Pixel image enhancement system and method
First Claim
1. A computational method for converting a digitized source color image, containing at least three different colors contiguously disposed, into a second electronic color image of different effective spatial resolution, comprising:
- forming a scanned sequence of examination windows into said digitized color image, said examination windows being at least three pixels high and at least three pixels wide;
defining a corresponding scanned sequence of elemental inferral areas smaller than, and substantially centered within, said examination windows;
computing, in response to the pixels within the examination windows, at least one inferred-edge piece within at least some of said elemental inferral areas by separately computing unoriented inferred-edge pieces and separately computing an orientation to be applied to said unoriented inferred-edge prices; and
combining the said inferred-edge pieces within at least one said elemental inferral-area, with color data from the source color image, to produce one elemental unit of said second electronic color image.
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Abstract
A pixel image enhancement system which operates on color or monochrome source images to produce output cells the same size as the source pixels but not spatially coincident or one-to-one correspondent with them. By operating upon a set of input pixels surrounding each output cell with a set of logic operations implementing unique Boolean equations, the system generates "case numbers" characterizing inferred-edge pieces within each output cell. A rendering subsystem, responsive to the case numbers and source-pixel colors, then produces signals for driving an output device (printer or display) to display the output cells, including the inferred-edge pieces, to the best of the output device'"'"'s ability and at its resolution.
142 Citations
58 Claims
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1. A computational method for converting a digitized source color image, containing at least three different colors contiguously disposed, into a second electronic color image of different effective spatial resolution, comprising:
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forming a scanned sequence of examination windows into said digitized color image, said examination windows being at least three pixels high and at least three pixels wide; defining a corresponding scanned sequence of elemental inferral areas smaller than, and substantially centered within, said examination windows; computing, in response to the pixels within the examination windows, at least one inferred-edge piece within at least some of said elemental inferral areas by separately computing unoriented inferred-edge pieces and separately computing an orientation to be applied to said unoriented inferred-edge prices; and combining the said inferred-edge pieces within at least one said elemental inferral-area, with color data from the source color image, to produce one elemental unit of said second electronic color image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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51. A computational method for converting a digitized source color image, containing at least three different colors contiguously disposed, into a second electronic color image of different effective spatial resolution, comprising:
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forming a scanned sequence of examination windows into said digitized color image, said examination windows being at least three pixels high and at least three pixels wide; defining a corresponding scanned sequence of elemental inferral areas smaller than, and substantially centered within, said examination windows; computing, in response to the pixels within the examination windows, at least one inferred-edge piece within at least some of said elemental inferral areas, said computing comprising selecting from among a predefined set of inferred-edge pieces, said selecting comprising detecting major subfeatures shared by a plurality of candidate inferred-edge pieces within the set of inferred-edge pieces; and combining the said inferred-edge pieces within at least one said elemental inferral-area, with color data from the source color image, to produce one elemental unit of said second electronic color image. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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58. A computational method for converting a digitized source color image, containing at least three different colors contiguously disposed, into a second electronic color image of different effective spatial resolution, comprising:
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forming a scanned sequence of examination windows into said digitized color image, said examination windows being at least three pixels high and at least three pixels wide; defining a corresponding scanned sequence of elemental inferral areas smaller than, and substantially centered within, said examination windows; computing, in response to the pixels within the examination windows, at least one inferred-edge piece within at least some of said elemental inferral areas; and combining the said inferred-edge pieces within at least one said elemental inferral-area, with color data from the source color image, to produce one elemental unit of said second electronic color image; and repeating the foregoing steps to form the second electonic image, where the resolution of the source color image is the same as the nominal resolution of an output device and the said elemental units of said second electronic color image are positioned on scan lines halfway between the scan lines of said computed elemental inferral-areas.
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Specification