Image processing apparatus, method, and storage medium for performing soft proof processing

• US 8,711,171 B2
• Filed: 07/05/2011
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Sano, Toshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): McCulley, Ryan D
• Application Number:
  US13/176,647
• Publication Number:
  US 20120032973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• Field of Search: 345/589, 345/593
• US Class Current: 345/593
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2003/467 Colour computing
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/504 Goniometric colour measurements, for example measurements of metallic or flake based paints
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/4711 Multiangle measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/575 Photogoniometering
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/251 Colorimeters; Construction thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4738 Diffuse reflection precedence is given to G01N21/55 - G01N21/57 if specular component is taken into consideration, e.g. also for testing fluids, fibrous materials
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/57 Measuring gloss
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/506 Illumination models
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2012 Colour editing, changing, or manipulating; Use of colour codes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/06 using colour palettes, e.g. look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6011 with simulation on a subsidiary picture reproducer H04N1/622 takes precedence; matching two or more picture reproducers H04N1/6052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6052 Matching two or more picture signal generators or two or more picture reproducers

Abstract

According to one aspect of the invention, an image processing apparatus includes: a lowpass filter generation unit configured to generate a lowpass filter corresponding to gonio-spectral reflection characteristics; a map generation unit configured to perform filter processing on intensity distribution of observation illumination in order to generate a map indicating a capture intensity distribution of observation illumination for a representative color; an intensity calculation unit configured to interpolate a capture intensity at a position corresponding to a pixel in the map in order to calculate a capture intensity of the observation illumination for the pixel; and a proofing color calculation unit configured to multiply the difference between a glossy component and a diffuse component by the capture intensity to calculate a proofing glossy component, and to add the diffuse component to the proofing glossy component in order to calculate a proofing color of the pixel.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus which performs soft proof processing of reproducing, on a monitor, a print product under observation illumination, comprising:

a characteristics holding unit configured to hold specular reflection of the observation illumination at a sample print product having a plurality of colors printed thereon as color-specific glossy components, diffuse reflection of the observation illumination at the sample print product as color-specific diffuse components, and color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics at the sample print product;

an evaluation value holding unit configured to hold an evaluation value for each of the held color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics;

an intensity distribution holding unit configured to hold an intensity distribution of the observation illumination;

a lowpass filter generation unit configured to obtain the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of a plurality of representative colors from said characteristics holding unit, and to generate a lowpass filter corresponding to the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of the representative colors, the representative colors corresponding to the evaluation values held in said evaluation value holding unit;

a map generation unit configured to perform filter processing on the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said intensity distribution holding unit, for each of the representative colors, by means of the lowpass filter corresponding to the representative color, in order to generate a map indicating a capture intensity distribution of observation illumination for the representative color;

an intensity calculation unit configured to obtain an evaluation value corresponding to a color of a pixel in a proofing-target image from said evaluation value holding unit, and to interpolate a capture intensity at a position corresponding to the pixel in the map for each of the representative colors, based on the evaluation value, in order to calculate a capture intensity of the observation illumination for the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image;

a proofing color calculation unit configured to obtain the glossy component and the diffuse component corresponding to a color of a pixel in the proofing-target image from said characteristics holding unit, to multiply the difference between the glossy component and the diffuse component by the capture intensity to calculate a proofing glossy component, and to add the diffuse component to the proofing glossy component in order to calculate a proofing color of the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image; and

a display image generation unit configured to convert the proofing color into a signal value for the monitor to generate a display image, for each pixel in the proofing-target image.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a virtual environment generation unit configured to generate a virtual environment, used to observe a print product of the proofing-target image, in accordance with the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said intensity distribution holding unit; and

an obtaining unit configured to obtain a specular reflection vector for a line-of-sight vector under the virtual environment, for each pixel in the proofing-target image,

wherein said intensity calculation unit determines a position corresponding to a pixel in the proofing-target image in the map for each of the representative colors, based on the specular reflection vector.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation value includes a full width at half maximum of the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics function which indicates a variance of the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as each unit of an image processing apparatus defined in claim 1 by executing the program by the computer.

4. An image processing apparatus which generates a proofed image used to reproduce, on a monitor, a print product under observation illumination, comprising:

a characteristics holding unit configured to hold specular reflection of the observation illumination at a sample print product having a plurality of colors printed thereon as color-specific glossy components, diffuse reflection of the observation illumination at the sample print product as color-specific diffuse components, and color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics at the sample print product;

an evaluation value holding unit configured to hold an evaluation value for each of the held color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics;

an intensity distribution holding unit configured to hold an intensity distribution of the observation illumination;

a characteristics calculation unit configured to obtain the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of a plurality of representative colors from said gloss characteristics holding unit, and to calculate gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for a color of each pixel in the proofing-target image by means of obtaining the evaluation value corresponding to the color of the pixel from said evaluation value holding unit, and interpolating the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of the representative colors, based on the evaluation value, the representative colors corresponding to the evaluation values held in said evaluation value holding unit

a lowpass filter generation unit configured to generate a lowpass filter corresponding to the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for a color of each pixel in the proofing-target image;

an intensity calculation unit configured to perform filter processing on the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said illumination intensity distribution holding unit, by means of the lowpass filter corresponding to a color of a pixel in the proofing-target image, in order to calculate a capture intensity distribution of the observation illumination for the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image;

a proofing color calculation unit configured to obtain the glossy component and the diffuse component corresponding to a color of a pixel in the proofing-target image from said characteristics holding unit, to multiply the difference between the glossy component and the diffuse component by the capture intensity to calculate a proofing glossy component, and to add the diffuse component to the proofing glossy component in order to calculate a proofing color of the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image; and

a display image generation unit configured to convert the proofing color into a signal value for the monitor to generate a display image, for each pixel in the proofing-target image.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a virtual environment generation unit configured to generate a virtual environment, used to observe a print product of the proofing-target image, in accordance with the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said intensity distribution holding unit; and

an obtaining unit configured to obtain a specular reflection vector for a line-of-sight vector under the virtual environment, for each pixel in the proofing-target image,

wherein said intensity calculation unit determines a position, in the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said intensity distribution holding unit, corresponding to a pixel in the proofing-target image, based on the specular reflection vector.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the evaluation value includes a full width at half maximum of the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics function which indicates a variance of the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics.

7. An image processing apparatus which generates a proofed image used to reproduce, on a monitor, a print product under observation illumination, comprising:

a characteristics holding unit configured to hold specular reflection of the observation illumination at a sample print product having a plurality of colors printed thereon as color-specific glossy components, diffuse reflection of the observation illumination at the sample print product as color-specific diffuse components, and color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics at the sample print product;

an intensity distribution holding unit configured to hold an intensity distribution of the observation illumination;

a lowpass filter generation unit configured to obtain the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of a plurality of representative colors from said gloss characteristics holding unit, and to generate a lowpass filter corresponding to the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics, where the representative colors include a plurality of colors in a color region of a proofing-target image;

a map generation unit configured to perform filter processing on the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said intensity distribution holding unit by means of the lowpass filter, in order to generate a map indicating a capture intensity distribution of observation illumination for the representative color, and to generate a table indicating a relationship between the representative color and the map, for each of the representative colors;

an intensity calculation unit configured to calculate a capture intensity of the observation illumination corresponding to a position and a color of a pixel in the proofing-target image by accessing up the table, for each pixel in the proofing-target image;

a proofing color calculation unit configured to obtain the glossy component and the diffuse component corresponding to a color of a pixel in the proofing-target image from said characteristics holding unit, to multiply the difference between the glossy component and the diffuse component by the capture intensity to calculate a proofing glossy component, and to add the diffuse component to the proofing glossy component in order to calculate a proofing color of the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image; and

a display image generation unit configured to convert the proofing color into a signal value for the monitor to generate a display image, for each pixel in the proofing-target image.

8. An image processing method for an image processing apparatus comprising a characteristics holding unit, an evaluation value holding unit, a lowpass filter generation unit, a map generation unit, an intensity calculation unit, a proofing color calculation unit, and a display image generation unit, wherein the image processing apparatus performs soft proof processing of reproducing, on a monitor, a print product under observation illumination, wherein:

said characteristics holding unit is configured to hold specular reflection of the observation illumination as color-specific glossy components, diffuse reflection of the observation illumination as color-specific diffuse components, and color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics;

said evaluation value holding unit is configured to hold an evaluation value for each of the held color-specific gonio-spectral reflection characteristics; and

said intensity distribution holding unit is configured to hold an intensity distribution of the observation illumination;

said method comprising;

a lowpass filter generation step of obtaining the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of a plurality of representative colors from said characteristics holding unit, and generating a lowpass filter corresponding to the gonio-spectral reflection characteristics for each of the representative colors, the representative colors corresponding to the evaluation values held in said evaluation value holding unit;

a map generation step of performing filter processing on the intensity distribution of the observation illumination held in said intensity distribution holding unit, for each of the representative colors, by means of the lowpass filter corresponding to the representative color, in order to generate a map indicating a capture intensity distribution of observation illumination for the representative color;

an intensity calculation step of obtaining an evaluation value corresponding to a color of a pixel in a proofing-target image from said evaluation value holding unit, and interpolating a capture intensity at a position corresponding to the pixel in the map for each of the representative colors, based on the evaluation value, in order to calculate a capture intensity of the observation illumination for the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image;

a proofing color calculation step of obtaining the glossy component and the diffuse component corresponding to a color of a pixel in the proofing-target image from said characteristics holding unit, multiplying the difference between the glossy component and the diffuse component by the capture intensity to calculate a proofing glossy component, and adding the diffuse component to the proofing glossy component in order to calculate a proofing color of the pixel, for each pixel in the proofing-target image; and

a display image generation step of converting the proofing color into a signal value for the monitor to generate a display image, for each pixel in the proofing-target image.