Facsimile and static presentation processing – Natural color facsimile – Image reproduction
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-21
2004-05-04
Coles, Edward (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Natural color facsimile
Image reproduction
C358S001300, C358S001900, C358S003100, C358S504000, C358S509000, C347S005000, C347S015000, C347S019000, C382S131000, C382S132000, C382S274000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06731413
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording method and an apparatus for that method, wherein image information is sensed by an image acquiring apparatus, and its energy is converted into image signals which are used for recording through ink-jetting.
There has so far been employed a method wherein electromagnetic waves (visible light, X-rays etc.) arriving from an object are sensed by silver halide light-sensitive materials which are then subjected to prescribed processing, and images are recorded on the silver halide light-sensitive material itself or on another silver halide light-sensitive material.
In recent years, the electromagnetic waves (visible light, X-rays etc.) arriving from an object are made temporarily to be image signals showing images by an image acquiring apparatus (for example, an electronic camera, or an apparatus which takes out radiographic image information as electric signals), and the image signals thus obtained are used to record images.
As a method to record images by using the obtained image signals, there is given a recording method to record images by using a recording medium represented by a silver halide light-sensitive material or an ink jet recording method to record by jetting ink.
As stated above, it has been conducted in recent years that energy of electromagnetic waves arriving from an object is acquired temporarily by an image acquiring apparatus as image signals showing images, and images are recorded by an ink jet recording apparatus based on the acquired image signals.
Compared with a silver halide light-sensitive material recording system, this ink jet recording system has an advantage that a recording means which is not restricted in terms of installation position and is extremely easy to operate can be provided because it has no steps for developing and fixing, and it requires neither facilities of water supply and water draining nor replenishment of developing solution to be free from an offensive odor.
On the other side, however, the ink jet system has been inferior to the silver halide light-sensitive material system on the point of image quality. A ground for the foregoing is that the characteristic curve for obtaining images with high image quality needs to be solved in the ink jet recording, in particular, although the characteristic curve for smooth image density change can easily be obtained.
Characteristics for recording in a conventional ink jet recording apparatus are shown in FIG.
49
. The axis of abscissas represents image signal S to be inputted in an ink jet printer, while, the axis of ordinates represents optical density D recorded on a recording medium, and optical density D is reproduced in the linear relationship between image signal S and optical density D. On the other hand, in the example of a radiographic image acquiring apparatus employing stimulable phosphor which is an example of an acquiring apparatus, the relationship between a logarithmic value of energy of X-rays representing electromagnetic waves transmitted through an object and image signal S to be obtained proves to be one shown in FIG.
50
. Therefore, the characteristics in the case of recording images by using both of them prove to be one shown in FIG.
51
. It has been impossible, in the conventional ink jet recording, to obtain sufficient image quality in terms of image smoothness, graininess and sharpness.
It was further impossible to obtain image quality that is fit for diagnoses, when recording medical images, especially when recording monochromatic medical images, by using an ink jet recording apparatus.
The reason for the foregoing is as follows. Monochromatic medical images are usually recorded on a transparent or translucent medium, to be observed as a transmission image. In the case of a transmission image, it is difficult to realize high density because its optical density is observed to be low even when the same quantity of ink as on a reflection image is stuck on the transmission image, and moreover, image unevenness and graininess on the transmission image tend to be noticeable, compared with a reflection image. Since a hard copy of medical images is required to have delicate density gradation expression, graininess and density uniformity, even when the transmission image is more disadvantageous than the reflection image as stated above, it is extremely difficult to provide a hard copy that is fit for diagnoses.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been achieved in view of the technical problems stated above, and its object is to provide a recording method and an apparatus for that recording method both for high image quality, in ink jet recording, and in particular, to provide an ink jet recording method and an apparatus for that recording method which can obtain monochromatic and medical image hard copies which are fit for diagnoses.
The problems mentioned above can be solved by the following structures indicated with number enclosed in parentheses.
(1-1) An ink-jet recording apparatus, comprises:
an acquiring device to input an image signal obtained by converting energy of electromagnetic waves transmitting through a subject or energy of electromagnetic waves reflected from a subject for each predetermined region;
an ink head to jet ink stored therein; and
a controller to control the ink head so as to jet ink based on the image signal acquired by the acquiring device onto a recording medium on which an image is recorded,
wherein when an intensity of the energy of electromagnetic waves of a predetermined region is E and an optical density of the image recorded on the recording medium based on the image signal is D, the controller conducts the image recording such that a characteristic curve representing a change of the optical density D for a logarithm of the energy intensity E becomes a monotone increasing function or a monotone decreasing function,
wherein, energy intensities E
1
to E
6
are selected to be E
1
<E
2
<E
3
<E
4
<E
5
<E
6
and each energy intensity E
i
is defined to be an energy intensity corresponding to an optical density D
i
represented the following formula,
D
i
=k
i
·D
max
+(1
−k
i
)·
D
min
,
where i is an integer of 1 to 6, when the characteristic curve is the monotone increasing function, k
1
=0.1, k
2
=0.2, k
3
=0.3, k
4
=0.6, k
5
=0.8, and k
6
=0.9, and when the characteristic curve is the monotone decreasing function, k
1
=0.9, k
2
=0.8, k
3
=0.6, k
4
=0.3, k
5
=0.2, and k
6
=0.1,
wherein when &ggr;
1
, &ggr;
2
and &ggr;
3
are defined on the characteristic curve such that an inclination of a line connecting points corresponding to E
1
and E
2
is &ggr;
1
, an inclination of a line connecting points corresponding to E
3
and E
4
is &ggr;
2
, and an inclination of a line connecting points corresponding to E
5
and E
6
is &ggr;
3
, the characteristic curve is determined so as to satisfy the following formulas:
|&ggr;
1
|<|&ggr;
2
| and |&ggr;
3
|<|&ggr;
2
|, and
wherein the image recording for the energy intensity E between E
1
and E
2
is conducted based on &ggr;
1
, the image recording for the energy intensity E between E
3
and E
4
is conducted based on &ggr;
2
, and the image recording for the energy intensity E between E
5
and E
6
is conducted based on &ggr;
3
.
(1-2) In the ink-jet recording apparatus of (1-1), the controller conducts the image recording such that the characteristic curve representing the change of the optical density D for the logarithm of the energy intensity E becomes the simple increasing function.
(1-3) In the ink-jet recording apparatus of (1-1), the controller conducts the image recording such that the characteristic curve representing the change of the optical density D for the logarithm of the energy intensity E becomes the simple decreasing function.
(1-4) In the ink-jet recording apparatus of (1-1), the characteristic curve representin
Honda Chika
Nakazawa Masayuki
Colburn LLP Cantor
Coles Edward
Konica Corporation
Park Chan
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