Patent ID: 7907787

Claim:
A method for modifying an image comprising (a) receiving said image; (b) processing said image in a manner to reduce contours by modifying the bit depth of said image; (c) wherein said processing includes modifying said image in such a manner that the lower amplitude high frequency content with respect to the higher amplitude high frequency content of said image is attenuated using a transitioned coring function, and also includes at least one of the following: (i) said processing includes no conditional statements; (ii) said processing requires a buffer smaller than 100 percent of said image; (iii) said processing requires a buffer smaller than 30 percent of said image; (iv) said processing requires a buffer smaller than 20 percent of said image; (v) said processing requires a buffer smaller than 10 percent of said image; (vi) said processing includes a low pass filter; (vii) said processing is free from adding additional noise to said image; and (viii) said processing is based upon the human visual system; and (d) applying a dithering technique to at least one of said image, and said modified image.