Dynamic threshold based error diffusion

• US 10,602,020 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2016
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gondek, Jay S, Quintana, Jason M, Shepherd, Matthew A
• Primary Examiner(s): Rogers, Scott A
• Application Number:
  US16/337,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20200036861A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/2056 by ink density change
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4053 with threshold modulated relative to input image data or vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4092 Edge or detail enhancement

Abstract

In some examples, dynamic threshold based error diffusion may include determining whether a pixel associated with a pattern to be printed includes a lighter tone or a darker tone compared to an adjacent pixel. In response to a determination that the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone or the darker tone compared to the adjacent pixel, a firing threshold may be respectively increased or decreased to respectively decrease or increase a likelihood of printing of the pattern.

Claims

1. A dynamic threshold based error diffusion apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing machine readable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

determine whether a pixel associated with a pattern to be printed includes a lighter tone, a darker tone, or a similar tone compared to an adjacent pixel, wherein the similar tone represents a tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed that is within a specified range of a tone of the adjacent pixel;

in response to a determination that the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the similar tone compared to the adjacent pixel, utilize a firing threshold to determine whether to print the pattern; and

in response to a determination that the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone or the darker tone compared to the adjacent pixel, respectively increase or decrease the firing threshold to respectively decrease or increase a likelihood of printing of the pattern.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pattern includes a dot associated with the pixel.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the machine readable instructions to utilize the firing threshold to determine whether to print the pattern when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

determine whether the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the firing threshold; and

in response to a determination that the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the firing threshold, generate instructions to print the pattern.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the machine readable instructions to determine whether the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone compared to the adjacent pixel when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

determine whether

the tone of the adjacent pixel on one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than a value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus an edge threshold, or

a tone of another adjacent pixel on another side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold; and

in response to a determination that the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold, or

in response to a determination that the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold,

increase the firing threshold to decrease the likelihood of printing of the pattern.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed represents a pixel to a left side or above the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed, and the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed respectively represents a pixel to a right side or below the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the machine readable instructions to determine whether the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the darker tone compared to the adjacent pixel when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

determine whether

the tone of the adjacent pixel on one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than a value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus an edge threshold, or

a tone of another adjacent pixel on another side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold; and

in response to a determination that the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold, or

in response to a determination that the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold,

decrease the firing threshold to increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed represents a pixel to a left side or above the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed, and the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed respectively represents a pixel to a right side or below the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the machine readable instructions to determine whether the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone, the darker tone, or the similar tone compared to the adjacent pixel when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

analyze a row of an image including a plurality of pixels including the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed by determining whether

the tone of the adjacent pixel on one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than a value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus an edge threshold,

a tone of another adjacent pixel on another side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold,

the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than a value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold, or

the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold;

in response to a determination that the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold, or

in response to a determination that the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold,

increase the firing threshold to decrease the likelihood of printing of the pattern;

in response to a determination that the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold, or

in response to a determination that the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold,

decrease the firing threshold to increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern; and

analyze further rows of the image by reversing, for each further row, an order of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed and the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed.

9. A method for dynamic threshold based error diffusion comprising:

determining, by a processor, whether a pixel associated with a pattern to be printed includes a lighter tone, a darker tone, or a similar tone compared to an adjacent pixel, wherein the similar tone represents a tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed that is within a specified range of a tone of the adjacent pixel;

in response to a determination that the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the similar tone compared to the adjacent pixel, utilizing a firing threshold to determine whether to print the pattern by

determining whether the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the firing threshold, and

in response to a determination that the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the firing threshold, generating instructions to print the pattern; and

in response to a determination that the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone or the darker tone compared to the adjacent pixel, respectively increasing or decreasing the firing threshold to respectively decrease or increase a likelihood of printing of the pattern.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein determining whether the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone compared to the adjacent pixel further comprises:

determining whether

the tone of the adjacent pixel on one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than a value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus an edge threshold, or

a tone of another adjacent pixel on another side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold, wherein the edge threshold is adjusted based on the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed; and

in response to a determination that the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold, or

in response to a determination that the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is greater than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed plus the edge threshold,

increasing the firing threshold to decrease the likelihood of printing of the pattern.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein determining whether the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the darker tone compared to the adjacent pixel further comprises:

determining whether

the tone of the adjacent pixel on one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than a value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus an edge threshold, or

a tone of another adjacent pixel on another side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold; and

in response to a determination that the tone of the adjacent pixel on the one side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold, or

in response to a determination that the tone of the other adjacent pixel on the other side of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed is less than the value determined by the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed minus the edge threshold,

decreasing the firing threshold to increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon machine readable instructions to provide dynamic threshold based error diffusion, the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause a processor to:

determine whether a pixel associated with a pattern to be printed includes a lighter tone or a darker tone compared to an adjacent pixel or a set of adjacent pixels; and

in response to a determination that the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed includes the lighter tone or the darker tone compared to the adjacent pixel or the set of adjacent pixels, respectively increase or decrease a firing threshold to respectively decrease or increase a likelihood of printing of the pattern.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 12, wherein the machine readable instructions to increase or decrease the firing threshold to respectively decrease or increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern, when executed, further cause the processor to:

increase or decrease the firing threshold by a percentage that corresponds to a difference between a tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed and a tone of the adjacent pixel or the set of adjacent pixels, or a difference between the tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed and a tone of another adjacent pixel or another set of adjacent pixels to respectively decrease or increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 12, wherein the machine readable instructions to increase or decrease the firing threshold to respectively decrease or increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern, when executed, further cause the processor to:

increase or decrease the firing threshold by a percentage that corresponds to a tone of the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed to respectively decrease or increase the likelihood of printing of the pattern.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 12, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

determine, for the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed, whether the firing threshold is increased or whether the firing threshold is decreased;

in response to a determination, for the pixel associated with the pattern to be printed, that the firing threshold is increased or that the firing threshold is decreased, determine, for a next pixel associated with the pattern to be printed, a change in the firing threshold based on a determination of whether the firing threshold is decreased or whether the firing threshold is increased;

determine a run limit associated with the firing threshold; and

in response to a determination of the change in the firing threshold, maintain the firing threshold for the run limit for a number of pixels corresponding to the run limit.