Patent · US Expired

Error diffusion pattern shifting reduction through programmable threshold perturbation

US5880857A · kind A · utility

30Cited by
6References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 10, 1996
Grant dateMar 9, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 10, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N1/4053
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A process eliminates pattern shifting artifacts in a printed image by perturbing a threshold/image signal value relationship when a multi-level grey level is binarized. The process utilizes a programmable multi-level grey signal modifying circuit for modifying the multi-level grey signal by a predetermined value according to its grey level. The modified multi-level grey signal is binarized to a binary pixel signal according to a relationship between the modified multi-level grey signal and a threshold value. The process further generates an error corresponding to the relationship and diffuses the error to neighboring pixels. The multi-level grey signal is modified with either random noise multiplied by a grey level dependent coefficient or by a predetermined value from a checkerboard or vertical line pattern. The value from the pattern is dependent upon the grey level and pixel location of the image data.

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