A circuitry for image demosaicing and contrast enhancement and an image-processing method thereof are provided. The circuitry includes a storage device that is used to temporarily store an image and is jointly used by circuits that perform color restoration and brightness reconstruction. The circuitry includes a color restoration circuit for performing image interpolation and a global mapping circuit that performs mapping to obtain brightness of an image according to restored red, green and blue information of every pixel. Further, an edge texture feature decision circuit is provided to obtain each pixel's directionality for color restoration. A brightness estimation circuit utilizes green information of the pixels as the brightness for an area. After that, a color image with the color restoration and brightness reconstruction is outputted.

A method of de-mosaicing pixel data from an image processor includes generating a pixel block that includes a plurality of image pixels. The method also includes determining a first image gradient between a first set of pixels of the pixel block and a second image gradient between a second set of pixels of the pixel block. The method also includes determining a first adaptive threshold value based on intensity of a third set of pixels of the pixel block. The pixels of the third set of pixels are adjacent to one another. The method also includes filtering the pixel block in a vertical, horizontal, or neutral direction based on the first and second image gradients and the first adaptive threshold value utilizing a plurality of FIR filters to generate a plurality of component images.

A method for processing images acquired by a multi-spectral RGB-NIR (red/green/blue/near infra-red) sensor includes receiving a RGB-NIR digital image from a multi-spectral RGB-NIR sensor, interpolating an NIR contribution to each R, G and B pixel value, wherein an NIR image is obtained, subtracting the NIR contribution from each R, G and B pixel value in the RGB-NIR digital image wherein a decontaminated RGB-NIR image is obtained, constructing a red, green and blue (RGB) Bayer image from the decontaminated RGB-NIR image, and processing the Bayer image wherein a full color image is obtained. The RGB-NIR digital image includes red (R) pixels, green (G) pixels, blue (B) pixels, and NIR pixels, and every other row in the RGB-NIR digital image includes NIR pixels that alternate with green pixels, and every other row in the RGB-NIR digital image includes green pixels that alternate with red and blue pixels.

Processing raw image data in a camera includes computing a luminance image from the raw image data, and computing a chrominance image corresponding to at least one of the sensor's image colors from the raw image data. The luminance image and chrominance image(s) can represent the same range of colors able to be represented in the raw image data. The chrominance image can have a lower resolution than that of the luminance image. A camera for performing the method is also disclosed.

An image signal processor includes a first matrix processing circuit, a post processing circuit, a second matrix processing circuit, and a split visual and analytics circuit. The first matrix processing circuit is configured to receive a plurality of component images generated based on an image captured by an image sensor and generate a plurality of first matrix outputs based on the plurality of component images. The post processing circuit is configured to perform color conversion on the plurality of first matrix outputs to generate a first luminance component of the image and a chrominance component of the image. The second matrix processing circuit is configured to perform color conversion on the plurality of first matrix outputs to generate a second luminance component of the image and a saturation component of the image. The split visual and analytics circuit is configured to generate visual and analytic data of the image.

Processing raw image data in a camera includes computing a luminance image from the raw image data, and computing a chrominance image corresponding to at least one of the sensor's image colors from the raw image data. The luminance image and chrominance image(s) can represent the same range of colors able to be represented in the raw image data. The chrominance image can have a lower resolution than that of the luminance image. A camera for performing the method is also disclosed.

A method of de-mosaicing pixel data from an image processor includes generating a pixel block that includes a plurality of image pixels. The method also includes determining a first image gradient between a first set of pixels of the pixel block and a second image gradient between a second set of pixels of the pixel block. The method also includes determining a first adaptive threshold value based on intensity of a third set of pixels of the pixel block. The pixels of the third set of pixels are adjacent to one another. The method also includes filtering the pixel block in a vertical, horizontal, or neutral direction based on the first and second image gradients and the first adaptive threshold value utilizing a plurality of FIR filters to generate a plurality of component images.

A system accesses an image with each pixel of the image having luminance values each representative of a color component of the pixel. The system generates a first histogram for aggregate luminance values of the image, and accesses a target histogram for the image representative of a desired global image contrast. The system computes a transfer function based on the first histogram and the target histogram such that when the transfer function is applied, a histogram of the modified aggregate luminance values is within a threshold similarity of the target histogram. The system modifies the image by applying the transfer function to the luminance values of the image to produce a tone mapped image, and outputs the modified image.

There is provided an endoscope system that can obtain a high-resolution endoscopic image not subjected to demosaicing processing as necessary. The endoscope system includes a light source unit that emits illumination light, an image sensor that includes a color filter having one color for each pixel among color filters having a plurality of colors and picks up an image of a subject using the illumination light, a demosaicing processing section that performs demosaicing processing on RAW images having the respective colors and corresponding to the color filters having the respective colors, and a switching section that switches whether to perform the demosaicing processing using spectral information of the illumination light.

An image processing apparatus has: a WB processing circuit that performs a plurality of kinds of WB processing for an input image that is undeveloped and captured by an image capturing element in which pixels of a plurality of colors are arranged in a mosaic pattern under a predetermined rule; filter circuits that perform color interpolation processing by referring to the input image and a signal subjected to WB processing and generate images of respective color signals whose color ratio is equivalent to that of the input image; and resizing circuits that resize the generated images.