Artifact removal method and system for contoured images and video
A system and method that reduce or eliminate step-contouring generated by compression algorithms are provided because many types of compression algorithms introduce a step-contoured artifact for images and video with slow gradients. The system and method restores the gradient to a piece of content by detecting a start and end of the step contour in each row and column of the piece of content and increments a pixel in certain regions of the row or the column to restore the gradient in the piece of content.
1. A system for removing a compression artifact from an original piece of content, the system comprising:
an artifact removal unit implemented on a computer system that restores a gradient to a piece of content by removing a step contour artifact; and
the artifact removal unit detects a start of a step contour and an end of a step contour in each row of the piece of content or each column of the piece of content, determines a gradient of the step contour in each row or each column and increments a pixel in certain regions of the row or the column to restore the gradient in the piece of content.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the artifact removal unit increments the pixel in a certain region of the row or the column by multiplying a position of the pixel relative to a start of the row or column by a determined gradient for the row or column.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the artifact removal unit detects the start of the contour by detecting a first pair of pixels scanned with a difference of one of N and 0.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the artifact removal unit detects the end of the contour by detecting a first pair of pixels where the difference the pixels is one of Not 0 or N and a direction of the difference has changed.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the artifact removal unit further comprises a plurality of lines of computer code.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the piece of content is one of an image, a color image and a video frame.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the color image is an image for each color that makes up the color image.
8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the video frame is a series of images.
9. A method for removing a compression artifact from an original piece of content, the method comprising:
detecting a start of a step contour and an end of a step contour in each row or column of the piece of content;
determining a gradient of the step contour in each row or column; and
incrementing a pixel in certain regions of the row or column to restore the gradient in the piece of content.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein incrementing the pixel in certain region of the row or column further comprising multiplying a position of the pixel relative to a start of the row or column by a determined gradient for the row or column.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein detecting the start of the contour further comprises detecting a first pair of pixels scanned with a difference of one of N and 0.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein detecting the end of the contour further comprises detecting a first pair of pixels where the difference the pixels is one of Not 0 or N and a direction of the difference has changed.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the piece of content is one of an image, a color image and a video frame.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the color image is an image for each color that makes up the color image.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the video frame is a series of images.