The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 17, 1994
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1993
David C Barton, Vancouver, WA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods are disclosed for improving output image quality and reducing processing time in digital halftoning systems. The direction of processing each scan line of a source image is selected with blue noise, rather than the tradional raster scan sequence, to reduce directional and start-up anomalies. Source image pixel gray values are adjusted by means of imposed matrices, prior to error diffusion, in order to minimize distracting patterns and other anomalies in the output image. Error diffusion threshold values are modulated with blue noise, and the average threshold value reduced to reduce start-up delay. Finally, error terms in the error diffusion process are diffused according to a new three-weight filter. The three-weight filter substantially reduces error diffusion processing time, without sacrificing output image quality when used in combination with the modulated error diffusion threshold values.