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. 12, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 28, 1996
Manh Tang, Penfield, NY (US);
Keith A Hadley, Rochester, NY (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A method of calibrating optical sensors for a thermal printer (10) is disclosed. A thermal printer for printing color images which uses a dye donor web having a repeating series of spaced frames of yellow, magenta and cyan colored heat transferable dyes, apparatus for identifying the different color frames of each series uses a source of second light and a source of first light. The apparatus responds to the intensity of second and first source light which passes through a dye donor frame to identify that dye donor frame. A CPU adjusts a digital potentiometer attached to a photodetector to determine a series of values for a first dye donor frame. The procedure is repeated for a second series of values for a second dye donor frame. An absolute value of the different potentiometer values for the two dye donor frames is determined, and the CPU adjusts the potentiometer setting to the maximum value determined. In another embodiment, a midpoint value is determined for the color sensor, and upper and lower threshold values are determined. In yet another embodiment, similar calculations are obtained for a second photodetector and a second potentiometer.