JPH032905Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a photographic film, and more particularly to a photographic film that facilitates correspondence with customers at a photofinishing laboratory.

When processing photographic film at the request of a customer at a photofinishing laboratory, it is necessary to always handle the photographic film in a manner that corresponds to the customer. An overview of the so-called DP processing of photographic film, which is commonly carried out, will be explained below.

At the DP store, which is the reception counter, write the customer's name on the acceptance slip and bag (DP bag), and write the photographic film in the container such as the cassette or cartridge that you received, the acceptance slip and the number of the DP bag (this (referred to as the "underwriting number"). The acceptance slip is then given to the customer for redemption at a later date.
The photographic film stored in the DP bag is requested to be processed at a photofinishing laboratory. At this point, the DP bag and the photographic film stored therein have not yet been associated.

At the developing laboratory, the photographic film is developed, and the finished negative film and the photographic prints printed from the negative film are placed in the appropriate DP bag and returned to the DP store from which the request was made.
At this stage, it is essential to associate the photographic film and the DP bag with the same symbol.

Photographic films commonly used by amateurs include 110 types and 126 types, which come in cassettes (cartridges), and 135 types, which come in cartridges. Of these, for 110 types and 126 types of photographic film, the correspondence between the photographic film and the DP bag is performed as follows. That is, first, check labels having the same symbol are attached to the cassette and the DP bag, respectively. Then, the DP bag with one of the check labels attached is sent to the final finishing process, for example, the bagging process, and is kept on standby. The other cassette with the check label is placed in a dark room, and in order to make it into a longer length and to be used for development, the cassette is dismantled, the photographic film is pulled out, and it is joined with another similar photographic film using a splicer using splicing tape. The work will be done. At this time, the check label symbol affixed to the empty cassette is printed onto a predetermined unexposed portion of the spliced photographic film in which no image exists through an optical system. The above-mentioned optical system is incorporated into the above-mentioned splicing machine, and the dismantling of the cassette, the unloading and splicing of the photographic films, and the printing of the symbols are successively and automatically performed. The printed symbol becomes visible as a negative image when the photographic film is developed.

In the case of 110 type and 126 type photographic films, the symbol attached to the cassette as described above can be imprinted onto the photographic film because these photographic films have unexposed margins at predetermined positions. This is almost impossible for photographic films such as 135 type photographic film, which will be described later, in which the image positions on the photographic film differ depending on the handling by the customer.

Next, an example of the process of associating photographic films with DP bags, which is carried out for 135 types of photographic films, will be explained. First, attach a check label with the same code to the DP bag and add it to the edge of the cartridge. Then, the DP bag with the check label affixed thereto is sent to the bagging process and kept on standby, as in the case described above. The cartridge with the other check label attached is placed in a darkroom, and if necessary, disassemble the cartridge, pull out the leading edge of the photographic film by a specified amount, remove the check label attached to the cartridge, and place it on the leading edge of the photographic film. Paste it on the wide part. After this work, in order to lengthen the length and use it for development, a splicer is used to cut off the tip of the part to a specified width.
The work is performed to join other similar photographic films using joining tape.

The elongated photographic film having identification marks formed by the above two methods is developed into a negative film by a so-called cine-type automatic processor. Usually, the negative film is hung as a long length on a printing device to print on photographic paper, and then the joint is cut and simultaneously cut into a predetermined number of frames (for example, 4 frames, 6 frames, etc.). disconnected. The cut negative film is sent to the bagging process, and along with the photographic prints printed from the negative film, it is placed in a waiting DP bag with a check label with the same symbol affixed to it, and taken to the requesting DP store. will be returned to. At the DP store, the customer checks the acceptance slip brought by the customer with the acceptance number of the DP bag containing the finished negative film and photo prints, and hands over the corresponding DP bag to the customer.

Problems in the series of handling of photographic film as described above (referred to as "negative film") are as follows. Although the above-mentioned matching method, that is, the method of optically imprinting the identification symbol on the photographic film, greatly simplifies the work, it is possible to reliably print the photographic film ( 110 type, 126 type, etc.)
The fundamental problem is that it can only be applied to Moreover, since it is necessary to provide the welding machine with a burning mechanism in addition to the welding mechanism, there is also the problem that the welding machine becomes complicated and expensive. The matching method described later, that is, the method of manually pasting the check label onto the photographic film, has the advantage that it can be applied to any kind of photographic film, but it is also possible to attach the check label to the photographic film after removing it from the cartridge. This work involves darkroom work, which is cumbersome and has a serious problem of low work efficiency. Furthermore, since the check label attached to the cartridge is pasted onto the photographic film, there is a problem in that the adhesive strength is reduced and the check label may peel off during the development process.

The present invention was developed in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to solve the above-mentioned problems of other correspondence methods in the handling of conventional photographic film, and to identify To provide a photographic film that does not require markings.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a photographic film to which identification marks can be attached automatically, mechanically or electrically, without manual work during the photographic film manufacturing process.

The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to ensure that unique identification information for identifying each photographic film and allowing correspondence with a customer corresponds substantially identically to both the photographic film itself and the container containing the photographic film. The photographic film in a container is characterized in that the identification information applied to the photographic film itself is binary information provided near the perforation hole of the photographic film at the planned image shooting position. This is achieved by using photographic film.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a photographic film showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, P is a cartridge, and an identification symbol recording section 1 is provided on the side surface of the cartridge P, in which an identification symbol 2 unique to each photographic film is recorded in the form of a bar code. Further, F is a photographic film, 3 is its perforation, and 4 is binary information provided near the perforation hole. It goes without saying that the identification symbol 2 recorded as a barcode and the binary information 4 provided near the perforation hole represent the same content.

The barcode identification symbol 2 applied to the cartridge P is read by an optical reader, as will be described later, and its contents are printed in a predetermined entry field on the corresponding DP bag. Therefore, the recording position of the bar code identification symbol 2 needs to be at a predetermined position in relation to the optical reader.

In addition, the identification mark 4 applied to photographic film F
is applied at a position where the photographic film F will not be cut when it is handled before and after the development process. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the leading end F' of the photographic film F is cut off in order to join it to another photographic film (not shown) using a joining tape or the like prior to the development process. The cutting position A in this case varies slightly depending on the joining machine, but
The identification symbol 4 is given taking into consideration the above-mentioned difference. Furthermore, after the photographic film F has been developed, it is usually hung in a printing device to perform a printing operation, and then the bonded portion is cut. FIG. 3 shows the situation, where two photographic films (negative films) F ₁ and F ₂ are joined by a joining tape 6 (negative film F ₂ is joined after negative film F _{1 )} . ) are cut at cutting positions B and C, respectively. Here, the cutting position B is the position immediately before the joining tape 6, and the cutting position C is the position immediately after the joining tape 6. Comparing this with the cutting position A, the cutting position C is a little more than 1/2 the width of the bonding tape 6 inside than the cutting position A, that is, the binary information 4 provided near the perforation hole of the image frame is as described above. It is provided at a position that will not be cut at the cutting position C.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment in which the binary information 4 provided in the vicinity of the perforation hole at the scheduled image shooting position of the photographic film F is an information hole in the present invention, and an example of such an information hole is, for example Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,377, the information hole in area 7 indicates the film sensitivity, the information hole in area 8 indicates the film type,
The information hole in area 9 indicates the spectral sensitivity, the information hole in area 10 indicates the expiration date, the information hole in area 11 indicates the number of shots that can be taken, and the information hole in area 12 indicates information specific to each film, such as a serial number. Each number is binary coded information. It is a well-known technology that such binary information is provided and used as photographing information when the film is loaded in the camera, but in this invention, it is not used for the profit of the photofinishing laboratory or the manufacturing side. It is used for. Therefore, in addition to the above-mentioned information holes, such binary information can be obtained by providing a magnetic recording layer in the perforation area or by providing a light-transmitting magnetic recording layer over the entire surface of the photographic film. If the information is not considered to be used in a camera, it may be magnetically recorded binary information to be recorded on a computer, or it may be undeveloped barcode information that has been exposed in advance.

The reason why such identification information is binary information is that it can be written electrically or mechanically without manual intervention during the production of photographic film, and that it can be detected electrically or mechanically in a photofinishing laboratory without manual intervention. This is because it has advantages such as being able to perform

The operation in a DP store, photo lab, etc. when using the photographic film of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained below.

At the DP store, we accepted the items using a reception device equipped with an optical reading means for the barcode identification mark applied to the Patrone P, and a printing means for printing on the DP bag using the output of the reading means. A unique identification symbol for photographic film is printed on the DP bag.
This completes the association between the accepted photographic film and the DP bag. Note that this work does not necessarily need to be carried out at the DP store; the DP store can process only the acceptance slip as before, and the above matching work is carried out at the stage when the received photographic film is sent to the processing laboratory. It goes without saying that this can also be done as the first step in the laboratory work.

At the photo lab, at the DP store, or
carried out as the first step in the laboratory's processing.
We will handle photographic film that has been matched with DP bags. In the photographic film of this example, the same identification mark as the identification mark on the side of the cartridge P is also applied to the photographic film F itself, so that it can be used in the bonding process, etc., which is a pre-processing process of the developing process. There is no need for attachment, and work efficiency is greatly improved. Another advantage is that the operator does not have to worry about mapping.

Other working methods than those described above are also possible. At the photo lab, workers feed the DP bag and photographic film into a ``film splicer'' at the same time. A ``film splicer'' is a device that splices the same type of film in a dark room to lengthen it in order to pass the film through an automatic processor.In addition to this, we use a device that has the following functions. In other words, the "film splicer" first reads the barcode information applied to the cartridge P, and converts it into a number with the same information.
Print on DP bag. At the same time, the same number is printed on the joining tape portion of the film that is being lengthened. In this way, it is possible to reliably associate the DP bag with the photographic film F, and it is possible to provide a much more efficient work compared to the conventional check label pasting work. The above-described "film splicer" can be easily constructed by combining a well-known auto splicer and an optical reader. Such a "film splicer" reads the binary information attached to the photographic film F itself without reading the barcode on the cartridge P.
It can also be configured to print a corresponding number on the bag. In this case, the barcode on the cartridge P becomes useless, but in reality, the barcode or film on the cartridge P is damaged due to improper handling by the customer or during the transportation process at the DP store or photo lab. F
There are cases where the binary information attached to the bag becomes unreadable, so by selectively using either one of them, the correspondence between the DP bag and the photographic film F can be established more reliably.

The photographic film F after the development process is used for printing as a negative film. During the printing process, the identification symbol 4 placed at the beginning of the negative film F is recorded on the back side of the photographic print along with other information such as printing conditions, thereby associating the negative film F with the photographic print. will be held.

The negative film F that has undergone the printing process is sent to a finishing process together with the photographic prints that have been printed. At this point, the negative film F is cut at the joint, and simultaneously cut into a predetermined number of frames, such as 4 frames, 6 frames, etc. Then, the negative film F and the photographic print are placed in a DP bag with the same identification symbol printed on it, which is kept on standby, and then shipped to the DP store that made the request.

In handling the photographic film in this example,
In each situation, such as the correspondence with the DP shop, the correspondence with the photographic print in the printing process, the correspondence with the photographic print in the finishing process, and the correspondence with the DP bag, the process applied to the cartridge P or photographic film (negative film) F is performed. Since the identified identification symbol is read and processed, the work is greatly simplified and it is possible to completely avoid a situation where the correspondence becomes unclear.

The step of applying the binary information 4 to the vicinity of the perforation hole at the image capturing position of the photographic film F shown in the above embodiment can be performed either before or after the step of winding the photographic film F into the cartridge P. good. Further, the binary information 4 can be placed in any part between the perforation hole 3, between the perforation hole and the image capturing section, or between the perforation hole and the side edge of the film F, or in the longitudinal direction. It can be applied in the vicinity of the perforation hole on the left, right, upper and lower sides of the direction, in some cases on the front and back, selectively or in combination.

The barcode identification symbol 2 applied to the cartridge P is not necessarily limited to a barcode, but may be characters, symbols, or a combination of these and a barcode. Furthermore, in addition to these optically readable identification symbols, identification symbols based on other recording methods such as magnetically readable identification symbols can also be used.

The identification mark 2 applied to the cartridge P and the identification mark 4 applied to the photographic film F should be characters or symbols that can be visually read by the operator, or automatic optical, magnetic, etc. It is advantageous to discover and deal with mismatches, etc., if the readable symbol is written along with characters and symbols that the operator can visually read.

As described above, according to the present invention, unique identification information that allows individual photographic films to be identified and associated with customers is provided on the photographic film itself and on the container containing the photographic film. A photographic film in a container is provided on both sides in substantially the same manner, and the identification information applied to the photographic film itself is the binary information provided near the perforation hole of the photographic film at the planned image capture position. As a result, there is no need for special correspondence means in the departments that actually handle photographic film, such as photofinishing labs, which has the remarkable effect of greatly simplifying the work and greatly improving work efficiency. . Furthermore, since binary information is employed, it is possible to automate the manufacturing process and ensure reliable reading in the photo lab. It goes without saying that the technical concept of the present invention is applicable not only to the 135 type film in a cartridge shown in the embodiment, but also to the 110 type film and 125 type film in a cassette.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention;
Figures 3 and 3 are diagrams for explaining the positions where identification symbols are applied. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of binary information applied to the photographic film of the present invention. P... Patrone, 1... Identification symbol recording section, 2
...Identification symbol recorded with a barcode, F...Photographic film, 3...Perflation, 4...
5...Image frame, 6...Joining tape, A, B, C...
...cutting position.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A container in which both the photographic film itself and the container containing the photographic film are provided with unique identification information that enables identification of each photographic film and correspondence with a customer in substantially the same manner. 1. A photographic film, characterized in that the identification information applied to the photographic film itself is binary information provided near a perforation hole of the photographic film where an image is to be taken.