METHOD FOR GENERATING RELIEF PRINTS

• US 20160193823A1
• Filed: 01/04/2016
• Published: 07/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Océ-Technologies B.V. (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Océ-Technologies B.V. (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: KLEIN KOERKAMP, Koen J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,457,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B41C 1/12 Multicolour formes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/54 Conversion of colour picture signals to a plurality of signals some of which represent particular mixed colours, e.g. for textile printing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/58 Edge or detail enhancement; Noise or error suppression, e.g. colour misregistration correction H04N1/62 takes precedence

Abstract

A method for generating a relief print on a substantially flat substrate, wherein palpable differences exist between a height of various parts of the relief print, by a printer configured to print a relief print in a number of passes includes defining a rasterized relief image, comprising customary color channels for indicating a color of each pixel and a height channel for indicating a height of each pixel of the rasterized relief image, determining a low spatial frequency height component in the height value of a pixel of the rasterized relief image, subtracting the determined low spatial frequency height component from the relative height value of a pixel of the rasterized relief image, resulting in a relative reduced height value, and printing the rasterized relief image by using the relative reduced height value. A printing system is configured to execute the method.

Claims

1. A method for generating a relief print on a substantially flat substrate, wherein palpable differences exist between a height of various parts of the relief print, by a printer configured to print a relief print in a number of passes, the method comprising the steps of:

a) defining a rasterized relief image, comprising customary color channels for indicating a color of each pixel and a height channel for indicating a height of each pixel of the rasterized relief image;

b) determining a low spatial frequency height component in the height value of a pixel of the rasterized relief image by applying a filter operation by means of a convex kernel;

c) subtracting the determined low spatial frequency height component from the height value of a pixel of the rasterized relief image resulting in a reduced height value; and

d) printing the rasterized relief image by using the reduced height value,

wherein the step of determining the low spatial frequency height component comprises the sub-steps of;

b1) moving the convex kernel over a plurality of positions in the rasterized relief image;

b2) for each position of the plurality of positions, determining a minimum height difference between the image height and the kernel height; and

b3) for each position of the plurality of positions, setting the low spatial frequency height component to the minimum height difference determined in step b2).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the low spatial frequency height component is applied to a plurality of pixel positions of the rasterized relief image, and the plurality of pixel positions is determined by a first step size of the filter operation in a first direction of the rasterized relief image perpendicular to a height direction and a second step size of the filter operation in a second direction of the rasterized relief image perpendicular to the height direction and not parallel to the first direction.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first step size and the second step size are equal in size.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first step size and the second step size are equal to the size of one pixel dimension.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of adapting the convex kernel by broadening the top of the convex kernel by the first step size in the first direction and by the second step size in the second direction.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein a three-dimensional representation of the convex kernel has a paraboloidal shape.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

e) dividing the rasterized relief image into a central region and an edge region, the edge region consisting of image pixels that are within a predetermined distance from an edge of the rasterized relief image;

f) applying the steps a)-d) to the central region of the rasterized relief image, for a pixel in the edge region;

g) determining a pixel in the central region closest to the pixel in the edge region;

h) subtracting the low spatial frequency height component of the closest pixel from the height value of the pixel in the edge region, resulting in a reduced height value for the pixel in the edge region; and

i) clipping the reduced height value for the pixel in the edge region to a zero height value, if the resulting reduced height for the pixel in the edge region has a negative value.

9. A computer program product, including computer readable code embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, said computer readable code comprising instructions for executing the steps of the method according to claim 1.

8. A print system configured to generate relief prints on a substantially flat substrate in a number of passes, wherein palpable differences exist between a height of various parts of the relief print, the print system comprising a print controller and a print engine, the print controller comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive a rasterized relief image, comprising customary color channels for indicating a color of each pixel and a height channel for indicating a height of each pixel of the rasterized relief image;

a determining unit configured to determine a low spatial frequency height component in the height channel of a pixel of the rasterized relief image by applying a filter operation by means of a convex kernel; and

a subtracting unit configured to subtract the determined low spatial frequency height component from the height of a pixel of the rasterized relief image resulting in a reduced height,

wherein the print engine is configured to print the rasterized relief image by taking the reduced height of the pixel into account, and

wherein the determining unit is configured to;

move the convex kernel over a plurality of positions in the rasterized relief image;

for each position of the plurality of positions, determine a minimum height difference between the image height and the kernel height; and

for each position of the plurality of positions, set the low spatial frequency height component to the determined minimum height difference.