Patents by Inventor Seishin Yoshida

Seishin Yoshida 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: 8570592
    Abstract: A method of creating a lookup table which describes a correspondence relationship between an input value to a printing apparatus for performing printing by ejecting ink onto a printing medium, and output values of a special gloss ink and a color ink of the printing apparatus, includes: a first process of determining the output value of the special gloss ink to be relatively low at a lattice point where an index value relating to color intensity is dark to be equal to or lower than a predetermined value, with regard to each lattice point of the lookup table; and a second process of determining the output value of the color ink at each lattice point by increasing an ink duty limit value which is the upper limit of the sum of the color ink that can be ejected onto a unit area of the printing medium, according to the determined output value of the special gloss ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Seishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 8493622
    Abstract: A printing apparatus for performing printing with the use of a special gloss material and a coloring material is provided. The printing apparatus includes: an inputting unit that receives or acquires image data as an input; and a printing unit that controls the arrangement of the special gloss material and the coloring material on a print target medium on the basis of the inputted image data to print the image data. The printing unit changes the amount of use of the special gloss material depending on an index value that is related to the lightness of a color represented by the coloring material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Seishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 8488221
    Abstract: Display image data for displaying images on a screen, and when display image data that has undergone specified gradation conversion is received, the characteristics of the output brightness displayed on the screen is checked. In the area for which the output brightness of the display image data is convex at the bottom in relation to the image data gradation values, the display image data gradation values are corrected so as to have a roughly linear relationship between the gradation values and the output brightness. Printing image data is generated based on the post-correction image data and an image is printed. In the area for which the output brightness bottom is convex, by performing this kind of correction, it is possible to print an image with an impression closer to the display on the screen. As a result, it is possible to print images on the monitor screen easily and without losing the impression received from the image displayed on the monitor screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Nao Ozawa, Susumu Murayama, Seishin Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20130063516
    Abstract: A printer as an ink ejecting apparatus capable of ejecting sedimentation ink includes an LED as a first light emitting unit that emits light to a patch as a measurement target portion printed on a printing medium by the sedimentation ink, a light receiving sensor as a first light receiving unit that receives light transmitted from the LED and passing through the patch, and a control unit as a shielding degree determining unit that determines whether or not the patch has a predetermined shielding degree on the basis of a light reception signal output from the light receiving sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2012
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hirofumi Sakai, Mitsuhiro Yamashita, Seishin Yoshida, Hirohisa Ozawa
  • Publication number: 20120262509
    Abstract: To provide a technique when printing using a light-shielding ink and a special glossy ink, the printing device includes an affixing part for affixing ink to a printing medium, and a controller for controlling ink volumes of a colored ink, a light-shielding ink having light-shielding properties, and a special glossy ink having special gloss. The controller has a field discriminating part for discriminating an overlap field of a light-shielding ink field and a special glossy ink field; and a part for allowing, in the overlap field, the ink volume of light-shielding ink to be brought lower than the ink volume of the light-shielding ink determined in accordance with the image data, irrespective of the overlap field.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2012
    Publication date: October 18, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hirofumi SAKAI, Mitsuhiro YAMASHITA, Seishin YOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20120113444
    Abstract: The printing apparatus is a printing apparatus which prints an image by forming a layer containing a colorant on a recording medium having luster, and is provided with a color conversion unit which converts a color of an image into a printed color expressed by the colorant such that a degree of change in brightness with respect to a gradation change for pixels belonging to a highlighted part in which index values relating to the brightness are equal to or greater than a predetermined value is greater than that for pixels with index values which do not belong to the highlighted part, among the pixels constituting the image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2011
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seishin YOSHIDA, Mitsuhiro YAMASHITA
  • Publication number: 20120113178
    Abstract: A printing apparatus, which performs the printing using a polish and a colorant includes a reduction region setting portion that sets a reduction region, which is a region where an amount of the polish is reduced, at a dark portion side of a color gamut of the printing apparatus in a device-independent color space; and a color conversion portion which converts color of an image to be input to the printing apparatus into a print color to be expressed by the polish and the colorant, wherein, among pixels constituting the image, in a pixel included in the reduction region, the color conversion portion reduces the amount of the polish compared to a pixel not included in the reduction region, and converts color of the image to the print color.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2011
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro YAMASHITA, Seishin YOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20120113476
    Abstract: A printing apparatus prints an image with the use of a luster agent and a colorant, and is provided with a color conversion unit which converts a color of an image into a printed color expressed by the luster agent and the colorant such that a degree of change in brightness with respect to a gradation change for pixels belonging to a highlighted part, in which index values relating to the brightness are equal to or greater than a first predetermined value, is greater than that for pixels with index values which do not belong to the highlighted part, among the pixels constituting the image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2011
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seishin YOSHIDA, Mitsuhiro YAMASHITA
  • Publication number: 20120056922
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print head that is able to apply light-blocking ink that blocks light and metallic ink that creates a metallic look on a printing medium, a metallic look control unit that determines the ink amount per unit area of the light-blocking ink that the print head applies based on the created metallic look, and an ink application control unit that controls the print head, applies the metallic ink and the light-blocking ink based on the determined ink amount on the printing medium, and laminates the metallic ink and the light-blocking ink such that the side that is viewed has the metallic ink.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Seishin YOSHIDA
  • Patent number: 8118401
    Abstract: Provided is a printing apparatus that superposedly forms an image layer representing an image and a specific glossy layer that is different from the image layer on a printing medium, including: a first connection unit, a second connection unit, a reception unit, a print head and at least one of specific color nozzle columns and a printing unit, wherein at least the connection unit that can supply the ink to the end-portion specific color nozzle column inside the second connection unit can be connected to a specific gloss agent container containing a specific gloss agent that is used to form the specific glossy layer instead of the specific color ink container, and wherein, when the specific gloss agent container is connected to the second connection unit and the reception unit receives the specific gloss agent as the available ink, the printing unit ejects the specific gloss agent from the end-portion specific color nozzle column to form the specific glossy layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Seishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 8105429
    Abstract: An ink set includes an oil-based ink composition containing a metallic pigment; and at least one oil-based ink composition selected from the group consisting of a chromatic color ink composition containing a chromatic color oil dye, a black ink composition containing a black oil dye, and a colorless and transparent ink composition that does not contain a colorant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Oyanagi, Akio Ito, Seishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 8097075
    Abstract: An ink set includes an oil-based ink composition containing a metallic pigment; and at least one oil-based ink composition selected from the group consisting of a chromatic color ink composition containing a chromatic color oil dye, a black ink composition containing a black oil dye, and a colorless and transparent ink composition that does not contain a colorant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Oyanagi, Akio Ito, Seishin Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20110234660
    Abstract: A printing head configured to apply white light-blocking ink, specialty gloss ink, and color ink is controlled, and the inks are applied so that the color ink, the specialty gloss ink, and the white light-blocking ink are formed in this order onto a printing medium having light-transmissive properties. When the printing medium is viewed from the surface on which ink has not been formed, a white ink layer is formed behind the color ink layer and the metallic ink layer, and light-blocking properties can be ensured. Because the amount of the metallic ink can be reduced, adequate expression of the color ink can be ensured.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2011
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Seishin YOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20110221805
    Abstract: The printing device for carrying out printing on a translucent printing medium includes: a print head having a first applying portion for applying a first color material onto the printing medium, a second applying portion for applying a second color material, and a third applying portion for applying an opaque specialty ink; a conveying portion for conveying the printing medium relative to the print head; and a printing control portion configured to execute printing according to a printing mode in which a first color-producing layer of the first color material is formed on the conveying printing medium using the first applying portion, an opaque light-blocking layer of the specialty ink is formed using the third applying portion, and a second color-producing layer of the second color material is formed over the light-blocking layer using the second applying portion after the light-blocking layer is formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2011
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seishin YOSHIDA, Tsuyoshi SANO, Takayoshi KAGATA
  • Publication number: 20110221807
    Abstract: The printing device includes a print head having a specialty gloss ink ejection head for ejecting a specialty gloss ink that creates a special gloss effect and a dye-based color ink ejection head for ejecting a dye-based color ink, and an ejection control unit configured to carry out ejection of the specialty gloss ink from the specialty gloss ink ejection head and ejection of the dye-based color ink from the dye-based color ink ejection head, and to carry out printing of a special gloss area with the specialty gloss ink and printing of a reproduction area onto the special gloss area with the dye-based color ink. The ejection control unit has a first printing mode for carrying out printing of the reproduction area in a main scan that chronologically follows a main scan of the print head in which printing of the special gloss area is carried out.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2011
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Seishin YOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20110037804
    Abstract: An ink set includes an oil-based ink composition containing a metallic pigment; and at least one oil-based ink composition selected from the group consisting of a chromatic color ink composition containing a chromatic color oil dye, a black ink composition containing a black oil dye, and a colorless and transparent ink composition that does not contain a colorant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Publication date: February 17, 2011
    Inventors: Takashi Oyanagi, Akio Ito, Seishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 7864362
    Abstract: The following processes are performed when generating new image data by modifying the color tones of images in image data: First the user is allowed to select a parameter from a plurality of modification candidate parameters corresponding to mutually differing modification details; then, according to the selected parameter, modified image data in which the colors of at least a portion of the pixels differ from those in the subject image data, is generated. Note that when the subject image data is color image data, then the selection can be made from Nc color image modification candidate parameters, and when monochrome image data, the selection can be made from Nm (where Nm is an integer larger than Nc) monochrome image modification candidate parameters. This type of process can provide image processing that fulfill the needs of some users with the strict requirement while not complicating the operations performed by typical users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Seishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 7850773
    Abstract: An ink set includes an oil-based ink composition containing a metallic pigment; and at least one oil-based ink composition selected from the group consisting of a chromatic color ink composition containing a chromatic color oil dye, a black ink composition containing a black oil dye, and a colorless and transparent ink composition that does not contain a colorant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Oyanagi, Akio Ito, Seishin Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20100284030
    Abstract: There is provided a color conversion table having a plurality of pieces of reference color image data making correspondence between color data for a first image device and color data for a second image device and including a specified total information amount. The color conversion table is used to distribute the reference color image data over a prescribed area in a specified color space. Color data information for each reference color image data is increased more than a specified amount within a limit of the specified total information amount. Further, a color conversion table is created using an original table which highly accurately defines colors in part of the table. If such color conversion tables are referenced for color conversion, it is possible to suppress the storage capacity, provide color matching, and perform high accuracy color conversion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Inventors: Seishin Yoshida, Yukimitsu Fujimori, Toshiaki Kakutani, Koichi Yoshizawa
  • Patent number: 7787151
    Abstract: A color tone setting window 100 that includes an ink color circle 110 is displayed in order to set a color tone of a monochrome image. By specifying a point Pcc in the ink color circle 110, intensities of color components representing three chromatic primary color inks are specified. The color component intensities representing three chromatic primary color inks are determined as parameters defining the color tone of the monochrome image in accordance with the position of the specified point Pcc in the ink color circle 110. The ink color circle 110 is configured such that the color component intensities representing three chromatic primary color inks can be visually recognized from the position in the ink color circle 110. Alternatively, ink color sliders can be used in lieu of the ink color circle 110.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Seishin Yoshida