Method for Controlling Luminance of Transmissive Board and Transmissive Board

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for controlling luminance of transmissive board and a transmissive board the luminance of which is controlled.

BACKGROUND ART

The luminances of a transmissive board such as an instrument board for a vehicle sometimes varies depending on the position of a light source or the distance from the light source. As a method of equalizing the luminance, the following method has been already known (see the patent document 1 and the patent document 2). The method includes the step of photographing the front side of the transmissive board at the moment of transmissive illumination, then the image data of the board is converted to electric signals, the step of implementing the dots disassembly based on the information of the electric signals to make an original plate for printing, and the step of providing dots to a transmissive board based on the original plate for printing.

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60122947
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6361117
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Problem to be Solved by the Invention

However, as a screen printing is applied to the above mentioned method, an original plate for printing and a printing plate are required. That causes a lot of steps and high costs. Moreover, in the screen printing, the minimum dot-diameter of dot depends on the size of an opening of silk gauze used for the printing plate. Therefore, for controlling the luminance, such a tangled work, so-called ink toning, is needed, that the following steps are repeated several times trough a trial and error process: the step of printing on the board by using inks having different transmittance from each other, the step of illuminating and photographing the printed board, and the step of checking the state of the luminance. Accordingly, a great deal of time and workload are needed.

Therefore, the aim of the present invention is to provide a method for controlling luminance of a transmissive board at the moment of transmissive illumination in a short time at a low cost and a transmissive board the luminance of which is controlled by the method.

Means for Solving the Problem

The method of controlling luminance of the present invention is the method for controlling luminance, in which luminance as control object in luminance of a transmissive board at a moment of transmissive illumination is controlled to target luminance, the method has the steps: a rough control step of printing ink having a constant light transmittance on a front side or a back side of a part corresponding to luminance as the control object in the board repeatedly a maximum number times within such a range that the luminances do not exceed the target luminance, a minor control step of printing the ink on the front side or the back side of the part by controlling amount of the ink to be printed to a unit area in accordance with a luminance difference between the target luminance and the luminance as control object which is not eliminated in the rough control step, and thereby solving the above problems.

According to the present invention, as the ink having a constant light transmittance is printed to be laminated on the part corresponding to the luminance as control object in the rough control step, the light transmittance of the part can be increased in accordance with the laminated times by a predetermined ratio. Therefore, the luminance of control object can be made closer to the target luminance as much as possible. For a small range of luminance which can not be controlled by printing the ink as it is, the luminance can be controlled by controlling amount of the ink to be printed to a unit area in the minor control step. Finally, the luminance of control object can be equalized to the target luminance.

Therefore, the print type of the present invention is enough to control print area of ink to a unit area, and requires neither an original plate for printing nor a printing plate. Accordingly, the luminance control of the transmissive board can be implemented precisely and quickly. As the state of printing the ink on the front side or the back side of the transmissive board, the case where the ink is printed on the transmissive board directly and the case where the ink is printed on a construction mounted on the front side or the back side of the transmissive board are included. It does not matter which order of implementing the rough control step and the minor control step.

In the luminance of the transmissive board at the moment of transmissive illumination, a lowest luminance may be set as the target luminance, and all of the other luminances may be set as the control object luminance, and the other luminance may be controlled to the lowest luminance. In this case, all luminances of the transmissive board at the moment of transmissive illumination are equalized to the lowest luminance. Thereby, the transmissive board without variant luminance can be obtained.

In the present invention, the amount of ink to be printed to a unit area may be obtained based on ratio the luminance difference which is not eliminated to a maximum luminance range which can be controlled by printing the ink one time.

“based on ratio the luminance difference to a maximum luminance range which can be controlled by printing the ink one time” includes, as well as the case where the ratio is equal to a ratio of amount of the ink to be printed to the unit area, the case where there is a constant relationship between the ratio and the ratio of amount of the ink.

The method for controlling to equalize luminance of a transmissive board is a method for controlling luminance in which a luminance of a transmissive board at a moment of transmissive illumination is controlled equally by printing ink having a constant light transmittance on a front side or a back side of the transmissive board plural times, obtaining a maximum amount of ink by adding an integer and a ratio, the integer being a integer part of value obtained by dividing luminance difference between a highest luminance and a lowest luminance at the moment of transmissive illumination by a maximum luminance range which the ink can control by one-time print, and the ratio being a ratio of luminance difference which is not eliminated even if the ink is printed to the maximum luminance range repeated times of the integer, setting a lowest luminance as a criterion luminance for each time of print, bringing luminance to the criterion luminance, the luminance being included in a smaller luminance difference than the maximum luminance range to the criterion luminance, by controlling amount of the ink to be printed to a unit area in accordance with a ratio of the smaller luminance difference to the maximum luminance range, printing the ink as it is for not smaller luminance difference than the maximum luminance range, printing the ink repeatedly times of minimum integer over the maximum amount of the ink, and thereby the above problems can be solved.

According to the present invention, first, the maximum ink amount is obtained. The maximum ink amount is the amount of ink which is required to eliminate the luminance difference between the highest luminance and the lowest luminance of the transmissive board. The maximum ink amount can be obtained by adding the integer part of the value obtained by dividing the luminance difference between the highest luminance and the lowest luminance by the maximum luminance range and the ratio of the luminance difference which can not be controlled by printing the ink to the maximum luminance range repeatedly times of the integer. The maximum ink amount is equal to the amount of ink required to eliminate the luminance difference between the lowest luminance and the highest luminance in the case where the amount of ink required to eliminate the luminance difference of the maximum luminance range is set to 1. For example, in the case where the maximum ink amount is 3.2, it means that three times of printing the ink as it is and one time of printing the ink with the ink amount of 0.2 in the case where a normal amount of ink is set to 1. Therefore, the minimum integer which is equal and more than the maximum ink amount is the necessary times of printing the ink

Next, in each turn of printing, for the smaller luminance difference than the maximum luminance range to the criterion luminance, the luminance corresponding to the smaller luminance difference is made the criterion luminance by controlling the amount to be printed. On the other hand, for the more luminance difference than the maximum luminance range, the ink is printed as it is. Thereby, all luminances within the maximum luminance range are made the criterion luminance, that is, the lowest luminance in the printing turn. The luminance in the more luminance difference than the maximum luminance range reduced by a luminance range corresponding to the maximum luminance range. Thereby, even if there is luminance part which achieves the lowest luminance as a final target, in another turn of printing the luminance part can be the object of controlling luminance again. As there is no luminance part higher than the highest luminance, when the highest luminance is equaled to the lowest luminance, it means that all luminances of the transmissive board are equalized to the lowest luminance.

The principle of controlling the luminance of transmissive board by printing the ink, the printing type of the present invention, and the explanation of “print the ink on the front side and the back side of the transmissive board” are the similar to the above described contents. Additionally, the above described method for controlling luminance can be realized as a transmissive board in which luminance has been controlled by the method for controlling luminance.

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION

As described above, according to the present invention, by printing to laminate the ink having a constant light transmittance and printing the ink with controlled amount of ink to be printed to a unit area, the method for controlling in a short time at a low cost the luminance of a transmissive board at the moment of transmissive illumination can be provided, and the transmissive board controlled the luminance at the moment of transmissive illumination by the method for controlling luminance can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view of an example of the transmissive board of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-section diagram of a thermal-transfer ink sheet for controlling luminance used in the present embody.

FIG. 3A is a schematic view showing the bright variation in the transmissive board showed in FIG. 1 at the moment of transmissive illumination.

FIG. 3B is a view showing a state of shielding light to the area except for the highest luminance area and the lowest luminance area.

FIG. 4A is a view showing image data of the transmissive board showed in FIG. 1 at the moment of transmissive illumination.

FIG. 4B is a view showing a tone curve of the transmissive board at the moment of transmissive illumination.

FIG. 5A is a view showing a state of image data showed in FIG. 4A which is provided a reversal process and the tone value of which is controlled to range from zero to 256.

FIG. 5B is a view showing a tone curve corresponding to FIG. 5A.

FIG. 6A is a view showing the image data showed in FIG. 5A, in which a tone conversion is implemented for a low luminance level.

FIG. 6B is a view showing a tone curve corresponding to FIG. 6A

FIG. 7A is a view showing the image data showed in FIG. 5A, in which a tone conversion is implemented for a middle luminance level.

FIG. 7B is a view showing a tone curve corresponding to FIG. 7A.

FIG. 8 is a view showing the image data showed in FIG. 5A, in which a tone conversion is implemented for a high luminance level.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a tone curve corresponding to FIG. 8.

FIG. 10A is a view showing an example of division of the luminance levels of the tone curve showed in FIG. 5B in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 2.5.

FIG. 10B is a view showing the result of implementing the tone conversion for a high luminance level showed in FIG. 10A.

FIG. 10C is a view showing a different example of division of the luminance levels from the example in 10A.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of a transmissive board for realizing the present invention. As showed in FIG. 1, the transmissive board of the present embodiment is a speed meter 1 for a vehicle. The speed meter 1 has a display area 1c including a numeric area 1a indicating speed and a level-bar area 1b. As the numeric area 1a and the level-bar area 1b should be illuminated, shading typed base material (no figures) where shading typed ink is printed on the back side of the display area 1c to shade area except for the numeric area 1a and the level-bar area 1b. Thereby, when the speed meter 1 is illuminated on the back side thereof by a plural of point light sources (no figures), the area except for the area shaded by the shading typed base material is transmissively illuminated. As the result of that, the numeric area 1a and level-bar area 1b look like emitting.

In all of the areas 1a, 1b to be transmissively illuminated, the position relationship with the plurality of point light sources is not equal. Therefore, if the transmittance is equal between areas, the luminance of each area is different from each other. The present invention is used for solving the luminance variance like this. In the present embodiment, the lowest luminance is the target luminance and other luminances are the luminance as control object. In the present embodiment, a thermal transferring method is applied as a printing method, and a thermal-transfer ink sheet 2 for controlling luminance showed in FIG. 2 is engaged for printing ink. The thermal-transfer ink sheet 2 for controlling luminance showed in FIG. 2 has a base material layer 2a and an ink layer 2b. The ink layer 2b has a predetermined transmittance to decrease light volume of transmitted light, and is transferred to a portion of luminance as control object on the shading typed base material.

When the ink layer 2b is transferred to the shading typed base material, the light volume of light transmitting through the transferred portion decreases according to the transmittance. Accordingly, as the result of that, the luminance of the transferred portion is controlled lower. As a rough control step, when the ink layer 2b is transferred as it is without controlling ink volume later described, the luminance is controlled always by a same luminance width for each transfer. The luminance width to be controlled is constant for one transfer, because the transmittance of the ink layer 2b is constant. In the rough control step, the luminance width to be controlled is the highest luminance range which can be controlled by transferring the ink layer 2b. Hereinafter the luminance width to be controlled is referred as “the highest control width”. Additionally, if the ink is transferred plural times, the luminance width to be controlled increases in accordance with the number of times.

As a minor control step, the luminance width smaller than the highest control width is controlled by controlling the volume of the ink layer 2b which is transferred per unit area. In the case where the volume of ink layer 2b is 1 at the moment of when the ink layer 2b is transferred to the unit area as it is, the volume of ink layer 2b to be transferred to the unit area is called an area-ratio. In the present embodiment, in order to transfer the ink layer 2b according to the area-ratio, the transfer volume of ink layer 2b is controlled by controlling the number of dots of the ink layer 2b to be transferred. Hereinafter, the luminance width to be controlled by the minor control step is referred as “the minor control width”. It is referred as only “transfer” that the ink layer 2b is transferred as it is to the shading typed base material by a thermal-transfer printer, and it is referred as “minor-control transfer” that the ink volume of ink layer 2b is transferred according to the area-ratio.

First, the criterion number of transferred layers in order to control the luminance of the highest luminance area at the moment when the speed meter is transmissively illuminated to the luminance of the lowest luminance area is obtained. The criterion number of transferred layers is the number of transferring the ink layer 2b which is required for the highest luminance to be made closest to the lowest luminance so that the highest luminance is not made lower than the lowest luminance. The speed meter is illuminated on the same conditions as the conditions of point light sources actually used and the highest luminance and the lowest luminance are checked. FIG. 3A is a schematic view showing differences between the areas on the speed meter 1 by being illuminated. As the density of stripe is lower, the luminance of the area is higher. Accordingly, in FIG. 3A, the highest luminance area is the area A, and the lowest luminance area is the area F. Hereinafter, the area A is sometimes referred as the highest luminance area A, and the area F is sometimes referred as the lowest luminance area F.

In order to shade the areas B-E without the highest luminance area A and the lowest luminance area F, the shading-typed thermal transfer sheet (for example, black ink) is printed to portions corresponding to the areas B-E on the shading-typed base material. Thereby, the areas B-E without the highest luminance area A and the lowest luminance area F are shaded. FIG. 3B shows the state that the areas B-E are shaded. Under the state showed in FIG. 3B, the ink layer 2b of the thermal transfer ink sheet for controlling luminance 2 is transferred to a portion corresponding to the highest luminance area A on the shading-typed base material repeatedly from 1 to 5 times and the luminance of the highest luminance area A is checked for each time. The number of transfers should be specified, at which the luminance of the highest luminance area A is made closest to the lowest luminance area F and made to be higher than the luminance of the lowest luminance area F. The specified number of transfers is set as the criterion number of transferred layers.

Next, how to obtain the criterion area-ratio will be described. The criterion area-ratio is the area-ratio used when the minor control width which can not be controlled by the above transfer is controlled by the minor-control transfer in order to make the luminance of the highest luminance area A to the luminance of the lowest luminance area F. First, in the similar the way to obtain the criterion number of transferred layers, the area B-E except for the highest luminance area A and the lowest luminance area F are shaded and the ink layer 2b is transferred to the portion corresponding to the highest luminance area A up to the criterion number of transferred layers. After that, for each of cases where the area-ratio of transferred ink layer 2b is 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%, the ink layer 2b is minor-control transferred to the portion corresponding to the highest luminance area A, and for each case, the luminance of the highest luminance area A after the minor-control transfer is checked. The area-ratio 0% means the case where no ink layer 2b is transferred, and the area-ratio 100% means the case where the ink layer 2b is transferred as it is.

The area-ratio which makes the luminance of the highest luminance area A closest to the luminance of the lowest luminance area F is checked, and the area-ratio is set as the criterion area-ratio. In the case of the criterion area-ratio, it is no matter whether the luminance of the highest luminance area A is higher or lower than the luminance of the lowest luminance area F. The sum of the criterion number of transferred layers and the criterion area-ratio obtained by the above described method is the maximum ink volume, and hereinafter referred as “the maximum number of transferred layers”. For example, the maximum number of transferred layers in the case where the criterion number of transferred layers is 3 and the criterion area-ratio is 30%, the maximum number of transferred layers is 3+0.3=3.3. In this embodiment, the method for equalizing the luminances of the speed meter 1 in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 3 will be described.

After the maximum number of transferred layers are obtained, the front of the speed meter 1 at the moment of transmissive illumination is photographed by a digital camera to obtain a luminance distribution image data (hereinafter referred as “the image data” only) which is the digital data of photographed image. The speed meter 1 should be photographed under the conditions where the luminance of the highest luminance area A is not higher than the highest luminance of the digital process so that the photographed image is obtained without white effect. For example, if the photographed image is treated as a 256-color grayscale image data, the tone value of the highest luminance area A of the photographed image data should be set to 255.

FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B show the state of the image data and the tone curve of the image data in the case where the image photographed under the above conditions is the 256-color grayscale image data. The tone value of each of areas A-F is obtained from the image data showed in FIG. 2A by implementing digital processes to each of areas A-F. In each of areas A-F, as the stripe density is higher, the luminance is lower, that is, the tone value is lower. In the present embodiment, the tone value of area A is 245, the tone value of area B and area C is 200, the tone value of area D is 120, the tone value of area E is 70, and the tone value of area E is 40. Although more kinds of tone value are distributed in actual image data, the luminance control only for areas A-F showed in FIG. 4A will be described for convenience sake. The lateral axis of the tone curve showed in FIG. 4B indicates the luminance of the speed meter 1 at the moment of transmissive illumination, the left end indicates “the lowest luminance” and the right end indicates “the highest luminance”. The vertical axis indicates the tone value of image data of the photographed speed meter 1. The bottom indicates zero and the top indicates 256. The tone value corresponding to the lowest luminance is 40 which is the tone value of the lowest luminance area F, and the tone value corresponding to the highest luminance is 245 which is the tone value of the highest luminance area A.

Next, the tone curve showed in FIG. 4B is controlled so that the tone value of the highest luminance area A is set to the maximum tone value 256 and the tone value of the lowest luminance area F is set to the tone value zero in the present invention. The result of the control is showed in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B. FIG. 5A shows the state of implementing the above described control to tone-convert the image data showed in FIG. 4A. The highest luminance area A is showed as a state representing the tone value 256, the lowest luminance area F is showed as a state representing the tone value zero. As the stripe density of area is higher, the ink volume printed in the area is more. Much the same is true on the image data showed in drawings later described. FIG. 5B shows the tone curve a relating each luminance of the image data showed in FIG. 5A to each tone value. As the tone curve a shows, the tone value ranging from zero to 256 distributes widely at this moment. However, by the method described later, all of the tone values can be made the tone value zero in the tone curve α. Namely, the tone values of all areas can be equalized to the luminance of the lowest luminance area F.

Hereinafter, the method for equalizing the luminance of areas A-F is equalized to the lowest each other. Hereinafter, the tone value corresponding to area A is referred as the tone value A-F, and the luminance corresponding to the areas A-F before being controlled is referred as the luminance A-F. First, luminance level is divided based on the maximum number of transferred layers. The number of division is equal to the number of printing thermal transfer ink sheet for controlling luminance 2 which is necessary to lower the highest luminance A to the lowest luminance F. As above described, the number of printings is the minimum integer not lower than the maximum number of transferred layers. For example, in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 2.2, the division number is 3, and in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 2.0, the division number is 2. AS the maximum number of transferred layers is 3.0 in the present embodiment, as showed in FIG. 5B, the luminance level is divided into 3 levels, that is, x, y, and z.

The width of the divided luminance levels X-Z will be described. Each width of the luminance level for an integer part corresponds to the maximum control width. Each width of luminance level for a decimal part corresponds to a minor control width with respect to the area A. The maximum control width is constant as above described. Accordingly, the width of luminance level is equal to each other in the present embodiment. The width of luminance level for a minor control width should be set so that the ratio of the minor control width to the maximum control width is equal to the criterion area-ratio. Namely, the criterion area-ratio in the present embodiment is equal to the ratio of the minor control width to the maximum control width with respect to the maximum luminance.

For example, in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 2.2, the division number of luminance level is 3, and the ratio of the widths of each of the luminance levels is 1:1:0.2. In this embodiment, as the maximum number of transferred layers is 3.0, as showed in FIG. 5B, the width of the luminance levels X-Z is equally divided into 3. Hereinafter, each of the luminance levels from the higher luminance level is called the high luminance level X, the middle luminance level Y, and the low luminance level Z. Each of the luminance levels corresponds to a high tone value area X′, a middle tone value area Y′, and a low tone value area Z′ by a tone curve α. Each of the luminance levels X-Z and each of the tone value areas X′-Z′ is the maximum control width in this embodiment. The area which the minimum luminance level of the middle luminance level Y indicates is “Q”, and the area which the minimum luminance of the high luminance level X indicates “R”. The tone value corresponding to the each luminance of areas Q and R is “Q′” and “R′”.

In order to equalize the luminance A-E to the minimum luminance F, all tone values included in the tone value areas X′-Z′ should be made to the tone value zero of the tone curve α. The method for making the tone values to the tone value zero by the transfer and the minor-control transfer of the ink layer 2b. Each of the tone value areas X′-Z′ is the maximum control width. Accordingly, by transferring the ink layer 2b, the tone value Q′ one time is made to be the tone value zero, the tone value R′ is made to be the tone value Q′, and the tone value 256 is made to be the tone value R′. Moreover, for example, in the case where the tone value K which is not the border value of each tone value area X′-Z′ is made to be the tone value zero, as the maximum control width is from the tone value Q′ to the tone value zero, the ink layer 2b should be transferred one time, and the minor-control transfer should be implemented in accordance with the area-ratio to make the luminance difference, which is the minor control width from the tone value K to the tone value Q′, to the tone value zero. In this embodiment, the area-ratio for making the minor control width of each tone value zero (herein after referred to as “necessary area-ratio”) is equal to the ratio of the minor control width to be controlled to the maximum control width. Such ratio of the width is constant for each tone value. Consequently, the necessary area-ratio is always constant to each tone value. Therefore, each tone value can be corresponded to the necessary area-ratio in advance. Accordingly, such correspondence relations can be set as a table in advance, and the necessary area-ratio can be obtained from the tone value by referring the table.

In this embodiment, each of the tone value areas x′-Z′ the tone value is controlled independently. First, the processing for low tone value area Z′ will be described. As the result, the low tone value area Z′ is divided into 256 tones and all of the tone values included in the middle luminance level Y and the high luminance level X are made 256.

Image data, where the low tone value area Z′ is controlled by the tone curve α, is showed in FIG. 6A and the tone curve β of the result of control is showed in FIG. 6B. All of the tone values of areas A-D without areas E and F belonging to the low luminance level Z are 256, and the tone value of area E is E′. The tone value zero corresponds to the luminance of the area F which is the criterion luminance, and Z′ is the maximum control width Z, the e′ between the tone values from zero to E′ is the minor control with about the luminance E. In the processing about the low tone value area Z′, the ink layer 2b should be transferred or minor-control transferred so that all of the tone values of areas A-F indicated by the tone curve β are made zero. Accordingly, there is no need to do something about the minimum luminance area F, and about the areas A-D the tone value of which is 256 the ink layer 2b should be transferred by the area-ratio 100%. About area E, the necessary area-ratio corresponding to the tone value E′ should be obtained from the above described table and the ink layer 2b should be minor-control transferred with the necessary area-ratio.

Next, the processing for the middle tone value area Y′ will be described. First, the tone curve α in FIG. 5B should be controlled so that the tone values not over the minimum tone value Q′ in the middle tone value area Y′ are brought to zero and the tone values over the maximum tone value R′ are brought to 256. As the result, the middle tone value are Y′ are divided into 256 tone values. All of the tone values corresponding to the low luminance level Z are brought to zero and all of the tone values corresponding to the high luminance level X are brought to 256. About the middle tone value area Y′, the image data representing the result of controlling the tone curve α is showed in FIG. 7A. The tone curve y as the result of control is showed in FIG. 7B. The tone value of areas E and F included in the low luminance level Z is zero, the tone value of areas A, B, C included in the high luminance level X is 256, and the tone value of area D included in the middle luminance level Y is D′.

The luminance level zero corresponds to the luminance level of area Q as the criterion luminance, Y′ is the maximum control width, the tone values d′ from zero to D′ is the minor control width about the luminance D. In the processing about the middle tone value area Y′, the ink layer 2b should be transferred or minor-control transferred so that all of the tone values of areas A-F indicated by the tone curve y are made zero. Accordingly, in the similar way to the low luminance level Z, the ink layer 2b should be transferred by the transfer area-ratio 100% about areas A-C the tone value of which is 256. About areas E and F the tone value of which is zero, the transfer is not needed. About area D, the necessary area-ratio corresponding to the tone value D′ should be obtained from the above described table and the ink layer 2b should be transferred with the necessary area-ratio.

Next, the processing for the high tone value area X′ will be described. First, the tone curve a should be controlled so that the maximum tone value in the high tone value area X remains to be 256 and all of the tone values not over the minimum tone value R′ are brought to zero. As the result, the high tone value area X′ is divided into 256, all of the tone value corresponding to the middle luminance level and the low luminance level is brought to zero. Image data representing the result of control the tone curve a about the high tone value area X′ is showed in FIG. 8. The tone curve δ obtained by the result of control is showed in FIG. 9. The tone value of the areas E and F in the low luminance level Z and the tone value of the area D in the middle luminance level Y is zero. Each of the tone values of areas B and C in the high luminance level X is B′ and C′ respectively.

The tone value zero corresponds to the luminance of area R as the criterion luminance. X′ is the maximum control width, the tone values b′ from zero to B′ is the minor control width about the luminance B. In the processing about the high tone value area X′, the ink layer 2b should be transferred or minor-control transferred so that all of the tone values of areas A-F indicated by the tone value α are brought to zero. Accordingly, in the similar way to the low luminance level Z and the middle luminance level X, about the area A the tone value of which is 256, the ink layer 2b should be transferred by the transfer area-ratio 100%, and the transfer of layer 2b is not needed about areas D-F the tone value of which is zero. About area B, the necessary area-ratio corresponding to the tone value B′ should be obtained and the ink layer 2b should be minor-control transferred by the necessary area-ratio. Also, the similar processing to the area B should be implemented about the area C.

In the above described processing, the tone values of areas A-E are brought to the minimum luminance in each of the tone value areas X′-Z′ for each of the tone value areas X′-Z′. Accordingly, when processing for all tone value areas X′-Z′ ends, the luminances A-E as the control object is brought to the tone value zero corresponding to the minimum luminance F. Namely, all of the luminances A-E can be brought to the minimum luminance F equally. In the case of the present embodiment, by the above described processing, the ink layer 2b is transferred repeatedly tree times about the area A finally, about areas B and C the ink layer 2b is transferred repeatedly two times and minor-control transferred with the obtained necessary area-ratio one time, about area D the ink layer 2b is transferred one time and minor-control transferred with the obtained necessary area-ratio, and about area E the ink layer 2b is minor-control transferred with the obtained necessary area-ratio only. Thereby, the luminance of each area A-E can be equal to be the luminance of area F.

the present invention is not limited to the above described embodiment and may be realized in various embodiments. For example, the maximum number of transferred layers may not be an integer and can have the decimal part. For example, the case of 2.5 will be described. In the tone curve a showed in FIG. 5B, the luminance levels should be divided so that the ratio between the width of high luminance level Xa, the width of middle luminance level Y, and the width of low luminance level Z is 0.5:1:1. In the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 2.5, the tone curve a in the state where the luminance levels has been divided is showed in FIG. 10A. The processing about the middle luminance level Y and the low luminance level Z is similar to the above described processing about the middle luminance level Y and the low luminance level Z respectively. Therefore, the description of the processing is omitted.

The processing of the high tone value area Xa′ corresponding to the high luminance level Xa will be described. The tone curve α showed in FIG. 5B should be controlled so that the maximum tone value in the high tone value area Xa′ is made the value “256×criterion area-ratio”, and all of the tone values not over than the minimum tone value R′ are made zero. As the result of the control the tone curve ε is showed in FIG. 10B. The tone value corresponding to the low luminance level Z and the middle luminance level Y is zero, the highest value of tone value in the high luminance level Xa is 128 obtained by 256×0.5. The tone values in the high tone value area Xa′ are divided into the tone values from zero to 128. In this manner, the maximum tone value of the luminance level Xa corresponding to the decimal part of the maximum number of transferred layers can be obtained by the maximum control width×the criterion area-ratio. The part of the curve corresponding to the high luminance level Xa of the tone curve ε is the part corresponding to the criterion area-ratio of the same curve as each of luminance levels Z and Y of the other tone curves β and γ. Accordingly, the necessary are ratio corresponding to each of the tone values in the high tone value area Xa′ can be also obtained by the above described table.

Moreover, in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers has the decimal part, it is assumed that the luminance level corresponding to the decimal part is the high luminance level Xa. However, the luminance level corresponding to the decimal part is not needed to be the high luminance level, and may be any level of luminance. For example, in the case where the maximum number of transferred layers is 2.5, the middle luminance level Ya may be set as the luminance level corresponding to the decimal part, and the ratio between the width of the high luminance level X, the width of the middle luminance level Ya, and the width of the low luminance level Z may be set as 1:0.5:1.

Moreover, in the present embodiment, the processing of making the tone value of each luminance level zero from the lower luminance level is described. However, it doesn't matter which order of the processing for the divided luminance levels. For example, the luminance of each tone value may be made the criterion luminance from the higher luminance level. The criterion luminance in the processing for each luminance level is the luminance of the areas F, Q, R corresponding to the minimum luminance of the luminance level X-Z before the processing of luminance control respectively.

In the present embodiment, the method of determining the height of luminance by eye is described. However, by obtaining the digital image data of the front of speed meter 1 at the moment of transmissive illumination, the height of luminance may be determined based on the digital image data. Moreover, as above described, the maximum number of transferred layers is the ink amount required to make the highest luminance the lowest luminance. In the case where such ink amount is determined in advance, it is not necessary to implement the processing for obtaining the maximum number of transferred layers in the present embodiment. Also, in the case where the maximum number transfer layers is obtained by calculation, such as the case where the maximum control width and the minor control width for the highest luminance are known in advance, it is not necessary to implement the processing for obtaining the maximum number of transferred layers in the present embodiment. Moreover, throughout from the processing of obtaining the maximum number of transferred layers to the processing of transferring the ink layer 2b in accordance with each luminance level, the process can be implemented by a computer. The process after obtaining the maximum number of transferred layers can be implemented by a computer. The transfer number in the method for obtaining the criterion number of transferred layers and each area-ratio in the method for obtaining the criterion area-ratio are limited to the present embodiment and can be changed appropriately.

As the method for controlling the amount of ink layer 2b to be printed to a unit area, the amount is controlled by number of printed dots in the present embodiment. However, it can be controlled by the size of printed dot. Moreover, the criterion area-ratio may be obtained by selecting area-ratios which bring the luminance as the control object close to the target luminance and averaging the selected area-ratios. Moreover, the printing method for realizing the present invention is not limited to a thermal transfer print, as long as the ink having a fixed transmittance can be printed by one-time print and the ink amount to be printed to a unit area can be controlled. For example, ink-jet printing and dot-impact printing can be applied.

In the present embodiment, the method is described that all luminances before luminance control processing are equalized to the lowest luminance as the target luminance. However, different target luminance can be set depending on luminance or position of the processing object. In this case, by different luminance, a predetermined shape or color gradation can be obtained. Moreover, color tone can be controlled by dividing the image data photographed by a digital camera into light's three primary colors, and controlling the luminance corresponding to each color by the luminance control method of the present invention.

Moreover, the maximum tone value is not limited to 256 and can be changed appropriately depending on the type of print system or purpose. The transmissive board is not limited to a speed meter 1 and can be any kind of a board as long as the board is illuminated from the back thereof such as various kinds of boards of instruments. Moreover, as the method for obtaining the area-ratio to bring each tone value to zero, in the present embodiment, the method is employed that the table in which the tone value and the area-ratio are corresponded to each other is prepared in advance. However, in the case where there is a constant relationship between the tone value and the area-ratio, the area-ratio can be obtained, for example, from an equation having a variable as the tone value for obtaining the relationship.

Method for Controlling Luminance of Transmissive Board and Transmissive Board

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