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:
Jun. 24, 2003
Filed:
May. 31, 2001
Hitoshi Sato, Tokyo, JP;
Copyer Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method and device for image processing free from full loss of an entire vector in a halftone image relatively low in density. An N*N mask matrix is generated for a given density, based on an N*N dither matrix used in an area gradation method which represents a halftone image with binary (bi-level) image data from multi-level image data. In a case of N*N mask matrix relatively low in density, rearrangements on a column and row basis are performed (N*N−1) times to generate (N*N−1) number of N*N mask matrices which are then combined with the original N*N mask matrix to form an (N*N)*(N*N) mask matrix. Thus, for a halftone image relatively low in density, a binary halftone image is generated via the (N*N)*(N*N) mask matrix from multi-level image data.