Image processing apparatus

Claim 2

An image processing apparatus comprising: first correction means for correcting an error of a multilevel tone data inputted by an input unit from a document so that a corrected data having a specified number of bits is supplied; multilevel rendition means for generating a multilevel rendition data and an error data from said corrected data being compared with a plurality of predetermined threshold levels; error diffusion means for carrying out a prescribed error diffusion of said error data from said multilevel rendition means and for supplying a resulting error data to said first correction means for use in an error correction process of a subsequent input data; and second correction means for correcting said multilevel rendition data by a specified bit of said multilevel tone data inputted by said input unit so that a corrected multilevel image data that is appropriate for being outputted by an output unit in which a multilevel tone data is assigned to each pixel included in an output image data is supplied.

Claim 3

The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising memory means for storing a set of predetermined multilevel rendition data and a set of predetermined error data, said memory means having, at an address of said memory means indicated by said corrected data from said first correction means, said multilevel rendition data and said error data which are generated by said multilevel rendition means.

Claim 4

The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the error correction of the multilevel tone data is carried out by said first correction means by addition of the error data supplied by said error diffusion means to the multilevel tone data inputted by said input unit, resulting in the corrected data having a specified number of bits.

Claim 5

The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the correction of the multilevel rendition data is carried out by said second correction means by addition of the least significant bit of the multilevel tone data inputted by said input unit to the multilevel rendition data supplied by said multilevel rendition means, resulting in said corrected multilevel image data that is appropriate for being outputted by an output unit in which a multilevel tone data is assigned to each pixel included in an output image data.

Claim 6

An image processing apparatus comprising: a) first correction means for correcting an error of a multilevel image data input by an input unit from a document, so as to supply first corrected data having a specified number of bits; b) multilevel rendition means for performing the functions of: 1) generating (i) multilevel rendition data and (ii) first error data, by comparing the first corrected data with a plurality of predetermined threshold levels; and 2) supplying corrected multilevel image data to an output unit, wherein the corrected multilevel image data allows the output unit to output an output image in which multilevel image data is assigned to each pixel of the output image; and c) error diffusion means for performing the functions of: 1) carrying out a prescribed error diffusion of the first error data; and 2) supplying second error data to the first correction means for use in an error correction process applied to subsequent input image data; wherein the diffusion means includes 1) level selection means for selecting a number of bits for the second error data, so as to allow the multilevel rendition means to correct the multilevel rendition data using first corrected data which has been corrected using the selected number of bits of the second error data.

Claim 7

An image processing apparatus comprising: a) first correction means for correcting an error of a multilevel image data input by an input unit from a document, so as to supply first corrected data having a specified number of bits; b) multilevel rendition means for performing the functions of: 1) generating (i) multilevel rendition data and (ii) first error data, by comparing the first corrected data with a plurality of predetermined threshold levels; and 2) supplying corrected multilevel image data to an output unit, wherein the corrected multilevel image data allows the output unit to output an output image in which multilevel image data is assigned to each pixel of the output image; and c) error diffusion means for performing the functions of: 1) carrying out a prescribed error diffusion of the first error data; and 2) supplying second error data to the first correction means for use in an error correction process applied to subsequent input image data; wherein the diffusion means includes 1) level selection means for selecting a number of bits for the second error data, so as to allow the multilevel rendition means to correct the multilevel rendition data using first corrected data which has been corrected using the selected number of bits of the second error data.

Claim 8

The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the multilevel rendition means includes: memory means for storing a set of predetermined multilevel rendition data and a set of predetermined first error data; wherein the corrected data of the first correction means, memory means stores specifies an address of the memory means storing the particular multilevel rendition data and the particular first error data which are generated by the multilevel rendition means.

Claim 9

The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising: control signal means for supplying to the level selection means, a level selection control signal in accordance with which the selected number of bits of the second error data is determined.

Claim 10

The apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the level selection means includes means for selecting: a) a number of high-order bits for the second error data when the multilevel image data output by the multilevel rendition means has a relatively small number of tone levels; and b) a number of low-order bits for the second error data when the multilevel image data output by the multilevel rendition means has a relatively large number of time levels.