Half-tone conversion mask for digital images
US5555103A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 16, 1992 |
| Grant date | Sep 10, 1996 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 16, 2012 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N1/4051
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A half-tone mask is characterized by an N.times.M array of mask value locations associated with at least a portion of the pixels of the digital image. The size of the mask array may contain a relatively small number of pixel locations, which is applied spatially to mutually contiguous subsets or sub-arrays of pixels of a relatively high resolution digital image. Although the mask may also be made large enough to encompass the entire image of interest, respective threshold values of the mask may be computed `on the fly`, so as to obviate the need to prestore all of the threshold values of the mask. Each of the locations of the mask array is assigned a respectively different grey scale/half-tone conversion threshold value. These threshold values are distributed among the locations of the mask array such that as one proceeds through the mask array, the next sequential location is specified in accordance with fractional parts of integral multiples of a two-dimensional analog of the Golden Mean. Each successive mask location is assigned a sequentially larger grey scale to half-tone conversion threshold. These threshold values are successive integers 0 through K, where K is one less than…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.