Patent ID: 8559743

Claim:
A method of modifying digital image data associated with an imaging appliance chain, the appliance chain including at least one device exhibiting at least one defect that can be characterized by formatted information, the method comprising: retrieving, from the digital image data, by an image processing apparatus, identifier information for each device within the appliance chain and variable characteristic information for the at least one device, wherein the identifier information is used by the image processing apparatus to determine devices within the appliance chain, and wherein the variable characteristic information represents at least one setting of the at least one device made during capture of the digital image data; searching, based upon the identifier information and the variable characteristic information, a computer-readable storage medium including at least one compiled directory of formatted information related to a plurality of device models and organized by device model, wherein the at least one compiled directory includes first formatted information related to a device model of the same model as the at least one device that is generated by calibrating the device model of the same model as the at least one device based upon characteristics of the device model of the same model as the at least one device, and second formatted information derived directly from the first formatted information and variable characteristic information without further calibration, wherein the first formatted information and the second formatted information include the same type of data; retrieving, based upon the search, specific formatted information, wherein the specific formatted information is chosen from the first formatted information and the second formatted information and is associated, at least in part, with the identifier information and the variable characteristic information, and wherein the specific formatted information is related, at least in part, to the at least one defect of the at least one device; and modifying the digital image data by the image processing apparatus to correct for the at least one defect using the specific formatted information.