Agfa-Gevaert Ag

Wolfgang Ruf

Eduard Wagensonner

Otto Stemme

Hermann Fuchsberger

Peter Lermann

Istvan Cocron

Friedrich Bestenreiner

Friedrich Jacob

Klaus Birgmeir

Theodor Huber

Josef Helmberger

Ulrich Krekeler

Josef Helburger

Thomas Landsiedel

A photographic scanner has a light source for illuminating a photographic original to be scanned and a sensor for detecting light which has passed through the original. The sensor has a single row of sensing cells, and the original is scanned by moving the sensor and the original relative to one another in a direction perpendicular to the row. An objective serves to focus light from the original on the sensing cells. Between the objective and the sensor is a protective glass sheet which overlies the sensor. A mask is interposed between the protective sheet and the sensor and has a slit in register with the row of sensing cells. The mask reduces the amount of scattered light reaching the sensing cells.

Photographic scanner with reduced susceptibility to scattering

An original to be copied is electrooptically scanned point-by-point. The resulting imaging signals are stored in a first memory and then forwarded to a first image processing unit where the signals are electronically corrected to enhance the image of the original. The corrected signals are loaded into a second memory. A portion of the corrected signals is recalled from the second memory and sent to a third memory. This portion of the corrected signals is then transmitted to a second image processing unit and thereafter converted into a low-resolution video image which can be inspected to determine image quality. If image quality is satisfactory, the contents of the second memory are sent to an exposure unit which prints a high-resolution image of the original on copy material. Imaging signals for a second original are loaded into the first memory as the contents of the second memory are recalled for printing. The second processing unit functions to adjust the video image so that it closely corresponds to the printed image of the original.

Method of and apparatus for copying originals in which an image to be

A colored original to be reproduced is scanned point-by-point in each of the three primary colors. The resulting imaging signals are processed to generate a luminance signal and a pair of chrominance signals. The luminance signal is branched into a high-pass filter channel and a low-pass filter channel. The high-pass portion of the luminance signal is amplified in accordance with a sublinear characteristic function which causes signals of small amplitude to be amplified to a greater degree than signals of large amplitude. The low-pass portion of the luminance signal is modified per a non-linear characteristic gradation function. The thus-modified high-pass and low-pass portions of the luminance signal are added to yield an enhanced luminance signal. The enhanced luminance signal is divided by the original luminance signal and each of the chrominance signals is multiplied by the resulting quotient. This automatially compensates for the changes in color saturation which accompany changes in brightness. After the multiplication, the chrominance signals are amplified in accordance with a sublinear characteristic function which causes signals of small amplitude to be amplified to a greater degree than signals of large amplitude. This characteristic function further has a form such that no additional ampification takes place beyond a predetermined threshold limit.

Method of electronically improving the sharpness and contrast of a

The dynamic random access memory for use in a video circuit scanning video images according to the interlaced scanning method and reproducing the images on monitors of different resolutions is described. The RAM memory is composed of as many RAM segments as there are graduations of picture elements available, each segment including a plurality of RAM chips determined by the minimum read/write cycle time and by the scanning cycle time. To speed up the addressing during the switchover from the low-resolution to a high-resolution reception, the memory is organized into two halves, for storing respectively signals pertaining to odd-numbered and even-numbered picture lines. In each half, the vertical columns are subdivided into groups of lines pertaining to a single video data word. The adjoining pairs of columns store the signals pertaining to corresponding pairs of consecutive video lines which, in each pair, are arranged one below the other. In this manner the access time in the memory during the low-resolution is made faster.

Arrangement of a dynamic random access memory

A color filtering device for a charge-coupled photoelectric converting device including a series of uniformly configured photoelectric converting elements which are sensitized by the filtering arrangement in the order of green, blue, green and red. The filtering arrangement includes a transparent filter carrier supporting a series of green, blue, green, red, blue, green, and so on, filtering elements. The active surface of each blue filtering element is equal to the active surface of the assigned photoelectric converting element. The green and red filtering elements are reduced in size in inverse proportion to the spectral sensitivity of the assigned photoelectric converting element. The resulting spacings between the elements are covered by an opaque masking layer, preferably of chromium.

Color filter arrangement for optoelectric converting devices

An electronic image scanner is disclosed in various embodiments. Scanning of an image is divided into a first reproduction phase and a second reproduction phase. In the first reproduction phase, a first half-frame of a video signal is developed. In the second reproduction phase, a second half-frame of the video signal is developed. By utilizing the invention herein, a flicker-free video signal can be developed from a motion picture film while maintaining resolution of the resultant video signal at the conventional television resolution standard of 625 lines per film frame.

Device for the electronic scanning of images

A galvanometric tilting-mirror scanning system shifts an image of an original projected onto a photodiode row in a direction transverse to such row. The tilting-mirror mechanism is provided with an oil-filled damping chamber, heated and maintained at stabilized temperature. The control voltage driving the tilting-mirror system includes a sawtooth component whose lower-slope flanks determine the mirror's scanning sweep; a negative pulse which effects mirror tiltback or flyback; a positive pulse which brakes the tiltback and accelerates the mirror back up to its forwards-direction scanning-sweep speed; and finally a corrective component. The corrective component has the form of a pulse which increases the slope of the sawtooth component's lower-slope flanks during a time interval extending beyond the system's vertical blanking allotment, to compensate the non-linearity in the motion of the mirror which would exist during its forwards-direction scanning-sweep interval in the absence of the corrective component.

Galvanometer-type tilting-mirror scanning system and circuit therefor

Super-8 motion-picture film is transported non-intermittently at constant speed, and its image is projected into an image plane in which is located a single row of photodiodes which extends transverse to the film transport direction. The photodiodes of the single photodiode-row are successively responsive to red, blue and green wavelengths. A bucket-brigade circuit or CCD including the photodiode-row furthermore includes a shift register which receives the photodiode signals in parallel, is then read out serially, with its output signal then time-division demultiplexed to obtain separate red, blue and green signals; or else three shift registers are used, each receiving signals only from those photodiodes responsive to a respective one of the three component colors. Whereas the photodiode-row is responsible for horizontal scanning, vertical scanning is achieved in part due to film transport per se and in part due to a tilting-mirror deflector which deflects the image projected onto the photodiode-row. The tilting-mirror deflector is a galvanometric moving-coil mechanism, and is energized by a sawtooth waveform to effect forwards scanning and abrupt vertical-direction flyback or tiltback, and is provided with special brief pulses for effecting abrupt direction reversals of the tilting mirror.

Electronic scanning of super-8 films for reproduction on a T.V. viewing

An analog-to-digital converter is disclosed which utilizes a successive approximation register. The operation of the successive approximation register is so controlled that any analog signal within a dynamic range requiring more bits than the successive approximation register can hold can nonetheless be accurately converted within a predetermined tolerance.

System for utilizing a conventional n-bit successive approximation

A projection and scanning system for synchronization of photographic film projection with vertical sync pulses is taught. In this system, developed photographic film is advanced into a projection gate which is larger than the vertical height of an individual photographic frame. As a given film frame passes through the projection gate, it is repeatedly scanned by a mirror and the projected image reflected onto a charge-coupled image sensor which can be used to provide information for a video signal. Perforations on the film enable pulses to be developed at a photocell which are a function of film speed. By processing these pulses, along with vertical sync pulses and appropriate control waveforms, accurate scanning of the film can be achieved, enabling video signals resulting in flickerless television transmissions to be generated.

Projection and scanning system for producing video signals from motion

A mechanical film drive utilizes a rotatable drive shaft which abuts a flat surface of motion picture film to be driven. The film is pinched between the drive shaft and a rubber idler roller, and the drive shaft can be coupled to and uncoupled from a speed-regulated drive motor by means of an electrically-operable clutch. A flywheel is driven by the motor. Since the inertia of the flywheel is much greater than the inertia of the drive shaft, clutch operation has only a negligible effect on drive speed, enabling film movement to be accomplished with a high degree of accuracy.

Mechanical film drive for driving motion picture film, particularly in

Light is directed from a source through a developed and travelling motion-picture film, to pass through a reproduction lens. This light is intercepted by a tilting mirror which reflects it back through the lens where it is intercepted by a stationary mirror and reflected onto an opto-electronic receiver for conversion into signals which permit showing of the film images on a television screen.

Optical reproducing device for a super-8 film reader

Pulses of radiation are emitted from the camera to the subject, reflected back to the camera, and incident upon two detectors. The successive pulses produced by the two detectors are applied to respective integrators which trip respective threshold circuits when and if their integral signals reach the threshold value. This inherently reduces detector and other noise present in the processing circuitry. A tolerance-range counter ascertains whether or not, after one threshold circuit is tripped, the other becomes tripped within a predetermined time interval.

Radiation-emissive focussing system with integration of the signals

During the ongoing course of the exposure, the aperture area increases linearly to a maximum value and then stays at the maximum value, the instantaneous amount of exposure light therefore changing correspondingly, even if the ambient-light level remains constant during the exposure. A pulse generator includes a photodetector exposed to ambient light and generates a pulse train of light-dependent repetition frequency, the pulses of which are counted by a light-totalizing counter which eventually generates a terminate-exposure signal. Ideally, the repetition frequency should increase steplessly and linearly, for maximum accuracy, or second best increase stepwise in small steps to approximate to a stepless linear increase, but in order to use an extremely low number of stepwise frequency changes, without loss of system accuracy, no attempt is made to per se keep the light-indicating repetition frequency accurate. Instead, the number and amounts of the repetition-frequency changes are so established that, when the repetition frequency is plotted against elapsed exposure time, it is proportional to a piecewise linearization of the time integral curve of the exposure-aperture surface area, the constituent straight-line segments of the linearization being confined within a predetermined error-of-total-exposure tolerance range. In the case of a linear increase of aperture size concluding in maximum size, this corresponding to a quadratic followed by a straight-line rise of the time integral of the exposure-aperture surface area, the requisite time integral curve, despite its complexity, can, for example, be implemented using as few as only three or even as few as two stepwise changes of repetition frequency, without loss of system accuracy.

Light totalizing system for photographic camera provided with a

An electric charge is created on a moving reproduction carrier by each of a plurality of electrodes extending in a line perpendicular to the direction of transport of the reproduction carrier. Each of the signals applied to the electrodes has an amplitude corresponding to the density of the corresponding point of the original. The charge created by the electrode has undesirable variations resulting from differences in the electrode characteristics and from differences in the amplifiers amplifying the signal before application to each electrode. After each charge distribution from a copy has been created, a test signal is supplied to the inputs of all amplifiers. This creates a test charge distribution on the reproduction carrier. After developing of the reproduction carrier the test line created by developing of the test charge distribution is scanned photoelectrically. A differential amplifier compares each of the so-scanned signals with a reference signal and furnishes an error signal as a function of the difference therebetween. The error signal is utilized to vary the gain of the amplifier associated with the electrode.

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Munich, Germany

Wolfgang Ruf