This invention relates in general to the photofinishing industry and more particularly to methods and apparatus intended to minimize the possibility of producing inferior and unacceptable fulfillment, such as prints, from developed negatives.
There now exist, in the photo industry, non-conventional films and development processes, which are employed for advantageous reasons, such as reducing the development time.
In the conventional optical printing process, the sensitized print paper is exposed by a light source that has shown through the negative. This method relies on very specific exposure reaction curves designed into the emulsions of the negative film, its development process, and the coatings on the print paper, so that the combination of negative, print paper, and illumination source produces a print that is faithful in its representation of the original scene that was photographed. All processes must therefore be closely adhered to, particularly the development of the negative.
With the advent of digital printing methods and apparatus, much greater control during the printing phase is possible. This in turn has allowed deviation from conventional film and the conventional development process. With this enablement, the developed film is scanned, converting the image information into electronic form, and the fulfillment, for example producing a print, is done separately. In the interim, with the image information represented as digital data, the image can be corrected for the effects of a non-conventional film and/or development. With these methods, the developed negatives are considered to be ‘Scan-Only’, because they will produce inferior or unacceptable results if prints are subsequently produced by the conventional optical printing method. Such poor results cause disappointment for the consumer. The consumer may not accept such prints, further resulting in wasted time and materials for the fulfillment provider. Therefore, there is a need to easily identify such scan-only negatives to avoid optically printing from them.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a processed photosensitive media having an image thereon, which is designed to have the image digitally scanned and manipulated in accordance with a specific algorithm prior to being printed and/or displayed, the media having directly associated therewith an indicia that the media is designed to be scanned and digitally manipulated in accordance with the algorithm for printing and/or display.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for printing and/or displaying images obtained by scanning a photosensitive media that has been processed, comprising the steps of:
automatically analyzing the photosensitive media so as to determine if a notice is present that the media has been processed in accordance with a non-conforming development system;
scanning the photo sensitive media so as to obtain a digital record of the image provided thereon if the notice is present;
manipulating the digital record in accordance with a predetermined algorithm if it has been found that the media has been processed in accordance with a non-conforming development system;
printing and/or displaying the digital image that has been manipulated in accordance with the algorithm.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for printing or displaying an image obtained from scanning a photosensitive media having an image thereon, comprising the steps of:
automatically analyzing the photosensitive media to determine if the photosensitive media has been processed in accordance with a non conforming development system such that the photosensitive media is not appropriate for optical printing;
scanning the photosensitive media so as to obtain a digital record of the image;
applying an algorithm to the digital record if the image has been processed in accordance with a non-conforming development system such that the images obtained can be printed or displayed in a normal condition.
These and other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims and by reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention presented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which:
a is an illustration of a transmissive embodiment in an active state;
b is an illustration of the embodiment shown in
c is an illustration of a reflective embodiment, with the illuminator energized and a conventional film in place;
A non-conventional film or non-conventional development of a conventional film can cause the resulting densities of the negatives to be different than conventional film and processing.
This methodology can be used with all types of digital printing apparatus, e.g.: CRT printers, and those not using sensitized paper, such as Laser and Inkjet dye/pigment/wax Disposition, Thermal Dye Sublimation, and toner-fused Electro-Photographic.
However, when photo consumers later decide to have additional reprints made from their negatives, these scan-only negatives may not be easy to distinguish from conventional negatives by standard techniques such as visual observation, or DX code reading. The present invention discloses various methods that provide an indication of the type of film and/or development process that was used to produce the film negatives and that can be used to identify the appropriate algorithm needed to manipulate the image.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, establishments that develop exposed film also provide an identification service for identifying that the developed film is a scan-only film. This is accomplished by providing indicia on the film or the cassette containing the film, for example, but not limited to, a mark, sticker, coloring, exposure, or legend.
a shows a light gray stamping 24, of a legend identifying the contents as Digital process negatives, in the ‘notes’ area of the cassette label 26. The level of opacity of the ink allows it to not obscure original markings on said label, and the ink's lightness still allows the area to be used for written notes. In a similar embodiment,
Other embodiments of indicia locations include: on the negative's protective sleeve, on the index print, or on the outer envelope. The indication could be unique coloring for any of the packaging: cassette, protective sleeve, or outer envelope.
In another embodiment, staining or coating the scan-only developed film provides the indication. Preferably, colorants that absorb light in the ultraviolet or in the infrared range can be applied to render the scan-only film opaque to such light. Suitable detecting apparatus is required to later detect this human-invisible marking for identifying that the film is a scan-only film. The detecting apparatus 31 in the embodiment illustrated by
Referring to
The relative states of the example of
c illustrates an alternate embodiment of detecting when a scan-only film has been provided for optical printing in accordance with the present invention. In this embodiment the same applied colorants that absorb in the ultraviolet or infrared as previously described are used, but detecting device does not require any optical element. In this embodiment the illumination device 32 and detector 34 are arranged such that the detector 34 receives a directed incident reflection of the illumination beam 40 off of the film 30. Stained, non-conventional negatives absorb the light of the beam sufficiently to keep the detector 34 in the ‘off’ state. Unstained, conventional negatives allow the reflection. This then provides the two states as just described for
In an alternate embodiment of the present invention there may not be provided an indicia or other notice that the film is a non-conventional film. For example the film may go through a pre-scan process and the image analyzed. For example, but not limited to, a histogram of the scanned images may be developed. By looking at the results of the histogram, it can be readily determined that the film is a non-conventional media that may require a different type of manipulation.
Alternatively, providing human-visible indication of a scan-only film may be advantageous, for example to allow manual segregation of conventional and non-conventional negatives. Therefore, in another embodiment shown in
If these colorants are water soluble, they can be added to the last process solution, typically a water wash tank, in the film development apparatus (a typical film process used for developing exposed film), and thereby uniformly stain the processed film. This is useful if the process only generates scan-only film. If the process is also used to generate optical negatives as well, then the water soluble dyes could be sprayed only on the processed film that is not optically compatible thus providing a single processing sequence with the ability to selectively provide the indicia on the scan-only negatives.
In another embodiment, applying colorants/dyes/stains that are visible in normal light, for example along an edge of a film to identify it as scan-only, is possible and here disclosed, but not preferred because they may obscure manufacturer's markings, such as frame numbers, film speed, film type, etc.
In another embodiment that provides human-visible indication for 135 mm strip film, referring to
In another embodiment for APS [Advanced Photo System] film, machine-readable identification may be provided by writing to the magnetic coating, for later process determination. Indicated in
Since the reason for identifying these alternately-processed negatives is to prevent the uncorrectable error of making prints optically, the indicia might simply come to mean or state: “Scan-Only”, “Digital Print Only”, “Digital Only”, or just “Digital”, rather than identifying any specific non-conventional film and/or development process used.
The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the scope of the invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5025274 | Pagano | Jun 1991 | A |
5213372 | Kuo | May 1993 | A |
5477353 | Yamasaki | Dec 1995 | A |
5596202 | Arakawa | Jan 1997 | A |
5660925 | Cooley et al. | Aug 1997 | A |
5801856 | Moghadam et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
5808667 | Sugiyama | Sep 1998 | A |
5949551 | Miller et al. | Sep 1999 | A |
6027820 | O'Hagan et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
6297874 | Ikeda et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
6430372 | Ishihara et al. | Aug 2002 | B2 |
6490418 | Kamata et al. | Dec 2002 | B1 |
6515766 | Matama | Feb 2003 | B1 |
6584281 | Kamata | Jun 2003 | B2 |
6631011 | Fredlund et al. | Oct 2003 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
0 625 725 | Nov 1994 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20040050921 A1 | Mar 2004 | US |