Granted Patent B2

US 7,142,249 · App. 10/622,073 · Granted Nov 28, 2006

Abstract

Claims (18)

1. A method of interpolating a pixel from an intermediate line of a first field in a sequence of interlaced fields, comprising:

selecting at least one first pixel to which a first image information value is allocated from an image line lying above the intermediate line in the first field, and at least one second pixel to which a second image information value is allocated from an image line lying below the intermediate line in the first field;

selecting at least one third pixel to which a third image information value is allocated from an image line, the vertical position of which corresponds to the position of the image line of the pixel to be interpolated, from a second field;

determining a limit provided by the first and second image information values;

determining the position of the third image information value relative to the interval limits;

mixing the image information values by multiplying the first image information value by a first weighting factor, the second image information value by a second weighting factor, and the third image information value by a third weighting factor, then adding the weighted image information values to obtain an image information value for the pixel of the intermediate line, where the value of the third weighting factor is a function of the mathematical distance of the third information value from the interval limits, and the weighting factors are selected such that the image information value of the pixel to be interpolated lies with the interval limits.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third weighting factor decreases with increasing distance from the closest interval limit when the third image information value lays outside the interval.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the third weighting factor decreases in proportion to the distance from the closest interval limit when the third image information value lays outside the interval.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first and second weighting factors are of equal size.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third weighting factor is set to zero when its mathematical distance from the closest interval limit exceeds a specified value normalized for the interval width.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the third weighting factor is set to zero when its mathematical distance from the closest interval limit is more than double the interval width.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first, second, and third weighting factors are set to equal size when the third image information value lays within the interval.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the value of the third weighting factor increases with decreasing distance from the center of the interval when the third image information value lays within the interval.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third weighting factor is set to one when the third image information value lays within the interval.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third weighting factor is set to one when the mathematical distance of the third image information value from the center of the interval is smaller than a specified value normalized for the interval width.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the third weighting factor is set to one when the mathematical distance of the third image information value from the center of the interval is smaller than one fourth the interval width.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein first an intermediate value is generated from the first image information value and the second image information value by multiplying the first image information value by a first weighting factor, and the second image information value by a second weighting factor, then adding the weighted image information values; and in which subsequently the intermediate value is mixed with the third image information value by weighting the intermediate value and the third image information value, then adding the weighted intermediate value and weighted third image information value to generate the image information of the pixel to be interpolated, wherein the weighting factor of the third image information value is a function of its mathematical distance from the interval limits or the intermediate value.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the weighting factor of the third pixel is a function of the mathematical distance from the intermediate value.

Assignments (9)