Patent ID: 8526732

Claim:
A method for enhancing a textual image for undergoing optical character recognition, comprising: receiving an image that includes native lines of text; determining a background line profile that represents an average background intensity along the native lines in the image; determining a foreground line profile that represents an average foreground background intensity along the native lines in the image; assigning pixels in the image to either a background or foreground portion of the image based at least in part on the background line profile and the foreground line profile; and adjusting an intensity of the pixels designated to the background portion of the image to a prescribed intensity representing a portion of the image that does not include text representing the native lines of text in edge space, detecting connected components in the native lines represented in edge space, and wherein determining the background and foreground line profiles includes determining a plurality of background and foreground intensity values for a plurality of localized regions along each of the native lines represented in edge space.