Digital imaging technology assessment: Digital document storage project

An ongoing technical assessment and requirements definition project is examining the potential role of digital imaging technology at NASA's STI facility. The focus is on the basic components of imaging technology in today's marketplace as well as the components anticipated in the near future. Presented is a requirement specification for a prototype project, an initial examination of current image processing at the STI facility, and an initial summary of image processing projects at other sites. Operational imaging systems incorporate scanners, optical storage, high resolution monitors, processing nodes, magnetic storage, jukeboxes, specialized boards, optical character recognition gear, pixel addressable printers, communications, and complex software processes

Core component choices in single-user computer systems : a home office user\u27s perspective

The home office is a rapidly growing segment of the business environment. The trend toward two-income families and concerns over quality of life have made the office at home increasingly attractive alternative business style. The evolution of technology during the past ten years has opened up a broad array of choices. The introduction of the IBM personal computer in the fall of 1981 provided the technological nucleus. Other office products aimed at the individual user such as personal copiers, facsimile machines, smart typewriters, and multi-function telecommunications products have grown around it. The evolution of personal computer technology has been accelerating since its introduction; the home office user has a broad and confusing array of choices at varying levels of technological development and intercompatibility

A Guide to image preparation for multiple media

With the advanced technology in this information requisite world, the way of communication has been changed into using multiple media. People use different media to publish their ideas, not just on paper. The same information may be presented in different formats because of different purposes or situations. However, each of the four major media (print, Web, CD-ROM, and video) has different capabilities for displaying image information. Images optimized for one will not necessarily work well with the others. It happens all the time that people spend much time remanipulating an image which has already been made for another media. For example, it is necessary to reduce the color depth and resolution of an image once it is moving from paper output to the World Wide Web because of the monitor limitation and the need for faster transfer rate. The problem exists when switching images among different output media such as video, multimedia CD-ROM, the World Wide Web and print. Quality and performance are the criteria for good publishing. This thesis project would establish guidelines for the designer, which would show the way to manipulate images once and have them work well in all media, including how to optimize images for print, the World Wide Web, CD-ROM, and video. The parameters which would be explored are: resolution, gamma correction, and color depth. After tests have been run on, an image format with 266 pixel per inch, 24-bit color depth, and no gamma correction could be established to satisfy the needs for image quality of print, Web, CD-ROM, and video publishing with extra gamma correction of 70 percent at midtone of 50 percent for video production

Investigation into the capturing, manipulating, calibrating and outputting of black and white images on a Xerox Docutech

It is the purpose of this investigation to determine whether or not the output quality of black and white images on a Xerox Docutech can be enhanced. The Docutech is a black and white digital printing device. In times of a growing demand for on-demand printing and publishing, the Docutech not only has to reproduce text and graphics properly but also has to cope with the increasing task of rendering images. Although there are multiple options to improve the output quality, this project focuses on the impact of image capturing on the output. As a result of this investigation, a user\u27s manual should help to achieve satisfying reproductions on the Docutech. The project goals are reached by extensive testing and a careful evaluation of the experiments by visual, densitometric and statistical means. Prior to any testing and as a prerequisite for the project, the print characteristic of the Docutech is determined. With stable printing conditions as a starting point, the impact of the scanning process is investigated. For this purpose, four different scanners ranging from flatbed, desktop devices to high-end scanning systems are used to capture two test images. Those images are manipulated within this process step to improve the rendering quality of the printed output. The printed output is analyzed finally by statistical means to base the perceived quality differences on the objective judgement of a larger audience of observers. Focusing on the results of this evaluation process, one will find that the output quality can be enhanced. Not only are adjustments found which increase the perceived qualify of the printed result but also is insight gained into the printing process and its limitations. There is no doubt that the Docutech has its restrictions but its low cost and low quality image is not justified. It is possible to improve the output quality of black and white reproductions by applying the basic rules of image reproduction. Thus, utilizing the capabilities of this digital printing device efficiently, one can achieve satisfying output quality

Map online system using internet-based image catalogue

Digital maps carry along its geodata information such as coordinate that is important in one particular topographic and thematic map. These geodatas are meaningful especially in military field. Since the maps carry along this information, its makes the size of the images is too big. The bigger size, the bigger storage is required to allocate the image file. It also can cause longer loading time. These conditions make it did not suitable to be applied in image catalogue approach via internet environment. With compression techniques, the image size can be reduced and the quality of the image is still guaranteed without much changes. This report is paying attention to one of the image compression technique using wavelet technology. Wavelet technology is much batter than any other image compression technique nowadays. As a result, the compressed images applied to a system called Map Online that used Internet-based Image Catalogue approach. This system allowed user to buy map online. User also can download the maps that had been bought besides using the searching the map. Map searching is based on several meaningful keywords. As a result, this system is expected to be used by Jabatan Ukur dan Pemetaan Malaysia (JUPEM) in order to make the organization vision is implemented

The Wiltshire Wills Feasibility Study

The Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office has nearly ninety thousand wills in its care. These records are neither adequately catalogued nor secured against loss by facsimile microfilm copies. With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund the Record Office has begun to produce suitable finding aids for the material. Beginning with this feasibility study the Record Office is developing a strategy to ensure the that facsimiles to protect the collection against risk of loss or damage and to improve public access are created.<p></p> This feasibility study explores the different methodologies that can be used to assist the preservation and conservation of the collection and improve public access to it. The study aims to produce a strategy that will enable the Record Office to create digital facsimiles of the Wills in its care for access purposes and to also create preservation quality microfilms. The strategy aims to seek the most cost effective and time efficient approach to the problem and identifies ways to optimise the processes by drawing on the experience of other similar projects. This report provides a set of guidelines and recommendations to ensure the best use of the resources available for to provide the most robust preservation strategy and to ensure that future access to the Wills as an information resource can be flexible, both local and remote, and sustainable

Digital document imaging systems: An overview and guide

This is an aid to NASA managers in planning the selection of a Digital Document Imaging System (DDIS) as a possible solution for document information processing and storage. Intended to serve as a manager's guide, this document contains basic information on digital imaging systems, technology, equipment standards, issues of interoperability and interconnectivity, and issues related to selecting appropriate imaging equipment based upon well defined needs

Pushing the Limits of 3D Color Printing: Error Diffusion with Translucent Materials

Accurate color reproduction is important in many applications of 3D printing, from design prototypes to 3D color copies or portraits. Although full color is available via other technologies, multi-jet printers have greater potential for graphical 3D printing, in terms of reproducing complex appearance properties. However, to date these printers cannot produce full color, and doing so poses substantial technical challenges, from the shear amount of data to the translucency of the available color materials. In this paper, we propose an error diffusion halftoning approach to achieve full color with multi-jet printers, which operates on multiple isosurfaces or layers within the object. We propose a novel traversal algorithm for voxel surfaces, which allows the transfer of existing error diffusion algorithms from 2D printing. The resulting prints faithfully reproduce colors, color gradients and fine-scale details.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures; includes supplemental figure

Clustered-dot periodic halftone screen design and ICC profile color table compression

This dissertation studies image quality problems associated with rendering images in devices like printing or displaying. It mainly includes two parts: clustered-dot periodic halftone screen design, and color table compression. Screening is a widely used halftoning method. As a consequence of the lower resolution of digital presses and printers, the number of printer-addressable dots or holes in each microcell may be too few to provide the requisite number of tone lev- els between paper white and full colorant coverage. To address this limitation, the microcells can be grouped into supercells. The challenge is then to determine the desired supercell shape and the order in which dots are added to the microcell. Using DBS to determine this order results in a very homogeneous halftone pattern. To simplify the design and implementation of supercell halftone screens, it is common to repeat the supercell to yield a periodically repeating rectangular block called the basic screen block (BSB). While applying DBS to design a dot-cluster growth order- ing for the entire BSB is simpler to implement than is the application of DBS to the single non-rectangular supercell, it is computationally very inefficient. To achieve a more efficient way to apply DBS to determine the microcell sequence, we describe a procedure for design of high-quality regular screens using the non-rectangular super- cell. A novel concept the Elementary Periodicity Set is proposed to characterize how a supercell is developed. After a supercell is set, we use DBS to determine the micro-cell sequence within the supercell. We derive the DBS equations for this situation, and show that it is more efficient to implement. Then, we mainly focus on the regular and irregular screen design. With digital printing systems, the achievable screen angles and frequencies are limited by the finite addressability of the marking engine. In order for such screens to generate dot clusters in which each cluster is identical, the elements of the periodicity matrix must be integer-valued, when expressed in units of printer-addressable pixels. Good approximation of the screen sets result in better printing quality. So to achieve a better approximation to the screen sets used for commercial offset printing, irregular screens can be used. With an irregular screen, the elements of the periodicity matrix are rational numbers. In this section, first we propose a procedure to generate regular screens starting from midtone level. And then we describe a procedure for design of high-quality irregular screens based on the regular screen design method. We then propose an algorithm to determine how to add dots from midtone to shadow and how to remove dots from midtone to highlight. We present experimental results illustrating the quality of the halftones resulting from our design procedure by comparing images halftoned with irregular screens using our approach and a template-based approach. We also present the evaluation of the smoothness and improvement of the proposed methods. In the next part, we study another quality problem: ICC profile color table compression. ICC profiles are widely used to provide transformations between different color spaces in different devices. The color look-up tables (CLUTs) in the profiles will increase the file sizes when embedded in color documents. In this chapter, we discuss compression methods that decrease the storage cost of the CLUTs. For DCT compression method, a compressed color table includes quantized DCT coefficients for the color table, the additional nodes with large color difference, and the coefficients bit assignment table. For wavelet-based compression method, a compressed color table includes output of the wavelet encoding method, and the additional nodes with large color difference. These methods support lossy table compression to minimize the network traffic and delay, and also achieves relatively small maximum color difference