Patent · US Expired

Process for detecting and mapping dirt on the surface of a photographic element

US5436979A · kind A · utility

60Cited by
16References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 21, 1992
Grant dateJul 25, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 21, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01N21/8916
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method and associated apparatus for detecting the amount, size, shape, and location of anomalies, such as dirt and scratches, on the surface of a test photographic element after the application of a cleaning procedure and for objectively determining the effectiveness of the film cleaning devices and procedures at removing dirt from photographic negatives and slides and the scanner's sensitivity to the artifacts on the test photographic element's surface. The test photographic element is scanned and the scanned image is digitized and converted to color digital count values. The count values are corrected for systematic errors and a set of context dependent threshold values on the corrected data is computed. If the corrected data passes any of the series of threshold tests it classified as anomalous otherwise it is considered to be background or clean. A series of statistics are calculated for the detected anomalies and are reported to the operator. This report enables the operator to monitor and maintain the quality of the cleaning process.

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