diff --git a/DEPENDS.txt b/DEPENDS.txt
index 8b56bd40..bab27ba1 100644
--- a/DEPENDS.txt
+++ b/DEPENDS.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Build Requirements
 ------------------
 * `Python >= 2.7 <http://python.org>`__
-* `Numpy >= 1.7.2 <http://numpy.scipy.org/>`__
+* `Numpy >= 1.11 <http://numpy.scipy.org/>`__
 * `Cython >= 0.23 <http://www.cython.org/>`__
 * `Six >=1.4 <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/six>`__
 * `SciPy >=0.9 <http://scipy.org>`__
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1e6921be..a0061248 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 matplotlib>=1.3.1
-numpy>=1.7.2
+numpy>=1.11
 scipy>=0.9.0
 six>=1.7.3
 networkx>=1.8
diff --git a/skimage/feature/corner.py b/skimage/feature/corner.py
index 8604a8ee..1dec5e5a 100644
--- a/skimage/feature/corner.py
+++ b/skimage/feature/corner.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from itertools import combinations_with_replacement
+
 import numpy as np
 from scipy import ndimage as ndi
 from scipy import stats
@@ -146,18 +148,17 @@ def hessian_matrix(image, sigma=1, mode='constant', cval=0):
            [ 0.,  0.,  0.,  0.,  0.]])
     """
 
-    image = _prepare_grayscale_input_2D(image)
+    image = img_as_float(image)
 
     gaussian_filtered = ndi.gaussian_filter(image, sigma=sigma,
                                             mode=mode, cval=cval)
 
-    dy = np.gradient(gaussian_filtered, axis=0)
-    dx = np.gradient(gaussian_filtered, axis=1)
-    Hxx = np.gradient(dx, axis=1)
-    Hxy = np.gradient(dx, axis=0)
-    Hyy = np.gradient(dy, axis=0)
+    gradients = np.gradient(gaussian_filtered)
+    axes = range(image.ndim)
+    H_elems = [np.gradient(gradients[ax0], axis=ax1)
+               for ax0, ax1 in combinations_with_replacement(axes, 2)]
 
-    return Hxx, Hxy, Hyy
+    return H_elems
 
 
 def hessian_matrix_det(image, sigma):