Method and arrangement to control an automatic embroidery machine

Claim 1

A method for controlling an automatic embroidery machine wherein individual scanning elements are copied from a displayed motif carrier and are transferred in the form of an embroidery program to a storage element, said embroidery program controlling at least one automatic embroidery machine by the coordinate displacement of its embroidery frame, comprising the steps of: recording said motif as a line-scanned picture, which is converted to picture half-tones; wherein, in the case of color motifs, and line-scanned color-specific picture with scannable picture half-tones is recorded for each color of said color motif; each picture is line-scanned; each scanning element, which represents a picture half-tone of an intensity between black and white is compared with an adjustable half-tone barrier and is accordingly classified as either lighter or darker than said barrier and thereby converted to a binary value corresponding thereto, said binary values being stored within a digital computer which stores conversion programs for embroidery techniques which are allocated to a plurality of preselected geometric picture forms including lines and areas that are repeated in each embroidery pattern; an embroidery program stored in the digital computer and corresponding to said displayed motif carrier is output to at least one automatic embroidery machine so as to control the operation thereof, said computer having stored said motif in a binary form in a section-by-section form from said geometric picture forms.

Claim 2

A method for controlling an automatic embroidery machine wherein individual scanning elements are copied from a displayed motif carrier and are transferred in the form of an embroidery program to a storage element, said embroidery program controlling at least one automatic embroidery machine by the coordinate displacement of its embroidery frame, comprising the steps of: recording said motif as a line-scanned picture, which is converted to picture half-tones; wherein, in the case of color motifs, and line-scanned color-specific picture with scannable picture half-tones is recorded for each color of said color motif; each picture is line-scanned; each scanning element, which represents a picture half-tone of an intensity between black and white is compared with an adjustable half-tone barrier and is accordingly classified as either lighter or darker than said barrier and thereby converted to a binary value corresponding thereto, said binary values being stored within a digital computer which stores conversion programs for embroidery techniques which are allocated to a plurality of preselected geometric picture forms including lines and areas that are repeated in each embroidery pattern; an embroidery program stored in the digital computer and corresponding to said displayed motif carrier is output to at least one automatic embroidery machine so as to control the operation thereof, said computer having stored said motif in a binary form in a section-by-section form from said geometric picture forms.

Claim 3

A method for controlling an automatic embroidery machine wherein individual scanning elements are copied from a displayed motif carrier and are transferred in the form of an embroidery program to a storage element, said embroidery program controlling at least one automatic embroidery machine by the coordinate displacement of its embroidery frame, comprising the steps of: recording said motif as a line-scanned picture, which is converted to picture half-tones; wherein, in the case of color motifs, said line-scanned color-specific picture with scannable picture half-tones is recorded for each color of said color motif; each picture is line-scanned; each scanning element, which represents a picture half-tone of an intensity between black and white is compared with an adjustable half-tone window and is accordingly classified as being either inside or outside of the half-tone window and thereby converted to a binary value corresponding thereto, said binary values being stored within a digital computer which stores conversion programs for embroidery techniques which are allocated to a plurality of preselected geometric picture forms including lines and areas that are repeated in each embroidery pattern; an embroidery program stored in the digital computer and corresponding to said displayed motif carrier is output to at least one automatic embroidery machine so as to control the operation thereof, said computer having stored said motif in a binary form in a section-by-section form from said geometric picture forms.

Claim 4

A method for controlling an automatic embroidery machine wherein individual scanning elements are copied from a displayed motif carrier and are transferred in the form of an embroidery program to a storage element, said embroidery program controlling at least one automatic embroidery machine by the coordinate displacement of its embroidery frame, comprising the steps of: recording said motif as a line-scanned picture, which is converted to picture half-tones; wherein, in the case of color motifs, said line-scanned color-specific picture with scannable picture half-tones is recorded for each color of said color motif; each picture is line-scanned; each scanning element, which represents a picture half-tone of an intensity between black and white is compared with an adjustable half-tone window and is accordingly classified as being either inside or outside of the half-tone window and thereby converted to a binary value corresponding thereto, said binary values being stored within a digital computer which stores conversion programs for embroidery techniques which are allocated to a plurality of preselected geometric picture forms including lines and areas that are repeated in each embroidery pattern; an embroidery program stored in the digital computer and corresponding to said displayed motif carrier is output to at least one automatic embroidery machine so as to control the operation thereof, said computer having stored said motif in a binary form in a section-by-section form from said geometric picture forms.

Claim 5

A method according to claims 1 or 2, wherein said motif is recorded as at least one electronically scanned picture.

Claim 6

A method according to claims 1 or 2, wherein said comparison step filters out minor irregularities in said motif.

Claim 8

A method according to claims 1 or 2, further comprising the step of manually inputting additional input including embroidery technique, given directions, step size, optimum puncture point, and yarn return, wherein said digital computer utilizes said manual inputs in its conversion.

Claim 9

A method according to claims 1 or 2, wherein in the case of motifs which cannot be clearly analyzed in picture segments and which cannot be allocated to an area or line-form by said digital computer, the additional step of displaying a respective picture segment on a display screen and requesting a work instruction from an operator.

Claim 10

A method according to claims 1 or 2, wherein scannable pictures are produced by a video camera technique and for color motifs, scannable pictures for the individual colors thereof are sequentially produced by the step of placing color filters in front of a lens of said video camera.

Claim 12

A method according to claims 1 or 2, further providing the step of adding electronic contrast accentuation for contrast-poor motifs so as to expand the half-tone range for said motif.

Claim 13

A method according to claims 1 or 2, wherein for the case of reed stitch motifs, edges of the contours of its corresponding digitized picture are smoothed so as to determine a specific embroidery direction.

Claim 14

An apparatus which operates in accordance with said method of claims 1 or 2, comprising an optoelectric scanning device which is mounted in front of a motif carrier and further comprising a half-tone comparator operatively connected to an output of said scanning device, said half-tone comparator having an output which is connected to a digital computer which is in turn connected to at least one automatic embroidery machine.