Method and apparatus for electronic film development
AssigneeApplied Science Fiction, Inc.
InventorAlbert D. Edgar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved developer application method and apparatus for use in electronic film development, wherein the developer is applied to a photographic film using controlled, aerial deposition of one or more stream(s) of droplets of one or more developer agents or developer components such that the droplets adhere to a targeted region of the film, rather than run off, and chemically react to allow scanning of a latent image in the film as it moves through an electronic film development scan mechanism.
Claims46
A method of obtaining a digital representation of an image, the image corresponding to a previous exposure of a color film containing a silver halide emulsion to light that results in a latent image thereon, comprising the steps of:
- aerially depositing a developer onto the color film while the color film is moving past a depositing area so that substantially all of the aerially deposited developer adheres to the emulsion of the color film as a substantially uniform thickness developer film and a monochromatic development process is performed as a result of the adherence to develop the latent image;
- irradiating the latent image on the color film with an infrared light while the developer film is applied at the substantially uniform thickness to obtain a light image corresponding to the latent image;
- and
- sensing the light image to obtain the digital representation of the image.
The method claim 13 wherein the developer modifier solution increases the sensitivity of the emulsion to the image.
A method of processing a latent image that exists on film comprising
- selecting a film developing fluid;
- forming an aerial droplet stream from the fluid;
- applying the aerial droplet stream to the film as the film moves past the aerial droplet stream under application conditions such that the development fluid adheres to the film, thus resulting in a developer film obtained as a result of the fluid substantially remaining in the area of the film to which it was applied to perform a monochromatic development of the film;
- irradiating the film with an infrared light while the developer film is applied to obtain a light image corresponding to the latent image that exists on the film;
- and
- sensing the light image to obtain a digital representation of the latent image.
A digital film processing apparatus for digitally processing a latent image that exists on a color film comprising:
- means for forming an aerial stream of film developer fluid having predetermined adherence characteristics with respect to the color film;
- means for applying the aerial stream to the color film as the color film moves past the aerial droplet stream under application conditions compatible with the adherence characteristics of the fluid so that there is obtained a developer film of substantially uniform thickness;
- means for irradiating the color film with an infrared light while the developer film is applied to obtain a light image corresponding to the latent image that exists on the film;
- and
- means for sensing the light image to obtain a digital representation of the latent image.
A digital film processing apparatus for processing a latent image that exists on a silver halide color photographic film comprising:
- a source of photographic film developing fluid;
- a chamber coupled to the fluid source;
- a pressure pulse generator coupled to the chamber;
- a nozzle coupled to the chamber, capable of producing a stream of droplets for controlled aerial deposition of the developer fluid on a surface of the silver halide color photographic film as the color film moves past the nozzle so that the deposited developer fluid substantially remains in the area of the color film to which it was applied and thereby performs a monochromatic development of the color film;
- an infrared light source that irradiates the color film with an infrared light while the developer fluid is applied to obtain a light image corresponding to the latent image that exists on the color film;
- and
- a sensor that senses the light image to obtain a digital representation of the latent image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.