IP Library Granted Patent US 8,295,628
Granted Patent B2
US 8,295,628 · App. 12/308,435 · Granted Oct 23, 2012

Automatic film grain adjustment

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,295,628
App. No.
12/308,435
Granted
Oct 23, 2012
Kind
B2
Abstract

An inventive method obtaining film grains from a picture and processing the obtained film grains using a statistical distribution to determine new film grains. Preferably, a histogram of obtained film grain is subjected to the statistical distribution, which can be a normal distribution. Parameters of the normal distribution are controlled to determine the new film grains.

Claims (22)

1. A method for automatically managing film grain for post production, comprising the steps of:

obtaining film grains from a picture by subtracting a grain-removed picture from a noise-reduced picture; and

controlling filtering of a statistical distribution of the obtained film grains to determine film grains different from the obtained film grains.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling the filtering comprises setting filtering parameters to automatically obtain a desired grain pattern for any picture frame of a film.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the statistical distribution is a normal distribution of the noise representative of the obtained film grains.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of step of controlling the filtering comprises adjusting parameters for one of a 2×2 filter, noise sharpening filter and band pass filter to determine a wanted film grain pattern.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling the filtering comprises finding a standard deviation with zero mean of the obtained film grains to determine film grains different from the obtained film grains.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding the different film grains to the picture with the obtained film grains removed to generate a picture with a new film grain pattern.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the step of obtaining the film grains from a picture comprises reducing noise from a picture.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of obtaining film grains from a picture comprises removing film grain from the noise reduced picture.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the different film grains have grain patterns and grain levels different from the obtained film grains.

10. An apparatus for automatically managing film grain for post production, comprising:

means for obtaining film grains from a picture by subtracting a grain-removed picture from a noise-reduced picture; and

means for controlling parameters of a filter for filtering of a statistical distribution of the obtained film grains to determine film grains different from the obtained film grains.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the means for controlling parameters of the filter for filtering the statistical distribution comprises setting means for setting filtering parameters to automatically obtain a desired grain pattern for any picture frame of a film.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein means for controlling parameters of the filter comprises means for adjusting parameters for one of a 2×2 filter, noise sharpening filter and band pass filter to determine film grains with one of grain patterns and grain levels.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the statistical distribution comprises a normal distribution of the obtained film grains.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the filter for filtering the statistical distribution finds a standard deviation with zero mean of the obtained film grains to determine film grains different from the obtained film grains.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising means for adding the different film grains to the picture with the obtained film grains removed to generate a picture with new film grains.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the means for obtaining film grains from a picture comprises means for reducing noise from a picture.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the means for obtaining film grains from a picture comprises means for removing film grain from the noise reduced picture.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the different film grains have a grain pattern and grain level different from that of the obtained film grain.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 20, 2020
From: THOMSON LICENSING S.A.S.
To: MAGNOLIA LICENSING LLC
Reel/Frame 053570/0237 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 15, 2008
From: LIN, SHU
To: THOMSON LICENSING
Reel/Frame 022047/0164 →