BILATERAL FILTERING IN A DEMOSAICING PROCESS

Demosaicing convolution kernels (kp,c) are incorporated into the framework of bilateral filtering in order to reduce artifacts at abrupt intensity transitions when a color mosaic pattern (10) is converted to an output image (20, 22 and 24). As a consequence of the bilateral filtering within a window that is selected without intensity considerations, intensity values of pixels I(a,b) that are physically close are given greater weight than intensity values of more distant pixels and, simultaneously, intensity values that are quantitatively similar (i.e. photometrically similar) are given greater weight than intensity values that are quantitatively dissimilar. Using photometric similarity in a demosaicing operation reduces the effects of pixels on one side of an abrupt intensity transition in determining interpolated intensity values for pixels on the opposite side of the abrupt intensity transition.