Patent ID: 9114610
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: B41J,G06K,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image processing device configured to generate input image data used in a liquid ejecting device including: a liquid ejecting head having an ejection port for ejecting liquid onto a recording medium; a moving mechanism configured to move at least one of the liquid ejecting head and the recording medium such that a relative positional relationship of the liquid ejecting head and the recording medium varies with respect to a predetermined direction; and a recording controller configured to control the liquid ejecting head and the moving mechanism based on the input image data in which tone values of respective pixels corresponding to dots on one recording medium are represented by N tones (N is an integer greater than or equal to two) such that liquid of liquid amounts associated with the tone values of the respective pixels in the input image data is ejected to positions of dots corresponding to the respective pixels, the image processing device comprising: a correction-value memory storing a correction value in association with the ejection port, the correction value being for correcting variations in the liquid amounts of liquid ejected from the ejection port; a quantizer configured to generate N-value image data from M-value image data, the M-value image data being image data in which tone values of respective pixels corresponding to dots on one recording medium are represented by M tones (M is an integer greater than the integer N), the N-value image data being image data in which tone values of respective pixels are represented by N tones; and a corrector configured to correct the N-value image data generated by the quantizer based on the correction value, thereby generating the input image data, wherein the corrector is configured to perform: designating a target pixel belonging to a pixel array corresponding to the ejection port, the target pixel being designated, sequentially from one end to another end of the pixel array, as one of a plurality of pixels arranged in an array direction of the pixel array, the pixel array being formed with the plurality of pixels in the N-value image data corresponding to a plurality of dots formed by the ejection port respectively; allocating a corresponding one of N representative tone values out of L tone values of L tones (L is an integer greater than the integer N) to a tone value of the target pixel of the N-value image data generated by the quantizer; adding the correction value to a representative tone value of the target pixel, thereby obtaining a corrected tone value of the target pixel; quantizing the corrected tone value of the target pixel to N tones; and diffusing an error generated in quantizing the corrected tone value to the corrected tone value of an adjacent pixel adjacent to the target pixel in the array direction.