Patent ID: 8610963

Claim:
An image processing method for corner enhancing a digital image received by an image processing system for rendering on an image output device, the method comprising: a) receiving a digital image including a plurality of pixels representing an image to be rendered on the image output device; b) selecting a target pixel among the plurality of pixels; c) defining a plurality of vector windows, each vector window including the target pixel and one or more other pixels about the target pixel, the plurality of vector windows collectively covering substantially all pixels about the target pixel; d) determining the pixel values of each pixel within each vector window: e) determining if the target pixel is an inside corner pixel or an outside corner pixel connected to a corner of the digital image as a function of the pixel values within the vector windows; and f) if step e) determines the target pixel is an inside corner pixel or an outside corner pixel connected to a corner of the digital image, modifying the target pixel to generate a corner enhanced digital image which renders an image with enhanced corners on the image output device relative to the image received by the image processing system, wherein step c) includes: defining a plurality of 1-dimensional vector windows, each vector window including the target pixel and two or more other pixels connected to the target pixel, the plurality of vector windows collectively covering substantially all pixels connected to the target pixel and the plurality of vector windows including a vertical vector window, a horizontal vector window, a first diagonal vector window and a second diagonal vector window, and wherein step e) includes: e1) attributing each of the pixels within the plurality of vector windows as either a foreground pixel or a background pixel relative to an observation window; e2) attributing a target pixel as a corner pixel if the target pixel is a background pixel and one of the following conditions are true: 1) three out of the four vector windows include only background pixels, and the fourth vector window includes background and foreground pixels; or 2) two out of the four vector windows include only background pixels, and either the horizontal vector window and one of the first and second diagonal vector windows include background and foreground pixels, or the vertical vector window and one of the first and second diagonal vector windows include background and foreground pixels.