This image has two regions with different orientations. If we use sobel we get an edge for each line ---->

If we try to improve this by blurring the image then there won't be any edges.

 
 
  <--- first eigenvalue corresponds to regions that have a dominant direction

second eigenvalue denotes isotropic regions ---->

 
 
  This is the estimated angle dominant direction. Its 90 degrees for the right half because all the edges point up, and 0 degrees for the left half
 
  This is after sobel, thresholding and non-maximal supression. All edge points are within one point of actual edge.