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. 09, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 19, 2005
Ichiro Furuki, Tokyo, JP;
Keiki Yamada, Tokyo, JP;
Ichiro Furuki, Tokyo, JP;
Keiki Yamada, Tokyo, JP;
Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention aims to provide an image enhancement device of a thermal printer which can obtain a corrected image with high quality even if quantity of thermal storage to obtain recording density necessary for target gradation data is excessive or insufficient due to thermal history. The image enhancement device of the thermal printer according to the present invention includes: a thermal storage quantity computing unit for computing quantity of thermal storage which affects a heater element of a thermal head using past record; a thermal storage quantity memory unit for storing the quantity of thermal storage computed; a threshold value table having a threshold value which is determined based on input data; a thermal storage quantity discriminating unit for comparing the quantity of thermal storage with the threshold value of the threshold value table; and a correction quantity computing unit for computing correction quantity from the quantity of thermal storage according to comparison result, for obtaining subtraction correction data by subtracting the correction quantity from the input data when the quantity of thermal storage is greater than the threshold value, and for obtaining addition correction data by adding the correction quantity to the input data when the quantity of thermal storage is equal to or less than the threshold value.