Most conventional derivative-based corner detectors have shortcomings such as missing junctions, poor localization, sensitivity to noise and high computational cost. This paper presents a new, simple and effective low level processing method to detect corners. In this corner detection algorithm, two oriented cross operators called crosses as oriented pair (COP) are used, which provide useful information to extract low-level features due to its characteristics, preference for edge with different direction and simple direction determination. Fast, accurate and noise-robust corner detection is accomplished with the COP. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.