METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERPOLATING PIXEL COLORS FROM COLOR AND PANCHROMATIC CHANNELS TO COLOR CHANNELS

Panchromatic pixels and chromatic pixels are interpolated into color channels per pixel of an output image. First, panchromatic pixels and chromatic pixels are used to generate an intermediate image with panchromatic channel, and color channels per pixel. At least three color channels of a first color space can be converted to a first panchromatic light intensity channel in a second color space and at least two first chrominance channels in the second color space based on a detected correlated color temperature. A ratio per pixel between the first panchromatic light intensity channel in the second color space and a second panchromatic light intensity channel in the second color space can be calculated, where the second panchromatic light intensity channel can be based on a panchromatic value per pixel. The ratio can be applied to the at least two first chrominance channels per pixel to determine pixel values in at least two second chrominance channels of the second color space. Channels per pixel can be converted from the second color space including the at least two second chrominance channels and the second panchromatic light intensity channel to a color space.