Patent ID: 7079686

Claim:
An image processing system, the system comprising a system processor that is programmed or adapted to: a) receive image data comprising a plurality pixels each having a pixel value; b) selectively mark a current pixel as a potential text element; c) determine a distance from the current pixel to a previous pixel marked as a potential text element; d) selectively mark all pixels in between the current and previous pixels as text pixels or image pixels based upon the determined distance; e) suppress background in the received image data prior to pixel classification by i) determining whether each pixel is a background pixel by comparing an intensity value associated with each pixel with an intensity threshold; ii) for each pixel not determined to be a background pixel, replacing its intensity value with a new intensity value by mapping its current intensity value into a range of intensity values corresponding to a full intensity spectrum; and iii) for each pixel determined to be a background pixel, replacing its intensity value with a new pixel intensity value corresponding to a terminal intensity value by mapping its current intensity into a range of intensity values corresponding to a full intensity spectrum; and wherein the mapping is performed by multiplying the current intensity by a value corresponding to a maximum intensity value and dividing by the intensity threshold.