Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for reducing noise in electronic film development

US6069714A · kind A · utility

46Cited by
11References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 26, 1997
Grant dateMay 30, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 26, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N2201/0416
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In electronic film development, a film is scanned, using light, multiple times during development. The light is reflected from an emulsion containing milky undeveloped silver halide embedded with developing grains. The undeveloped halide layer has a finite depth over which photons from a light source scatter backward. This depth is within the range of the coherency length of infrared sources commonly used in electronic film development, causing coherency speckle noise in the scanned image. A prescan made after the emulsion swells, but before the silver grains develop, normalizes subsequent scans, pixel by pixel, to cancel coherency speckle and other defects.

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