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. 18, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 06, 1998
Tetsuya Suzuki, Nagano, JP;
Sunao Murata, Hokkaido, JP;
Toshiaki Isobe, Nagano, JP;
Takeshi Miyashita, Nagano, JP;
Shinji Nozawa, Nagano, JP;
Toshiyuki Hattori, Nagano, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
To convert gray-scale data of each pixel of image data into pulse-width data for each pixel, a RAM is provided. The RAM has nine pixel memory regions corresponding to nine pixels a to i for forming, for example, a 3.times.3 pixel matrix on the output image. In each of the pixel memory regions, there are stored pulse-width data items corresponding to values which are permitted for gray-scale data to have. Pulse-width data items in the pixel memory regions are slightly different from one another among pixel memory regions. Gray-scale data of each pixel of image data and address word composed of gray-scale data of each pixel of image data and coordinates of each pixel in the 3.times.3 matrix is supplied to the RAM. Thus, pulse-width data corresponding to gray-scale data is read from the pixel memory region so that a laser drive pulse having a pulse width corresponding to the read pulse-width data is generated.