Patent ReferencesPost-processing method and apparatus for use in an image signal decoding system Method for removing artifacts in an electronic image decoded from a block-transform coded representation of an image Block deformation removing filter, image processing apparatus using the same, method of filtering image signal, and storage medium for storing software therefor De-blocking method and apparatus Block noise detector and block noise eliminator Data processing method Patent #: 6950562 InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 10412030 filed on 04/10/2003US Classes:382/268, Minimize discontinuities at boundaries of image blocks (i.e., reducing blocking effects or effects of wrap-around)382/275, Artifact removal or suppression (e.g., distortion correction)375/240.29, Pre/post filtering348/607, Noise or undesired signal reduction382/264, Lowpass filter (i.e., for blurring or smoothing)382/254IMAGE ENHANCEMENT OR RESTORATIONExaminersPrimary: Bali, VikkramAssistant: LaRose, Colin Attorney, Agent or FirmInternational ClassesG06K 9/40H04B 1/66 AbstractA 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. To detect grids, the grid detector: (a) computes horizontal and vertical second derivatives for all pixels of the image; (b) generates horizontal second derivative zero-crossing mask and vertical second derivative zero-crossing mask by marking the those pixels whose second derivatives have opposite signs with respect to their horizontal or vertical neighboring pixels'; (c) applies horizontal and vertical integral projections to the horizontal and vertical zero-crossing masks respectively; (d) generates the local maximum masks by locating the local maximum of the two projected 1-D signals; and (e) determines grid location by computing the positions of the local maximum masks.Field of SearchIncluding details of decompressionMinimize discontinuities at boundaries of image blocks (i.e., reducing blocking effects or effects of wrap-around) Lowpass filter (i.e., for blurring or smoothing) Edge or contour enhancement Artifact removal or suppression (e.g., distortion correction) Block coding Pre/post filtering | |