Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Picture signal generator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-22
2004-03-02
Williams, Kimberly (Department: 2626)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Picture signal generator
C358S487000, C358S447000, C355S080000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06700685
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for receiving image data from an image supply source, subjecting the image data to image processing and outputting the processed image data as output image data.
The images recorded on photographic films such as negatives and reversals (which are hereinafter referred to as “films”) have been printed onto light-sensitive materials (photographic papers) by a technique generally called “direct exposure” (analog exposure) in which the image on a film is projected onto the light-sensitive material for areal exposure.
In contrast, a printer which adopts digital exposure so called a digital photoprinter has been recently commercialized. In this digital photoprinter, the image recorded on a film is read photoelectrically; the thus read image is converted into digital signals; the digital signals are subjected to various kinds of image processing to produce the output image data for recording; and a light-sensitive material is scanned and exposed with recording light modulated in accordance with the image data, thereby an image (latent image) is recorded on the light-sensitive material and output as a (finished) print (photograph).
In digital photoprinters, the image is converted into digital image data and exposing conditions used in print operation can be determined by processing that image data. Hence, high quality prints which cannot be heretofore obtained by the conventional direct exposure can be obtained by preferably executing, by means of such digital photoprinters, a correction of washed-out highlight of images and dull shadow of images due to photography with backlight or an electronic flash, sharpness processing, a correction of color failure and density failure, a correction of under- or over-exposure, a correction of a insufficiency of marginal lumination, and various other kinds of image processing. In addition, a plurality of images can be composited into a single image or one image can be split into segments or even characters can be composited by the processing of image data. If desired, prints can be output after desired editing/processing is carried out in accordance with a specific application.
The capability of digital photoprinters is by no means limited to outputting the image as a print and they enable the image data to be supplied to computers and the like or stored in recording mediums such as floppy disks and so forth; thus, with digital photoprinters, the image data can be used in various applications other than photography.
Having these features, the digital photoprinter is composed of the following three basic components; a scanner (image reading apparatus) which photoelectrically reads the image recorded on a film; an image processing apparatus which subjects the read image data to image processing and outputs it as recording image data (exposure conditions); and a printer (image recording apparatus) which scans and exposes a light-sensitive material according to the image data and subjects the exposed light-sensitive material to development processing and outputs the light-sensitive material as prints.
In the scanner, the reading light issuing from a illuminant is allowed to be incident on the film, thereby producing projected light that carries the image recorded on the film; the projected light is then passed through an imaging lens to be focused on an image sensor such as a CCD sensor which performs photoelectric conversion to read the image, which is optionally subjected to various kinds of image processing before it is sent to the image processing apparatus as the image data (image data signals) from the film.
In the image processing apparatus, the image processing conditions are set on the basis of the image data which has been read with the scanner and image processing is performed on the image data in accordance with the thus set conditions, thereby producing output image data for image recording (i.e., exposing conditions) which are subsequently sent to the printer.
In the printer, if it is an apparatus which adopts exposure by scanning with optical beams, the optical beams are modulated in accordance with the image data supplied from the image processing apparatus, a latent image is formed by two-dimensionally scanning and exposing (printing) a light-sensitive material, and then the exposed light-sensitive material is subjected to predetermined development processing and the like so as to output a print on which the image which has been recorded on the film is reproduced.
Incidentally, images are recorded on a film under various conditions, and there are many cases in which a large difference exists between highlight images and shadow portion images (densities) as found in an image recorded with an electric flash or rear light, that is, there are many cases in which images have a greatly wide dynamic range.
When the images recorded on the film are exposed in an ordinary manner and prints are made therefrom, there is a case in which highlight images may be washed out and shadow images may be dulled. For example, when a person is photographed with rear light, if exposure is executed so that the person is reproduced as a preferable image, a highlight image such as a sky is washed out to white, in contrast if the exposure is executed so that the sky is reproduced as a preferable image, the person is dulled.
To cope with this problem, when a light-sensitive material is exposed using a film image, which has a large difference between highlight images and shadow images, as an original, a method referred to as so-called dodging is employed.
Dodging is a technique for obtaining a print on which appropriate images, which are near to an impression a person gets when he or she observes an original scene, are reproduced over the entire image of the print by correcting the large difference between the highlight images and the shadow images of the images recorded on the film. Dodging processing is carried out by ordinarily exposing the portion having an intermediate density, exposing the highlight portion, in which images are liable to be washed out, with an increased quantity of light (exposure) and exposing the shadow portion, in which images are liable to be dulled, with a reduced quantity of light (exposure).
In the conventional apparatus employing the direct exposure, the dodging processing has been carried out by a method of executing exposure by inserting a shading plate, an ND filter or the like into an exposure light path; a method of partly changing the quantity of light of an exposure light source; a method of making a monochrome film in which the highlight portion and the shadow portion of the images recorded on a film are reversed and executing exposure in the state that the monochrome film is placed on the above film, and the like, so that the quantity of exposure light is partly changed in accordance with the images recorded on the film.
Whereas, in the digital photoprinter, the dodging processing is carried out by compressing the dynamic range of images in image data processing so that highlight images and shadow images can be preferably reproduced, whereby images, which are near to an impression of when a person observes an original scene, can be reproduced. That is, an image histogram of image data is created over the entire images and the washed-out images of the highlight portions and the dull images of the shadow portions are removed by compressing a low frequency component to thereby realize an abundant gradation representation of the images.
When it is intended to correct the gradation of, for example, a wedding dress which is liable to be washed out in analog exposure, an operator conventionally prevents the occurrence of the washing-out to white by dodging or strongly printing only the region of the wedding dress. In this method, however, there is a problem that the operator is required to have a skilled technique and a job is very troublesome.
Further, digital exposure also has a problem that it is impossible to apply the dodging processing o
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Ebrahimi Saeid
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Williams Kimberly
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