Incremental printing of symbolic information – Light or beam marking apparatus or processes – Scan of light
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-16
2001-04-03
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Light or beam marking apparatus or processes
Scan of light
C353S032000, C359S463000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06211896
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to the field of lenticular and barrier images, and in particular to a method for producing lenticular images, by modifying the shape and the size of a writing spot. The method is especially used to improve the image quality of the images.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Prior art lenticular systems suffer from one or two problems. Some lenticular image manufacturing processes produce images with the individual views being indistinct from each other. Other lenticular manufacturing processes provide images which show Moiré patterns or other flickering effects especially when consecutive views have identical areas such as stationary areas in motion images. Such images may still provide views which are indistinct from each other. Thus, unfortunately, some prior art images showed both problems at the same time. In images using the present invention these problems are solved. The reason for this is that the views which are contained in lenticular images are typically formed from the interaction of as few as 3 and as many as 6 or more components. The first of these is the shape of the writing spot which writes the media.
However, even if the writing spot shape as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,225, issued Jul. 14, 1998, to Syracuse et al. entitled “Method and Apparatus for Improving Electronic Recording of Depth Images,” approaches the ideal shape in practice; the ideal shape is not apparent to the viewer. Instead he sees images which suffer from the problem that views are indistinct from each other due to the degradation contributed by the other components, such as the degradation due to the limited resolution capabilities of the writing media and the limited resolution performance of the lenticular lens. Furthermore, if the lenticular image is made using a printing process or photographic film contact process, then these additional components will also further degrade the distinctiveness of views. Thus, in general, each of these components contribute to the degradation of the viewed images.
In prior art inventions the shape of the overall combined single view response was not considered when optimizing image quality. Nor were methods for customizing the overall combined single view response by modifying the response of the underlying components.
Previously in order to write lenticular images with a large number of views, using a digital or electronic writer, the size of the writing spot was modified so that the width of the writing spot met the resolution requirements imposed by the necessity of having multiple views behind each lenticule. However, except for the prior art already mentioned, attention has not been paid to spot shape or to the overall combined spot shape.
As stated, the combined overall spot shape is very important for producing high quality lenticular images. Although the size of the spot may be different, the shape of the spot in the direction across the lenticules can be defined by similar considerations to the shape of the spot in the direction along the lenticules. Thus, this specification will primarily discuss the spot shape across the lenticules, however the methodology described herein can be applied along the spot shaped lenticules.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above. Briefly summarized, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is a method for producing lenticular images which comprises:
using a writing spot to write a lenticular image wherein such image has at least one contributing component having an overall spot response shape which as a function of viewing angle has a peak on each side of a region of lower value, to obtain an overall visual response of the lenticular image;
scanning said writing spot relative to a recording material to produce pixels directly on said recording material.
According to another aspect of the invention there is a method for producing lenticular images which comprises the steps of:
using a writing spot, wherein said writing spot having a shape as a function of viewing angle with a peak on each side of a region of lower value, and
scanning said writing spot relative to a recording material to produce pixels directly on said recording material.
In yet a further embodiment of the invention a method is suggested which comprises the steps of:
scanning a writing spot relative to a recording material to produce pixels directly on said recording material, wherein the line pitch between successive scan lines is p and said writing spot has a width less than said line pitch, and;
writing with said writing spot between said successive scan lines such that an overall response is a flat response.
Improvement in viewed image quality is achieved by compensating for the degradation of some components which contribute to the spot shape. The modification of the contributing components results in a writing spot with a shape which as a function of viewing angle, or lenticular lens response, or the media response is so that the profile of at least one component profile when subtracted from a Gaussian shaped response with the same mean value and standard deviation of the profile, has a difference where there is a positive central peak of at least 10% of the area of the Gaussian shaped response, and a negative peak on each side of the positive peak of at least 5% of the area of the Gaussian shaped response.
Alternatively, this goal is achieved by compensating for the degradation of some components by modifying other components such as the writing spot with a shape which as a function of viewing angle is so that the profile of at least one component profile has a profile which has a peak on each side of a region of lower value.
Another aspect of this invention is to not only change the effective combined overall spot shape, but to change the scan line spacing and/or lenticular spacing based on the overall combined response of the imaging system in order to achieve the best utilization of the overall available resolution characteristics of the lenticular imaging components.
Another aspect of this invention is to choose the overall characteristics of the system including scan line spacing and lenticular spacing as well as overall spot shape as a function of the content and/or characteristics of the image to be written. Examples of different content may include motion, stills, flip, depth, or other effects. Another aspect of content is the amount of motion from view to view or the size of features and objects within each view. Other characteristics include the amount of contrast or color between different views. This may vary depending on the specific view and may even vary with position across the views.
For example, in areas of high motion there will be significant color differences or contrast between consecutive views. Because in some image components spot size or edge rise distance may be a function of contrast or color differences, it is necessary to change spot size or shape in some components to compensate for these effects.
Another aspect of this invention are various means for modifying the shape of the profile (that is to say the shape of intensity profile) of the components which have been selected to modify the overall combined response. Because it is generally necessary to achieve a profile with two peaks or one which compensates for the effects of the intrinsic Gaussian shape of other components, it is necessary to have means to change both the geometric shape and intensity of the profile.
These and other aspects, objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims, and by reference to the accompanying drawings.
ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE INVENTION
The present invention improves image viewing quality of lenticular images.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5276478 (1994-01-01), Morton
patent: 5473406 (1995-12-01), Hassall et al.
patent: 5492578 (1996-0
Close Thomas H.
Eastman Kodak Company
Le N.
Pham Hai C.
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