Patent Application: US-2392798-A

Abstract:
a method of providing information on the back side of a developed photographic medium having an image carrying layer on the front side . the method comprises machine reading code on the developed imaging carrying layer on the front side of the photographic medium . in the method , information is printed on the back side of the developed photographic medium with a printer , based on the machine read code . an apparatus , which can execute a method of the invention , for providing information on a back side of a developed photographic medium having an image carrying layer on the front side , has a reader to read machine readable code in the developed imaging carrying layer on the front side of the photographic medium . the apparatus further has a printer communicating with the reader so as to print information on the back side of the developed photographic medium based on the machine read code . the method may include printing and developing the photographic medium .

Description:
referring to fig1 the particular apparatus of the present invention shown is intended to be used with a continuous web 10 of a photographic medium . web 10 has a front side carrying a photosensitive layer , and an opposite back side 18 , as well as two parallel straight line edges 12 , 14 . the web also has a base , one side of the base defining the back side 18 of web 10 . the base may be either transparent ( when transparent prints are desired ) or reflective ( for example , paper ). the photosensitive layer be any suitable layer and include one or more sub - layers . for example , the layer may be one or more sub - layers of a light sensitive silver halide in gelatin emulsion . when web 10 is a full color photographic paper or film , the photosensitive layer will typically include three layers each carrying silver halide emulsions sensitized to respective red , green and blue spectral regions , as well as respective color couplers which produce respective image dyes ( such as cyan , magenta , and yellow ) upon development to yield a fixed image . the apparatus includes a modulated light source in the form of an image and code writer 30 . image and code writer 30 may be any suitable modulated light source such as one or more lasers , a cathode ray tube (“ crt ”) printer , a light emitting diode (“ led ”) printer , under the control of a suitable processor which has access to a memory device holding multiple digital image signals corresponding to images to be written onto photographic web 10 . a driver , such as a drive motor 23 is provided to move web 10 from a dispensing reel 20 to a take up reel 22 as the images are exposed on the front side 16 of web 10 . the apparatus also includes at the same location ( that is , generally within the same building or room ), a developer 40 . developer 40 includes all the necessary components and chemistry as required to chemically develop latent images on exposed web 10 . a suitable driver ( not shown ), which includes one or more motors and or rollers , is also present to move the web from reel 22 to another reel 24 . a portion of the apparatus shown in the lower left hand corner of fig1 can be considered an apparatus of the present invention by itself , or as part of an apparatus of the present invention which includes the remainder of the components of fig1 . this portion includes a reader 50 , such as a bar code reader , to read machine readable codes which might occur at most positions across ( that is , in a direction between edges 12 , 14 ) web 10 in the developed photosensitive layer ( now an image carrying layer ). that is , reader 50 will detect codes anywhere across most of the width of web 10 . the codes may , for example , be any form of suitable machine readable code , such as a bar code , a series of dots and / or dashes , or human readable characters which can be recognized using optical character recognition , or any combination of the foregoing . a printer 55 , such as a thermal , inkjet or impact printer , is positioned to print information on the back side 18 of the developed photographic web 10 . an image cutter 54 , has one or more blades and can cut web 10 along one or more lines parallel with edges 12 , 14 or transverse to edges 12 , 14 , in a known manner . a driver in the form of a plurality of rollers 56 and connected drive motors 58 moves the web in a first direction ( the direction of arrow 57 ) from reel 24 . a processor 59 communicates with the reader 50 , printer 55 and cutter 54 . processor 59 may be any multipurpose processor suitably programmed to carry out all functions required of it , or may be an equivalent hardware or hardware and software combination . processor 59 may include any suitable memory device for storing programs and / or required data . processor 59 can instruct the printer 55 on the location on the back side 18 at which printer 55 is to print , by controlling the location of a print head in printer 55 . these instructions can be received from the machine readable code read by reader 50 . furthermore , processor 59 can control cutter 54 to separate developed images at locations which are based on cutting instructions contained within the code read by reader 50 . alternatively , the positions at which printer 55 prints , and cutter 54 cuts , can be predetermined based simply on the location of a code read by reader 50 . this latter arrangement can be used when it is known that each customer order will consist of the same number and relative locations of prints . in operation , web 10 is driven from reel 20 to reel 22 by driver 23 . at appropriate positions , image and code writer 30 will write both images from multiple customer orders using corresponding retrieved digital image signals , as well as machine readable codes as determined under the control of a suitably programmed processor ( not shown ) or equivalent hardware and / or software . the images and codes will be written as latent images . it should be noted that writer 30 can also write human readable characters ( such as alphanumeric characters ) as determined by the processor . when reel 22 is full , it is transferred to the developer . here reel 22 will act as the supply reel while another reel 24 acts as the take up reel . the photographic web 10 is then driven through developer 40 to chemically develop all latent images and yield the written images and codes as viewable images or code images , respectively , within the now developed photosensitive layer ( which is no longer photosensitive but is an image dye carrying gelatin layer referenced as an image carrying layer ). when all of web 10 has been developed , it is transferred on reel 24 for reading , back printing and cutting . web 10 is driven by the driver from reel 24 , past code reader 50 , back printer 55 and through cutter 54 . code reader 50 reads machine readable bar codes on the front side of web 10 as web 10 passes by . these codes are communicated to processor 59 which causes printer 55 to print on the back side 18 of web 10 . printer 55 prints information at locations and / or of a content which is at least in part determined by the codes read by reader 50 . the printed information will typically include human and / or machine readable information such as a unique identification of the prints or order , or picture taking conditions , and the like . as previously mentioned , cutter 54 cuts web 10 under control of processor 59 which control may be based in whole or in part upon instructions obtained from read codes . the resulting cut prints 60 can be packaged and delivered to the customer ( usually along with the corresponding film from which the images were previously scanned ). fig2 illustrates a portion of the front side of web 10 as it might typically appear as it leaves reel 24 to pass by reader 50 . for example , the single customer order shown might include a first set of images 62 and a second set of images 70 each extending in a direction transversely between edges 12 , 14 . any of images 62 and 70 may be the same or different , and the single same figure appearing in each is for illustrative purposes only . a line 64 and a line 78 define this order between them . lines 66 separate images 62 while lines 72 separate images 68 . a machine readable bar code 80 has been printed in a space between lines 69 and 78 . all of the foregoing lines may be visible , for example , they may be lines on which nothing has been printed , or edges between printed and non - printed regions , or they may be simply the locations at which one image ends and another begins . the single bar code 80 in this case may contain printer instructions on what information is to be printed on the back side 18 ( for example , human and / or machine readable information ), as well as the location on the back side for such printing ( for example , print behind each image 62 , 70 ). bar code 80 may also contain instructions for cutter 54 ( e . g . cut along the locations defined by each of lines 76 , 66 , 68 , 72 , 69 , 70 ). this not only separates the images 62 , 78 from one another , but also separates a strip of the web 10 ( defined by edges 12 , 14 and lines 69 , 78 ) carrying the bar code 80 ( which is then typically discarded ) from the remainder of the web 10 . alternatively , bar code 80 may only instruct cutter 54 to cut only along lines 64 , 78 to provide the resulting cut sheet to the customer without further cutting . this is sometimes done in the case of professional prints where a single sheet carrying multiple copies of one or more images ( such as wallet sized images ) are provided to the customer along with a number of larger , individually cut images . it will be appreciated though that in fig2 ( or in fig3 discussed below ), that the customer order carrying the images 62 , 70 and bar code 80 , could have been printed by printer 30 in an arrangement rotated ninety degrees about its center relative to the position shown in the drawings . that is , the sets of images 62 and 70 would extend in a direction along web 10 ( rather than across web 10 , as shown in fig2 and 3 ), and lines 76 , 80 would in fact be edges 12 , 14 , respectively , or edges 14 , 12 respectively . referring to fig3 is similar to fig3 but illustrates a different bar code arrangement . in fig3 the machine readable code has been printed by writer 30 as separate ( that is , spaced apart ) code segments 82 , 84 . code segment 82 may contain similar instructions as code 80 , or only cutting instructions ( including instructions to additionally cut along lines 86 , 88 ) as well as information which is to be printed on the back side 18 opposite only images 70 or information which is to be printed opposite images 62 and 70 . code segment 82 may further instruct processor 59 to confirm that code segments 84 are also read . each code segment 84 may further contain information specific for the each image 62 which is adjacent to it , which information is to be printed on the back side 18 at positions opposite respective images 62 . for example , such image specific information may include picture taking conditions for each image when images 62 are different images . in the configuration shown in fig3 writer 30 has also written human readable alphanumeric characters 89 on web 10 , in the form of a unique customer identification . such a unique identification on the front side of web 10 facilitates ready human identification of a particular customer order while viewing the images 62 , 70 ( for example , for quality ) without having to turn over web 10 and view printed information on the back side 18 . this can be particularly helpful where the cutter 54 is instructed to cut only along lines 76 , 78 and the resulting assemblage delivered to the customer , as described above . note that the machine readable code segment 82 and human readable characters 89 are spaced apart along a line orthogonal ( at ninety degrees to ) the edges 12 , 14 . also the plurality of code segments 84 also spaced apart from one another along a line orthogonal to side edges 12 , 14 ( although they could be spaced apart along a line parallel with edges 12 , 14 where the customer order is printed in a position rotated ninety degrees from that shown in fig3 as discussed above ). these arrangements facilitate separating the web 10 segment carrying the code segment 82 and human readable characters 89 ( defined between lines 74 , 78 ), and separating the web segment carrying the code segments 84 ( defined between lines 86 , 88 ), from the remainder of the web 10 during cutting since only two cuts are required to separate each such web segment . fig4 illustrates an assemblage from fig3 wherein cutter 54 has been instructed to cut only along lines 76 , 78 . the human readable information 90 in the form of alphanumeric characters ( although characters of other languages can , of course , be used ), is printed on the back side 18 of web 10 , opposite each of images based on instructions provided by one or more of code segments 82 , 84 . however , the information printed on the back side may alternatively be , or additionally include , machine readable code which may not be human readable . the particular printed information shown may be the same advertisement on back side 18 opposite each image 62 , 70 but other information ( such as discussed above ) which may or may not be unique to each image and / or a customer may be printed instead , or in addition to , such same information . fig5 more clearly illustrates the arrangement of information 90 on back side 18 of developed and cut web 10 , the cut web portion shown being flipped over as shown in fig5 to view back side 18 . the invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof , but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention 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