Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Edith A. Rice
  • Patent number: 6225037
    Abstract: This invention comprises a photographic element for accurately recording a scene as an image comprising a support and coated on the support a plurality of hydrophilic colloid layers comprising radiation-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers forming recording layer units for separately recording blue, green and red exposures wherein, (A) the blue recording layer unit comprises at least one blue sensitive emulsion having a peak dyed absorptance of between 435 and 465 nm and an absorptance at 480 nm≧50% of the maximum peak dyed absorptance; or (B) the blue sensitive recording unit comprises a blue sensitive emulsion layer having a peak dyed absorptance of between 435 and 465 nm, and the emulsion exhibits an overall half-peak dyed absorption bandwidth of at least 50 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Lois A. Buitano, Allan F. Sowinski, Steven G. Link
  • Patent number: 6225038
    Abstract: This invention comprises thermally processable imaging element comprising: (a) a support, (b) a thermally processable imaging layer on one side of the support; and (c) a protective layer comprising a binder and matte particles comprising a crosslinked polymer, wherein the protective layer has been applied as a solution of binder and matte particles in a coating solvent in which the binder is soluble and the matte particles are swellable to the extent of about 160 to about 390%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Dennis E. Smith, Sharon M. Melpolder, James R. Bennett
  • Patent number: 6225036
    Abstract: A multicolor photographic element comprising a support bearing a cyan dye image-forming unit comprising at least one red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer having associated therewith at least one cyan dye-forming coupler, a magenta dye image-forming unit comprising at least one green-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer having associated therewith at least one magenta dye-forming coupler, a yellow dye image-forming unit comprising at least one blue-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer having associated therewith at least one yellow dye-forming coupler, wherein at least one of said emulsion layers comprises tabular grains having {111} major faces containing greater than 50 mole percent bromide, and accounting for greater than 50 percent total grain projected area precipitated in a peptizer that is a water dispersible cationic starch, and contains a fragmentable electron donating sensitizer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Joe E. Maskasky, Kenneth J. Reed, Victor P. Scaccia, James A. Friday
  • Patent number: 6214499
    Abstract: This invention comprises dispersion comprising a solvent having dispersed therein a liquid-crystal forming dye of structural Formula I: [D-(X)m]-(Y)n wherein: D is a light-absorbing chromophore other than a cyanine dye or a barbituric acid oxonol dye; each Y contains an ionic or a nonionic solubilizing substituent or a group with a pKa value of less than 4 in water; each X is a nonionic substituent; n is 0 to 10; m is 0-10; and the resulting dye forms a liquid-crystalline phase in solvent. The dispersion is particularly useful in imaging and photographic elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Margaret J. Helber, William J. Harrison, Raymond P. Scaringe
  • Patent number: 6207359
    Abstract: A method for reducing dye stain of an exposed photographic element, said element comprising a support having thereon at least one image-forming layer containing a photobleachable dye, the method comprising processing the element, and exposing the processed element, in presence of a N-oxyazinium, to radiation that can be absorbed either by the photobleachable dye or by the N-oxyazinium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Samir Y. Farid, Ramanuj Goswami, Mary E. Craver, John M. Mangus
  • Patent number: 6187520
    Abstract: A high contrast photographic material free from nucleating agents comprising a support bearing a silver halide emulsion layer comprising silver halide grains and a hydrophilic colloid having a silver:hydrophilic colloid ratio above 1.9, and containing a density enhancing amine compound in the emulsion layer or an adjacent hydrophilic colloid layer wherein at least 60% of the silver halide grains are spectrally sensitized. A photographic image can be formed from the imagewise exposed material by a method comprising developing the exposed material for a time no longer than 25 seconds at a temperature no greater than 35° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Julia Pich, Roger H. Piggin, Mark L. Magill
  • Patent number: 6187525
    Abstract: A photographic recording element is disclosed containing in at least one dye image forming layer unit (a) a radiation-sensitive silver halide grains include tabular grains (1) having {111} major faces, (2) containing greater than 50 mole percent bromide, based on silver, and (3) accounting for greater than 50 percent total grain projected area, (b) a fragmentable electron donating sensitizer, (c) a water dispersible cationic starch peptizer, and (d) a one equivalent dye image providing coupler. Increased photographic speed is realized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Joe E. Maskasky, Kenneth J. Reed, Victor P. Scaccia, James A. Friday
  • Patent number: 6183944
    Abstract: A dispersion comprising an aqueous medium having dispersed therein an aggregated dye of the Formula (I): wherein X is oxygen or sulfur; R1-R4 each independently represent an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl group, an unsubstituted or substituted aryl group or an unsubstituted or substituted heteroaryl group; L1, L2 and L3 each independently represent substituted or unsubstituted methine groups; M+ represents a proton or an inorganic or organic cation; and n is 0, 1, 2 or 3 and wherein the aggregated dye in the dispersion has an absorption halfbandwidth of less than 55 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Margaret Jones Helber, William James Harrison, Elizabeth Ann Gallo, Mary Christine Brick, Steven Wade Kortum, Gary Norman Barber
  • Patent number: 6180295
    Abstract: This invention is a dispersion comprising a solvent having dispersed therein a liquid-crystal forming dye of structural Formula I: [D—(X)m]—(Y)n  I wherein: D is a merocyanine dye; each Y contains an ionic or a nonionic solubilizing substituent or a group with a pKa value of less than 4 in water; each X is a nonionic substituent; n is 1 to 10; m is 0-10; and the resulting dye forms a liquid-crystalline phase in solvent. The dispersion is particularly useful in imaging and photographic elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Margaret J. Helber, William J. Harrison, Richard L. Parton
  • Patent number: 6174662
    Abstract: A photographic element comprises: (a) a support; and (b) at least one silver halide emulsion layer; wherein said emulsion layer contains (c) at least one magenta dye-forming pyrazolone DIR coupler of structure I; and (d) at least one magenta dye-forming imaging coupler of structure II, structure IIIa or structure IIIb, below: wherein the substituents are as defined in the specification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Paul B. Merkel, Jerrold N. Poslusny, David A. Steele
  • Patent number: 6174657
    Abstract: A photothermographic element comprises: (a) a support bearing on one surface thereof (b) a photosensitive emulsion layer (i) a binder; (ii) a light-insensitive organic silver salt, (iii) a reducing agent, and (iv) a photosensitive silver halide emulsion; (c) an antihalation dye incorporated in the emulsion layer, in a polymer layer under the photosensitive layer, in the support, or in a backside polymer layer; and (d) one or more tinting dyes such that the final color space of the film lies within the range defined by 220°<hab<260°, where hab is the psychometric hue angle, hab=arctan(b*/a*), as defined in the CIELAB color system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Charles H. Weidner, Dorothy T. Java, Stephen A. Hershey, Elizabeth K. Priebe
  • Patent number: 6171771
    Abstract: This invention comprises a photographic element having a support bearing one or more silver halide emulsions and one or more DIR couplers of structure I or II below: wherein: Z is a moiety which can react with oxidized developer to release a coupling-off group; R1 is a hydrogen atom or a substituent selected from the group consisting of halogen atom, alkyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkylthio, arylthio, amino, alkylamino, arylamino, carbonamido, carbamoyl, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, aryloxy, arylcarbonyl, alkylcarbonyl, sulphonyl and sulphonamido groups; each of the R2 substituents is a halogen atom or a substituent selected from the group consisting of alkyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkylthio, arylthio, amino, alkylamino, arylamino, carbonamido, carbamoyl, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, aryloxy, arylcarbonyl, alkylcarbonyl, sulphonyl and sulphonamido groups; X represents the atoms required to make a second ring which is aromatic and contains at least one nitrogen atom; and n is between 0 and the num
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Paul B. Merkel, Philip A. Allway, David A. Steele, Jerrold N. Poslusny
  • Patent number: 6171752
    Abstract: A photographic material comprises a support bearing at least one silver halide emulsion layer. The material contains in the emulsion layer or an adjacent hydrophilic colloid layer, a nucleating agent. One or more of the layers further comprises a polymeric material capable of partitioning the nucleating agent in order to control nucleation and thereby allow the level of pepper fog and raw stock keeping to be controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2001
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Julie Baker, John M. Higgins
  • Patent number: 6165703
    Abstract: A silver halide color photographic material comprises at least one silver halide emulsion comprising silver halide grains having associated therewith at least two dye layers comprising(a) an inner dye layer adjacent to the silver halide grain and comprising at least one dye, Dye 1, that is capable of spectrally sensitizing silver halide and(b) an outer dye layer adjacent to the inner dye layer and comprising at least one cyanine dye, Dye 2,wherein one of Dye 1 or Dye 2 has at least one anionic substituent and one of Dye 1 or Dye 2 has at least one cationic substituent and wherein the dye layers are held together by more than one non-covalent force; the outer dye layer adsorbs light at equal or higher energy than the inner dye layer; and the energy emission wavelength of the outer dye layer overlaps with the energy absorption wavelength of the inner dye layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Richard L. Parton, Thomas L. Penner, Andrei Andrievsky, William J. Harrison
  • Patent number: 6165705
    Abstract: This invention comprises a photothermographic element comprising a support bearing an imaging layer comprising:a silver salt;a reducing agent;a binder; anda photosensitive material comprising silver iodide produced by dispersing a solid ionic conductor of the formula MAg.sub.4 I.sub.5 in an organic solvent, whereby the solid ionic conductor decomposes to produce silver iodide, and wherein M is a monovalent cation and said solid ionic conductor has an ionic conductivity of >0.001 ohm.sup.-1 cm.sup.-1 at 25.degree. C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Heidi E. Dankosh, Kathleen R. Gisser, Thomas N. Blanton, Dilip K. Chatterjee, Seshadri Jagannathan
  • Patent number: 6159678
    Abstract: A photographic element comprising at least one silver halide emulsion layer in which the silver halide has been sensitized with a first blue sensitizing dye having a .lambda..sub.1 less than or equal to about 475 nm and a second blue sensitizing dye having a .lambda..sub.2, wherein .lambda..sub.1 is longer than .lambda..sub.2 and .lambda..sub.1 and .lambda..sub.2 are separated by an energy gap, .DELTA.E, which does not exceed 0.12 eV, where .DELTA.E is defined by the following relationship: ##EQU1## wherein .lambda..sub.1 is the wavelength in nanometers (nm) of maximum absorption of a silver halide emulsion sensitized with the first dye and .lambda..sub.2 is the wavelength of maximum absorption of a silver halide emulsion sensitized with the second dye, with the proviso that neither the first nor the second dye contains selenium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Richard L. Parton, Thomas R. Dobles, David A. Stegman, Teresa A. Smith, John D. Lewis
  • Patent number: 6153371
    Abstract: This invention comprises a photographic element comprising a support and at least one silver halide emulsion layer in which the silver halide is sensitized with a compound of the formula:Q-XYwherein Q represents the atoms necessary to form a chromophore comprising an amidinium-ion, a carboxyl-ion or dipolar-amidic chromophoric system when conjugated with XY, and XY is a fragmentable electron donor moiety in which X is an electron donor group and Y is a leaving group other than hydrogen, and wherein:1) XY has an oxidation potential between 0 and about 1.4 V;2) the oxidized form of XY undergoes a bond cleavage reaction to give the radical X.sup..cndot. and the leaving fragment Y.In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the radical X.cndot. has an oxidation potential <-0.7V.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Samir Y. Farid, Ian R. Gould, Stephen A. Godleski, Jerome R. Lenhard, Annabel A. Muenter, Paul A. Zielinski
  • Patent number: 6146820
    Abstract: This invention comprises a photographic element having a support bearing at least one silver halide emulsion and at least one DIR coupler of structure I: ##STR1## wherein: Z is a moiety which can react with oxidized developer to release a coupling-off group;R.sub.1 is selected from the substituents shown in formulas II, III, IV and V:II --SCH.sub.2 CO.sub.2 R.sub.2, III --NHCOR.sub.3, IV --OCH.sub.2 CO.sub.2 R.sub.4, V --OR.sub.5 ;R.sub.2 is an alkyl group with at least 3 carbon atoms or an aryl group with at least 7 carbon atoms;R.sub.3 is an alkyl or alkoxy group with at least 4 carbon atoms or an aryl or phenoxy group with at least 7 carbon atoms; andR.sub.4 and R.sub.5 are alkyl groups with at least 4 carbon atoms or aryl groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Paul B. Merkel, Philip A. Allway, David A. Steele, Jerrold N. Poslusny
  • Patent number: 6143462
    Abstract: The invention relates to an ultrahigh contrast photographic material comprising a support bearing a silver halide emulsion layer, containing a hydrazide nucleating agent in the emulsion layer or a hydrophilic colloid layer, characterised in that the nucleating agent is a dimeric molecule comprising two monomers linked by a linking group, each monomer of which (a) may be the same or different and (b) comprises an acylhydrazide moiety and a nicotinamide moiety in combination, the material providing unexpectedly good nucleation in the absence of, or with reduced amounts of, booster and in a developer whose pH is variable, and further with lower chemical spread and pepper fog.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: John D. Goddard, Philip J. Coldrick, Rebecca Glen, Dawn J. Jenkins
  • Patent number: 6143482
    Abstract: A photographic element comprises: a support and, coated on the support, a plurality of hydrophilic colloid layers, including radiation-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers, forming layer units for separately recording blue, green and red exposures, wherein, the red recording layer unit is comprised of at least one green-red sensitive emulsion having a peak dyed absorptance of between about 525 and about 600 nm, an overall half-peak absorptance bandwidth of between about 70 and about 150 nm, and a ratio of the bandwidths at 80% of peak absorptance to 50% of peak absorptance of greater than or equal to about 0.25.In preferred embodiments of the invention, the photographic element is especially suited for more accurately recording scenes according to the human visual system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Lois A. Buitano, Allan F. Sowinski, Steven G. Link