Image Color Drift Correction via Saturation Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing image processing methods fail to accurately detect and correct color drift in images that have undergone saturation emphasis, leading to deteriorated color structures and incomplete correction.

Innovation Solution

An image processing device and program that includes a saturation reducing section, a color drift detecting section, and a color drift correcting section, which reduce saturation, detect, and correct color drift by performing inverse transformations of saturation emphasis, thereby preserving the original color structure.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If saturation emphasizing processing is performed on an image including color drift, then saturation is enhanced, but color structure deteriorates and color drift detection accuracy decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecolor drift detection accuracyVSAvoidcolor structure deterioration

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by performing saturation reduction on the input image before detecting color drift. This preparatory step removes the harmful effect of saturation emphasis on color structure, enabling accurate color drift detection. The saturation reduction is performed using inverse transformation of the saturation emphasis parameters, restoring the image to a state suitable for accurate color drift analysis.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies inversion by reversing the saturation emphasis operation through inverse transformation. Instead of working with the saturated image that has deteriorated color structure, the method transforms the image back to reduced saturation state, detects color drift on this restored image, and then applies correction. This inverted approach eliminates the interference of saturation emphasis on color drift detection accuracy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

2Manufacturing precision

If position correction of color drift is performed on an image after saturation emphasis, then saturation is maintained, but color drift correction accuracy decreases due to deteriorated color structure

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecolor drift correction accuracyVSAvoiddeteriorated color structure

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary saturation reduction before color drift correction to restore the color structure. This preliminary action ensures that the color drift detection and correction operations are performed on an image with intact color relationships, thereby achieving accurate correction results. After correction, saturation emphasis is reapplied to maintain the desired visual effect.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies inversion by reversing the saturation emphasis to restore color structure before performing color drift correction. The method transforms the saturated image back to its original saturation state, performs accurate color drift correction on this restored image, and then re-applies saturation emphasis. This inverted sequence ensures both accurate correction and maintained saturation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

3Measurement precision

If saturation reducing processing is performed before color drift detection, then color drift detection accuracy improves, but processing steps increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecolor drift detection precisionVSAvoidprocessing steps

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies discarding and recovering by temporarily removing saturation emphasis through inverse transformation, performing color drift detection on this simplified state, and then recovering the saturation effect after correction. This approach discards the interfering saturation information during detection, achieves accurate measurements, and recovers the desired visual properties in the final output.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #34Discarding and recovering

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses inverse transformation as an intermediary process that converts the saturated input image into a saturation-reduced intermediate image suitable for accurate color drift detection. This intermediary representation eliminates the harmful effects of saturation emphasis while preserving the color drift information, enabling precise detection and correction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS8736720B2Image processing device for correcting image colors and image processing program

Publication Date: 2014.05.27 NIKON CORP

AI summary

An image processing device of the present application detects a color drift of an input image, and includes a saturation reducing section and a color drift detecting section. The saturation reducing section reduces a saturation of the input image and generates a saturation reduction image. The color drift detecting section detects a color drift of the saturation reduction image.