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US 7,453,608 B2Granted
Image forming system, image forming apparatus, and control method thereof
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMinoru Kambegawa, Seijiro Morita
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Correction for eliminating deformations of an image to be output from an image apparatus is executed while suppressing the processing load on the host computer side. A host computer acquires deformation information used to designate read addresses according to deformations of a scan line from a laser beam printer. A CPU (1) of the laser beam printer generates read addresses according to the deformation information to read out image data from a RAM, and transmits the readout image data to the laser beam printer. The laser beam printer (0) forms an image based on the image data received from the host computer (3000).
Claims12
A method of controlling an image forming apparatus, which outputs image data received from an external apparatus, comprising:
- a first reception step of receiving, from the external apparatus, first correction data, which is obtained by correcting, based on deformation information generated upon formation of image data, pixels in a vertical direction of the image data in a first unit;
- a second reception step of receiving, from the external apparatus, horizontal correction information required to correct pixels in a horizontal direction of the image data based on the deformation information;
- a third reception step of receiving, from the external apparatus, vertical correction information required to correct pixels, which cannot be corrected in the first unit in the vertical direction of the image data based on the deformation information, in a second unit;
- a correction step of generating correction data of the image data by correcting the first correction data using the horizontal correction information and the vertical correction information;
- and
- an image forming step of forming an image based on the correction data.
3 more elements
A computer-readable storage medium, storing a program, in executable form, to be executed by a processor in an image forming apparatus, which outputs image data received from an external apparatus, said program causing the image forming apparatus to execute:
- a first reception procedure for receiving, from the external apparatus, first correction data, which is obtained by correcting, based on deformation information generated upon formation of image data, pixels in a vertical direction of the image data in a first unit;
- a second reception procedure for receiving, from the external apparatus, horizontal correction information required to correct pixels in a horizontal direction of the image data based on the deformation information;
- a third reception procedure for receiving, from the external apparatus, vertical correction information required to correct pixels, which cannot be corrected in the first unit in the vertical direction of the image data based on the deformation information, in a second unit;
- a correction procedure for generating correction data of the image data by correcting the first correction data using the horizontal correction information and the vertical correction information;
- and
- an image forming procedure for forming an image based on the correction data.
3 more elements
An image forming system, which has a host computer and an image forming apparatus that forms an image based on image data received from said host computer, wherein
- said image forming apparatus comprises:
- an image carrier which forms an electrostatic latent image on a surface by sensing light;
- an exposure unit adapted to expose said image carrier based on the received image data;
- a development unit adapted to develop the electrostatic latent image by applying a developing agent to the electrostatic latent image formed on said image carrier;
- and
- a transfer unit adapted to form an image on a print sheet by transferring the developing agent image on the image carrier, and
- said host computer comprises:
- a storage unit adapted to store image data;
- an acquisition unit adapted to acquire, from said image forming apparatus, deformation information indicating how an output image deforms with respect to image data input to said image forming apparatus;
- a correction unit adapted to correct the image data in said storage unit to generate corrected image data so as to make said image forming apparatus form an image corresponding to the image data stored in said storage unit;
- and
- a transmission unit adapted to transmit the corrected image data generated by said correction unit to said image forming apparatus,
- wherein said correction unit generates read addresses used to designate switching positions of read lines upon reading out the image data from said storage unit,
- said host computer further comprises an attribute determination unit adapted to determine attributes of the image data for respective regions,
- said transmission unit appends the attributes determined by said attribute determination unit and information indicating the switching positions to the corrected image data,
- said image forming apparatus further comprises a tone correction unit adapted to apply tone correction to regions corresponding to the switching positions in the image data, and
- said tone correction unit switches, based on the attribute of a region corresponding to the switching position, whether or not to apply the tone correction.
14 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a first reception unit adapted to receive, from an external apparatus, first correction data, which is obtained by correcting, based on deformation information generated upon formation of image data, pixels in a vertical direction of the image data in a first unit;
- a second reception unit adapted to receive, from the external apparatus, horizontal correction information required to correct pixels in a horizontal direction of the image data based on the deformation information;
- a third reception unit adapted to receive, from the external apparatus, vertical correction information required to correct pixels, which cannot be corrected in the first unit in the vertical direction of the image data based on the deformation information, in a second unit;
- a correction unit adapted to generate correction data of the image data by correcting the first correction data using the horizontal correction information and the vertical correction information;
- and
- an image forming unit adapted to form an image based on the correction data.
3 more elements
An image forming system which comprises an external apparatus and an image forming apparatus that can communicate with each other, wherein
- said external apparatus comprises:
- a first correction unit adapted to generate first correction data by correcting, based on deformation information generated upon formation of image data, pixels in a vertical direction of the image data in a first unit;
- a first transmission unit adapted to transmit the first correction data to said image forming apparatus;
- a generation unit adapted to generate horizontal correction information required to correct pixels in a horizontal direction of the image data based on the deformation information, and vertical correction information required to correct pixels, which cannot be corrected in the first unit in the vertical direction of the image data, in a second unit;
- and
- a second transmission unit adapted to transmit the horizontal correction information and the vertical correction information to said image forming apparatus, and
- said image forming apparatus comprises:
- a reception unit adapted to receive the first correction data, the horizontal correction information, and the vertical correction information from said external apparatus;
- a second correction unit adapted to generate correction data of the image data by correcting the first correction data using the horizontal correction information and the vertical correction information;
- and
- an image forming unit adapted to form an image based on the correction data.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.