Raytheon Company

Hector Q Gonzalez

Richard Chin

Frank N Cheung

Frank N G Cheung

A system and method for zooming an image. In the illustrative embodiment, the system includes a memory for receiving first and second frames of image data; a motion detector for detecting motion in said first or said second frame of image data; and an intelligent zoom system for zooming said first or said second image using a first or a second zoom method based on a detection of motion by said motion detector on a pixel by pixel basis. In the illustrative embodiment, the invention is scene-based, it works on a pixel by pixel basis to determine if a pixel is in motion. It performs motion related zoom for pixels that are affected by motion and conducts cross-field zoom for steady pixels to reduce motion artifacts in zoom mode. Motion may be determined by comparing frame-to-frame pixel value variations to fixed motion threshold(s) or by other algorithms. Independent-field zoom refers to using information from one input field to form a zoomed picture in one associated output field. Cross-field zoom refers to using information from both input fields to form a picture in an output field. The invention may be used with or without zoom interpolation schemes.

Imaging system and method with intelligent digital zooming

An imaging system disables pixel integration for images within frames that are identified as moving while enables pixel integration for images that are not moving. The system may implement a frame-averaging type of integration or recursive types of frame integration, or may refrain from performing frame integration. On a pixel-by-pixel basis, the system may compare a pixel from frame memory with a corresponding pixel of an input frame and may disable pixel integration for the pixel when a difference between the compared pixels exceeds a threshold. One of the integration processes may be performed on the pixels when the difference does not exceed the threshold. When frame integration is disabled or de-selected (e.g., for pixels having motion), the frame memory may be bypassed and a self-integration may be performed with corresponding pixels from a current frame effectively resulting in no integration. Some embodiments may use multiple thresholds, and may use different integration algorithms depending on conditions within a scene.

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Westlake Village, CA, United States of America

Hector Q Gonzalez