The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 06, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 28, 1999
Wim Cliquet, Tremelo, BE;
AGFA-Gevaert, Mortsel, BE;
Abstract
A method in the field of image enhancement is described for smoothing the staircase effect in electronic images. These staircases may be introduced by electronic zooming of an original image having a low spatial resolution or by the application of a lossy compression algorithm, such as JPEG, to the image data. According to one example, for each pixel of the image local gradients are computed according to four directions. A first direction associated with the highest local gradient is selected. In order to smooth the image in a second direction, orthogonal to the first direction, the pixel value is changed according to the values of pixels situated along the second direction in the neighborhood of the pixel. Optionally, the smoothed image data may be subsequently sharpened by a method including the use of gradients.