JPS60245365A - Picture recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a recording object easy to visible by setting a density of a non-picture part of a negative film to the maximum density or above, and recording it. CONSTITUTION:A synchronization is applied to the output (f) of a clock generator 31 by the output (a) of a photodetector for detecting a width in the main scanning direction of a recording medium. This clock (g) is counted by a main scan counter 33, and becomes position information in the main scan direction. A sub-scan counter 34 counts the output (a) and generates position information in the sub-scanning direction. An area setting circuit 35 receives the position information of the counters 33, 34, and generates various signals. In a picture part area, signals (b), (c) are sent to a read-out address counter 37, and a picture is read out of a picture memory 36. At the time of a non-picture area, a signal by which an output of an OR circuit 38 always goes to ''1'' is generated, the density of the output goes to maximum.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Technical field) The present invention relates to a scanning exposure type image recording apparatus.

(Prior art) With the recent remarkable progress in semiconductor technology, logic elements used in signal processing devices, memories, etc. have become more efficient and lower in cost, and in the past they were only used in analog and optical equipment. It is becoming common to digitally handle images, especially gradation images. This is because handling images digitally enables completely new image processing, and the transmission and storage of image data can be handled in a unified manner with conventional computer data.

By the way, as a method for scanning and exposing an information recording medium,
The following methods are possible.

- A method of exposing and recording a CRT by projecting it onto a photosensitive medium using an optical lens system.

■A photosensitive medium is wound around a drum, and a light spot modulated by an image signal is irradiated onto the photosensitive medium.Main scanning is performed by rotating the drum, and sub-scanning is performed by moving the light spot parallel to the drum. method of recording.

■Main scanning is performed using a light beam such as a laser using a polygon mirror, galvano mirror, or D, while recording is performed by sub-scanning by moving the photosensitive medium in a direction approximately perpendicular to the main scanning direction. method.

(2) A method in which main scanning is performed using a plurality of independently controllable linear light sources such as an LED array, and recording is performed by sub-scanning by moving the photosensitive medium in a direction approximately perpendicular to the linear light sources.

Among these recording methods, when recording an image with high gradation reproducibility, the recording methods shown in (1) to (3) above are used.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an image recording apparatus that scans and exposes a recording medium, and shows a known laser printer. In the figure, output light from a laser 1 is reflected by a mirror 2 and applied to an optical modulator 3. As this optical modulator 3, for example, an AOM or an EOM is used. A light modulation signal e modulated by an image signal is applied to this light modulator 3 to perform light intensity modulation. The light intensity modulated by the optical modulator 3 is applied to a beam expander 4, and the output light from the beam expander 4 is reflected by a mirror 5 and applied to a polygon mirror 6. The light deflected by the polygon mirror 6 passes through the fθ lens 7 to the mirror 8.
added to. The mirror 8 is arranged along the main scanning direction X orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction Y of the information recording medium 9,
A scanning line is recorded along the main scanning direction X of the information recording medium 9.

As the recording medium 9, for example, one coated with a silver salt material as a photosensitive material is used. As a result, an image with a density corresponding to the light modulation signal e is recorded on the recording medium 9. A photodetector 10 detects the width of the recording medium 9 in the main scanning direction using a light beam.

By the way, in the conventional image recording apparatus of this kind using the scanning exposure method, only the recorded image area is exposed and the non-image area is not exposed at all. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an exposed negative film. In the figure, 21 is an image section, 2
2 is a non-image portion.

As shown in the figure, the density of the non-image area is the lowest.

Therefore, in an image recording apparatus that performs negative development, the non-image area 22 has the lowest density. When viewing such recorded matter, the light from the non-image area becomes particularly strong, squeezing the viewer's eyes.

Therefore, the high density area of the image area 21 becomes very difficult to see.
Images become difficult to identify. Normally, when looking at high concentration areas,
Since the illuminance of the observation light source is increased, the non-image area 22 becomes even more dazzling, causing eye fatigue for the observer. Such a problem is a serious problem in the medical field where diagnosis is often performed using images, and it is often necessary to cover non-image areas with black frames for observation.

In order to avoid such problems from occurring, it is conceivable to perform development using a positive film. However, positive photosensitive materials are expensive and are not usually used much.

(Object of the invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and
The purpose of this is to make the non-image area as large or larger than the image area when developing with a negative film, thereby reducing the negative effects of the non-image area, which becomes noise for gradation images. An object of the present invention is to realize an image recording device that eliminates the need for image diagnosis, etc. without affecting the cost.

(Hatsuro's configuration) The present invention achieves this object in an image recording apparatus that scans and exposes an information recording medium with a light beam modulated by an image signal, in which a part or all of the non-image area is replaced with the image area. Control a to be the same as the maximum concentration or higher than the maximum concentration.
The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with a control circuit that performs the following steps.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is an electrical configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

It is assumed that the parts not shown in the drawings are the same as the conventional device shown in FIG. In the figure, 31 is a clock generator that generates clock pulses, and 32 is a photodetector 1.
0 (see FIG. 1) and synchronizes with the output clock f of the clock generator 31 using this output signal a. Output g of the clock synchronization circuit 32
becomes the image clock. The photodetector 10 is an image recording medium (
The recording start area of the photosensitive medium 9 (see FIG. 1) is detected. 33 is a main scanning counter that is reset by the photodetector output a and counts the image clock g to generate position information in the main scanning direction; 34 is reset by the recording start signal generated at the leading edge of the information recording medium 9, and This is a sub-scanning counter that counts the detection signal a and generates position information in the sub-scanning direction.

35 is an area setting circuit that receives the outputs of the main scanning counter 33 and the sub-scanning counter 34 and generates area setting signals S, c, and d (details will be described later); 36 is an image memory in which image information is stored; . For example, as shown in the figure, image information from image 1 to image full14 is stored in the image memory. 37 is an image clock Q and area setting circuit 3
Address counter 38 receives output signals S and C from 5 and provides an address for outputting image data to image memory 36; 39 is an OR circuit that receives output from image memory 36 and output signal C from area setting circuit 35; an AND circuit receiving the output of the OR circuit 38 and the output signal d of the area setting circuit 35; 40 is the output (digital signal) of the AND circuit 39;
This is a D/A converter that receives the signal and converts it into an analog signal.

The output of the D/A converter 40 drives the optical modulator 3 (see FIG. 1) as an optical modulation signal e. As a result, the information recording medium 9 is irradiated with a light beam modulated by the image signal, and image information is recorded in a negative manner.

The operation of the circuit configured as described above will be explained in detail with reference to the timing chart shown in FIG. In the figure, (a) shows the photodetection signal a, and (b) shows the area setting circuit 3.
(c) is the output signal C of the area setting circuit 35, (d) is the output signal d of the area setting circuit 35, (e) is the output signal of the D/A converter 40 ( The optical modulation signal) e is shown respectively.

The clock signal [, which is constantly oscillated at a constant frequency by the clock generator 31, is synchronized by the clock synchronization circuit 32 by the photodetection signal a detected by the photodetector 1o, and the clock synchronization circuit 32 is Image clock 9 is output. The main scanning counter 33 is reset at the first source of the photodetection signal a shown in FIG. 4(a), and then counts the image clock 9. Therefore, position information in the main scanning direction (X direction in FIG. 1) is sequentially output from the main scanning counter 33 in synchronization with the image clock g, and is sent to the area setting circuit 35. On the other hand, the sub-scanning counter 34 counts the information recording medium 9 (
(see FIG. 1) is reset by a recording start signal generated at the leading edge of the recording head, and then the photodetection signal a is counted. Therefore, position information in the sub-scanning direction (Y direction in FIG. 1) is sequentially output from the sub-scanning counter 34 in synchronization with the photodetection signal a, and is sent to the area setting circuit 35. The count values of the main scanning counter 33 and the sub-scanning counter 34 indicate the recording position.

The area setting circuit 35 receives the outputs of the respective counters 33 and 34, and based on preset image position information,
The image selection signal shown in FIG. 4(b).

A non-image portion signal C shown in (c) and a valid period signal d shown in (d) of the figure are generated. The address counter 37 receives the image selection signal from the image clock 99 and the non-image portion signal C, and counts the address value of the image that has been selected by the image selection signal every image clock when the non-image portion signal C is 0''. I will do it.

In other words, the non-image part signal C indicates a non-image part when its output is '1', and an image part when it is '0', so 11
By counting the number of images stored at 0 IT, images 1 to 4 stored in the image memory 36 are sequentially accessed, and the image data at that address is output.

For example, the image data is output in 8-bit parallel format, and this image data is outputted to the non-image portion signal C by the OR circuit 38.
Or is taken. Since the non-image area signal C is in the "1" state in the non-image area as shown in FIG. 4(C), the OR circuit 3
The output of 8 is “°1” for all non-image parts in addition to image data.
This is the composite output. This composite output is the following AND circuit 39
AND is taken with the valid period signal d. Valid period signal d
As shown in FIG. 4(d), is in the "0" state during the erasure period of the light beam.Therefore, the combined signal is converted by the AND circuit 39 into a "0" signal during the erasure period. Note that this valid period signal d is problematic if the photodetector 10 is not irradiated with a light beam, so it is necessary to irradiate the light beam immediately before that (I).
It is controlled to be in the I111 state.

As a result, the output e of the D/A converter 40 receiving the output of the AND circuit 39 has a non-image area equal to the maximum density of the recording apparatus, as shown in FIG. 4(e).

When the optical modulator 3 (see FIG. 1) is driven with this output e (light modulation signal), a negative image as shown in FIG. 5 is obtained. In the figure, the same parts as in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals '81. ．． As is clear from a comparison with FIG. 2, according to the present invention, the non-image area is at most m degrees, making the image area easier to see. In the waveform shown below the recorded image, a is a photodetection signal, e is a light modulation signal, and is shown on the same time scale as the image. Third
According to the circuit shown in the figure, a light modulation signal as shown in FIG. An image is obtained.

In the above description, the density of the non-image area is set equal to the maximum density of the image recording apparatus, but it can also be set to be equal to the maximum density of the recorded image. 6th
The figure is an electrical configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention in which the density of the non-image area is made equal to the maximum density of the recorded image. Components that are the same as those in FIG. 3 are designated by the same numbers. The difference between the circuit shown in the figure and the circuit shown in FIG. This is the point where the output of the latch circuit 42 that latches the maximum density of the image is applied. Furthermore, the selection circuit 41 and the OR circuit 38 differ in that / is applied to the region tri specification signal generated by the region setting circuit 35, respectively.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the operation of each part, where (f) is the signal applied to the selection circuit 41, and (g) is the four signals input to the OR circuit 38. Other (a) ~ (e)
is the same as in Figure 4. The operation of the circuit configured as described above will be explained as follows.

It can be considered that the signal @4 is created by decomposing the non-image portion signal C shown in FIG. When the signal k is 1'', it indicates a non-image area, and i is the output for extracting the photodetection signal.The maximum density of the image is checked in advance when storing the image data in the image memory 36. Then, the maximum value is latched in the latch circuit 42. In this way, when the k signal is 1'' and it is a non-image area, the output of the latch circuit 42 is selected by the selection circuit 41. and sends it to the OR circuit 38. As a result, the D'/A converter 40
As shown in FIG. 7(e), the optical modulation signal e outputted from the recording medium has a density in a non-image area that matches the maximum density of the recorded image. If the information recording medium is scanned and exposed using such a light modulation signal, a negative image in which the non-image area 22 matches the maximum density of the recorded image is obtained, as shown in FIG. 5, and a desirable image is obtained. .

In the above description, the case where 'aW1 is applied to the entire non-image area has been explained as an example, but the density may be applied not only to the entire non-image area but also to a part of the area.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, by making the density of the non-image area the same as or higher than that of the image area, noise is reduced in the gradation image. It is possible to realize an image recording apparatus that eliminates the negative influence of the non-image area and facilitates image diagnosis, etc., without affecting the cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a scanning exposure type image recording device, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a negative film exposed to light, and FIG. 3 is an electrical block diagram showing an example of the present invention. Figure 4 shows the operation of each part. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a recorded image, FIG. 6 is an electrical configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the operation of each part. 1...Laser 2,5.8...Mirror 3...Light modulator 4...Beam expander 6...Polygon mirror 7...Fθ lens 9...
Information recording medium 10...Photodetector 21...Image section 22...Non-image section 31...Clock generator 32...Clock synchronization circuit 33...Main scanning counter 34...Sub-scanning Counter 35... Area setting circuit 36... Image memory 37.
...Address counter 38...37 circuit 39...AND circuit 40...
D/A converter 41...Selection circuit 42...Latch circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In an image recording device that scans and exposes an information recording medium with a light beam modulated by an image signal, part or all of the non-image area has a maximum density that is the same as or higher than the maximum density of the image area. An image recording device characterized in that it is provided with a control circuit that controls the image recording apparatus. (2) The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the density of the non-image area is approximately the same as the maximum density of the image recording apparatus. (3) The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a gradation image signal is used as the image signal.