of the actual speed interval of a flowing medium in flow measurements in magnetic resonance imaging, an overview image (localizer) is acquired displayed on a screen, a scout flow measurement is performed by acquiring an image series during a motion cycle at a pre-determined speed interval in a tissue-area to be measured, the peak speed of the medium in the tissue area to be measured is determined on the basis of the scout flow measurement, an optimized flow measurement is performed by acquiring the same images from the acquired image series on the basis of the determined peak speed, and the speed-resolved tissue area obtained by means of the optimized flow measurement is displayed on the screen.

Abstract: An image processing method corrects an original image. The method performs a retinex processing on a luminance signal of each pixel in an original image. The method determines, for each pixel, a retinex-processed pixel value based on the luminance signal that has been subjected to the retinex processing and at least one signal other than the luminance signal. The method generates a histogram by counting a rate of occurrence of the retinex-processed pixel values for each level over a predetermined first range of pixel values to which the retinex-processed pixel value is possibly assigned. The method reassigns each pixel value based on the histogram.

Abstract: A deblocking method, for removing blocking artifacts comprises selecting a plurality of first pixels according to a bandwidth of a memory device, wherein the first pixels are uniformly distributed at two sides of a block boundary; calculating a first value according to the first pixels stored in the memory device; determining a computing mode according to the first value and a first predetermined value; generating a plurality of second pixels according to the first pixels and the computing mode; and replacing the first pixels stored in the memory device with the second pixels.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for estimating the strength of block artifacts at each block boundary, based on global and local edge statistics computed from the input image (frame or field picture) in the spatial domain. Such a method systemically measures the strength of the compression artifacts that are associated with block-based compression/coding schemes such as JPEG, MPEG, and H.26x.

Abstract: A method of removing ringing and blocking artifacts from a decompressed digital image. In one method, a background value of the digital image a background region and foreground regions is determined, and a threshold value is computed. A mapping of the digital image is then generated by thresholding the digital image based on the threshold value to produce a thresholded image, and enlarging the foreground regions of the thresholded image to form a map image. The mapping includes the background pixels of the map image. The background region of the decompressed digital image is then cleansed based on the mapping. In an alternate method, ringing artifacts are removed from a decompressed digital image based on a signal-to-noise ratio of the image. In yet another alternate embodiment, ringing artifacts are from a decompressed digital color image that includes a chrominance channel and a luminance channel. An alternate embodiment removes ringing and blocking artifacts.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus has an overlapping unit and an image processing unit. The overlapping unit overlaps a plurality of scalar format images arranged in at least one of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction and converts them into vector format image data. The image processing unit performs a deblocking filter processing for the vector image data.

Abstract: A de-blocking method smoothes pixels along a row or column that crosses a block boundary. Smoothing is performed to remove quantization or compression artifacts that appear on block edges when pixels in adjacent blocks are separately compressed. A maximum-allowed edge-pixel difference is generated from the quantization parameter QP. For each edge-crossing row or column, an edge difference is generated as half the difference between adjacent edge pixels in two blocks. This edge difference is compared to the maximum-allowed edge-pixel difference. When the edge difference is larger than the maximum-allowed edge-pixel difference, then the difference is limited to the maximum-allowed edge-pixel difference, since the pixel difference may be a real edge in the image. The limited or edge difference is then added or subtracted in decreasing amounts for several pixels in the row or column near the edge, smoothing the edge difference across several pixels, such as seven pixels.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: A pixel boundary difference detector detects a pixel boundary difference across a pixel boundary on the basis of a difference value between pixel values of adjacent pixels across the pixel boundary on a picture plane of an input image frame, and a predicted pixel value on the pixel boundary predicted from at least a plurality of pixels on one side of the pixel boundary, an accumulator accumulates the pixel boundary differences for one image frame, and a block noise detector detects a block noise on the basis of a result of the accumulation. The accuracy of block noise detection is improved, the effect of block noise reduction is improved, and the picture quality is improved.

Abstract: In order to remove blocking artefacts from a frame which has been coded by blocks and then decoded, a certain number of pixels (n) is selected for examination from both sides of the block boundary (30). The number of pixels selected for examination depends on the image content of the frame in the environment of the block boundary, particularly on the difference of the pixel values across the block boundary (30) and the size of the quantization step of the transformation coefficients used in the transformation coding of the blocks.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: A projector includes a projection section which projects an all-white image and an all-black image onto a screen, a sensor which generates first sensing information by sensing the all-white image and generates second sensing information by sensing the all-black image, a differential image generation section which generates a differential image based on the first and second sensing information, an external light effect removal section, and a projection target area detection section which generates projection target area information on the position of a projection target area corresponding to the screen in the sensing area of the sensor based on the differential image from which the external light effect is removed.

Abstract: A method of coding a moving picture is provided that reduces blocking artifacts. The method can include defining a plurality of defining pixels S0, S1, and S2, which are centered around a block boundary. If a default mode is selected then frequency information of the surroundings of the block boundary is obtained. A magnitude of a discontinuous component in a frequency domain belonging to the block boundary is adjusted based on a magnitude of a corresponding discontinuous component selected from a pixel contained entirely within a block adjacent the block boundary. The frequency domain adjustment is then applied to a spatial domain. Or, a DC offset mode can be selected to reduce blocking artifacts in smooth regions where there is little motion.

Abstract: Antialiased lines are classified according to their orientation, e.g. as x-major or y-major depending whether the x or y extent of the line is larger. Different subpixel sampling patterns are used for different lines, in accordance with this classification. This permits antialiased rendering to achieve increased visual quality of the line without adding in more sample points.

Abstract: A grid detector detects the existence and the location of grids in DCT compressed videos. When a grid is detected in the input video, a post-processor is turned on and the de-blocking processing is applied on the grid detected by the grid detector. When no grid is detected, indicating that the input video is either an uncompressed video or an already de-blocked video, post-processing turned off to avoid degrading the picture quality.

Abstract: An image processor is provided which simplifies filter processing and increases the speed when an image is decoded, and is suitable for realizing effective screen effect. In deblocking filter processing, as to a pixel array intersecting a boundary between adjacent blocks, pixel values v2? to v7? after filtering are computed by filter arithmetic equations as shown below v2?=(v2+v5)/2+(v2?v5)/4 v3?=(v3+v5)/2+(v3?v5)/8 v4?=(v4+v5)/2 v5?=(v5+v4)/2+(v5?v4)/8 v6?=(v6+v4)/2+(v6?v4)/4 v7?=(v7?(v7?v4)/8.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus reduces a distortion that occurs at a tile boundary (tile distortion) when an image is compressed or expanded on a tile-by-tile basis. It is equipped with a tone jump detecting section, a slope calculating section, and a slope correcting section. The tone jump detecting section calculates differences between the values of pixels on both sides of the tile boundary and detects a tone jump in the tile distortion according to the differences. The slope calculating section calculates slope-like correction values to be used for causing the tone jump to approach zero in a prescribed length ((prescribed length)<(tile length)), and adds the slope-like correction values to the values of pixels near the tile boundary. As a result, the steep tone jump due to the tile distortion is corrected into a gentle slope-like variation. Tile distortions are reduced properly by this processing.

Abstract: A method of post-processing decompressed images includes identification of the direction of an image edge in a pixel block of the image and filtering applied along the boundary of the block in a direction substantially parallel to the detected image edge. Pixels are selected for filtering on the basis of the quantization parameter of the block of which they are members, the relative difference between pixels adjacent to the block boundary, and significant changes value of pixels in a filtering segment. Filtering is applied parallel to the detected edge to protect the sharpness of the edge while reducing or eliminating blocking and ringing artifacts. A method of separately post-processing fields of interlaced video eliminating complications arising from separate compression of the fields is also disclosed.

Abstract: A system and method is provided to avoid or otherwise reduce luminance and/or chrominance trailing artifacts in block-based hybrid video coders using multiple block sizes and shapes. The proposed trailing artifact avoidance approach has at its core three main components. The first component is a method to identify flat blocks in the source frame that are most susceptible to the appearance of trailing artifacts, and where flatness is determined according to several proposed criteria. The second component is a method to identify bad blocks, which refer to predicted blocks in motion estimation that correspond to flat blocks in the source frame and that contain trailing artifacts. The third component is a method to avoid trailing artifacts when they are detected within a bad block, and where the avoidance is achieved by employing one or more tools from among a proposed set of high fidelity coding tools and/or high performance motion estimation tools.

Abstract: Demosaicing of graphical content is provided. In an illustrative implementation a demosaicing engine executing one or more demosaicing algorithms is employed to operate on graphical content to provide better quality and higher resolution images. In operation, the demosaicing engine operates in two modes, a training/learning mode, and a run time mode. During training, training-images are analyzed to generate a codebook of mosaic filter table entries, such that each table entry has an associated list of similar training pixel blocks and their associated filters. During run time, a run-time image is broken into pixel blocks. Each pixel block is then compared with the entries of the codebook to find the closest match filter. The list associated with the entry is then processed using a least-squares algorithm to locate the optimal mosaic filter. As a result, higher resolution is achieved without requiring more pixels.

Abstract: An image compression apparatus includes a tile size determiner, an image divider and an image compression processor. The tile size determiner determines an arbitrary size of a rectangular tile for each component of a still image having a plurality of components. The image divider divides the image using the rectangular tiles the sizes of which are determined by the tile size determiner. The image compression processor performs an irreversible compression process on the image divided by said image divider.

Abstract: The present invention improves image quality by detecting and enhancing edges in an image. Images often include blurry or fuzzy edges that can obscure an image. An edge is a portion of an image separating two regions of substantially constant image intensity. An image can be examined on a pixel-by-pixel basis to find a candidate edge. When a candidate edge is found, a determination can made as to whether the candidate edge is a true edge. A true edge can be enhanced by amplifying the image intensity differences between pixels on the true edge and adjacent pixels not on the true edge. The present invention also provides a novel image processing filter for eliminating well-known noise from an image. The image processing filter can further improve edge enhancement by eliminating such noise prior to the edge detection and enhancement.

Abstract: The invention provides a method for a motion estimation algorithm. The motion estimation algorithm using low bit resolution integrated edge image instead of luminance image to obtain difference block with small AC coefficients, edge image created by filters is employed to improve encoding quality, on the other hand, operation cost is reduced to low bit resolution. The invention also provides a method for a motion estimation algorithm with a new algorithm using low-bit resolution oriented edge image. Using low-bit resolution oriented edge in motion estimation can result in flatter image blocks which is in demanded by texture-compress unit (such as DCT), as a result, the encoding efficiency is improved, and the operation load is reduced by low-bit resolution.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of processing digital images comprising pixel blocks, said method comprising a step of detecting blocking artifacts (41) between two adjacent blocks (Bj,bk), and a step of filtering (43) the pair of adjacent blocks. The method according to the invention further comprises a filter decision step (42) based on a comparison between luminance values of the pixels of the two adjacent blocks and a reference function representing a difference of minimum luminance values that can be seen by an observer as a function of an average luminance area of the image in order to determine whether a difference of luminance between the blocks is either or not visible to an observer.

Abstract: A method for determining an adjacency relation for analyzing a business card containing data blocks. A target data block and a comparison data block is selected from the data blocks. Then, the method checks whether the comparison data block is topologically overlapped with the target data block. If they are topologically overlapped, then it checks whether the comparison data block has the shortest distance to the target data block, in comparison with data blocks that are topologically overlapped with the target data block. If the distance is shortest, then it checks whether there exists an interrupted data block between the comparison data block and the target data block. If there exists no interrupted data block, it is determined that there exists an adjacency relation between the comparison data block and the target data block. A computer readable recording medium is also disclosed, which executes the method as mentioned above.

Abstract: A system and method using edge processing to remove blocking artifacts comprises an edge processor having an image converter for building an edge representation of a received image, a statistics analyzer for compiling a histogram containing edge intensities of the edge representation, a reference calculator for using the histogram to compute reference values corresponding to the blocking artifacts and an artifact remover for identifying and removing the blocking artifacts using the computed reference values.

Abstract: A system and methodology assesses whether an error correction should be applied to detected blocks based on determined correction application criteria, and, if warranted according to the assessment, applies block-specific error corrections to detected blocks. Global error corrections, such as edge corrections, are also enabled.

Abstract: Block boundary artifact reduction in decompressed digital images is accomplished by filtering the intensity of pixels in the vicinity of the block boundary. The filter utilizes filter coefficients selected from tables on the basis of the distribution of a scalar quantity describing the pixels neighboring the pixel to which the intensity adjustment is to be applied. The intensities of pixels at the boundary and one pixel removed from the boundary are adjusted. If interpolation pixels in each of neighboring blocks are of relatively constant intensity, the intensities of additional pixels, more remote from the boundary, are adjusted. Filter coefficients can be selected from different arrays for pixels on the boundary or removed from the boundary or if the pixel intensity adjustment is based on the intensities of pixels in a horizontal row or vertical column of interpolation pixels.

Abstract: An area within a frame is defined in which text or an image is to be generated. The text or image may also include an optional border surrounding and adjacent to the text or image. In accordance with one embodiment, in order to increase the contrast between the text or image and the background area of the frame, one or more color component values are selected for use in generating the text/image (or associated border). Specifically, a complement of one or more color component values associated with one or more pixels of the frame are determined. The complement may, for example, be obtained from an average color component value over a set of pixels. Alternatively, the complement may be obtained directly for each of a set of pixels in the frame from which an average value may then be obtained. The complemented-averaged color component value(s) may then be used to generate the text/image and/or associated border.

Abstract: A full-color image input from an external apparatus can undergo an optimal adaptive process using an image area separation circuit mounted in a color copying machine main body, and also attribute map information, thus providing a higher-quality image. When a color copying machine (18) prints an image such as a computer graphics image sent from a host computer (10), a raster image processor (13) renders bitmap data of a given recording color on an image memory (15) on the basis of that print data, and stores attribute information in an attribute map memory (16) in units of pixels. The color copying machine (18) forms an image on the basis of image data of respective recording color components, which are frame-sequentially input from the raster image processor (13), and attribute information from the attribute map memory (16).

Abstract: A printing apparatus of the present invention prints an image corresponding to image data, which are divided into a plurality of pages and supplied from an application program, on a roll of machine glazed paper without any margin set between the adjoining pages. This arrangement enables printing on a large-sized printing medium, such as a banner. A printer driver incorporated in the printing apparatus causes the image data divided into the plurality of pages to be subjected to halftone processing according to an error diffusion method. When a standard printing mode is specified, an error buffer is initialized on every instruction of a new page. When a continuous printing mode is specified, on the other hand, the error buffer is not initialized. This causes an error occurring in a certain pixel included in one page to be diffused to pixels included in a next page in the continuous printing mode.

Abstract: Quantization in video coding is a lossy treatment and has as its main result that blocking artefacts occur at the boundary of two blocks during the decoding process. The invention relates to a method of removing these blocking artefacts. It implements a filtering step in the decoding process applied to a segment of pixels phaddling the boundary, which segment has pixels at the ends (R3, L3) that agree with a chrominance similarity criterion (step 1), i.e. filtering is applied to segments for which the pixels at the ends have similar colors.

Abstract: A video encoding method and apparatus is shown wherein image information is represented as a plurality of pixels, the pixels are organized into blocks, pixels transposition is performed on image information at the boundaries of the blocks, the blocks are transform coded and quantized. Pixel transposition involves transposition of alternate pixels at the boundaries of blocks with pixels of neighboring blocks found in a pre-determined direction. The pre-determined direction may be fixed by a system or may be applied on an image by image basis. In the event that the pre-determined direction is not established by a system, a pixel transposition circuit includes a transposition keyword in the output bit stream which is used by a decoded to determine the direction of pixel transposition.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of processing data, which may be pixels (P[i,j]) representing a sequence of pictures, previously encoded and decoded. The method comprises at least in series a first step (ED) of detecting edge pixels within a picture, followed by a subsequent step (TEST) in which a choice is made from the pixels not detected as edges in the previous step, as to whether these pixels are to be filtered or not. Then, the method comprises a filtering step (SAF) which consists in replacing at least a pixel to be filtered with a pixel belonging to a close neighborhood of said pixel, said close neighborhood comprising said pixel and pixels adjacent to said pixel.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus for processing input data and outputting the processed data as output data effectively reduces noise. An extraction unit extracts similar input data having a value close to given input data. A processing unit processes the input data according to the similar input data extracted by the extraction unit.

Abstract: Given an image with an unwanted feature, a collection of pixels (a defined region) entirely containing the unwanted feature is designated, and replacement data values for the defined region are generated, thereby healing the unwanted feature. A selected image region is healed by propagating values in a boundary region into replacement data values for the selected image region by iteratively applying a procedure or algorithm (e.g., iteratively applying one or more kernels), such that values in the boundary region are continuously put back into the iterative calculations. An example of such a function uses kernels to generate replacement data values having multiple orders of continuity at the boundary. Optionally, replacement data values for an image region to be healed are generated based on a difference between existing data values and texture data values, thereby introducing texture (e.g., pattern, noise) components to a resulting healed region in the image.

Abstract: Block noises generated on an input video signal that has been coded and decoded per pixel block are detected. The input video signal is differentiated per pixel to obtain a differentiated signal. Impulses of the differentiated signal are detected to obtain a detection signal carrying the impulses. The detection signal is integrated and compared with a reference signal to determine whether the block noise is generated on the input video signal. For noise reduction, the detection signal is filtered to obtain a corrected signal. The input video signal is delayed by a predetermined period. The correction signal is added to the delayed video signal to cancel the difference in signal level on the boundary between a first pixel block on which a block noise is generated and a second block adjacent to the first pixel block of the input video signal.