Patents by Inventor Masao Kato

Masao Kato 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: 7948655
    Abstract: There is disclosed an image processing apparatus which applies an adjusting process to an image that includes a pixel to be processed. The image processing apparatus extracts an image area with a predetermined size including the pixel to be processed. The apparatus calculates a variation associated with the pixel to be processed from signal values of pixels included in the image area. The apparatus calculates a variation time count in the image area from the signal values of the pixels included in the image area. The apparatus calculates adjusting levels Fz1, Fz2, and Fe from the variation time count and the variation using a definition unit which defines correspondence among the variation time count, the variation, and the adjusting levels, and applies an adjusting process to a signal value of the pixel to be processed by the calculated adjusting levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Fumitaka Goto, Kentaro Yano, Fumihiro Goto, Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Tetsuya Suwa, Mitsuhiro Ono, Arata Miyagi, Yusuke Hashii
  • Patent number: 7944588
    Abstract: An image correction process that suppresses image deterioration in a printed image is provided. An image correction processing apparatus includes an area setting unit which sets an area comprising a plurality of pixels including an interest pixel, a first correction strength setting unit which adaptively sets a first correction strength for at least the interest pixel in the area based on the number of changes and the changing amount, a first correction unit which executes image correction for a pixel, for which the first correction strength is set, by the first correction strength, a second correction strength setting unit which adaptively sets a second correction strength for at least the interest pixel in the area based on the number of changes and the changing amount, and a second correction unit which executes image correction for a pixel, for which the first correction strength is set, by the second correction strength.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akitoshi Yamada, Yusuke Hashii, Fumihiro Goto, Masao Kato, Tetsuya Suwa, Mitsuhiro Ono, Fumitaka Goto, Arata Miyagi
  • Patent number: 7929172
    Abstract: In this invention, to enable printing of an image that has undergone an image process or print process complying with the desire of a user on an image supply device side, real object handles and virtual object handles are set to, of images to be supplied to the printing device, images that require a predetermined image process and remaining images, respectively. A print job including the object handle of a print target image is issued in accordance with a print instruction. If the handle of an image requested by the printing device in response to the issued print job is a virtual object handle, the predetermined image process is executed for image data corresponding to the handle, and the processed image data is supplied to the printing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akitoshi Yamada, Masao Kato, Nobuo Onuma, Ruriko Mikami
  • Patent number: 7924469
    Abstract: In order to eliminate image deterioration based on the characteristics of an output device upon execution of edge emphasis processing, an image processing apparatus includes a setting unit which sets a print characteristic on the print medium, a region setting unit which sets a region, a brightness value derivation unit which derives brightness values, a first derivative derivation which derives first derivatives of the brightness values, an edge direction determination unit which determines an edge direction of brightness, an emphasis level determination unit which determines an emphasis level of a pixel value based on the first derivatives, and a replacement unit which calculates second derivatives of brightness values and replaces a pixel value of a pixel of interest based on the sign of the second derivative.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro Ono, Fumitaka Goto, Fumihiro Goto, Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Tetsuya Suwa, Yusuke Hashii, Arata Miyagi
  • Patent number: 7920284
    Abstract: A procedure that confirms the presence or absence of support for standardized capabilities is present in transmissions to an image-providing apparatus having a photo-direct print capability and an image-printing apparatus, for example. The procedure is used to exchange information relating to the presence or absence of support for a service that provides a cooperative capability separate from the standardized capabilities, making it possible to use non-standard capabilities while maintaining compatibility with devices that do not support the service that provides the cooperative capability separate from the standardized capabilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akitoshi Yamada, Masao Kato, Akinori Horiuchi, Futoshi Sasaki, Takashi Gyotoku
  • Publication number: 20110069355
    Abstract: Image processing apparatus and image processing method for formation of high quality image by high-speed error diffusion processing by execution of more complicated threshold condition processing in a simple manner. When error diffusion processing is performed on multivalued image data having plural density components and the result of processing is outputted, upon execution of error diffusion processing on a first density component among the plural density components, a threshold value used in the error diffusion processing is determined based on a density value of a second density component, then the error diffusion processing is performed on the first density component based on the determined threshold value, and the result of execution of the error diffusion processing is outputted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2010
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: AKITOSHI YAMADA, HIROMITSU HIRABAYASHI, MASAO KATO
  • Patent number: 7912280
    Abstract: There is provided an image processing apparatus for applying an adjusting process to an image including multicolor image signals. An image area including a pixel to be processed is extracted, and one representative signal value is generated from signal values corresponding to a plurality of colors of pixels included in the image area (S2501). A feature amount associated with the image area is calculated based on the representative signal value (S2503, S2505, S2511), and a substitute candidate pixel common to the plurality of colors is selected from the image area based on the calculated feature amount (S2512). Signal values of the pixel to be processed are substituted by new pixel values, which are calculated from the signal values of the pixel to be processed and signal values of the substitute candidate pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Arata Miyagi, Fumitaka Goto, Fumihiro Goto, Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Tetsuya Suwa, Mitsuhiro Ono, Yusuke Hashii
  • Patent number: 7907291
    Abstract: An image supply device and control method for supplying image data to a printing device by directly communicating with the printing device. The device and method include obtaining functional information of the printing device, obtaining printable range information indicating a printable range by the printing device, converting image data of a file to be printed in accordance with the printable range information and received printing specification information, and transmitting the converted image data to the printing device upon a data request from the printing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirokazu Ishii, Masao Kato, Futoshi Sasaki, Nobuo Onuma, Tomoyuki Watanabe, Takuya Matsuno, Yoshiro Udagawa
  • Patent number: 7889395
    Abstract: In order to provide an edge emphasis technique that can eliminate image deterioration of a digital image, an image processing apparatus includes a region setting unit which sets a region including a pixel of interest, a brightness value derivation unit which derives brightness values of the pixels, a first derivative derivation unit which derives first derivatives of the brightness values derived by the brightness value derivation unit, an edge direction determination unit which determines an edge direction of brightness at a position of the pixel of interest based on the results of the first derivatives, a range determination unit which determines a range, and a replacement unit which replaces the pixel value of the pixel of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Fumihiro Goto, Fumitaka Goto, Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Tetsuya Suwa, Mitsuhiro Ono, Arata Miyagi, Yusuke Hashii
  • Patent number: 7859723
    Abstract: Image processing apparatus and image processing method for formation of high quality image by high-speed error diffusion processing by execution of more complicated threshold condition processing in a simple manner. When error diffusion processing is performed on multivalued image data having plural density components and the result of processing is outputted, upon execution of error diffusion processing on a first density component among the plural density components, a threshold value used in the error diffusion processing is determined based on a density value of a second density component, then the error diffusion processing is performed on the first density component based on the determined threshold value, and the result of execution of the error diffusion processing is outputted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akitoshi Yamada, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Masao Kato
  • Patent number: 7855809
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus executes an error diffusion process to multivalue image data consisting of a plurality of density components. A first processor executes the error diffusion process by changing at least one of a quantization threshold value and a quantization diffusion coefficient which are used for the error diffusion process based on a value of the multivalue image data of the density components or a value calculated from the multivalue image data value. A second processor executes the error diffusion process by setting the quantization threshold value and the quantization diffusion coefficient which are used for the error diffusion process into fixed values. An error diffusion processing controller controls to execute the error diffusion process to at least one color among the density components by the first processor and execute the error diffusion process to other density components by the second processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Mitsuhiro Ono
  • Publication number: 20100309520
    Abstract: In this invention, to enable printing of an image that has undergone an image process or print process complying with the desire of a user on an image supply device side, real object handles and virtual object handles are set to, of images to be supplied to the printing device, images that require a predetermined image process and remaining images, respectively. A print job including the object handle of a print target image is issued in accordance with a print instruction. If the handle of an image requested by the printing device in response to the issued print job is a virtual object handle, the predetermined image process is executed for image data corresponding to the handle, and the processed image data is supplied to the printing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2010
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akitoshi Yamada, Masao Kato, Nobuo Onuma, Ruriko Mikami
  • Publication number: 20100302599
    Abstract: In order to provide an edge emphasis technique that can eliminate image deterioration of a digital image, an image processing apparatus includes a region setting unit which sets a region including a pixel of interest, a brightness value derivation unit which derives brightness values of the pixels, a first derivative derivation unit which derives first derivatives of the brightness values derived by the brightness value derivation unit, an edge direction determination unit which determines an edge direction of brightness at a position of the pixel of interest based on the results of the first derivatives, a range determination unit which determines a range, and a replacement unit which replaces the pixel value of the pixel of interest.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 10, 2010
    Publication date: December 2, 2010
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Fumihiro Goto, Fumitaka Goto, Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Tetsuya Suwa, Mitsuhiro Ono, Arata Miyagi, Yusuke Hashii
  • Publication number: 20100290090
    Abstract: In order to eliminate image deterioration based on the characteristics of an output device upon execution of edge emphasis processing, an image processing apparatus includes a setting unit which sets a print characteristic on the print medium, a region setting unit which sets a region, a brightness value derivation unit which derives brightness values, a first derivative derivation which derives first derivatives of the brightness values, an edge direction determination unit which determines an edge direction of brightness, an emphasis level determination unit which determines an emphasis level of a pixel value based on the first derivatives, and a replacement unit which calculates second derivatives of brightness values and replaces a pixel value of a pixel of interest based on the sign of the second derivative.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2010
    Publication date: November 18, 2010
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro Ono, Fumitaka Goto, Fumihiro Goto, Masao Kato, Akitoshi Yamada, Tetsuya Suwa, Yusuke Hashii, Arata Miyagi
  • Patent number: 7821663
    Abstract: In this invention, to enable printing of an image that has undergone an image process or print process complying with the desire of a user on an image supply device side, real object handles and virtual object handles are set to, of images to be supplied to the printing device, images that require a predetermined image process and remaining images, respectively. A print job including the object handle of a print target image is issued in accordance with a print instruction. If the handle of an image requested by the printing device in response to the issued print job is a virtual object handle, the predetermined image process is executed for image data corresponding to the handle, and the processed image data is supplied to the printing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akitoshi Yamada, Masao Kato, Nobuo Onuma, Ruriko Mikami
  • Patent number: 7719707
    Abstract: Improvement of printing speed is set out in an image processing apparatus, which is connected communicably with a printing apparatus, for transferring a recorded image to the printing apparatus and having the printing apparatus print the image. To achieve this object, the present invention has the following configuration. Namely, the invention provides an image processing method of an image capturing apparatus, communicably connected with a printing apparatus which prints transmitted image data. The image processing method comprises: a receiving step (step S101, S104) of receiving information regarding a printing condition of the printing apparatus for printing the transmitted image data; a processing step (step S103, S106) of processing image data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the information regarding the printing condition received in the receiving step; and a transmitting step (step S108) of transmitting the image data processed in the processing step to the printing apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuo Onuma, Masao Kato, Yoshiro Udagawa, Kenji Takahashi, Kenji Kyuma, Futoshi Sasaki, Ryuichi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 7699423
    Abstract: In an ink-jet printer, when a gray is expressed by mixing ink of a plurality of colors, there is a concentration in which a use amount of the ink is large. If the gray in an edge portion of a character has the concentration of the large ink use amount, a bleeding of the ink occurs and a thin portion of the character is sometimes damaged. If the gray in the character edge portion has the concentration of the large ink use amount, the gray in the character edge portion is changed to the white side by image correction, and the damage of the character thin portion caused due to the ink bleeding is prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tetsuya Suwa, Fumitaka Goto, Yusuke Hashii, Fumihiro Goto, Masao Kato, Kentaro Yano
  • Patent number: 7677059
    Abstract: A fabrication method of an optical fiber using as a core material tellurite glass. The method includes a first process of molding a tellurite glass melt into a mold, the mold having a plurality of convex portions defining an inner wall, which portions run parallel to each other in a longitudinal direction in order to make a polygon columnar glass preform, and a second process of inserting the glass preform into a cylindrical jacket tube made of tellurite glass and carrying out fiber-drawing under pressure so as to maintain or enlarge air holes which are gaps generated between the glass preform and the jacket tube.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2010
    Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi Mori, Masao Kato, Kouji Enbutsu, Shinichi Aozasa, Kiyoshi Oikawa, Takashi Kurihara, Kazuo Fujiura, Makoto Shimizu, Kouji Shikano
  • Publication number: 20100060685
    Abstract: An inkjet recording system including a separation unit configured to obtain separated data which corresponds to each of a plurality of nozzle arrays from input image data, a gradation correction unit configured to perform gradation correction by one-dimensional conversion on the separated data obtained by the separation unit, and a quantization unit configured to quantize the data on which the gradation correction is performed by the gradation correction unit to generate the recording data, wherein the separation unit obtains the separated data so that first separated data and second separated data corresponding to at least a pair of nozzle arrays for adjusting an effect of an air current have a same value, and the gradation correction unit performs different gradation correction on the first separated data and the second separated data which have the same value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2009
    Publication date: March 11, 2010
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masao Kato, Okinori Tsuchiya
  • Patent number: 7672011
    Abstract: A printer driver of a Non-PC controls to quantize image data at quantization resolution (resolution 1), convert the quantized data into data resolution (resolution 2), and then transfer the data of the data resolution to an engine unit of an image output apparatus. The engine unit converts the data resolution of the received data into recording resolution (resolution 3) for a recording medium. Here, the quantization resolution is set to be lower than the data resolution. Thus, processing loads in the image processing unit can be reduced, whereby it is possible to provide image output capable of maintaining image quality and speed even under the circumstance that there is no sufficient memory and high-speed CPU, and to provide image output capable of maintaining image quality and speed according to a matrix recording method flexibly coping with various environments and minimizing the load in the engine unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masao Kato, Tomoyuki Watanabe, Akitoshi Yamada