Printer Control Apparatus Exposure Pattern Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printers face challenges in enhancing image resolution while maintaining efficient exposure processes, as increasing exposure pattern resolution prolongs the exposure time but decreasing it compromises the color material image resolution.
Innovation Solution
A control apparatus and method that acquire binary image data to determine an exposure pattern with partial exposure patterns for overlapping exposure lines, allowing for higher color material image resolution than the exposure pattern resolution by adjusting exposure amounts based on pixel density layouts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the resolution of the exposure pattern is enhanced to improve color material image resolution, then the resolution of the color material image is improved, but the time required for the exposure process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the exposure pattern into multiple exposure lines at a lower resolution (second resolution) and combines them through overlapping to achieve the desired high-resolution (first resolution) color material image. This segmentation allows the exposure process to operate at a lower resolution while still producing high-resolution output through the combination of multiple lines.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple exposure lines at the second resolution to form the final color material image at the first resolution. By combining the effects of multiple overlapping exposure lines, the system achieves high-resolution image formation without requiring each individual exposure line to be processed at high resolution, thus reducing total exposure time.
2Loss of time
If the resolution of the exposure pattern is decreased to reduce exposure process time, then the exposure process time is reduced, but the resolution of the color material image decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the high-resolution image formation task into multiple lower-resolution exposure lines. Each line is processed at the second resolution, but the collection of these lines, through their overlapping and distribution of exposure amounts, reconstructs the high-resolution (first resolution) color material image, thus maintaining image quality while reducing processing time per line.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different exposure amounts to different exposure lines based on the layout of second-value pixels in the binary partial area. This local variation in exposure amounts allows the system to optimize the distribution of exposure effects across overlapping lines, enabling high-resolution image formation at lower individual line resolutions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the formation of color material images at a higher resolution than the exposure pattern resolution, balancing image quality and processing time by optimizing exposure distributions across overlapping exposure lines.
Implementation Method 1
a technology for exposing a surface of a photosensitive body to light, in order to perform a printing
Data Source
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AI summary
In a control apparatus, first type binary image data representing density of pixels arranged along a first image direction at a first resolution is acquired, and a first determining process is executed to determine an exposure pattern used to execute exposures of exposure lines at a second resolution lower than the first resolution along a first exposure direction. In the first determining process, a partial exposure pattern for exposing an output partial area that is correlated with a binary partial area and that overlaps N successive exposure lines is determined such that distribution of exposure amounts in the output partial area along the first exposure direction differs according to layout of second-value pixels in the binary partial area at least in the first image direction, thereby enabling an image of color material to be formed through development at a resolution higher than the second resolution in the first exposure direction.