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:
Apr. 15, 1997
Filed:
Jun. 27, 1995
Ryuji Oomoto, Nagano, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In the case of a 4-fold density image, for example, 2-pixel areas in the 4-fold density image which are adjacent to each other are allocated with one 4-bit compression code, respectively. In this case, the possible patterns which can be produced by the 8-dot pattern of the 2-pixel area are limited to 16 kinds of patterns in which there is one or less black and white change. With respect to 2-bit portions of 4-bit compression codes which correspond to pixels, correspondence relationships between 2-bit portions and 4-dot patterns are set so that, when a 2-bit portion is inverted or converted into '11' in all bits or '00' in all bits, also the 4-dot pattern of the corresponding pixel is similarly inverted or converted into a pattern of all white dots or all black dot. Next, by combining the correspondence relationships of the 2-bit portions, 12 kinds of correspondence relationships between 4-bit compression codes and 8-dot patterns of two pixels are produced. With respect to four dot patterns to which the relationships cannot be applied, furthermore, relationships between the patterns and compression codes are set so that, when a compression code is inverted, also the 8-dot pattern is inverted. A 4-fold density image is represented by using the 16 kinds of compression codes.