Method and apparatus for electronic development of color photographic film

A method of electronically developing a multicolor photographic film that has been previously exposed to a multicolor light image to store the primary colors of such image as separate component latent images therein, said film having plural light sensitive layers including silver halide crystal, each being light sensitive to a different one of the three primary colors of red, blue, and green,

• said method comprising the steps of:
• scanning each different component latent image in the film by an interrogating light beam having a different color frequency corresponding to that of a different color component sensitively of the film,
• each of said interrogating light beams having a time-intensity energy integral during said scanning that is constant and sufficient to drive its corresponding light sensitive chemical composition into a condition of energy saturation by absorption of a varying portion of the interrogating light beam as the beams scans the film,
• continuously detecting the quanta of energy from each of the interrogating beams after it passes through the film during the scanning of the film,
• said detecting of energy from the each of the beams resulting in a varying electrical signal proportional to the stored latent image,
• and continuously recording said electrical signals.

A system for electronic development of a multicolor photographic film that has been previously exposed to an image to store a multicolor latent image therein, said film having three light sensitive layers, each including silver halide crystals each being sensitive to a different one of the three primary colors red, green, and blue, comprising:

• a first constant intensity interrogating light beams means for scanning the latent image in the red layer with a light frequency within the frequency band of sensitivety of the red layer;
• a second constant intensity interrogating light beam means for scanning the latent image in the green layer with a light frequency within the frequency band of sensitivety of the green layer,
• a third constant intensity interrogating light beam means for scanning the latent image in the blue layer with a light frequency within the frequency band of sensitivety of the blue layer,
• each of said first, second, and third interrogating light beams having a time-intensity energy integral that is sufficient to impart absorptive light energy to its associated layer in the film that when added to the latent image stored therein drives that layer into an energy absorptive condition,
• optical-electrical detector means for separately detecting light from the interrogating beams that is not absorbed by each of the light sensitive layers during the scanning thereof, to generate three electical signals,
• and means for separately recording the three electrical signals to provide eletrical recordings corresponding to the originating three latent images in the film.