function getAverageColourAsRGB (img) {
  var canvas = document.createElement('canvas'),
      context = canvas.getContext && canvas.getContext('2d'),
      rgb = {r:102,g:102,b:102}, // Set a base colour as a fallback for non-compliant browsers
      pixelInterval = 5, // Rather than inspect every single pixel in the image inspect every 5th pixel
      count = 0,
      i = -4,
      data, length;

  // return the base colour for non-compliant browsers
  if (!context) { return rgb; }

  // set the height and width of the canvas element to that of the image
  var height = canvas.height = img.naturalHeight || img.offsetHeight || img.height,
      width = canvas.width = img.naturalWidth || img.offsetWidth || img.width;

  context.drawImage(img, 0, 0);

  try {
    data = context.getImageData(0, 0, width, height);
  } catch(e) {
    // catch errors - usually due to cross domain security issues
    alert(e);
    return rgb;
  }

  data = data.data;
  length = data.length;
  while ((i += pixelInterval * 4) < length) {
    count++;
    rgb.r += data[i];
    rgb.g += data[i+1];
    rgb.b += data[i+2];
  }
  
  // floor the average values to give correct rgb values (ie: round number values)
  rgb.r = Math.floor(rgb.r/count);
  rgb.g = Math.floor(rgb.g/count);
  rgb.b = Math.floor(rgb.b/count);

  return rgb;
}