Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Takenaka Komuten Co., Ltd.

Atsushi Takagi

Tateo Kawamura

Masao Miyaguchi

Hiroyuki Kuroiwa

Naoki Takaoka

Hiroaki Nakamura

Minoru Ishikawa

Mitsuo Miura

Shigeru Yoshino

Teruo Mizuhata

Takefumi Ito

Yoshihiro Ishikawa

The improved method of determining the amount of exposure for use with an image forming apparatus reads the red, green and blue densities of an original image on a pixel basis and determines the amount of exposure of a light-sensitive material in accordance with the result of the reading step. In the method, those pixels of the same color which have been found to have red, green and blue densities within respective predetermined ranges as a result of the reading of said original image are added and after at least part of the pixels that represent a color having a greater number of pixels than a specified value are removed, the remaining pixels are used to perform mathematical operations for determining the amount of exposure. When applied to various types of optical image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers and photograph printing devices, the method enables consistent production of good prints having no density or color failure without the need to specify the identity of an image scene of interest even if a large area of the image is occupied by a particular color as in a scene showing a person on the lawn or a scene taken with backlighting.

Method of determining amount of exposure

The improved method of determining the proper amount of exposure comprises the steps of reading the entire portion of an original image, calculating the characteristic quantities of a principal image in the original image, determining a particular density range from the calculated characteristic quantities of the principal image, extracting only the pixels in said particular density range from the entire portion of the original image to determine the characteristic quantities of the original image, and determining the proper amount of exposure from said characteristic quantities of the original image. When applied to various types of optical image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers and pictographic devices, the method can determine the proper amount of exposure by a simple scanning procedure even if the original to be duplicated is a negative film or other medium having density failure and it hence ensures the formation of the proper and high-quality image in a consistent manner.

Method of determining the proper amount of exposure

An image forming apparatus has a scan exposure unit for performing a slit scan exposure on a light-sensitive material, a line sensor that is provided in an optical path branching from the optical path of slit exposing light and that reads the original image prior to the slit scan exposure of the light-sensitive material, a memory for storing image signals, a monitor for displaying a monitor image using the stored image signals, a device for designating the principal area of the original image from the monitor image, and an exposure computing unit for computing the conditions for proper exposure using both the information on the principal area and the image signals stored in said memory.

Image forming apparatus

The improved image forming apparatus first performs scan exposure on a light-sensitive material, then applies an image forming solvent to the exposed light-sensitive material, brings the light-sensitive material and an image-receiving material into a superposed relationship, and performs thermal development and transfer on the assembly to form an image on the receiving material. The apparatus is characterized by performing image formation with the temperature conditions for thermal development being held substantially constant whereas the other conditions for thermal development and transfer being preset in accordance with various combinations of the light-sensitive and image-receiving materials. The apparatus is capable of selection from a plurality of species of the light-sensitive and image-receiving materials and even if the species of the light-sensitive or image-receiving material to be used is changed, efficient image formation can be done without waiting for the end of temperature adjustments and, furthermore, high-quality image can be formed in a consistent manner.

The improved color image forming apparatus is adapted for image formation from either a reflection-type original or a transmission-type original by the user who selects the proper exposure optics (or unit) in accordance with the kind and size of the original to be duplicated. The apparatus is capable of image formation with the necessary color and/or density related adjustments being performed by basically the same operating device through basically the same operation without any regard to the kind and size of the original and the desired image of high quality can be formed by a simple method. The color and/or density related adjustment necessary for image formation with the selected exposure optics (or unit) is performed by the same input device without regard to the kind of document to be duplicated.

Image forming apparatus adapted for reflection-type or transmission-type

An image forming apparatus providing color images excellent in both color reproduction and in density and sharpness of line images of characters or the like. The inventive image forming apparatus includes both a color image forming unit, which forms a latent image on a photosensitive material by the utilization of a chemical reaction, and a monochromatic electrophotographic unit. The color photosensitive material used in the color image forming unit may be a silver halide photosensitive material, a photosensitive resin material, or a photosensitive/pressure-sensitive material.

When to perform subsidiary exposure before or after main exposure or concurrently therewith with a quantity of light corresponding to about 1/50 to 1/100 of the quantity of light of main exposure, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention can automatically set the standard conditions of subsidiary exposure in response to setting of the standard conditions of main exposure, and can set the optimal conditions of colors and intensity of subsidiary exposure in accordance with the amount of adjustment of gradation. Therefore, even when variations arise in the characteristics and processing conditions of a light-sensitive material or any desired gradation is chosen, natural and fine images can always be formed with no color balance distorted.

Image forming apparatus for adjusting gradation using subsidiary exposure

A method of image recording comprises the steps of performing photometry on a plurality of pixels into which an original film is divided, calculating the large-area transmittance density (LATD) of said original film on the basis of the photometric values for individual pixels, designating the main area of said original film, calculating the average transmittance density of the designated main area on the basis of said photometric values, determining conditions of exposure as appropriate for said original film on the basis of a linear relationship between said LATD and the average transmittance density of the main area, and performing imagewise recording on a light-sensitive material under the thus determined appropriate conditions of exposure. Using this method, even an unskilled operator is capable of reproducing the image of a principal subject such as a human figure or his/her face to provide an optimum density in an easy and precise manner. Also, an apparatus for image recording applies this method to test printing and needs only a single run of test printing to determine optimum conditions exposure for producing an enlarged print or an ultra-high quality image.

Method and apparatus for recording image

The improved image forming apparatus with a capability for automatically identifying the type of originals measures the reflected light from an original of interest with at least two sensors for the light of at least one of three primary colors, constructs a discriminant function that makes use of the differences in spectral reflection density between originals and which uses as parameters all the values of measurements obtained or with the higher and lower values being cut off, and automatically identifies the type of the original by discriminating color photographic originals from another type of originals such as color printed originals or black-and-white originals on the basis of the value of said discriminant function. The image forming apparatus may measure the reflected light from the original with sensors for the light of three primary colors and identify a low-density, low-constant original by means of a predetermined discriminant formula. Based on the results of such identification, the image forming apparatus selects the proper light-sensitive materials and exposure conditions according to the type of original of interest or the low-density, low-constant to original to be used and performs appropriate image formation. In spite of the use of a simple discriminant function or formula, the image forming apparatus is capable of correct identification of the type of original whether its size is regular or irregular as in the case of small-size documents or bulky materials, thereby allowing for appropriate image formation.

The improved color image forming apparatus is so designed that the image forming condition computing means having a learning capability, such as a neural network having a back propagation learning algorithm, is caused to learn preliminarily those image forming conditions which are appropriate for the specific type of a documents (e.g. a reflection-type original or a transmission-type original such as a negative film or a reversal film) or the original image carried on the documents such as sea, mountains or a snow scene, examples of such image forming conditions being exposing conditions (e.g. the balance of three primary colors and their densities) and the conditions of developing, fixing and otherwise processing light-sensitive materials, and image is formed on a particular light-sensitive material under the image forming conditions computed by the computing means which has learned said appropriate conditions. The visible image reproduced with this apparatus always has a good color balance, is free from deterioration of image quality, has none of the unwanted color shades and is optimum for the particular document or original image. As a further advantage, even unskilled users can easily operate this apparatus to reproduce an image that meets the specific preference of the laboratory or the user.

Color image forming apparatus

An image recording apparatus has a jamming detecting and displaying device in which jamming detecting means detect the jamming of an image recording material in the apparatus, and jamming displaying means displays the position of the jamming and tells a procedure of eliminating the jamming which is provided by control means, so that the jamming can be readily eliminated.

Jam detecting and displaying device in an image recording apparatus

A method of picture recording in which a surface of a photosensitive material is exposed to light containing a picture image and the exposed surface of the photosensitive material is superposed on an image receiving surface of an image receiving material so as to transfer the picture image obtained on the exposed surface of the photosensitive material onto the image receiving surface of the image receiving material. Judgment is then made as to whether the surface of the image receiving material to be superposed on the photosensitive material is the image receiving surface by using a detection device for detecting an absorption or reflection factor for light of a wavelength peculiar to the image receiving surface before the photosensitive material is superposed on the image receiving material, so that feeding of the image receiving material may be stopped when the judgment proves that the detected surface is not the image receiving surface.

Picture recording method

Sludge deposit is stored in a sludge deposit receiving hopper, and the stored sludge deposit is fed onto a belt conveyor and transferred to a mixer. A hardener is fed to this mixer from a hardener hopper. A conveyor belt is disposed on the belt conveyor to measure the quantity of the sludge deposit transferred by the belt conveyor. According to this measured value of the transferred sludge deposit, the quantity of the sludge deposit fed from the sludge deposit receiving hopper and the quantity of the hardener fed from the hardener hopper are controlled. The sludge deposit is mixed and kneaded with the hardener, and the sludge deposit is solidified.

Apparatus for treatment of sludge deposit

A method for constructing a tubular pile foundation in soft soil formations comprises agitating the soft soil to form an agitated region like a tube with single annular section or tubes with conjugated annular section at a time, injecting chemical hardener and mixing it with the soft soil to solidify the agitated region in situ into a tubular pile or conjugated tubular piles. By repeating the foregoing steps, the structural wall of piles is constructed to provide bearing capacity with the soft soil formations.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Atsushi Takagi