Patent Abstract:
A color management method, wherein a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is used for converting colors from a source device color space to an output device color space in accordance with predetermined color profiles of the source and output devices. The method includes the steps of storing, in the GPU, an at least three-dimensional conversion texture that specifies a color conversion table; loading input color data into the GPU; sampling the conversion texture at a position specified by the input color data, thereby to identify output color data; and outputting the output color data.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to Application No. 08154135.1, filed in Europe on Apr. 7, 2008, the entirety of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a color management method, wherein a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is used for converting colors from a source device color space to an output device color space in accordance with predetermined color profiles of the source and output devices. 
         [0004]    The present invention further relates to a color management module and a program product embodied on a computer readable medium for implementing the method and to a printer using the method. 
         [0005]    2. Description of Background Art 
         [0006]    When a color image is scanned with a scanner and is then printed with a color printer, it can not be taken for granted that the colors on the printed copy will be identical with those of the original. The reason is that color processing devices such as scanners, printers and the like, operate in device dependent color spaces. The main purpose of color management is to transform one color space into another, given an input profile or source profile of the source device (e.g. scanner), an output profile of the output device (e.g. the printer) and possibly a rendering intent. The current standard for color management is set by the International Color Consortium (ICC) which has defined a format for the color profiles. For example, a color profile for a scanner may specify how the colors on an original, as defined in a standard color space such as LAB, for example, are related to the RGB colors output by the scanner. Similarly, a color profile of a printer may specify how the LAB colors that shall be visible on the printed copy are related to the CMYK color values to be input into the printer in order to achieve the desired output. In general, such a color profile is represented by two conversion tables, one mapping, for example, RGB onto LAB, and another one mapping LAB onto RGB (with suitable gamut mapping). When the scanner and the printer are combined to form a digital copier, the color managing module will perform a transformation that corresponds to concatenating the color profile of the scanner with the color profile of the printer. 
         [0007]    Whereas color management has conventionally been the task of a CPU in a printer or other color processing device, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0035752 A1 discloses a color management module in which at least a part of the color management operations are performed in a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Such a GPU is a processor with a massively parallel architecture that is typically employed in graphics cards in PCs. According to the color management method proposed in this document, the input color profile is at first linearized, if it is not linear already, and then a linear transformation, i.e. a matrix multiplication, is carried out, and, in general, a non-linear function is applied to the result in order to map the colors onto the output device color space. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    It is an object of the present invention to provide a color management method that permits carrying out color conversion with improved efficiency and/or fidelity. 
         [0009]    In order to achieve this object, the method according to the present invention is comprises the steps of: storing, in the GPU, an at least three-dimensional conversion texture that specifies a color conversion table; loading input color data into the GPU; sampling the conversion texture at a position specified by the input color data, thereby identifying output color data; and outputting the output color data. 
         [0010]    In principle, the method according to the present invention is a table look-up method with interpolation, utilizing a conversion table that assigns a set (vector) of output color values in the output color space to every set of input color values in the source device color space. However, since existing GPUs support three-dimensional (3D) textures, the table look-up process can be performed in an extremely efficient way, when the conversion table is represented by such a 3D texture. 
         [0011]    A texture in a GPU is comparable to an array in a conventional multi-purpose computer, with the main difference being that the texture can be addressed via floating point indices. Originally, GPUs and textures have mainly been used for rendering graphics art or a video for computer games and the like. In that case, the color value of a specific pixel to be rendered was determined by sampling a corresponding area in a texture that represents a two or three dimensional volume in which the virtual object exists to which the pixel belongs. However, according to the present invention, the textures do not represent a volume in a physical space but a volume in a color space, so that sampling the conversion texture at a position specified by the input color data is equivalent to looking-up, with interpolation, a value in a conversion table. 
         [0012]    Since the GPU is specifically designed for efficiently carrying out tasks like sampling from textures, the present invention permits a highly efficient color management, regardless of whether the color profiles involved are linear or non-linear. 
         [0013]    A color management module, a program product for color management and a printer using the method according to the present invention are specified in respective independent claims. More specific optional features of the present invention are indicated in the dependent claims. 
         [0014]    In a preferred embodiment, a linear interpolation algorithm is used in sampling the conversion texture. Existing GPUs are well suited for that purpose. 
         [0015]    When the source device has a three dimensional color space such as RGB, the conversion table can be stored in a 3D conversion texture. If the color space of the source device has four dimensions, such as CMYK, the conversion table can be represented by a (large) 3D texture that is divided into a plurality of cubes stacked one upon the other, and the fourth coordinate is represented by the number or index of the cube. For example, each cube may represent a CMY space for a specific value of K. Then, sampling the texture at the position of a specific CMYK color is performed by sampling the points CMY in the cubes for the two values of K that are closest to the K value of the input color. This results in two output colors, one for each of the two values of K, and the final output color is obtained by interpolation with respect to K. 
         [0016]    Textures may also be used for storing the input color data and/or output color data in the GPU. Preferably, 1D or 2D textures are used for that purpose. 
         [0017]    The color conversion may be performed in a single step, i.e. by means of a single conversion texture that integrates the color profiles of both, the source device and the output device. In a modified embodiment, however, the color conversion may be separated into a plurality of steps, using two or more conversion textures which may be obtained, for example, by converting the ICC profiles into textures. 
         [0018]    Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0019]    The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
           [0020]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a color processing system; 
           [0021]      FIG. 2  is a diagrammatic illustration of a color profile of a source device; 
           [0022]      FIG. 3  is a diagrammatic illustration of a color profile of an output device; 
           [0023]      FIG. 4  is a diagrammatic illustration of a conversion function obtained by combining the color profiles of  FIGS. 2 and 3 ; 
           [0024]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a digital copier or multi-purpose device having a color management module according to the present invention; 
           [0025]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram of a memory; 
           [0026]      FIG. 7  is a diagram illustrating the process of sampling a 3D texture; 
           [0027]      FIG. 8  illustrates the representation of a 4D conversion table in a 3D texture; and 
           [0028]      FIG. 9  is a block diagram of a GPU, similar to  FIG. 6 , for a modified embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0029]    The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same reference numerals have been used to identify the same or similar elements throughout the several views. 
         [0030]      FIG. 1  illustrates a source device  10 , a color management module (CMM)  12  and an output device  14 . The source device  10  may be any source of color information, e.g. a scanner that scans a physical object, a digital camera that takes a picture of a physical object, a PC or other multipurpose computer with data that represents a physical object and the like and might even be a virtual device represented by a file on a data carrier. The output device  14  may be any device that processes color information, e.g. a printer, a display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a plasma screen and the like, a beamer, and so on. Since each of the source and output devices  10 ,  14  have their own device-dependent color space, the CMM  12  is provided for converting the input colors delivered by the source device  10  from the color space of that source device into the color space of the output device  14 . 
         [0031]    The properties of the source device  10  can be characterized by a color profile (e.g. a standard ICC profile) as is schematically illustrated in  FIG. 2 . It is assumed here that the source device has a (three-) dimensional RGB color space  16 . One of the three dimensions has been omitted for clarity in the drawing. A color profile  18  can be thought of as a function linking the color space  16  to a standard color space  20  (e.g. an LAB color space). Thus, every point  22  in the color space  16  is unambiguously mapped onto a point  24  in the color space  20 . When the source device  10  is a scanner, for example, the point  24  in the LAB space  20  may be thought of as representing a color on an original that is scanned with the scanner, and the corresponding point  22  in the space  16  will indicate the corresponding RGB values output by the scanner. 
         [0032]    Similarly,  FIG. 3  illustrates a color profile  28  of the output device  14  that is assumed to have a four-dimensional CYMK color space  26 . The color profile  28  may then be considered as a function linking any point in the standard LAB space  20 , e.g. the point  24 , to exactly one point  30  in the CMYK space  26 . 
         [0033]    As is shown in  FIG. 4 , the functions representing the color profiles  18  and  28  may be concatenated to form a conversion function  32  linking the RGB space  16  directly to the CMYK space  26 . Such a function  32  is called a “device link” and is stored in the CMM  12  for converting the color signal output by the source device  10  into color signals to be supplied to the output device  14 . 
         [0034]    When the output device  14  is a printer, for example, and the source device  10  is again a scanner, then the color profiles  18  and  24  are ideally defined in such a way that the colors printed with the printer (by combining the colors CMYK) will be identical with the colors on the original that have been scanned with the scanner. More generally, the color profile  28  of the output device indicates the CMYK values to be supplied to the output device in order to obtain, as output, the desired color in the standard LAB space. 
         [0035]      FIG. 5  illustrates the general layout of a digital printer/copier or multi-purpose device comprising a local scanner  34  as a first source device, a network unit  36  for connecting to other source devices, and a print engine (printer)  38  as the output device. 
         [0036]    A memory  40  stores input files  42  that have been created with the scanner  34  or have been received via the network. Each input file  42  may be in a specific format, e.g. PostScript or the like, and may include a color list  44  listing the colors that occur in the image, so that a color value can be assigned to each element (e.g. pixel) of the image. The colors in the color list  44  will be given in the color space  16  of the respective source device. 
         [0037]    When an input file is to be printed with the print engine  38 , this file will be converted under the control of a CPU  46  into a print file  48  that will be stored in a memory  50  and will then be fed to the print engine  38 . This conversion includes color management, so that the color lists  44  of the print files  48  now contain converted colors which are defined in the color space  26  of the print engine  38 . For that purpose, the system includes a color management module which, in this example, is not mainly implemented in the CPU  46  but is formed by a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)  52  that communicates with the CPU  46 . 
         [0038]    Both the CPU and the GPU have access to a memory  60  that is used by the GPU for storing 1D, 2D and 3D textures. As has only symbolically been shown in  FIG. 5 , the GPU comprises a large number of processors  62  which work in parallel for carrying out operations on the data in the memory  60 . 
         [0039]    As is shown in  FIG. 6 , the textures in the memory  60  comprise a one- or two-dimensional input texture  64 , a three-dimensional link texture  66  and an output texture  68  which has again one or two dimensions. In a modified embodiment, an off-screen framebuffer may be provided in place of the output texture  68 . 
         [0040]    In order to perform color management for a specific input file  42 , the input color data included in the color list  44  will be loaded into the input texture  64 . A three-dimensional conversion table representing the conversion function  32  ( FIG. 4 ) has previously been stored in the link texture  66 . Then, in order to perform the color conversion, the processors  42  operate in parallel on the individual pixels in the image represented by the input file  42  to convert the color thereof. Each pixel is processed in a separate thread, in which a specific program, that is called pixel shader, fetches the input color value for the pertinent pixel from the input texture  64  and treats the three color components as coordinates (possibly with a suitable scaling), which specify a certain point in the link texture  66 . The entry at the corresponding point in the link texture is sampled with linear interpolation between the eight closest values in the conversion table. The result is then stored in the output texture  68  and sent back to the CPU  46 . 
         [0041]    When another input file  42  is to be processed, which originates from a different source device having a different color profile, then, of course, the conversion table in the link texture  66  has to be modified. A new conversion table will be calculated (e.g. in the CPU  46 ) and will then be loaded into the link texture  66 . Similarly, different color profiles may be provided for the print engine  38 . These color profiles may, for example, depend on the type of recording medium that is to be printed on, and on the halftone screens that are used for color printing. In a specific embodiment, there may, for example, be six different output profiles corresponding to three different halftone screens for coated and uncoated paper, respectively. 
         [0042]    The process of sampling a value from the link texture  66  will now be explained in conjunction with  FIG. 7 . Although it was stated that a 3D texture can be addressed with (three) floating point indices, so that the texture can practically be treated as a continuum, of course, only a finite number of entries (CMYK output values) can actually be stored in the texture. This is why the texture can be imagined as a cubic grid in the RGB space, where an entry (CMYK value) is present for each node of the grid.  FIG. 7  illustrates an individual cube of this grid with eight nodes  70 . Every point  72  in the RGB space, specified by its co-ordinates (r, g, b) is located within a certain cell or cube of the grid, and the corresponding CMYK output color value is obtained by applying a known interpolation algorithm, e.g. linear interpolation, to the CMYK values that are stored in the texture for the eight nodes  70  at the corners of that cell. 
         [0043]    The same sampling procedure can be applied to any three dimensional color space such as LAB, XYZ, and the like, and the entries at the nodes  70  may not only be CMYK values but could also be co-ordinates of another three-, four-, or higher-dimensional color spaces such as LAB, XYZ or again RGB. 
         [0044]    Some special considerations are necessary for cases where the color space of the source device  10  is a four-dimensional space such as CMYK. Then, in analogy to what has been explained in conjunction with  FIG. 7 , a 4D texture would be needed, which, however, is not supported by existing GPUs. For that reason, the fourth dimension is represented in a 3D texture by stacking a number of CMY cubes, one for each discrete K value, upon one another.  FIG. 8  illustrates a simplified example with two 4×4×4 CMY cubes  74 ,  76  stacked upon one another. The lower cube  76  contains the output color values for a certain value i of the fourth co-ordinate K, and the upper cube  74  contains the output color values for K=i+1. For simplicity, i is considered here as an integer, although, in practice, it will generally be a floating point number running from 0 to 1. Moreover, in a practical example, the cubes  74 ,  76  would have a size of 16×16×16 cells (corresponding to 17 3  discrete output color values), and 17 of such cubes, one for each of 17 different K values, would be stacked in the texture. Thus, if K runs from 0 to 1, the index i would designate intervals with a size of 1/17. 
         [0045]    When an output color value is sampled in the “virtual 4D texture” at a certain point having the CMYK co-ordinates (c, m, y, k), the co-ordinate k determines which of the 17 cubes are evaluated. If k is between i and i+1, then, the cubes  74  and  76  shown in  FIG. 8  would be evaluated. In the manner that has been described in conjunction with  FIG. 7 , separate output values would be sampled for each of the cubes  74 ,  76 , and then the final output value would be found from these two results by linear interpolation with respect to k. 
         [0046]    In the examples that have been described above, it was assumed that the GPU stores only a single link texture  66  at a time, this link texture containing a conversion table that may correspond to the concatenated conversion function  32  in  FIG. 4 , for example. However, in a modified embodiment, shown in  FIG. 9 , the conversion may also be performed in two or more steps, employing a separate conversion texture for each step. By way of example,  FIG. 9  shows a GPU  78 , wherein the memory  60  stores, in addition to the input texture  64  and the output texture  68 , a first conversion texture  80  and a second conversion texture  82 . The first conversion texture  80  may, for example, represent the standard ICC color profile of the source device  10 , whereas the second conversion texture  82  may represent the ICC color profile of the output device  14 . Then, the conversion will be performed in two steps: a first step of sampling the first conversion texture  80  at a point specified by the input color value, and a second step of sampling the second conversion texture  82  at a point specified by the result of the first sampling step. Then, when a source device  10  or an output device  14  is to be replaced, the color managing module  12  can easily be adapted by replacing the corresponding conversion texture  80  and  82 , respectively, by one that represents the color profile of the new device. 
         [0047]    Optionally, a third conversion texture  84  may be intervening between the textures  80  and  82 . This conversion texture  84  would map the standard color space (e.g. LAB) back onto itself and may represent transformations that may freely be selected by the user in order to optimize the result. Since these transformations are performed in the standard color space, they will largely be device-independent. 
         [0048]    Finally it is noted that a GPU nowadays most of the time is embodied as a separate integrated circuit or chip, separate from a CPU and other circuitry. However, it is also envisaged that a GPU will be integrated with a CPU and possibly other circuitry on a single substrate and so forming a single chip. Besides that, a GPU may also be embodied in a PLA (Programmable Logic Array) or in a ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). The notion of GPU as used in this description encompasses, but is not limited to, the embodiments given above. 
         [0049]    The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7