Patent · US Expired

Halftone image printing device

US5099259A · kind A · utility

28Cited by
13References
1Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 22, 1990
Grant dateMar 24, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 22, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N1/4058
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A halftone image printing device for printing an image consisting of picture elements arrayed in a zig-zag fashioning. Each picture element is composed of dots forming a quasi-diamond-shaped matrix. The dot matrix is a 2 (row) x 3 (column) matrix with two additional dots located at the top and bottom, respectively. The range of optical density, within which the densities represented by the picture elements fall, is segmented into sub-ranges. Different heating-resistors are assigned to each sub-range of density. The dots printed by the heating-resistors assigned to any sub-range of density forms a "dot pattern" of a specific shape. The first dot pattern has one dot printed on the upper-central part of the rectangular matrix. The second dot pattern has three dots forming an L-shaped pattern, the first dot printed on the upper-central part of the matrix, the second dot printed above the first dot, and the third dot printed to the right of the first dot. The third dot pattern consists of five dots forming a cross, the first dot printed on the upper-central part of the matrix, the second dot printed above the first dot, the third dot printed to the right of the first dot, the fourth dot…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.