Video conversion apparatus and method, and program

1. A video conversion apparatus comprising:

video format conversion means configured to interpolate, in the case that video signals, which are made up of a luminance component and color difference components and of which the video format is the interlace format, have been supplied, the luminance component and color difference components of said video signals, thereby converting the video format of said video signals into the progressive format; and

color difference format conversion means configured to interpolate the color difference components of said video signals obtained with the conversion by said video format conversion means using information obtained from both luminance and color difference components, thereby converting the color difference format of said video signals from a first color difference format to a second color difference format that includes more color difference components than said first color difference format.

2. A video conversion apparatus comprising:

a video format conversion unit configured to interpolate, in the case that video signals, which are made up of luminance components and color difference components and of which the video format is the interlace format, have been supplied, the luminance component and color difference components of said video signals, thereby converting the video format of said video signals into the progressive format; and

a color difference format conversion unit configured to interpolate the color difference components of said video signals obtained with the conversion by said video format conversion unit using information obtained from both luminance and color difference components, thereby converting the color difference format of said video signals from a first color difference format to a second color difference format that includes more color difference components than said first color difference format.

3. The video conversion apparatus according to claim 2 , said color difference format conversion unit comprising:

a similar direction determining unit configured to use the luminance components of a pixel of the image based on said video signals to obtain a similar direction where similar pixels are arrayed mutually near a predetermined pixel; and

a color difference phase interpolation unit configured to use a pixel specified with said similar direction to interpolate the color difference components of a pixel near said predetermined pixel.

4. The video conversion apparatus according to claim 2 , said video format conversion unit comprising:

a luminance quiescence detecting unit configured to use said video signals made up of consecutive several fields to detect whether or not there is change in the luminance component of a pixel on the image based on said video signals;

a luminance interpolation unit configured to use a pixel positioned temporally or spatially near a first pixel of interest within said image of a field to be processed to interpolate the luminance component of said first pixel of interest based on the detection result of said luminance quiescence detecting unit;

a color difference quiescence detecting unit configured to use said video signals made up of consecutive several fields to detect whether or not there is change in the color difference component of a pixel on the image based on said video signals; and

a color difference interpolation unit configured to use a pixel positioned temporally or spatially near a second pixel of interest within said image of said field to be processed to interpolate the color difference component of said second pixel of interest based on the detection result of said color difference quiescence detecting unit.

5. The video conversion apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said color difference quiescence detecting unit uses the detection result by said luminance quiescence detecting unit to detect whether or not there is change in color difference components.

6. A video conversion method for a video conversion apparatus which includes

video format conversion means configured to interpolate, in the case that video signals, which are made up of a luminance component and color difference components and of which the video format is the interlace format, have been supplied, the luminance component and color difference components of said video signals, thereby converting the video format of said video signals into the progressive format, and

color difference format conversion means configured to interpolate the color difference components of said video signals obtained with the conversion by said video format conversion means using information obtained from both luminance and color difference components, thereby converting the color difference format of said video signals from a first color difference format to a second color difference format that includes more color difference components than said first color difference format,

said video conversion method comprising the steps of:

converting the video format of said video signals from the interlace format to the progressive format using said video format conversion means; and

converting the color difference format of said video signals of which the video format has been converted from said first color difference format to said second color difference format using said color difference format conversion means.

7. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

interpolating, in the case that video signals, which are made up of a luminance component and color difference components and of which the video format is the interlace format, have been supplied, the luminance component and color difference components of said video signals, thereby converting the video format of said video signals into the progressive format, and

interpolating the color difference components of said video signals obtained with the conversion of the video format using information obtained from both luminance and color difference components, thereby converting the color difference format of said video signals from a first color difference format to a second color difference format that includes more color difference components than said first color difference format.

8. A video conversion method for a video conversion apparatus which includes

a video format conversion unit configured to interpolate, in the case that video signals, which are made up of a luminance component and color difference components and of which the video format is the interlace format, have been supplied, the luminance component and color difference components of said video signals, thereby converting the video format of said video signals into the progressive format, and

a color difference format conversion unit configured to interpolate the color difference components of said video signals obtained with the conversion by said video format conversion unit using information obtained from both luminance and color difference components, thereby converting the color difference format of said video signals from a first color difference format to a second color difference format that includes more color difference components than said first color difference format,

said video conversion method comprising the steps of:

converting the video format of said video signals from the interlace format to the progressive format using said video format conversion unit; and

converting the color difference format of said video signals of which the video format has been converted from said first color difference format to said second color difference format using said color difference format conversion unit.