Image processing apparatus and method

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a first color transform unit carrying out a first type of color transform on a first combination of color components of image data with high correlation out of a plurality of color components included in said image data; and

a second color transform unit carrying out a second type of color transform on a second combination of color components different from the first combination of color components subjected to the color transform by the first color transform unit out of the plurality of color components included in said image data,

wherein the second type of color transform differs from the first type of color transform and includes rotational transforms.

2. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the second color transform unit carries out a Karhunen-Loeve transform.

3. An image processing apparatus according to claim 2 ,

wherein the first color transform unit carries out a color transform using DPCM (Differential Pulse Code Modulation).

4. An image processing apparatus according to claim 2 ,

wherein the first color transform unit carries out an S transform.

5. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the first color transform unit carries out a Haar transform.

6. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,

further comprising a frequency conversion unit carrying out frequency conversion on at least some of the color components color transformed by the first color transform unit and at least some of the color components color transformed by the second color transform unit.

7. An image processing apparatus according to claim 6 ,

further comprising a control unit controlling whether to subject the respective color components transformed by the first color transform unit and the second color transform unit to frequency conversion,

wherein the frequency conversion unit carries out frequency conversion on those color components judged by the control unit to be subjected to frequency conversion.

8. An image processing apparatus according to claim 7 ,

wherein the control unit includes:

a measuring unit measuring energy of each color component transformed by the first color transform unit and by the second color transform unit;

a judging unit comparing the measured energy of each color component with a specified threshold and judging whether to subject each color component to frequency conversion in accordance with a comparison result; and

a selection unit selecting for further processing color components subjected to frequency conversion or color components not subjected to frequency conversion in accordance with a judgment result of the judging unit.

9. An image processing apparatus according to claim 6 ,

further comprising an encoding unit encoding (i) frequency conversion coefficients of color components obtained by the frequency conversion unit after the color transforms by the first color transform unit and the second color transform unit, and/or (ii) color components after the color transforms by the first color transform unit and the second color transform unit but not frequency converted.

10. An image processing apparatus according to claim 6 ,

wherein the frequency conversion unit carries out a DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) on the color components.

11. An image processing apparatus according to claim 6 ,

wherein the frequency conversion unit subjects the color components to a wavelet transformation.

12. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the imaged data is information on an image in which the color components are arranged in a Bayer pattern.

13. An image processing method comprising:

carrying out a first type of color transform on a first combination of color components of image data with high correlation out of a plurality of color components included in said image data; and

carrying out a second type of color transform on a second combination of color components included in said image data different from the first combination of color components subjected to the first type of color transform;

wherein the second type of color transform differs from the first type of color transform and includes rotational transforms.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising frequency converting some or all of the color components after the first and second type of color transform.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising encoding (i) frequency conversion coefficients of color components obtained by the frequency conversion after the first and second type of color transform, and/or (ii) color components after the first and second type of color transform that are not frequency converted.