Ink Estimation Mechanism Using Histograms and Halftone Designs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ink usage estimation methods for inkjet printers are computationally intensive and inefficient, especially when down sampling is used to speed up the process, as the accuracy degrades quickly with increased down sampling factors.
Innovation Solution
A method that uses gray level histograms and multibit halftone designs, specifically multibit threshold arrays, to generate estimated ink usage data for each color plane, allowing for efficient ink estimation without the need for rasterization and using halftone data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional rasterization and halftoning methods are used for ink estimation, then accurate ink usage data can be obtained, but the computational complexity and processing time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for ink estimation by using histograms to represent gray level distributions and multibit threshold arrays to represent halftone characteristics, rather than processing complete high-resolution images. This extraction approach maintains estimation accuracy while dramatically reducing computational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the ink estimation problem from operating on pixel-level image data to operating on histogram parameter data. By changing the representation from spatial domain (images) to frequency domain (histograms), the computational complexity is reduced while preserving the essential information needed for accurate ink usage estimation.
2Productivity
If down sampling is used to speed up ink estimation, then processing time is reduced, but the estimation accuracy degrades quickly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary aggregation of image data into histograms before any estimation calculations. By pre-computing the gray level distributions and storing them in histogram form, the system avoids the need for subsequent down-sampling operations that would degrade accuracy, while still achieving fast processing through efficient histogram manipulation.
3Measurement precision
If full resolution rasterization is performed for accurate ink estimation, then estimation precision is maintained, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a simplified statistical copy of the image data through histograms, which captures the essential gray level distribution information without requiring the full resolution image data. This copy approach allows accurate ink estimation to be performed on compact histogram representations rather than large image files, significantly reducing processing time while maintaining precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed. The system at least one physical memory device to store ink estimation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device, to execute the ink estimation logic to receive one or more gray level histograms, receive one or more halftone designs and generate estimated ink usage data for each of one or more color planes based on the gray level histograms and the halftone designs, wherein each gray level histogram corresponds to one of the one or more color planes, and each halftone design corresponds to one of the one or more color planes.