Image processing device and image processing method

• US 8,406,295 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2010
• Issued: 03/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Ishikawa, Hisashi
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLDER, ANNER N
• Application Number:
  US12/971,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20110085207A1
• Time in Patent Office: 830 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240.2
• US Class Current: 375/240.03
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/52 Circuits or arrangements for halftone screening

Abstract

The present invention provides an image processing method and device which can both quickly and easily execute a pseudo halftone process with a large number of output gray levels and which can always execute the pseudo halftone process in the same manner regardless of the number of output gray scales. The present invention provides an image processing device that executes a pseudo halftone process on multivalued image data comprising a plurality of planes, the device including a component executing quantization and outputting for each of the plurality of density components, a component determining a correction value on the basis of a sign of a quantization error in each plane and a comparison of a sum of the quantization errors with a predetermined threshold, and a component correcting a value of the quantization output using the correction value and diffusing the quantization value.

Claims

1. An image processing device that executes a pseudo halftone process on multivalued image data comprising a plurality of planes, the device comprising:

a component allowing image data with a plurality of planes to be input to the device;

a component weighting a quantization error near a target pixel for each of the plurality of planes;

a adding component adding the weighted quantization error to the input image data;

a component setting a threshold for each of the plurality of planes;

a plurality of quantizing components quantizing the input image data based on the set threshold for each of the plurality of planes;

a first quantization error calculating component calculating a plurality of quantization errors resulting from the quantizing process of the quantizing component;

a component generating a correction value on the basis of signs of the calculated plurality of quantization errors, a sum of the plurality of quantization errors and the predetermined threshold;

a component correcting the output from the quantizing component using the correction value; and

a second quantization error calculating component calculating a quantization error from the corrected output from the quantizing component and inputting the calculation to the component weighting the quantization error.

2. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein the correction-value generating component generates the correction value in a case where quantization errors in at least two planes have the same sign.

3. The image processing device of claim 2, wherein the correction value is +1 or 0 if the signs of the quantization errors are the same and positive, or is −

1 or 0 if the signs of the quantization errors are the same and negative.

4. The image processing device of claim 3, wherein if the signs of the quantization errors are the same and positive, when a sum of pre-correction quantization errors is larger than a threshold, the correction value is +1 for one of the planes with quantization errors having the same sign which has the maximum quantization error, and is 0 for the other planes, or when the sum of the pre-correction quantization errors is at most the threshold, the correction value is 0 for all the planes.

5. The image processing device of claim 3, wherein if the signs of the quantization errors are the same and negative, when an absolute value of the sum of the pre-correction quantization errors is larger than a product of a value obtained by subtracting the threshold from a quantizing step, the correction value is −

1 for one of the planes with quantization errors having the same sign which has the minimum quantization error, and is 0 for the other planes, or when the absolute value of the sum of the pre-correction quantization errors is at most the product of the value obtained by subtracting the threshold from the quantizing step, the correction value is 0 for all the planes.

6. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein if quantization output codes are beyond their range as a result of the correction, the quantization output codes are corrected in a descending order of closeness of the threshold-variation-corrected quantization errors in the planes with quantization errors having the same sign, to the threshold-variation-corrected quantization error in the plane to be corrected, or if all the quantization output codes in the planes with quantization errors having the same sign are beyond their range as a result of the correction, the quantization output codes are corrected in the descending order of closeness of the threshold-variation-corrected quantization to the threshold-variation-corrected quantization error in the plane to be corrected, or if all the quantization output codes are beyond their range as a result of the correction, the correction is not executed.

7. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of planes is separated into dot components having the same color but different dot diameters.

8. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of planes is separated into dot components having the same color but different densities.

9. An image processing method of executing a pseudo halftone process on multivalued image data comprising a plurality of planes, comprising the steps of:

allowing image data with a plurality of planes to be input;

weighting a quantization error near a target pixel for each of the plurality of planes;

adding the weighted quantization error to the input image data;

setting a threshold for each of the plurality of planes;

quantizing the input image data based on the set threshold for each of the plurality of planes;

calculating a plurality of quantization errors resulting from the quantizing process in the quantizing step;

generating a correction value on the basis of signs of the calculated plurality of quantization errors, a sum of the plurality of quantization errors and the predetermined threshold;

correcting the quantization output using the correction value; and

calculating a quantization error from the corrected quantization output.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a program to direct a computer to execute the steps of:

allowing image data with a plurality of planes to be input to the computer;

weighting a quantization error near a target pixel for each of the plurality of planes;

adding the weighted quantization error to the input image data;

setting a threshold for each of the plurality of planes;

quantizing the input image data based on the set threshold for each of the plurality of planes;

calculating a plurality of quantization errors resulting from the quantizing process in the quantizing step;

generating a correction value on the basis of signs of the calculated plurality of quantization errors, a sum of the plurality of quantization errors and the predetermined threshold;

correcting the quantization output using the correction value; and

calculating a quantization error from the corrected quantization output.