METHOD FOR ENHANCING A DIGITAL IMAGE WITH NOISE-DEPENDENT CONTROL OF TEXTURE

A method is described for enhancing a digital image channel, e.g., a channel comprising a texture signal, by providing a predetermined estimate of the noise expected for the digital channel based on a predetermined relationship between the image intensity values and the expected noise for given intensities. After a local estimate of signal activity is generated for the digital image channel, a gain adjustment is generated from the predetermined estimate of noise and the local estimate of signal activity; the gain adjustment is applied to the image pixels in the digital channel in order to generate a digital channel with enhanced image values.