Patent ID: 8368716

Claim:
A method for processing pixel values of a color image, said method comprising: converting, by a processor, the pixel values from a first representation to a second representation, said second representation having a yellow-blue axis, a red-green axis, and a luminance axis, and wherein converting the pixel values further comprises converting the pixel values to a more opponent color encoding using a logical operator to compute a yellowness-blueness value of each of the pixel values and using scaled multiplications to compute a redness-greenness value of each of the pixel values in the second representation; and wherein each of the pixel values comprises a red component (R), a green component (G), and a blue component (B), and wherein converting the pixel values further comprises computing the yellowness-blueness values (C ii ) of each of the pixel values through the following equation: C ii =min( c 4 *R or c 5 *G )− c 6 *B , wherein c 4 , c 5 , and c 6 are constants.