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:
Oct. 23, 2007
Filed:
Nov. 05, 2002
Akemi Oohara, Funabashi, JP;
Akemi Oohara, Funabashi, JP;
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A saturation detecting means () detects saturation at every pixel in a digital color image or at every coordinate point in an analog color image. A saturation conversion control means () determines the saturation conversion condition for the pixel or coordinate point based on the detected saturation. A saturation conversion processing means () implements saturation conversion in such a manner that saturation is reduced for the areas with low saturations in the color image, so as to enlarge the difference in saturation relative to the areas with high saturations, thus achieving improved saturation contrast. Further, the distribution of saturations in the input image is automatically extracted, so as to determine the threshold for deciding a saturation suppressed area based on the distribution of saturations. In this way, in order to obtain a color image improved in vividness and presenting feeling of sharpness, the saturation contrast is automatically improved.