Adaptive low-light image processing

1. A method for enhancing imaging in low light conditions, comprising:

acquiring image data relating to a plurality of consecutive images;

applying spatial and temporal filtering to a signal corresponding to the acquired image data;

detecting local motion indication in the filtered image data;

filtering the detected local motion indication;

using a look up table, said look up table assigning greater weights to areas of greater local motion indication and lower weights to areas of smaller local motion indication, to obtain a local motion factor; and

producing final image data by combining the acquired image data with a temporally filtered signal of the acquired image data using the local motion factor.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of consecutive images are acquired in different acquisition conditions.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of consecutive images are acquired using different exposure times.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of consecutive images are acquired using different aperture.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of consecutive images are acquired using different focusing distance.

6. The method of claim 1 , carried out in an image domain.

7. The method of claim 1 , carried out in a compressed image domain.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the compressed image domain is JPEG or MPEG.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the signal corresponding to the acquired image data comprises a luminance signal extracted from the acquired image data.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the luminance signal is obtained by performing color desaturation.