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:
Mar. 18, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 05, 1998
Roy D. Allen, Burlington, MA (US);
David J. Romano, Lowell, MA (US);
Stephen C. Hinds, Andover, MA (US);
Agfa Corporation, Wilmington, MA (US);
Abstract
A visual sensor has a first portion and a second portion. The sensor is able to detect the state of one or more imaging parameters such as exposure setting, pulse width modulation, focus, balance, spot ellipticity, sidelobe size, shape, and intensity, media gamma, edge sharpness, dot gain, uniformity, ink receptivity, physical changes in the media, pattern dependent effects such as dot gain or tone resolution compared to the type of halftone used, and sensitivity to calibrated position or exposure errors. The first image portion has a first imaging characteristic, and the second image portion has a second imaging characteristic. Imaging characteristics are characteristics of an image, including, but not limited to apparent density level, tint, color, reflectivity, absorption, granularity or microstructure, size, shape, distribution, degree of randomness, structure, edge sharpness, and depth or dimension. One of the portions is less sensitive to one or more imaging parameters than the other portion so that the first image portion and the second image portion appear substantially similar at a desired range of imaging parameters, and appear different otherwise. The imaging characteristic of the first portion is distinguishable from the imaging characteristic of the second portion for one or more ranges of one or more imaging parameters, and is not distinguishable for the alternate range(s) of the one or more imaging parameters. A range can be a particular imaging parameter value, or a range that excludes one or more imaging parameter values.