Patent ID: 7907786

Claim:
A processing method comprising: receiving a digital image into memory of an image processing apparatus; for each of at least a preponderance of pixels of the digital image or a reduced pixel resolution digital image therefrom, determining a probability that the pixel is in a red-eye as a function of a color of the pixel; for each of a plurality of the pixels, determining a correction to apply to the pixel which is a function of the determined probability (P) that the pixel is within a red-eye and a color of the pixel; applying a correction to the digital image or reduced pixel resolution image based on the determined corrections; and outputting the corrected digital image in a format suitable for viewing; wherein the correction of the pixels includes replacing a red component value of pixels having a probability (P) of being in a red-eye of greater than zero with a corrected red component value; and wherein the corrected red component value is derived from the expression: R corrected=(1− P ^(1/degree))* R original+ P ^(1/degree)*red Reduced, where Roriginal is the red component value of the pixel, redReduced is an average of the green and blue component values of the pixel and degree is from about 1 to about 4.