Joseph Roland Allred

US Patent:

63109824, Oct 30, 2001

Filed:

Nov 12, 1998

Appl. No.:

9/191855

Inventors:

Joseph Allred - Salt Lake City UT
Larry Anderton - Salt Lake City UT
Barry K. Hanover - Salt Lake City UT
Steven Curtis - Salt Lake City UT

Assignee:

OEC Medical Systems, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT

International Classification:

H04N 750

US Classification:

382260

Abstract:

A method and apparatus for reducing noise and motion artifacts in pixels of a processed or displayed video image by filtering pixel values of the video image based on a first frame having currently stored (filtered) pixel values and a second frame having recently captured but not yet filtered pixel values. The apparatus includes a spatial filter for computing a motion value of a pixel of interest by averaging difference values of selected pixels surrounding the pixel of interest. Also included is a filter function means for producing an output difference value of the pixel of interest based on the motion value and an adder for adding the output difference value to the first frame filtered pixel value of the pixel of interest. Thus, each pixel of the video image is filtered according to the amount of motion in the video image.