CN114845063A - Image processing circuit and image processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an image processing circuit and an image processing method. The invention discloses an image processing method, which comprises the following steps: receiving image data; calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels in the plurality of pixels, and calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing left component values and a plurality of continuous three-point increasing right component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values; calculating a plurality of adjusted brightness differences according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points; and generating a plurality of adjusted brightness values according to the pixel values of the plurality of pixels and the plurality of adjusted brightness differences.

Description

Image processing circuit and image processing method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to image processing, and more particularly, to an image processing method for improving image sharpness.

Background

In the conventional image magnification technique, Spline (Spline) is used to calculate the pixel value after image magnification, however, this method causes irregular shape of the oblique edge in the image, and if different image magnification techniques are used to reduce this phenomenon, a large amount of calculation is usually required, which increases the software operation time or hardware manufacturing cost. In addition, when the image magnification is large, the enlarged image has a blurred transition zone (edge transition) at the edge, and thus a large amount of calculation is required to approach the sharpness of the original image.

In addition, if the image edge has a wider transition band, i.e. the image content includes a plurality of pixels with continuous brightness increasing/decreasing, the quality of the subsequent image enlargement or other image processing will also be affected.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide an image processing method, which can process a plurality of pixels with sequentially increasing/decreasing brightness with a lower computation amount, so as to facilitate the related image processing operation.

In an embodiment of the present invention, an image processing circuit is disclosed, which includes a receiving circuit, a component value calculating circuit, a luminance difference adjusting circuit, and an output circuit. The receiving circuit is used for receiving image data; for a plurality of continuous pixels in the image data, the component value calculating circuit calculates a plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, and then calculates a plurality of continuous three-point increasing left component values and a plurality of continuous three-point increasing right component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values; the brightness difference adjusting circuit is used for calculating a plurality of adjusted brightness differences according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points; and the output circuit is used for generating a plurality of adjusted brightness values according to the pixel values of the pixels and the adjusted brightness differences.

In another embodiment of the present invention, an image processing method is disclosed, which comprises the following steps: receiving image data; calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels in the plurality of pixels, and calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing left component values and a plurality of continuous three-point increasing right component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values; calculating a plurality of adjusted brightness differences according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points; and generating a plurality of adjusted brightness values according to the pixel values of the plurality of pixels and the plurality of adjusted brightness differences.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an image processing circuit according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the original brightness of the image data and the adjusted brightness of the output image.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an image processing method according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an image processing circuit according to another embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a diagram of an image processing circuit 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 1, the image processing circuit 100 includes a receiving circuit 110, a component value calculating circuit 120, a luminance difference adjusting circuit 130, and an output circuit 140. In the present embodiment, the image processing circuit 100 is configured to receive an image data (image frame) Din and perform image processing to generate an output image Dout, and the output image Dout is transmitted to a display panel 104 and displayed thereon after being processed by a back-end processing circuit 102.

In operation of the image processing circuit 100, the receiving circuit 110 receives the image data Din, and the component value calculating circuit 120 calculates the related component values for the pixels of the image data Din with increasing/decreasing brightness of three consecutive points, wherein the related component values may include the component values with increasing/decreasing brightness of two consecutive points, the component values with increasing/decreasing brightness of three consecutive points, and the component values with increasing/decreasing brightness of four consecutive points. Then, the luminance difference adjustment circuit 130 adjusts the luminance difference between some pixels in the image data Din according to the above-mentioned correlation component values. Finally, the output circuit 140 generates an output image Dout according to the adjusted brightness difference.

For example, in the following description, it is assumed that the image data Din includes consecutive N pixels located in the same row or the same column of the frame, and for convenience of description, the following description is provided by referring to consecutive nine pixels, wherein the pixel values of the pixels corresponding to the positions ' 0 ', ' 1 ', ' 2 ', ' 3 ', ' 4 ', ' 5 ', ' 6 ', ' 7 ', ' 8 ' (the pixel values are described by taking "brightness" as an example) of the image data Din are ' 0 ', ' 2 ', 5 ', ' 8 ', ' 11 ', ' 14 ', ' 16 ', and ' 16 ', respectively. Next, regarding the operations of the component value calculating circuit 120, the luminance difference adjusting circuit 130 and the output circuit 140, please refer to table one below.

Watch 1

In the operation of the component value calculating circuit 120, first, the luminance difference between two pixels, i.e., (0,2,3,3,3,3,2,0) described in table one, is calculated; next, the component value calculating circuit 120 calculates two successive points of increasing component values from the same-sign components of two luminance differences, which may be the median of three numbers of two luminance differences and '0'. In the example of table one, for the pixel at the position '2', the two adjacent luminance differences are '2' and '3', respectively, so that the two successive incremental component values of the pixel at the position '2' are the median '2' of the three numbers (0,2, 3); for the pixel at the position '3', the two adjacent luminance differences are '3' and '3', respectively, so the incremental component values of two consecutive points of the pixel at the position '2' are the median '3' of the three numbers (0,3, 3). Then, the component value calculating circuit 120 calculates the incremental component values of the two consecutive points according to the same-sign components of the incremental component values of the two consecutive points, wherein the same-sign components of the incremental component values of the two consecutive points may be the median of three numbers, i.e. the incremental component values of the two consecutive points and '0'. In the example of table one, for the pixels at the positions '2' and '3', the incremental component values of two consecutive points are '2' and '3', respectively, so the incremental component values of three consecutive points between the pixels at the positions '2' and '3' are the median '2' of the three numbers (0,2, 3); for the pixels at the positions '3' and '4', the incremental component values of two consecutive points are '3' and '3', respectively, so the incremental component values of three consecutive points between the pixels at the positions '3' and '4' are the median '3' of the three numbers (0,3, 3). Then, the component value calculating circuit 120 calculates the incremental component values of the four consecutive points according to the equal-sign components of the incremental component values of the three consecutive points, wherein the equal-sign components of the incremental component values of the three consecutive points may be the median of three numbers, i.e. the incremental component values of the two consecutive points and '0'. In the example of table one, for a pixel at the position '2', the three-point incremental component values at the left and right sides are '0' and '2', respectively, so that the four-point incremental component values of the pixel at the position '2' are the median '0' of the three numbers (0,0, 2); regarding the pixel at the position '3', the three-point incremental component values at the left and right sides are '2' and '3', respectively, so that the continuous four-point incremental component values of the pixel at the position '3' are the median '2' of the three numbers (0,2, 3).

After calculating the incremental component values of two consecutive points, the incremental component values of three consecutive points, and the incremental component values of four consecutive points, the component value calculating circuit 120 calculates the incremental component values of the left consecutive points and the right consecutive points according to the incremental component values of the three consecutive points and the incremental component values of the four consecutive points. Specifically, the component value calculating circuit 120 subtracts the left-side continuous four-point incremental component value from each of the continuous three-point incremental component values to obtain a continuous three-point incremental left-side component value, where the left-side component value is increased to be '2' (i.e., 2-0 ═ 0) for the continuous three-point incremental component value '2' between the pixels located at the positions '2' and '3'; for the successive three points between the pixels located at the positions '3' and '4', the left-side component value of the successive three points is increased to be '1' (i.e., 3-2 ═ 1). The component value calculating circuit 120 further subtracts the right-side successive four-point incremental component values from each successive three-point incremental component value to obtain successive three-point incremental right-side component values, where the successive three-point incremental component values ' 2 ' between the pixels located at the positions ' 3 ' and ' 4 ' are successively 0 ' (i.e., 3-3 ═ 0); for the successive three-point increasing component value '3' between the pixels located at the positions '4' and '5', the successive three points increase by the right component value '1' (i.e., 3-2 ═ 1).

Then, the luminance difference adjusting circuit 130 calculates the adjusted luminance difference according to the luminance difference, the left component values of three consecutive points and the right component values of three consecutive points. Specifically, for each luminance difference, the luminance difference adjustment circuit 130 adds the left component value of the consecutive three points and adds the right component value of the consecutive three points, subtracts the luminance difference on the left side of the luminance difference from the left component value of the consecutive three points, and subtracts the right component value of the luminance difference from the right side of the luminance difference from the right component value of the consecutive three points. In other words, the calculation method of the luminance difference adjustment circuit 130 can be regarded as moving the luminance difference to the inside, and the content of table one is taken as an explanation: incrementing the left component value '2' according to consecutive three points between the pixels of the '2' and '3' positions to move the luminance difference '2' between the pixels of the '1' and '2' positions to between the pixels of the '2' and '3' positions; incrementing the left component value '1' according to the consecutive three points between the pixels of the '3', '4' positions to move the luminance difference '1' between the pixels of the '2', '3' positions to between the pixels of the '3', '4'; incrementing the right component value '2' according to three consecutive points between the pixels of the '5' and '6' positions to move the luminance difference '2' between the pixels of the '6' and '7' positions to between the pixels of the '5' and '6' positions; the right component value '1' is incremented according to the consecutive three points between the pixels of the '4' and '5' positions to move the luminance difference '1' between the pixels of the '5' and '6' positions to between the pixels of the '4' and '5' positions. Based on the above calculation results, the luminance difference adjustment circuit 130 can generate the adjusted luminance difference (0,0,4,4,4,4,0, 0).

Then, the output circuit 140 generates adjusted pixel values '0', '4', '8', '12', '16', and '16' of positions '0' to '8' according to the adjusted luminance difference.

Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating the original luminance of the image data Din and the adjusted luminance of the output image Dout. As shown in fig. 2, the transition band of the adjusted luminance (i.e. positions '2' to '6') is smaller than the transition band of the original luminance (i.e. positions '1' to '7'), i.e. the adjusted luminance has better sharpness and sharper edges, so that the back-end circuit 102 can maintain sharper edges without causing edge blurring problem during other operations, such as image enlargement operation.

Although the above embodiments are described with reference to pixels with continuously increasing brightness, persons skilled in the art should understand how to implement the pixels with continuously decreasing brightness after reading the above embodiments, and therefore, the details thereof are not repeated.

In the above embodiment, the component value calculating circuit 120 and the brightness difference adjusting circuit 130 may perform the amplifying operation on a plurality of pixels in another direction (e.g., the vertical direction of the image data Din) to amplify the entire image data Din to generate the output image Dout. Since the pixels at the edge of the image usually have strictly increasing/decreasing pixel values, the edge blurring of the image during the enlarging process can be effectively reduced through the operations of the above embodiments, and since the calculation content is relatively simple, a relatively low software operation or hardware calculation circuit is required to reduce the design and manufacturing cost.

In the embodiment of fig. 1, the image processing circuit 100 is mainly used for processing pixels with brightness increasing/decreasing at three consecutive points in the image data Din, and if the pixel values of the pixels corresponding to the positions '0' to '8' of the image data Din are not in an increasing/decreasing sequence or a strict increasing/decreasing sequence, the image data Din can be processed by other circuits or the original brightness can be decomposed into two sets of brightness values, one of which includes a strict increasing/decreasing brightness value, for the image processing circuit 100 to process.

It should be noted that the calculation of the luminance in the above embodiment may include a plurality of pixel values of different colors according to the adopted color plates, and for the "red, green and blue" color plate, the calculation of the plurality of pixels in the above embodiment includes the calculation of the red pixel value, the green pixel value and the blue pixel value; for the "luminance and color difference (YUV)" color plate, the operations of the plurality of pixels of the above embodiment include the operations of luminance, blue color difference and red color difference; for the color panel of "cyan, magenta, yellow, black" (CMYK), the calculation of the plurality of pixels in the above embodiment includes the calculation of the cyan pixel value, the magenta pixel value, the yellow pixel value, and the black pixel value.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an image processing method according to an embodiment of the invention. With reference to the above description of the embodiments, the flow of the image processing method is as follows.

Step 300: the process begins.

Step 302: an image data is received.

Step 304: calculating a plurality of successive two-point incremental component values according to the brightness difference between any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels.

Step 306: and calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values according to the plurality of continuous two-point increasing component values.

Step 308: and calculating a plurality of continuous four-point increasing component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values.

Step 310: and calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing left component values and a plurality of continuous three-point increasing right component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values and the plurality of continuous four-point increasing component values.

Step 312: calculating a plurality of adjusted brightness differences according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points.

Step 314: and generating a plurality of adjusted brightness values according to the pixel values of the pixels and the adjusted brightness differences.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a circuit 400 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 4, the image processing circuit 400 includes a receiving circuit 410, an image decomposition circuit 420, an image processing unit 430, an image amplifying circuit 440, and an output circuit 450. In the present embodiment, the image processing circuit 400 is configured to receive an image data (image frame) Din and then perform an image enlarging operation to generate an output image Dout, and the output image Dout is processed by a back-end processing circuit 402 and then transmitted to a display panel 404 for displaying thereon.

In operation of the image processing circuit 400, the receiving circuit 410 receives the image data Din, and the image decomposition circuit 420 divides the pixel value of each pixel of the image data Din into two parts to generate a first image data Din1 and a second image data Din2, wherein the first image data Din1 comprises pixels with increasing/decreasing brightness of three consecutive points. Then, the image processing unit 430 performs image processing on the first image data Din1 to generate processed first image data Din1 ', and the image amplification circuit 440 adds the processed first image data Din1 ' and the second image data Din2 and performs amplification operation to generate amplified image data Din '. Finally, the output circuit 450 generates an output image Dout according to the amplified image data Din'.

For example, it is assumed in the following description that the image data Din includes consecutive N pixels located in the same row or the same column of the frame, and for convenience of description, the following description is provided with consecutive six pixels, wherein the pixel values of the pixels corresponding to the positions '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5' (the pixel values are described as "brightness") of the image data Din are '0', '5', '10', '12', respectively. In the present embodiment, the video decomposition circuit 420 decomposes the video data Din into first video data Din1 and second video data Din2, wherein the luminance of the first video data Din1 is (0,0,2,4,6,6), and the luminance of the second video data Din2 is (0,0,3,6,6, 6). Then, the image processing unit 430 processes the first image data Din1 to generate processed first image data Din1 ', and in this embodiment, the image processing unit 430 itself is the image processing circuit 100 shown in fig. 1, that is, the first image data Din1 passes through the component value calculating circuit 120, the luminance difference adjusting circuit 130 and the output circuit 140 to generate processed first image data Din 1'. Since those skilled in the art should understand how to use the calculation method of the embodiment shown in fig. 1-3 to calculate the first image data Din1, the applicant can directly list the calculation result, i.e. the luminance of the processed first image data Din 1' is (0,0,0,6,6, 6). In the operation of the video amplifier circuit 440, the processed first video data Din1 'and the second video data Din2 are added to obtain the luminance (0,0,3,12,12,12), and then the added result is subjected to any suitable amplification operation, for example, the amplification operation described in patent application No. 107138896 and publication No. TW202019146A to obtain the amplified video data Din', and the applicant directly lists the calculation result, and the amplified video data Din 'is (0,0,0,0,0,0,0, 3,6,9,9,12,12,12,12,12,12, 12', for example, four times amplification). Finally, the output circuit 450 generates an output image Dout according to the amplified image data Din'.

Briefly summarized, in the image processing circuit and the related image processing method of the present invention, the adjusted brightness has better definition and sharper edge through the increasing/decreasing component values of a plurality of consecutive three points, the increasing left component values of a plurality of consecutive three points and the increasing right component values of a plurality of consecutive three points calculated by the component value calculating circuit, and the back-end circuit can maintain sharper edge without generating the problem of edge blur during other operations.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the claims of the present invention should be covered by the present invention.

[ notation ] to show

100 image processing circuit

102 back-end circuit

104 display Panel

110 receiving circuit

120 component value calculating circuit

130 brightness difference adjusting circuit

140 output circuit

300 to 314 steps

400 image processing circuit

402 back-end circuit

404 display panel

410 receiving circuit

420 image decomposition circuit

430 image processing unit

440 image amplifying circuit

450 output circuit

Din image data

Din1 first image data

Din2 second image data

Din 1' processing the first image data

The magnified image data

Dout output image

Claims (10)

1. An image processing circuit, comprising:

a receiving circuit for receiving an image data;

a component value calculating circuit, coupled to the receiving circuit, wherein for consecutive pixels in the image data, the component value calculating circuit calculates a plurality of consecutive three-point incremental component values according to a luminance difference between any two adjacent pixels of the pixels, and calculates a plurality of consecutive three-point incremental left component values and a plurality of consecutive three-point incremental right component values according to the plurality of consecutive three-point incremental component values;

a brightness difference adjusting circuit, coupled to the component value calculating circuit, for calculating a plurality of adjusted brightness differences according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of consecutive three points, and the incremental right component values of the plurality of consecutive three points; and

an output circuit, coupled to the brightness difference adjustment circuit, for generating a plurality of adjusted brightness values according to the pixel values of the plurality of pixels and the plurality of adjusted brightness differences.

2. The image processing circuit of claim 1, wherein the component value calculating circuit calculates a plurality of two consecutive incremental component values according to a luminance difference between any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, calculates the plurality of three consecutive incremental component values according to the two consecutive incremental component values, and calculates a plurality of four consecutive incremental component values according to the three consecutive incremental component values; and the component value calculating circuit calculates the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points according to the incremental component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental component values of the plurality of continuous four points.

3. The image processing circuit of claim 2 wherein the component value calculating circuit calculates the incremental component values of two consecutive points according to a same-sign component of two luminance differences between the any pixel and two adjacent pixels, wherein the same-sign component is a median between the two luminance differences and zero.

4. The image processing circuit of claim 2 wherein the component value calculating circuit calculates the incremental component values of the consecutive three points according to a same component of the incremental component values of any two adjacent consecutive two points, wherein the same component is a median between the incremental component values of the two adjacent consecutive two points and zero.

5. The image processing circuit of claim 2 wherein for each successive three-point increment value, the component value calculating circuit subtracts the successive three-point increment value from the successive four-point increment value located on the left side to obtain the corresponding successive three-point increment left-side component value; and for each successive three-point incremental component value, the component value calculating circuit subtracts the successive four-point incremental component values positioned on the right side from the successive three-point incremental component values to obtain the corresponding successive three-point incremental right-side component value.

6. The image processing circuit of claim 1, wherein the brightness difference adjustment circuit calculates a plurality of adjusted brightness differences by moving the brightness differences of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels toward the centers of the plurality of pixels according to the brightness differences of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of consecutive three points, and the incremental right component values of the plurality of consecutive three points.

7. An image processing method, comprising:

receiving image data;

calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels in the plurality of pixels, and calculating a plurality of continuous three-point increasing left component values and a plurality of continuous three-point increasing right component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point increasing component values;

calculating a plurality of adjusted brightness differences according to the brightness difference of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points; and

and generating a plurality of adjusted brightness values according to the pixel values of the pixels and the adjusted brightness differences.

8. The image processing method of claim 7, wherein the step of calculating the ascending component values of three consecutive points according to the luminance difference between any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, and the step of calculating the ascending left component values of three consecutive points and the ascending right component values of three consecutive points according to the ascending component values of three consecutive points comprises:

calculating a plurality of incremental component values of two consecutive points according to the brightness difference between any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels;

calculating the incremental component values of the plurality of continuous three points according to the incremental component values of the plurality of continuous two points;

calculating a plurality of continuous four-point incremental component values according to the plurality of continuous three-point incremental component values; and

and calculating the incremental left component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental right component values of the plurality of continuous three points according to the incremental component values of the plurality of continuous three points and the incremental component values of the plurality of continuous four points.

9. The image processing method of claim 8, wherein the step of calculating the incremental component values of two consecutive points according to the luminance difference between any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels comprises:

and calculating the incremental component values of the two continuous points according to a same-sign component of the two brightness differences between the any pixel and the two adjacent pixels, wherein the same-sign component is a median between the two brightness differences and zero.

10. The image processing method of claim 7, wherein the step of calculating the adjusted luminance differences according to the luminance differences of any two adjacent pixels of the plurality of pixels, the incremental left component values of the three consecutive points, and the incremental right component values of the three consecutive points comprises:

the brightness differences of any two adjacent pixels of the pixels are moved to the centers of the pixels according to the brightness differences of any two adjacent pixels of the pixels, the incremental left component values of the three continuous points and the incremental right component values of the three continuous points, so as to calculate a plurality of adjusted brightness differences.

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