Edge-adaptive color interpolation for complementary color filter array

Complementary color filter array (CCFA) is widely used in consumer-level digital video cameras, since it not only has high sensitivity and good signal-to-noise ratio in low-light condition but also is compatible with the interlaced scanning used in broadcast systems. However, the full-color images obtained from CCFA suffer from the color artifacts such as false color and zipper effects. These artifacts can be removed with edge-adaptive color interpolation (ECI) approaches which are generally used in primary color filter array (PCFA). Unfortunately, the unique array pattern of CCFA makes it difficult that CCFA adopts ECI approaches. Therefore, to apply ECI approaches suitable for CCFA to color interpolation is one of the major issues to reconstruct the full-color images. In this paper, we propose a new ECI algorithm for CCFA. To estimate an edge direction precisely and enhance the quality of the reconstructed image, a function of spatial variances is used as a weight, and new color conversion matrices are presented for considering various edge directions. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional method with respect to both objective and subjective criteria. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.