Patent ID: 6728399
Filing Date: 2004-04-27
Classification: C08F

Abstract:
An apparatus for breaking contrast ties in a raster image comprising a plurality of pixels, the apparatus comprising:a system memory for storing the steps of a computer program; and a computer processor connected to the system memory for executing the steps of the computer program, wherein the computer program comprises: (a) a contrast tie detector (CTD) for detecting the occurrence of a contrast tie in the raster image by evaluating a color value of individual pixels in an array of pixels; and (b) a contrast tie breaker (CTB) for breaking a contrast tie detected by the CTD, wherein: (a) the array of pixels comprises a corner 2Ã—2 subset of a 3Ã—3 array of pixels, the 3Ã—3 array comprising the set (b) the array of pixels further comprises (c) the CTB breaks the contrast tie by performing a first operation on the color values of individual pixels, the first operation comprising: contrast1=(A!=E)+(A!=F)+(A!=I)+(A!=O)+(A!=H)+(D!=K)+(D!=L)+(D!=J)+(D!=N)+(D!=G), contrast2=(B!=G)+(B!=H)+(B!=K)+(B!=P)+(B!=F)+(C!=I)+(C!=J)+(C!=M)+(C!=L)+(C!=E), A_loses=contrast1>contrast2, â€ƒwhere the comparison function x!=y returns a non-zero positive value if x does not equal y and zero if x equals y.