Abstract: One dither mask having a highest spacial frequency is selected from a plurality of dither masks. Next, a granularity is obtained with reference to a table based on the selected dither mask and an ejection amount level per area. Moreover, a difference in granularity between adjacent areas is calculated with respect to all of the areas. A maximum value is obtained out of the obtained differences in granularity, and then, the maximum difference in granularity is compared with a determination threshold. When the maximum difference in granularity is the threshold or greater, it is determined whether or not a dither mask having a spacial frequency lower than that of the selected dither mask is stored in a memory. When there are dither masks having lower spacial frequencies, a dither mask having a spacial frequency lower by one level than that of the selected dither mask is selected.

Abstract: When an input image is shifted by 640 pixels from a test pattern with reference to the position of a nozzle, the remainder is obtained by dividing 640 pixels by pixels of the dither matrix in an x direction. For example, when the size of the dither matrix in the x direction is 256 pixels, the dither matrix is shifted by 128 pixels in a direction reverse to the x direction. In this manner, the phase of the dither matrix at the time of the quantization during test pattern printing matches the phase of the dither matrix at the time of the quantization during input image printing. Consequently, unevenness of the dither matrix at a position N becomes the same in both of the test pattern and the input image. The HS correction to density unevenness caused by the unevenness of the dither matrix becomes suitable for the input image.

Abstract: In order to print a unit area of a print medium by a first printing scan and a second printing scan, dither patterns are formed which can control the arrangement of dots on the print medium without adverse effects of density unevenness and graininess, that are caused by printing position displacement. Regarding first and second dither patterns, information indicating whether or not a threshold is already set to a reference pixel and one or more pixels around the reference pixel in the first dither pattern is obtained for cases where each pixel in the first dither pattern is the reference pixel. A pixel in the second dither pattern to which a predetermined pixel is to be set is determined based on the obtained information. The first and second dither patterns formed in the above manner are associated with the first printing scan and the second printing scan, respectively.

Abstract: As viewed for each processing unit in HS processing, a processing unit width is more than 1 pixel, so that threshold arrangement corresponding to a target quality of an image intended by a dither matrix is kept while a possibility of avoiding the zero number of dots from being generated can be enhanced. Moreover, the threshold arrangement is kept while a possibility of generating the same number of dots in processing units can be enhanced. Consequently, the threshold arrangement corresponding to a predetermined target quality of an image intended by a dither matrix is kept while it is possible to reduce occurrence of an uneven density caused by the HS processing. Thus, it is possible to prevent the threshold arrangement from being limited by the HS according to the degree of the reduction.

Abstract: Nozzles in a print head are arrayed in a density of 600 dpi. Moreover, a dither matrix has a size of 16 pixels×16 pixels in 600 dpi. The dither matrix is repeatedly used. In the meantime, each of rectangles represents an HS processing unit. WHS=3 pixels. As a consequence, the relationship of a least common multiple below is established in a nozzle array direction: 3×WD=16×WHS. In this case, the cycle of interference unevenness can be prolonged to the least common multiple between WD and WHS, that is, 48 pixels (3WD). In this manner, the size of the dither matrix is not an integral multiple of the HS processing unit width, so that the cycle of interference unevenness can be prolonged more than the size of the dither matrix. Thus, the interference unevenness can be hardly recognized.

Abstract: An object decoding unit receives a plurality of pieces of coded acoustic information coded on an object basis and decodes the received coded acoustic information on an object basis to generate object signals. A rendering unit positions, for each acoustic signal resulting from synthesizing the object signals, a virtual sound source of each of the object signals resulting from the object-based decoding, in a listening space, and priority information indicating a priority of the acoustic signal is multiplexed with the coded acoustic information. The rendering unit determines, with reference to the priority indicated in the priority information or the number of object signals included in the acoustic signal, a size of an area of the listening space which is allocated to the acoustic signal, and positions, within the area, the virtual sound source of each of the object signals included in the acoustic signal.

Abstract: The present invention reduces an uneven color of a color having two or more colors of inks, the uneven color occurring due to manufacturing variations of ink ejection nozzles and so on. Each of a plurality of correction tables that is assigned to each predetermined number of nozzles that are used for printing on a common region in the print medium, of a plurality of nozzle arrays formed on a print head, each of the nozzle arrays ejecting a plurality of inks including a first ink and a second ink whose color is different from the color of the first ink, is generated on the basis of at least an ink ejection property of nozzles ejecting the first and second inks.

Abstract: A shielding metal of an adjacent liquid crystal panel separated from a mother substrate remains at an outer end part of a terminal portion of a liquid crystal display panel. The shielding metal has a two-layered structure including first shielding metals arranged at predetermined pitches and second shielding metals arranged at predetermined pitches. An insulating layer is provided between the first and the second shielding metals. This makes it possible to prevent short-circuit in wirings on a flexible wiring substrate even if the wirings on the flexible wiring substrate are brought into contact with the first or the second shielding metal.

Abstract: A hybrid sound signal decoder decodes a bitstream including audio frames encoded by an audio encoding process using a low delay filter bank and speech frames encoded by a speech encoding process using linear prediction coefficients. When a current frame to be decoded is an ith frame which is an initial speech frame after switching from an audio frame to a speech frame, the hybrid sound signal decoder generates sub-frames which are a signal corresponding to an i?1th frame before being encoded, using a sub-frame which is a signal generated using a signal of the i?1th frame before being encoded, the signal of the i?1th frame being obtained by decoding the ith frame.

Abstract: Provided are an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of reducing color unevenness due to variations in ejection characteristics among a plurality of nozzles when printing an image using a plurality of inks. To that end, a first image which is made up a color with noticeable color unevenness and similar colors is printed onto a print medium. The user then specifies a color and a nozzle position where color unevenness has occurred. On the basis of these results, parameters are set for a correction table referenced by an MCS processor. In so doing, it becomes possible to address the factor causing the color unevenness, and mitigate the effects of color unevenness in a focused way without incurring increases in processor load, memory requirements, or processing time as compared to the case of calibrating all lattice points.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device includes a bank on a first substrate and surrounding an image display area, a first alignment film on the first substrate, a second alignment film on a second substrate, and a sealing member to seal the liquid crystal material between the first and the second alignment films. The bank has a shape in which a slope of an inside surface standing from an inner peripheral lower end on a side of the image display area is steeper than a slope of an outside surface standing from an outer peripheral lower end on an opposite side to the image display area. The first alignment film contacts the inside surface of the bank and is provided in the image display area. The sealing member passes over the outside surface of the bank in a direction toward the inside surface and overlaps the bank.

Abstract: The present invention suppresses data processing load and processing time when generating density data for the same color that corresponds to a plurality of printing scans (or plurality of printing element groups) of a printing head and printing medium. In order to accomplish this, input image data is converted to a plurality of density data by referencing a three-dimensional lookup table that performs one-to-one correlation of input image data with a plurality of density data that corresponds to a plurality of relative movements (or plurality of printing element groups). By doing so, it is possible to perform a process of generating density data (CMYK) that corresponds to a plurality of relative movements (or plurality of printing element groups) from input image data at once, and thus it is possible to suppress an increase in data processing load and processing time.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device includes a first insulation substrate and a second insulation substrate which hold a liquid crystal material therebetween, a pixel electrode, a common electrode, a thin film transistor which has a semiconductor layer, a first electrode connected with a video signal line, and a second electrode connected with the pixel electrode. The semiconductor layer overlaps and is in physical contact with the pixel electrode, and a part of the pixel electrode, a part of the semiconductor layer, and a part of the second electrode are stacked at an overlapping portion.

Abstract: Primers and probes are provided for selectively detecting tubercle bacillus, and methods for detecting low copy numbers of human tubercle bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) using the same are presented. Oligonucleotides comprising a part of or an entire sequence of the nucleic acid sequence described in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:S, SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:7 or SEQ ID NO:8, or a part of or an entire sequence of the complementary sequence thereof are disclosed, wherein the oligonucleotide has a property of hybridizing with the nucleic acid sequence of IS6110 gene in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Primers and probes containing such oligonucleotides, and methods for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis using the primers and the probes are presented.

Abstract: Provided are an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of reducing color unevenness due to variations in ejection characteristics among a plurality of nozzles when printing an image using a plurality of inks. To that end, a first image which is made up a color with noticeable color unevenness and similar colors is printed onto a print medium. The user then specifies a color and a nozzle position where color unevenness has occurred. On the basis of these results, parameters are set for a correction table referenced by are MCS processor. In so doing, it becomes possible to address the factor causing the color unevenness, and mitigate the effects of color unevenness in a focused way without incurring increases in processor load, memory requirements, or processing time as compared to the case of calibrating all lattice points.

Abstract: When the number (M) of passes is smaller than a threshold value, a first processing mode is selected. In the first processing mode, multivalued image data is divided into pieces of multivalued data corresponding to passes and a common multivalued data for a plurality of passes, the pieces of multivalued data are individually binarized to generate pieces of binary data corresponding to the passes, and the common multivalued data is binarized to generate common binary data for these passes. On the other hand, when the number (M) of passes is equal to or larger than the threshold value, a second processing mode is selected. In the second processing mode, multivalued image data is binarized and the binary data is divided into pieces of binary data corresponding to passes with a mask.

Abstract: Inputted image data is converted to M number of multi-value data having a lower resolution than the inputted image data, and after quantization processing has been performed for each of the M number of multi-value data, an image is printed by M number of relative movements (M-pass printing) that corresponds to the M number of quantized data. By doing so, when compared with the case in which a resolution reduction process is not performed, it is possible to suppress the number of pixels that become the object of quantization processing, and it becomes possible to output an image with no fluctuation in image density or density unevenness without a decrease in the processing speed.

Abstract: In image processing, it is possible to suitably reduce density unevenness and graininess according to the ink used in printing. More specifically, when dividing multi-valued data and generating data for 2-pass multi-pass printing, in addition to divided multi-valued data for each of the two passes, divided multi-valued data that is common to the two passes is also generated. Moreover, quantized data of that common multi-valued data is reflected on the quantized data for each of the passes. Furthermore, when generating the quantized data, the division ratios used when generating the common data using the aforementioned multi-valued data division are set according to the colors of ink used in printing. By doing so, it becomes possible to suitably reduce density unevenness and graininess according to the colors used in printing.

Abstract: An image viewing system according to the present disclosure includes (i) plural mobile terminals each including: a memory unit; an input receiving unit which receives an input for displaying an image selected by a user on the large display apparatus; and a display instructing unit which issues a first instruction to display the selected image on the large display apparatus, and (ii) a large display apparatus including: a large display; an arbitrating terminal determining unit which determines an arbitrating terminal; and a first display control unit which displays the image based on the instruction on the large display. The display instructing unit of the arbitrating terminal determines whether or not to cause the first display control unit to display the image indicated by the first instruction, and issues a second instruction to the large display apparatus to display an image according to a result of the determination.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus and an image processing method are provided which, when forming an image using a plurality of different sizes of dots, can produce a satisfactory image free from problematical levels of density unevenness, graininess and insufficient density with any of these dot sizes. To this end, when printing on pixel areas of a print medium by a plurality of relative movements between the printing unit and the print medium, the dot overlap rate of a dot size that tends to show density unevenness is set higher than that of a dot size that tends to show other image impairments more conspicuously than the density unevenness. This results in a satisfactory image that eliminates such image impairments as density unevenness, graininess and density insufficiency in the entire grayscale range.