Patent ID: 8922834
Filing Date: 2014-12-30
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A non-transitory article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform: generating a multi-bit hybrid halftone screen by: generating a Continuous Tone Image (CTI) with all pixel values same as a first gray level; generating an initial Half Tone Image (HTI) with all pixel values equal to minimum absorptance level; and computing a change in pixel error for a first pixel by: identifying a first pixel indicated in a valid pixel map; toggling the first pixel with all the possible output states as long as the result of the toggling of the first pixel satisfies a stacking constraint; and swapping the first pixel with all neighbor pixels indicated in the valid pixel map as long as the result of the swapping of the first pixel satisfies the stacking constraint; calculating an average minimum Euclidean distance between all ON pixels in the initial HTI; and determining if the distance is less than or equal to a predetermined minimum distance; wherein the distance is represented by a neighborhood map that categorizes neighbors into face neighbors and corner connected neighbors.