Patents by Inventor Mark A. Overton

Mark A. Overton has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5537495
    Abstract: An improved method for providing a more faithful and pleasing rendition of a pixel pattern is described herein. This method first places the original pixel pattern in a bit mapped memory. A small portion of this bit mapped pattern, called an input tile, acts as an index for a look-up table containing a corrected pixel pattern portion (an output tile) corresponding to the target pixels to be corrected in the input tile. This process may also be performed using an algorithm. To derive the output tiles, a high resolution bit map is created from an input tile. A triangular portion of each convex corner in the high resolution bit map is chopped off, and a triangular portion of each concave corner in the high resolution bit map is filled in. The resulting high resolution bit map is then filtered using a low pass filter. The size of these triangular portions and the extent of filtering are determined using a function based on the vulnerability of pixels to being eliminated during the above smoothing process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1996
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventor: Mark A. Overton
  • Patent number: 5483355
    Abstract: An improved method for providing a more faithful and pleasing rendition of a pixel pattern is described herein. This method first places the original pixel pattern in a bit mapped memory. A small portion of this bit mapped pattern, called an input tile, acts as an index for a look-up table containing a corrected pixel pattern portion (an output tile) corresponding to the target pixels to be corrected in the input tile. The corresponding output tile is then printed or otherwise displayed at a higher dots-per-inch (dpi), in both the horizontal and vertical directions, than the original pixel pattern to provide a corrected and higher resolution pattern. This process may also be performed using an algorithm which performs a correction on the target pixels in the input tile to generate an output tile instead of indexing a corresponding output tile in a look-up table. If the original pixel pattern is detected to be part of an image, as opposed to text, no correction of the pixel data is made.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1996
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Co.
    Inventor: Mark A. Overton
  • Patent number: 5440407
    Abstract: An improved method for providing a more faithful and pleasing rendition of a pixel pattern is described herein. This method first places the original pixel pattern in a bit mapped memory. A small portion of this bit mapped pattern, called an input tile, acts as an address for a look-up table containing a corrected pixel pattern portion (an output tile) corresponding to the target pixels to be corrected in the input tile. To derive the output tiles stored in the look-up table, a high resolution bit map is created from an input tile by scaling the input tile. The resulting pattern is then smoothed using a filter. The middle portion of the high resolution bit map corresponding to the two original target pixels intended to be corrected is then divided up into a number of pixel areas, where each area represents a pixel to be printed. A threshold number is then compared to the pixels in each area, and a corresponding output pixel is then stored, printed, or otherwise displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 8, 1995
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventor: Mark A. Overton
  • Patent number: 5028848
    Abstract: A technique for rasterizing a line having a predetermined width and slope, including the step of providing stored data associated with predetermined slopes and widths of lines, such data including information indicative of raster data for portions of lines of the predetermined slopes and widths. The stored data associated with the slope and width of the line to be rasterized is accessed, and raster data for one of predetermined portions of the line to be rasterized is generated from the accessed data, wherein the predetermined portions collectively form the line to be rasterized. The generated raster data is copied to a bitmap memory, and the steps of generating and copying raster data are repeated until the entire line has been rasterized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 1988
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1991
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventors: Neil F. Bankston, Mark A. Overton