Seiko Epson Corporation

Kiyoaki Murai

Hidekuni Moriya

Masanori Ishida

Takashi Kurumisawa

Nobuhiro Karito

Toshiyuki Hattori

Ryuji Oomoto

Jun Takeuchi

Akio Nagai

A printing apparatus includes: a first head which has a plurality of nozzles arranged at a first pitch in a predetermined direction; a second head which has a plurality of nozzles arranged at a second pitch larger than the first pitch in the predetermined direction and which is spaced from the first head by a predetermined distance in a direction intersecting the predetermined direction; and a controller which controls the first and second heads so that only the first head prints the contour of a character or a line image and at least the second head prints a portion of the character or the line image other than the contour, when a print image is the character or the line image.

Printing apparatus, printing method, and program

A printing apparatus includes a line head which includes first and second basic heads each having a plurality of nozzles in a predetermined direction and in which the first and second basic heads are arranged in the predetermined direction so as to form an overlapping section in the predetermined direction and a controller which controls the first and second basic heads when at least one of a print medium and the line head moves in a direction intersecting the predetermined direction and which controls the first and second basic heads so as to print the contour of a character or a line image by using only one of the first and second basic heads when the character or the line image is contained in an image printable by the overlapping section.

An electro-optical device drives a plurality of pixels to represent gray scale levels based on effective voltages by dividing one frame into a plurality of fields, and includes a calculating unit that receives image data specifying gray scale values in each frame for each pixel. A voltage pattern determining unit that determines to supply a first effective voltage shifted in a variation direction, rather than a voltage according to a gray scale value specified in the image data of a later frame of the adjacent frames, in a previous field of the plurality of fields in the later frame, while determining to supply a second effective voltage shifted in a direction opposite the variation direction, rather than the voltage according to the gray scale value specified in the image data of the later frame, in a later field of the plurality of fields in the later frame, for the pixel.

Electro-optical device and circuit for driving electro-optical device to represent gray scale levels

The invention provides an image processing device that reduces flickering on a screen by simplifying the structure of an image processing device. The image processing device can include a statistical value calculating unit, a correction parameter calculating unit, and an image correcting unit. The statistical value calculating unit can generate statistical value data. The correction parameter calculating unit equalizes the statistical value data using the low pass filter whose time constant changes according to whether change occurs in the scene, thereby generating the correction parameter. A look-up table is generated based on the correction parameter.

Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing program

The invention provides an image processing device capable of reducing flickering on a screen by simplifying the structure of an image processing device. The image processing device can include a statistical value calculating unit, a correction parameter calculating unit, and an image correcting unit. The statistical value calculating unit can generate statistical value data. The correction parameter calculating unit generates a control signal in accordance with the degree of change in the scene thereby generating a correction parameter by using a low pass filter whose time constant changes based on the control signal and equalizing the statistical value data. A look-up table can then be generated based on the correction parameter.

The invention provides an easy and simple method of converting the resolution of image data, which is capable of generating the high-resolution image data without incongruity, does not make a circuit in the display device complicated and does not increase the power consumption. This invention can include a portable terminal device, such as a mobile telephone or a PDA, that processes and displays image data transmitted from the outside. Image data with a plurality of grayscales can be displayed by controlling the display state of each pixel in a display unit in accordance with grayscale control pulses corresponding to the number of grayscales. For example, when a 64 grayscale display is performed, a grayscale level is defined using sixty four grayscale control pulses. Thus, it is possible to emit light from pixels in the display unit by sixty four grayscale levels. Further, the resolution converting device can generate pseudo-high-resolution image data obtained by increasing the number of pixels of original image data by n multiplication and by reducing the number of grayscales of the original image data to 1/n. When displaying the pseudo-high-resolution image data, the number of grayscale control pulses is changed to 1/n by a halftone controller. That is, in the pseudo-high-resolution image data, the number of grayscales is 1/n. Therefore, the number of grayscale control pulses used for halftone display may be 1/n in accordance with the number of grayscales. Therefore, the low-resolution image data can be displayed without incongruity by converting the resolution, also, it is possible to reduce power consumption of the display unit by the reduced amount of the number of grayscale levels pulses.

Image display device, image display method, and image display program

The invention naturally enhances the sharpness of an image by performing appropriate sharpness processing. An image processing device receives input original image data, performs sharpness processing, and outputs correction image data. Specifically, the degree of the level change is detected from the original image data, and correction-reference-amount data, which provides a reference to determine the degree of sharpness correction, is determined based on the degree of the detected level change. Meanwhile, the relationship between correction amount by which the sharpness correction is performed and the correction reference amount is defined by a predetermined correction-amount characteristic pattern. The correction-amount calculating device calculates an adequate correction amount in accordance with the correction-amount characteristic pattern, and the sharpness processing means performs sharpness processing on the original image data in accordance with the correction amount. In this case, the correction determining pattern has a characteristic that the correction amount varies in accordance with the magnitude of the correction reference amount. Thus, in accordance with a level change in the original image data, the sharpness correction is performed by an adequate correction amount, which can sharpen the original image data to an adequate degree.

Image processing device and image outputting device

The present invention provides an image processing device that does not convert image data into a grayscale value which may cause defects in the displayed images, such as flickering or fluctuation, when performing color reduction/pseudo-halftone processing to convert the data into data which can be displayed on the color LCD panel (). Alternatively, the frequency of occurrence of such a grayscale value can be reduced. The present invention thereby prevents a decrease in the display quality of an image output apparatus in advance by processing data supplied to the image output apparatus, such as a color LCD panel.

Image processing method, image processing apparatus, electronic device, image processing program, and recording medium on which the same program is recorded

A plurality of conversion tables are stored in a computer. Color image data are converted into a specific data form expressible with inks provided in a printing apparatus in the following manner. The procedure first selects a conversion table corresponding to a current printing condition of image among the plurality of conversion tables stored in the computer and stores the selected conversion table into a memory of a data converter. The procedure then supplies color image data of interest to be printed to the data converter and refers to the conversion table stored in the memory, so as to convert the color image data. The procedure accordingly enables the conversion table corresponding to the current printing condition to be read from the computer for the use. This arrangement does not require a large number of conversion tables to be stored in the data converter, but enables conversion of the image data by referring to an appropriate conversion table, thereby attaining high picture-quality image printing, regardless of the printing condition.

Data converter, computer, and printer

When an N-times density binary image having N+1 tones is compressed, only the tone of each pixel is converted into a compressed code. The compressed code has a number of bits necessary and sufficient to distinguish between the tones. When a triple-density image having 4 tones is compressed, for example, the tone of each pixel is converted into a 2-bit compressed code. When the original N-times density is restored from the compressed code, there is formed a dot pattern in which the number of dots corresponding to the tone, as represented by the compressed code of each pixel, are situated closer to the darker one of the two adjoining pixels.

Apparatus and method for compressing and restoring binary image having

Character pattern transforming system providing a character pattern whose size can be reduced or enlarged with an optional scale factor includes a gray scale device providing a plurality of values per pixel for adjusting the gray scale associated with the character pattern. The system further includes a pixel positioning circuit for determining the position of each pixel of the reduced or enlarged character pattern and a pixel coloring circuit for determining which of the pixels in the reduced or enlarged character pattern is to be colored based on the gray scale data. The thickness of the vertical lines of the transformed character pattern can be adjusted following enlargement or reduction of the character pattern. A detector circuit identifies right angle corners of the original character pattern to ensure that such right angle corners are maintained in the transformed character pattern.

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Matsumoto, Japan

Kiyoaki Murai