Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-08
2004-05-11
Pham, Hai (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S003000, C347S098000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06733105
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording method with which texture, such as the glossy feeling of the surface of a still subject or the fine texture of a fiber fabric, is represented on a recording medium such as recording paper. The present invention also relates to an ink jet printer that carries out the image recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, it is possible to obtain a high-quality image by capturing a subject with a scanner or a camera. However, it is difficult to reproduce the texture of a subject having a substantially plane shape, such as the glossy feeling of the subject or the fine unevenness of the surface of the subject, with a captured image obtained by photographing the subject.
As a method of representing the texture of a subject, it is possible to cite processing based on a computer graphics (CG) technique. For instance, a specular reflectivity, a diffuse reflectivity, and the like that are information representing the texture of the subject are defined for three-dimensional data representing the subject on a computer, two-dimensional data is computed by performing rendering processing, and the data is displayed as a two-dimensional image.
When a person evaluates an object, he/she evaluates the object by picking it up and shaking it. That is, in general texture felt by a person, such as the glossy feeling of a subject, is obtained by changing the state of specular reflection of the subject through the changing of his/her viewpoint. Accordingly, in the case of the CG technique described above, it is required to repeatedly perform the rendering processing by dynamically changing specular reflection light through the slight changing of the direction in which the subject is illuminated. However, the processing amount of this rendering processing is large, so that there is a problem that an extremely long time is taken to perform the rendering processing.
Even if the processing speed of a computer is further improved in the future, it is still difficult to speedily create data about the shape of a subject and information about the texture thereof, which give a viewer real feeling, using the CG technique described above.
On the other hand, there is proposed a technique with which modeling of three-dimensional data having information about the texture of a subject is performed with a computer using images obtained by photographing the subject.
In JP 07-66436 B, JP 2001-108421 A, and the like, there is proposed a method with which three-dimensional data is obtained by taking a plurality of images from different viewpoints. With this method, however, specular reflection light and diffuse reflection light are not separated from each other, so that it is impossible to obtain sufficient information about the texture of a subject. Consequently, it is impossible to represent the texture of the subject as an image.
On the other hand, as a method of separating specular reflection light from diffuse reflection light for the sake of performing the three-dimensional modeling of a subject, there is proposed a method based on a dichroic reflection model (see “Extraction of Specular Reflection Using Multiple Color and Range Images”, Ohtsuki et al., Journal of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, D-II, vol. J-80-D-II, No.6, pp. 1352-1359, June 1997).
With this method, however, it is required to perform statistical processing for estimating a color vector, which leads to a necessity that the surface of the subject has a moderate size and a uniform texture. Consequently, in the case where the subject has a construction where different materials and colors are combined in a fine manner, it is difficult to apply the method described above to this subject. Accordingly, it is difficult to represent the texture of the subject as an image.
On the other hand, in JP 08-39841 A, there is proposed a method with which a subject is photographed to obtain images having different illumination directions, there are obtained a signal under a state where reflection light is large and a signal under a state where reflection light is small, whereby a glossiness signal representing the glossiness of the subject is obtained from these two signals, a gloss being given by an image forming means using this signal. With this method, however, the glossiness signal is obtained by subtracting the signal under the state where the reflection light is small from the signal under the state where the reflection light is large, so that it is impossible to represent the texture of a fiber fabric or the like whose glossiness has a directional property due to fine unevenness of the subject. Further, an image forming means gives a gloss through reheating during thermal transfer, so that it is impossible to finely control the texture of a subject because of the widening of heat generated by the reheating. Accordingly, there is a problem that it is impossible to sufficiently represent a fiber fabric or the feeling of grain.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in order to solve the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an image recording method which is capable of representing the texture, such as the glossy feeling of the surface of a subject or the fine texture of a fiber fabric, on a recording medium such as recording paper.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer that carries out the image recording method.
In order to attain the object described above, the present invention provides an image recording method of recording an image of a still subject on a recording medium using a diffuse reflection image signal of the image representing the still subject under a state where illumination light is diffuse-reflected and a glossiness signal representing glossiness of the still subject, comprising a diffuse reflection image forming step of forming a diffuse reflection image of the still subject on the recording medium based on the diffuse reflection image signal, and a gloss adjusting step of forming a gloss adjustment layer made of a transparent gloss adjustment material in each region in units of pixels of the diffuse reflection image formed on the recording medium based on signal values of the glossiness signal.
Here, in addition to an image obtained with a camera or a scanner, the image representing a still subject under a state where illumination light is diffuse-reflected includes a computer graphic image that has been created by performing computation processing based on three-dimensional data, such as a specular reflectivity and a diffuse reflectivity, and which represents the still subject under a state where illumination light is diffuse-reflected.
Preferably, the diffuse reflection image forming step and the gloss adjusting step are performed by allowing droplets to be ejected onto the recording medium.
And, the gloss adjustment material is one of a gloss suppression material and a gloss material.
Further, preferably, the gloss adjustment layer is formed in each region corresponding to one pixel of the diffuse reflection image formed on the recording medium in accordance with a formation pattern that has a formation distribution of the gloss adjustment layer that varies in accordance with the signal values of the glossiness signal. Here, preferably, the formation pattern has a two-dimensional formation distribution of the gloss adjustment layer within each region of each pixel.
Preferably, the glossiness signal contains a first and second glossiness signals, the gloss adjustment layer is formed in each region in units of pixels of the diffuse reflection image in accordance with the first glossiness signal and the second glossiness signal, and when the formation of the gloss adjustment layer is performed in accordance with the first glossiness signal or the second glossiness signal, an inclination is given to the thickness of the gloss adjustment layer, with a direction of the inclination being different between the first
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Nguyen Lam S
Pham Hai
LandOfFree
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