Patent ID: 6963664

Claim:
A method of segmenting a digital image ( 10 ) composed of pixels, the method comprising the steps of: determining hard border fragments (a, b, c) in the digital image ( 10 ) by means of an edge detection process, comprising the steps of: determining respective sides (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII) of each of said hard border fragments (a, b, c), forming segments (A, B, C, D, E) by determining for each pixel a closest side (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII), and by assigning each pixel of said digital image ( 10 ) to a segment (A, B, C, D, E) corresponding with the determined closest side (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII) to the respective pixel; determining boundaries of said formed segments, by determining borders for each segment by taking the respective hard border fragments (a, b, c) at least partially bounding respective segments (A, B, C, D, E), determining for each segment soft border fragments essentially contiguous to said hard border fragments (a, b, c) and at least partially bounding respective segments (A, B, C, D, E), by determining a distance to a closest hard segment border fragment (a, b, c), and determining digital image segments (A, B, C, D, E) bordered by respective determined hard border fragments (a, b, c) and said soft border fragments.