Patent ID: 8189944

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of filtering an image comprising image forming elements, the method comprising: for each of selected ones of the image forming elements, determining a respective weighted average value composed of equally weighted contributions of values associated with neighboring ones of the image forming elements in a neighborhood of the selected image forming element and being within a threshold photometric distance of the selected image forming element, wherein the weighted average value is free of contributions from any of the image forming elements outside the neighborhood and is free of contributions from any of the image forming elements beyond the threshold photometric distance of the selected image forming element; and producing an output image from the determined weighted average values; wherein for each of the selected ones of the image forming elements the determining comprises: for each of the neighboring image forming elements ascertaining a respective photometric distance value from values associated with the neighboring image forming element and the selected image forming element, in response to a determination that the ascertained photometric distance value is within the threshold photometric distance, incrementing a denominator value by one and incrementing a numerator value by the ascertained photometric distance value; and computing the respective weighted average value from the incremented numerator value and the incremented denominator value.