Image Processing Device Parallel Error Diffusion Block Junctions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image processing methods using error diffusion struggle with scalability and efficiency when dividing images into blocks across different systems, as they require fast memory access and shared memory, making it difficult to perform parallel processing across non-sharing systems and limiting scalability.
Innovation Solution
An image processing device and method that divides an image into blocks, using two processing sections with threshold values that include variable components periodically varying along two-dimensional pixel arrangements, allowing independent error diffusion processing without shared memory, and combining dot data from these sections for printing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If error diffusion processing is performed on divided blocks using shared memory for fast access, then processing speed is improved, but device complexity and difficulty of scalability increase
Solution Approach 1:
The image is divided into multiple blocks that can be processed independently by different processing sections. Each block undergoes error diffusion processing separately, eliminating the need for shared memory access during processing. This segmentation enables parallel processing across multiple devices or systems without requiring complex memory sharing infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The error diffusion processing for each block is extracted as an independent operation that does not require access to other blocks' data during processing. By removing the dependency on shared memory for error diffusion calculations, the system can be distributed across multiple independent processing sections without increasing device complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If blocks are processed independently without shared memory, then device complexity is reduced and scalability is improved, but image quality at block junctions deteriorates due to pseudo contours
Solution Approach 1:
The threshold value is made to vary locally across the image rather than being uniform. By introducing spatial variation in the threshold value, the processing characteristics at block junctions are optimized to match the surrounding areas, preventing visible discontinuities and pseudo contours while maintaining independent block processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The threshold value varies periodically across the image in a systematic pattern. This periodic variation ensures that at block junctions, the threshold values from adjacent blocks align properly, creating continuous visual transitions and eliminating pseudo contour artifacts while allowing independent processing of each block.
3Measurement precision
If the range of error diffusion in boundary areas is adjusted based on block configuration, then processing accuracy is improved, but device complexity and difficulty of implementation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The threshold value parameter is changed to include a variable component that varies periodically across the image. This parameter change affects the entire image uniformly including boundary areas, eliminating the need for special boundary handling logic. The variable threshold naturally adapts to block configurations without requiring complex conditional processing or adjustable diffusion ranges.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing method configured to process an image constituted by a plurality of pixels arranged two-dimensionally includes the steps of dividing the image into a plurality of blocks, and comparing image data of the pixel included in a first block as one of the blocks divided into with a first threshold value, and converting the image data into first dot data representing whether to form a dot using an error diffusion method. Further, processing of comparing image data of the pixel included in a second block as a block adjacent to the first block with a second threshold value prepared in advance, and converting the image data into second dot data representing whether to form a dot using an error diffusion method is performed independently of a first processing section. On this occasion, the first threshold value and the second threshold value include variable components periodically varying along two-dimensional arrangement directions of the pixels, respectively, and the variable components are provided with the same phase at a junction between the first block and the second block.