AbstractIn this paper, we propose a thresholding algorithm. This algorithm works under a severe constraint: each pixel in a processed image must be derived from only information of its neighboring pixels. This constraint is very important for a low‐cost device such as a mobile camera, because it makes it possible to process each pixel in parallel. The proposed algorithm deals with gray‐scale images, and determines the threshold based on edge information. The proposed algorithm is represented by local and parallel image processing and has been tested using 104 scenery images. The result shows that the proposed algorithm can binarize images. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 157(2): 50–56, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20267