Patent · US Expired

Dehalftoning of digital images

US6020897A · kind A · utility

46Cited by
5References
31Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 22, 1997
Grant dateFeb 1, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 22, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T11/60
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for blending graphics objects. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a first graphics object; rendering the first graphics object to produce a first pixel map having a first bit depth; increasing a bit depth of a second pixel map associated with a second graphics object that is to be blended with the first graphics object, where the second bit depth is less than the first bit depth; and blending the first and second pixel maps. The method may be implemented to blend graphics objects received by a printing device. In one embodiment, the invention features blending deep pixel data received by a printing device with corresponding shallow halftoned data stored in a shallow frame buffer. The invention may be implemented as a printer configured to receive a page description language description of a page to be printed, the printer including a dehalftone engine for deriving deep pixel data values for objects stored in a shallow frame buffer. In another aspect, the invention features using a pixelmap representative of underlying graphics data for transfer between a host and a remote device by transmitting a halftone representation of the pixelmap from the host to…

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