Inkjet Band Border Adjustment Using Near-White Pixel Counts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image processing technologies fail to effectively modify image band widths to prevent objects with large surface areas from overlapping borders between image bands in inkjet printing, leading to a decline in printing quality.
Innovation Solution
An image processing program and apparatus that extract provisional band data, identify target lines, calculate near-white pixel counts, and determine finalized band data to adjust band borders, ensuring that the target line is set as the borderline, thereby minimizing banding and maintaining printing quality even when objects must be printed across borders.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If band widths are modified to prevent objects from overlapping borders, then printing quality is improved, but this approach cannot handle objects with large surface areas that must print across borders
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making different parts of the image have different border handling characteristics. Specifically, the border modification amount is adjusted locally based on the presence and characteristics of objects near borders. For pixels belonging to objects with large surface areas, the border modification is reduced or eliminated, allowing these objects to print across borders while maintaining their integrity. This resolves the contradiction by enabling both high printing quality for most areas and proper handling of large objects that need to span borders.
2Reliability
If band borders are adjusted to avoid objects, then banding is reduced, but objects with large surface areas cannot be properly printed across borders
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing border determination and object detection before the actual printing process. The system analyzes the image data in advance to identify objects with large surface areas and pre-determines which borders should be modified and by how much. This allows the system to suppress banding in most areas while preserving the ability to print large objects across borders without degradation, as the border adjustments are already optimized before printing begins.
3Manufacturing precision
If conventional band width modification is applied, then small objects overlapping borders are handled well, but large surface area objects cannot be prevented from overlapping borders
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the border modification amount variable rather than fixed. The system dynamically adjusts the border modification based on object characteristics, particularly the surface area of objects near borders. For small objects, the full border modification is applied to prevent overlapping. For large objects with large surface areas, the border modification is reduced or eliminated to allow them to print across borders properly. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by adapting the border handling to the specific characteristics of each object.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing apparatus extracts provisional band data from image data. The apparatus calculates near white number for a target line. The near white number is number of pairs of first and second pixels. The first pixel is located on the target line, the second pixel is in positionally adjacent relation to the first pixel. At least one of the first pixel and the second pixel is a near white pixel. In a case where a prescribed border condition is met for the target line, the apparatus determines finalized band data so that a finalized band image includes at least part of the provisional band image, and has the target line as a borderline. In a case where a specific condition is met, the apparatus changes the target line to one of a plurality of candidate lines which is not selected as the target line.