Directionally weighted color interpolation for digital cameras

Demosaicing is a color interpolation process that converts a raw image generated by a color filter array to a full color image by estimating the missing color components of each pixel from its neighbors. Most demosaicing approaches often introduce false colors or blurred edges to areas of the image where there are dense edges. We present a directionally weighted color interpolation method to address this problem. We consider finer edge orientations to improve the accuracy of edge indicators and exploit the inter-channel correlation of the R, G, and B color planes in the interpolation process to reduce undesirable artifacts and hence improve the perceptual image quality. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the strengths of the proposed method.