KR20080028722A - Image formign apparatus having function to calibrate color according to lighting device - Google Patents

Abstract

An image forming apparatus capable of correcting color according to lighting is provided to correct color information on a printing medium with a color temperature corresponding to the lighting at an exhibition place and output the printing medium, thereby outputting image data with the optimal color. An UI(User Interface)(10) receives the color temperature of lighting. An image forming apparatus(50) forms an image corresponding to predetermined image data on a printing medium. An image processing unit(30) converts color information on the image data into color information for image formation which can be recognized in the image forming apparatus. A storage unit(40) stores color correction information on the image data in correspondence to the color temperature of the input lighting. A control unit(60) controls the image processing unit to correct the color information on the image data with the color correction information corresponding to a difference between the color temperature of the image data and the color temperature of the input lighting.

Description

Image forming apparatus that can correct color according to lighting {IMAGE FORMIGN APPARATUS HAVING FUNCTION TO CALIBRATE COLOR ACCORDING TO LIGHTING DEVICE}

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention;

2 is an exemplary view showing a color correction process of an image processing unit according to the present invention;

3 is an exemplary view showing an example of a color correction information list according to the present invention;

4 is an exemplary view showing an example of color temperature according to an illumination type;

5 is a flowchart illustrating an image processing process of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

1: Image forming apparatus 10: UI

20: communication unit 30: image processing unit

40: storage unit 50: image forming unit

60: control unit

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus capable of correcting color information of image data according to a color temperature of illumination.

An image forming apparatus is a device for visualizing image data generated by a host on a print medium. The image forming apparatus forms an image on a print medium through ink dyes such as ink, a developer, and an ink ribbon. Here, the ink dye of the image forming apparatus is based on four colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan, and black. On the other hand, image data is generated based on three primary colors of light, R (Red), G (Green), and B (Blue), through a host such as a digital camera or a camcorder.

Accordingly, each image forming apparatus has color information (Y, M, C, K) of ink dyes that can recognize color information of image data generated based on three primary colors of light (R, G, B) in the image forming apparatus. Perform image processing to convert

Here, when the image data is generated in the host, the color information is changed according to the color temperature of the illumination to which the host belongs. That is, the color of the image data generated under dark lighting is red, and the color of the image data generated under bright sunlight is blue. In the conventional image processing apparatus, color correction such as white-balancing is performed based on white included in image data in order to reduce color difference of image data due to illumination.

However, in the conventional image forming apparatus, since color correction is performed with color information corresponding to the reference light, when the image data of the corrected color information is converted into the color information of the ink dye and output to the print medium, the original image data is below the reference light. However, under the illumination that the color is different from the standard illumination and the color temperature, there is a problem that the color is different from the original image data.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus in which an image processing process is improved to display color information of a reference color according to illumination of a desired place by a user.

According to the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus, comprising: a UI for receiving a color temperature of illumination; An image forming unit for forming an image corresponding to predetermined image data on a print medium; An image processing unit converting color information of the image data into image forming color information that can be recognized by the image forming unit; A storage unit storing color correction information of the image data corresponding to the color temperature of the input illumination; And controlling the image processor to correct the color information of the image data with color correction information corresponding to the difference between the color temperature of the image data and the color temperature of the input illumination.

The controller may include a controller configured to control the image processor to generate the image forming color information based on the corrected color information.

The color information of the image data includes R (red), G (green), and B (blue) values, and the controller controls the R, G, and B values to correspond to the color correction information. It is desirable to control to correct.

In addition, the image processing unit Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), K (black) that can recognize the corrected R, G, B values corresponding to the color correction information in the image forming unit It is preferable to convert the color information for image formation having a value.

On the other hand, the illumination is preferably provided where the print medium on which the image is formed in the image forming unit is located.

The UI preferably displays a type of lighting and a color temperature according to the lighting state.

On the other hand, an object of the present invention is an image processing apparatus, comprising: a UI for receiving a color temperature of illumination; An image processor for storing color correction information corresponding to each color temperature and correcting color information of a predetermined image data with the color correction information; And a control unit for notifying a difference between the color temperature of the image data and the color temperature of the input illumination to the image processing unit, and controlling the image processing unit to correct the color information of the image data with color correction information corresponding to the color temperature. It may be achieved by an image processing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus 1 according to the present invention. As shown, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present invention includes a UI 10 for receiving a color temperature of illumination, a communication unit 20 for receiving image data from a host (not shown), and color information of image data ( The image processing unit 30 converting A) into image forming color information A ″ that can be recognized by the image forming unit 50, and a list DB in which color correction information corresponding to the color temperature of various lights is displayed. The storage unit 40 and a control unit 60 for controlling the image processing unit 30 to correct the color information (A) of the image data with the color information (A ') corresponding to the color temperature of the input illumination.

The UI 10 receives a color temperature of illumination from a user. The UI 10 displays various kinds of illumination information and color temperature of each illumination, and selects an illumination where a print medium on which an image is output is displayed. As shown in FIG. 4, the lighting is any one of a general bulb (a), a household clear lamp (b), a blue flat lamp (c), a strobe light (e), a blue light (f), and sunlight (d). These color temperatures may be constant even with time, and the color temperature may change with time and weather such as sunlight (d) at noon (d), cloudy days (d1), and clear blue sky (d2). It may become. The UI 10 may be provided as a display panel for displaying information about lighting and color temperature for each lighting and an input panel for receiving a selection signal from the user so that the user may easily understand the type of lighting.

The user selects an illumination of a place where a print medium on which an image is formed is to be displayed among the types of illumination displayed through the display panel. If you are not sure of the type of light, select the color temperature displayed with the type of light.

On the other hand, the UI 10 may be selected by the user whether or not to correct the color information of the image data. That is, the user may be selected whether or not the user desires to correct the color information of the image data according to the lighting of the place to be displayed.

The communication unit 20 receives image data by communicating with a host (not shown). The host (not shown) may be a digital camera, a cam coater, a mobile phone, or the like for generating image data, a memory device in which the generated image data is stored, or a computer. The communication unit 20 may be directly connected to a host (not shown) through a connector, or may be implemented through wired or wireless communication equipment such as Bluetooth or LAN cable. Here, the image data received through the communication unit 20 includes color information corresponding to the illumination of the reference color temperature. The reference color temperature is generally the average daylight d, shown in FIG. That is, the image data received through the communication unit 20 is displayed as the original color information under the average daylight d. For example, white in the image data appears white under the average daylight d.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the image processor 30 may provide color information A ″ of the image forming apparatus that may recognize the color information A of the image data received from the communication unit 20 by the image forming unit 50. Convert to The color information A of the image data is composed of a combination of three primary colors of R (red), G (green), and B (blue). The color information A ″ for the image forming apparatus is implemented by a combination of four colors of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black), which can be represented by ink dyes.

Meanwhile, the image processing unit 30 converts the color information A of the image data according to the control signal of the control unit 60 before converting the color information A of the image data into the color information A ″ for the image forming apparatus. Correction is performed using color information A 'corresponding to the input color temperature. The image processing unit 30 receives color correction information corresponding to the difference between the color temperature of the reference light (average daylight in FIG. 4) and the color temperature of the illumination input by the user from the control unit 60, and the color information A of the image data. Is corrected by color correction information to generate color information A 'corresponding to the color temperature of the input light.

The image processor 30 generates image forming color information A ″ based on the corrected color information A ′. Here, the image processing process of converting the color information A 'of the image data into the color information A ″ for image formation is well known to those skilled in the art, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The storage unit 40 stores a list DB including color correction information according to the color temperature of the illumination. Here, the list DB displays correction values of the color information such that the image data generated under the reference illumination (average daylight in FIG. 4) can be seen as the original image data even under illumination of different color temperatures. The correction values include values corresponding to each of R, G, and B constituting the color information. For example, when the image data generated under the average daylight is under a blue light having the highest color temperature (color temperature 10000K), the image data becomes bluer than the original color. At this time, the color correction information reduces the B (blue) value with blue color and the R (red) value with red color among the color information included in the image data.

Here, the magnitude of the correction value of each of the R (red), B (blue), and G (green) color value increases in proportion to the temperature difference between the color temperature of the illumination and the average daylight as shown in the list. Here, it is preferable that α, β, and γ, which are correction constants of each of R (red), B (blue), and G (green) colors, are appropriately set according to the color used as the color correction standard and the color temperature of the illumination.

The image forming unit 50 visualizes the image data changed by the image processing unit 30 into the image forming color information A ″ on the print medium. The image forming unit 50 includes an inkjet method of forming an image on a print medium by spraying ink dyes, an electrophotographic method of forming an image by selectively applying a charged developer to a print medium, and an ink dye coated ink There is a thermal transfer method in which an image is formed on a print medium by heating and pressing the ribbon onto the print medium. The image forming unit 50 forms an image through ink, a developer, and an ink ribbon of Y, M, C, and K corresponding to the image forming color information A ″ of the image data. Since the configuration of the image forming unit 50 is the same as in the prior art, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The controller 60 controls the image processor 30 to correct the color information of the image data with the color correction information corresponding to the color temperature of the illumination input through the UI 10. The controller 60 searches for color correction information corresponding to the color temperature of the illumination input through the UI 10 in the list DB of the storage unit 40 and informs the image processor 30 of the retrieved color correction information. In addition, the controller 60 corrects the color information A of the image data with the color correction information provided, and generates the image information color information A ″ using the corrected color information A ′. To control. Then, the image forming unit 50 is controlled to form an image on the print medium with the image forming color information A ″.

An image processing procedure of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present invention having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when the user applies the output signal, the communication unit 20 receives the image data. Then, the UI 10 is selected whether or not to correct the color information of the image data according to the illumination (S10). Here, when the user wishes to correct the color information, the UI 10 displays the type of illumination and the color temperature according thereto and receives the desired color temperature of the illumination from the user (S20).

The controller 60 searches for color correction information according to the color temperature of the input lighting in the list DB of the storage unit 40 (S30). For convenience of explanation, assuming that a user selects a household clear lamp (b of FIG. 4), the controller 60 searches for color correction information corresponding to 3000k, which is a color temperature of the household clear lamp b, and the searched result. Notifies the image processor 30. The image processor 30 reduces the R (red) value by 4α and increases the B (blue) value by 4γ according to the color correction information received from the controller 60 (S40).

Then, the image processing unit 30 has the color information for image formation based on the corrected color information A 'having a R (red) value as small as 4α and a B (blue) value as large as 4γ as compared to the original color information A. (A ″) is generated (S50). The image forming unit 50 forms an image on the print medium using the generated image forming color information A ″ (S60).

On the other hand, if the user does not wish to correct the color information of the image data, the color information A of the image data is converted into the image forming color information A ″ (S51), and the converted image forming color information A &Quot;) forms an image on the print medium (S60).

As described above, in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, color information is corrected and output at a color temperature corresponding to the illumination of the place where the outputted print medium is displayed, so that even if the illumination of the place to be displayed is different from the standard illumination, Image data can be output in color.

In particular, when the image data is an output that needs to express an accurate color such as a photo, the image data is output in accordance with lighting, so that a clear color can be displayed.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus for correcting the color information of the image data to display the correct color according to the illumination of the place where the outputted print medium is displayed.

Claims (7)

In the image forming apparatus, A UI for receiving a color temperature of illumination; An image forming unit for forming an image corresponding to predetermined image data on a print medium; An image processing unit converting color information of the image data into image forming color information that can be recognized by the image forming unit; A storage unit storing color correction information of the image data corresponding to the color temperature of the input illumination; And controlling the image processor to correct color information of the image data with color correction information corresponding to a difference between a color temperature of the image data and a color temperature of the input illumination. The method of claim 1, And the controller is configured to control the image processor to generate the image forming color information based on the corrected color information. The method of claim 2, The color information of the image data includes R (red), G (green), and B (blue) values, and the controller controls the image processor to correct the R, G, and B values corresponding to the color correction information. Image forming apparatus characterized in that for controlling. The method of claim 3, The image processor is Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), K (black) image that can recognize the corrected R, G, B values corresponding to the color correction information in the image forming unit And an image forming apparatus for converting the forming color information. In claim 1, And the illumination is provided at a position where a print medium on which an image is formed is located in the image forming unit. The method of claim 1, The UI is an image forming apparatus, characterized in that for displaying the kind of illumination and the color temperature according to the state of the illumination. In the image processing apparatus, A UI for receiving a color temperature of illumination; An image processor for storing color correction information corresponding to each color temperature and correcting color information of a predetermined image data with the color correction information; And a control unit for notifying a difference between the color temperature of the image data and the color temperature of the input illumination to the image processing unit, and controlling the image processing unit to correct the color information of the image data with color correction information corresponding to the color temperature. An image processing apparatus.

Images