Image Processing Apparatus Suppressing Unnatural Color Changes
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Solution Overview
Problem
In printing color images, misregistration leads to exposure of background colors due to mechanical issues, causing unnatural artifacts and increased memory costs when combining trapping and spatial filter processing, which often result in undesirable color changes and increased memory requirements.
Innovation Solution
A method that determines whether to perform trapping at each pixel position, integrates trapping and spatial filter processing, and weights their outputs to suppress unnatural color changes, allowing these processes to share memory resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If trapping is performed to correct misregistration, then blank portions are prevented, but color changes occur in the overlap region
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different processing strategies to different regions of the image. Edge portions are identified and processed differently from non-edge portions. For edge portions, the patent suppresses color changes by using the original image data or applying less aggressive trapping, while for non-edge portions, standard trapping is applied to prevent blank portions. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by allowing misregistration correction where needed while preserving color accuracy where it matters most.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically adjusts the trapping amount based on local image characteristics. By calculating edge strength or gradient information, the system varies the trapping parameter across different regions. In regions with strong edges, trapping is reduced or suppressed to avoid color changes, while in regions without significant edges, full trapping is applied to prevent blank portions. This parameter adaptation resolves the contradiction by making trapping effectiveness context-dependent.
2Manufacturing precision
If edge enhancement is performed to improve image sharpness, then edge definition is improved, but blank portions become more noticeable due to increased density contrast
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs trapping processing before edge enhancement. By pre-compensating for potential misregistration through trapping, the subsequent edge enhancement operation does not create excessive density contrast at boundaries. The trapping creates a buffer zone that prevents the edge enhancement from amplifying blank portion visibility, thus the harmful effect is counteracted in advance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies edge enhancement selectively or with modified strength in regions where trapping has been applied. By identifying regions with trapped colors, the system reduces edge enhancement intensity in those areas to prevent excessive density contrast. This local adjustment maintains edge sharpness where appropriate while preventing blank portion visibility in trapped regions.
3Manufacturing precision
If trapping and spatial filter processing are performed separately with independent memory, then processing quality is maintained, but memory cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines trapping and spatial filter processing into a single integrated processing pipeline that shares memory resources. Instead of maintaining separate memory buffers for each processing stage, the system uses a unified memory structure where intermediate results are reused. The processing quality is maintained by ensuring that the shared memory accommodates the combined requirements of both operations, eliminating the need for duplicate memory allocations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent designs a multi-functional processing architecture where a single memory buffer serves multiple purposes: storing original image data, holding trapping results, and providing input for spatial filter processing. This universal memory structure eliminates the need for separate dedicated memory for each processing stage, reducing overall memory requirements while maintaining the quality of both trapping and spatial filter operations through proper data management and processing sequencing.
Data Source
AI summary
An unnatural color change which occurs when combining trapping and spatial filter processing is suppressed. When image data is input, it is determined whether to perform trapping at the position of the pixel of interest of the input image data, and trapping is performed for the input image data. In addition, spatial filter processing is performed for the pixel of interest of the input data, an output of the trapping and that of the filter processing are weighted, and image data to be output is calculated.