Printer Output Image Capture via Positional Shifting
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-speed printing devices face challenges in maintaining accuracy during long print runs due to positional errors, which existing image capture devices with limited speed or resolution struggle to address effectively, limiting throughput and accuracy.
Innovation Solution
The method involves oversampling by shifting the image capture device's position between spreads, combining low-resolution data from multiple spreads to generate high-resolution images, allowing for accurate continuous calibration without increasing the device's speed or cost.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If continuous calibration is implemented using conventional image capture devices, then printing accuracy is maintained, but throughput is limited by the device's operating speed
Solution Approach 1:
The printing process is divided into multiple segments or frames, where each frame captures a portion of the printed material. By segmenting the continuous calibration process into discrete frames that can be processed independently and in parallel, the system maintains high throughput while ensuring printing accuracy through continuous monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple frames are captured and stored in buffer memory before processing begins. This preliminary capture of data allows the system to prepare calibration information in advance, enabling high-speed processing without compromising the accuracy that would require careful measurement of each printed portion.
2Productivity
If image capture devices operate at high speeds, then throughput is maintained, but resolution deteriorates leading to poor data quality
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple low-resolution frames captured at high speed are merged or combined to produce a single high-resolution calibration image. This merging process allows the system to maintain high throughput by capturing frames quickly while achieving high measurement precision through the combination of multiple data sets.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from capturing single high-resolution frames to capturing multiple lower-resolution frames in the time dimension. By adding the temporal dimension with multiple sequential captures, the system achieves high resolution through accumulation of data over time while maintaining high throughput.
3Measurement precision
If higher sampling rate devices are used to improve resolution, then measurement accuracy improves, but device cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single expensive high-resolution image capture device, the system uses multiple copies of lower-resolution devices. By capturing multiple frames with cheaper devices and combining them through processing, the system achieves the same measurement precision as expensive high-resolution devices would provide alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of standard image capture devices by taking multiple captures at different times rather than relying on a single high-resolution capture. This parameter change in the capture strategy allows lower-resolution devices to achieve high measurement precision through temporal accumulation of data.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus and method for use in capturing image data of an output of a printing device during a print run, the method comprising capturing a first portion of image data of a first spread, capturing a second portion of image data of a second spread, wherein the location of the second portion of image data on the second spread is different from the location of the first portion of image data on the first spread, and combining the first portion with the second portion to generate oversampled image data.