Patent ID: 7242816

Claim:
A method of enhancing an image comprising the steps of: converting the image to a two-dimensional array; converting said image to grayscale; selecting a row of pixels from said image for processing; computing the mean intensity of said pixels in said row; dividing said image into sections; computing the mean intensity of the pixels of each section; processing the pixels in each of said sections according to a first method if said mean intensity of said section is greater than said mean intensity of said row; processing the pixels in each of said sections according to a second method if said mean intensity of said section is less than said mean intensity of said row; and disregarding the pixels in sections where said mean intensity of said section is equal to said mean intensity of said row; and wherein said first method of processing pixels in a section consists of the steps of: computing the value of the intensity of each pixel in said section plus a percentage threshold multiplied by the intensity of each pixel in said section; and assigning to each pixel in said section an intensity corresponding to white if the computed value is greater than the mean intensity of said row; and assigning to each pixel in said section an intensity corresponding to black if the computed value is less than the mean intensity of said row; and wherein said second method of processing pixels in a section consists of the steps of: computing the value of the intensity of each pixel in said section minus a percentage threshold multiplied by the intensity of each pixel in said section; and assigning to each pixel in said section an intensity corresponding to white if the computed value is greater than the mean intensity of said row; and assigning to each pixel in said section an intensity corresponding to black if the computed value is less than the mean intensity of said row; and wherein said percentage threshold is greater than or equal to one and less than or equal to twenty.