Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 7
Claim 1
Independent Claim
165 words
A digital color image processing method comprising the steps of: a. operating on a luminance component Y of a digital color image with an image detail detection operator to detect regions of the image representing luminance detail; b. operating on color components of the digital image in the luminance detail regions with a contrast detection filter to detect the contrast of the color components of the image in the luminance detail regions; c. separating color values of the color components in the luminance detail regions into contrast intervals and forming a histogram of the color values of each of the color components in the contrast intervals; d. selecting one of the contrast intervals based upon the similarity in shape of the color value histograms in the selected contrast interval; e. forming color reproduction functions by normalizing the color value histograms in the selected contrast interval; and f. applying the color reproduction functions to the color values of the color components of the digital color image.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
165 words
A digital color image processing method comprising the steps of: a. operating on a luminance component Y of a digital color image with an image detail detection operator to detect regions of the image representing luminance detail; b. operating on color components of the digital image in the luminance detail regions with a contrast detection filter to detect the contrast of the color components of the image in the luminance detail regions; c. separating color values of the color components in the luminance detail regions into contrast intervals and forming a histogram of the color values of each of the color components in the contrast intervals; d. selecting one of the contrast intervals based upon the similarity in shape of the color value histograms in the selected contrast interval; e. forming color reproduction functions by normalizing the color value histograms in the selected contrast interval; and f. applying the color reproduction functions to the color values of the color components of the digital color image.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
49 words
The digital color image processing method claimed in claim 1, wherein said detail detection operation includes applying a plurality of edge enhancement operators to the luminance component, summing the outputs of the edge enhancement operators, and thresholding the sum to detect the regions of the image representing luminance detail.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
37 words
The digital color image processing method claimed in claim 2, wherein said edge enhancement operators are of the form: ##EQU11## and said summing step involves taking the sum of the squares of the outputs of the operators.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
37 words
The digital color image processing method claimed in claim 2, wherein said edge enhancement operators are of the form: ##EQU12## and said summing step involves taking the sum of the squares of the outputs of the operators.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
38 words
The digital color image processing method claimed in claim 2, wherein said edge enhancement operators are of the form: ##EQU13## and said summing step involves taking the sum of the absolute values of the outputs of the operators.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
30 words
The digital color image processing method claimed in claim 1, wherein said color components are R, G, B components and said luminance component Y is formed by the operation (Y)=(3/8R+4/8G+1/8B).