JP6873601B2 - Image processing equipment, image processing methods, and programs - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to techniques for generating data for forming colors and bumps (unevenness).

In recent years, cultural properties have been duplicated by 3D printers and printers using UV curable ink for the purpose of preserving cultural properties. For example, in the reproduction of an oil painting, it is necessary to reproduce the color, ridge (hereinafter, also referred to as unevenness), and luster (hereinafter, also referred to as luster) of the paint. As such a reproduction technique, there is a technique described in Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 describes a printing technique in which a lower layer (concavo-convex layer) for forming unevenness of a reproduction target, an image layer (color material layer) for reproducing color, and a surface layer for giving a glossy feeling are sequentially laminated. It is disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-299058

However, when the coloring material layer is formed on the uneven layer, the ink cannot be laminated on the steep slope, and the color may not be reproduced at a plurality of observation angles. Hereinafter, it will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the relationship between the uneven layer and the color material layer in the reproduced object. FIG. 1A is a diagram schematically showing a cross section of the reproduced object. FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view when the color material layer 102 is formed on the uneven layer 101. As shown in FIG. 1B, when the angle α is small, the uneven layer 101 has a relatively gentle slope shape. At this time, since the discharged color material is fixed on the slope, the uneven layer 101 is completely covered with the color material layer 102 having a substantially uniform thickness.

On the other hand, when the angle β is large as shown in FIG. 1 (c), the uneven layer 101 has a steep slope shape. At this time, since the ink flows downward from the discharged color material before it is fixed on the slope, a portion 103 where the color material layer is partially thin appears as shown in FIG. 1 (c). .. Therefore, for example, when observing the object reproduced from the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1 (c), color unevenness appears because the portion 103 where the color material layer is thin is directly observed, and the color reproduction accuracy is lowered. There was a challenge.

In order to deal with the above problems, when the coloring material layer is formed in the lowermost layer and the uneven layer is formed on the coloring material layer with colorless and transparent ink or the like, light refraction occurs in the uneven layer. At this time, especially when the thickness of the concavo-convex layer becomes as thick as several hundred μm to several mm, the position of the light reflected by the coloring material layer changes significantly as compared with the case where there is no concavo-convex layer. There was a problem that it looked unnatural.

The present invention is an image processing device that generates information for forming a color material layer and an uneven layer on a recording medium, and is a first acquisition means for acquiring shape information that represents the height of an object for each pixel. , the height of the shape information is represented, for each pixel, by separating into a height of the second irregularities formed on the high Sato the coloring material layer of the first irregularities formed under the coloring material layer an image processing apparatus characterized by having: a first generating means for generating a second height information indicating a height of the second convex-concave first height information indicating a height of the first uneven Is.

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the color reproduction accuracy when printing a three-dimensional image.

Schematic diagram explaining the relationship between the uneven layer and the color material layer The figure which shows the structure of the image forming apparatus in Example 1. The figure explaining the halftone expression by the area gradation method in Example 1. The figure explaining the operation of forming a 3D image in Example 1. The block diagram which shows the hardware configuration of the image processing apparatus in Example 1. Block diagram showing a software configuration example of the control unit in the first embodiment The figure explaining the concept of the process executed by the image forming apparatus in Example 1. Flowchart of processing executed by the image processing apparatus in the first embodiment Flowchart of unevenness information separation processing in Example 1 A table showing visual results for patterns of various tilt angles in Example 1. Flowchart of unevenness information separation processing in Example 2 Block diagram showing a software configuration example of the control unit in the third embodiment Flowchart of processing executed by the image processing apparatus according to the third embodiment Flowchart of layer information creation process in Example 3 An example of a look-up table in Example 3. Block diagram showing a software configuration example of the control unit in the fourth embodiment Flowchart of processing executed by the image processing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment Flowchart of gloss data generation processing in Example 4 Example of table in Example 4

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the following embodiments do not limit the present invention, and not all combinations of features described below are essential for solving the problems of the present invention. The same configuration will be described with the same reference numerals.

[Example 1]
The image processing apparatus in this embodiment generates data that can be output by the image forming apparatus that forms the color material layer and the uneven layer on a recording medium such as paper. Although the object to be reproduced such as an oil painting is a two-dimensional image, fine irregularities are formed on the surface. Therefore, in this embodiment, the color material layer and the uneven layer are formed based on the shape information representing the surface unevenness of the oil painting and the color information, and the oil painting is reproduced. In this specification, an image including a color material layer and an uneven layer is referred to as a three-dimensional image.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the image processing device 24 in this embodiment. The image processing device 24 is connected to the image forming device 25. In this embodiment, as the image processing device 24, a personal computer in which a printer driver for the image forming device 25 is installed is assumed. Further, the image forming apparatus 25 assumes an inkjet printer that forms a three-dimensional image including an uneven layer and a coloring material layer with ink. First, the image forming apparatus 25 will be described. FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus 25.

The head cartridge 201 includes a recording head having a plurality of ejection ports, an ink tank for supplying ink to the recording heads, and a connector for receiving a signal or the like for driving each ejection port of the recording head. Has been done. There are 6 independent ink tanks for UV-curable colorless and transparent liquid resin ink for forming uneven layers, and for cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and white inks for forming color material layers. It is provided in. The head cartridge 201 is positioned and replaceably mounted on the carriage 202, and the carriage 202 is provided with a connector holder for transmitting a drive signal or the like to the head cartridge 201 via a connector. Further, the carriage 202 is equipped with an ultraviolet light irradiation device 210. The ultraviolet light irradiation device 210 is controlled to cure the ejected curable ink and fix it on the recording medium.

The carriage 202 can reciprocate along the guide shaft 203. Specifically, the carriage 202 is driven by a drive mechanism such as a motor pulley 205, a driven pulley 206, and a timing belt 207 with the main scanning motor 204 as a drive source, and its position and movement are controlled. The movement of the carriage 202 along the guide shaft 203 is referred to as "main scanning", and the direction of this movement is referred to as "main scanning direction". The recording medium 208 is installed on the support 209. The head cartridge 201 mounted on the carriage 202 is held so that the discharge port surface projects downward from the carriage 202 and is parallel to the recording surface of the recording medium 208. The control unit 221 is composed of a CPU, storage means, and the like, and controls the operation of each component of the image forming apparatus 25 so as to form a three-dimensional image based on the data. In this embodiment, as described above, the image forming apparatus is assumed to be a UV curable inkjet printer, but the image forming apparatus ejects colorless and transparent liquid resin ink and color ink. If possible, it is not limited to this example. For example, solid ink may be used instead of the UV curable ink. Further, this embodiment can be applied to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus instead of an inkjet image forming apparatus.

<3D image formation operation>
Hereinafter, the three-dimensional image forming operation executed by the inkjet printer having the configuration shown in FIG. 2 will be described. First, when the recording medium 208 is conveyed to a predetermined recording start position, the carriage 202 moves along the guide shaft 203 on the recording medium 208 in the main scanning direction. During this movement, ink is ejected from the ejection port of the recording head. The ultraviolet light irradiation device 210 irradiates ultraviolet light in accordance with the movement of the recording head to cure the ejected ink and fix it on the recording medium. Then, when the carriage 202 moves along the guide shaft 203 in the main scanning direction and reaches one end of the guide shaft 203, the carriage 202 moves along the guide shaft 211 in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction by a predetermined amount. The movement of the carriage 202 is referred to as "sub-scanning", and the direction of this movement is referred to as "sub-scanning direction". When the carriage 202 moves by a predetermined amount in the sub-scanning direction, the carriage 202 moves again along the guide shaft 203 in the main scanning direction. In this way, the carriage 202 of the recording head repeats the main scanning and the sub-scanning to form a three-dimensional image composed of a concavo-convex layer and a color material layer on the recording medium 208.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the representation of an image controlled by the area gradation method. In this embodiment, in order to simplify the explanation, it is assumed that ink ejection (on) and non-ejection (off) are controlled for each pixel defined by the output resolution of the image forming apparatus, and all the pixels in the region are turned on. The state of the above is treated as a state of 100% concentration. In a so-called binary printer that controls ink on / off for each pixel, a single pixel can express only either on (density 100%) or off (density 0%). A halftone is expressed by a set of multiple pixels. Explaining with reference to FIG. 3, instead of performing halftone expression at a density of 25% as shown in the lower left of the figure, ink is ejected to 4 pixels per 16 pixels as shown in the lower right of the figure in terms of area. A halftone expression is realized by expressing 25 (= 4/16)%. It is possible to express in the same manner in other gradations. The total number of pixels in the region for expressing the halftone and the arrangement pattern of the on-pixels are not limited to the example shown in FIG. Generally, the error diffusion method is used to derive the arrangement pattern. Further, in this embodiment, the ejection / non-ejection of ink droplets is controlled by a binary value, but the amount of ink droplets is controlled by a multi-valued value, and a plurality of ink droplets are landed in one pixel of the recording medium from the same ejection port. A multi-droplet method for forming one dot may be used.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation of forming a three-dimensional image by scanning the carriage 202 on the recording medium 208. An image is formed by the width L of the carriage 202 by the main scanning by the carriage 202, and the carriage 202 is moved by a distance L in the sub-scanning direction each time the image formation of one line is completed. For the sake of simplicity, the maximum amount of ink that the image forming apparatus in this embodiment can eject in one main scan is expressed as 100% ink amount.

When the layer to be formed requires an ink amount exceeding 100%, it is necessary to scan the same area a plurality of times (main scan). For example, when forming a layer with a 500% ink amount in a certain area, the same line is scanned 5 times. Explaining with reference to FIG. 4, when forming a layer with an ink amount of 500% with respect to the area A and the area B, the area A is scanned 5 times (FIG. 4A), and then the carriage 202 is moved in the sub-scanning direction. Only L is conveyed and the area B is scanned 5 times (FIG. 4 (b)). The amount of ink may be controlled by increasing the number of times of ink ejection with respect to the same position without increasing the number of scanning times.

<Hardware configuration of image processing device>
An example of the hardware configuration of the image processing device 24 in this embodiment is shown in FIG. The control unit 220 includes a CPU 501, a ROM 502, a RAM 503, a general-purpose interface (hereinafter, also referred to as I / F) 504, a serial ATA (hereinafter, also referred to as SATA) I / F505, and a video card (hereinafter, VC). 506 is provided. These components constituting the control unit 220 are connected to each other via the system bus 507, and information can be exchanged via the system bus 507.

The CPU 501 uses the RAM 503 as a work memory to execute an operating system (OS) and various programs stored in various recording media mounted on a ROM 502, a hard disk drive (HDD) 510, and a general-purpose drive 511. As a result, the CPU 501 controls each component via the system bus 507. The program executed by the CPU 501 includes a program for executing the process in the present embodiment described later. The general-purpose I / F 504 is a serial bus interface such as USB. The control unit 220 is connected to an input device 509 such as a mouse or a keyboard via the serial bus 508. A general-purpose drive 511 that reads and writes HDD 510 and various recording media is connected to SATA I / F 505. The CPU 501 executes data reading / writing to / from various recording media mounted on the HDD 510 or the general-purpose drive 511. The VC506 is a video interface and is connected to the display 512. The CPU 501 displays a user interface (hereinafter, also referred to as a UI) provided by program execution on the display 512. Then, the CPU 501 accepts the user input including the user instruction input by the user using the input device 509 via this UI.

<Software configuration of control unit 220>
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a software configuration example of the control unit 220 in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, the control unit 220 includes a color information acquisition unit 601, an unevenness information acquisition unit 602, an unevenness information separation unit 603, and a data generation unit 604. The data generation unit 604 includes a first unevenness data generation unit 605, a color material data generation unit 606, and a second unevenness data generation unit 607. The color information acquisition unit 601 acquires the color information and sends the acquired color information to the color material data generation unit 606. The color information is bitmap format data composed of color values for each pixel. In this embodiment, the color information has an RGB value calculated from the CIELAB value by the sRGB conversion formula for each pixel. The unevenness information acquisition unit 602 acquires unevenness information representing the unevenness (shape) of the three-dimensional image to be output (shape information acquisition), and sends the acquired unevenness information to the unevenness information separation unit 603. The unevenness information is data that describes a two-dimensional distribution of height. When the three-dimensional image to be output is an oil painting, it is the height (also called thickness) when the campus area is set to 0. In this embodiment, the unevenness information is data in which each pixel holds the height from the reference plane as a pixel value, and is a grayscale image in which the height of each pixel is expressed by an 8-bit pixel value. Hereinafter, this grayscale image is also referred to as an uneven image.

The unevenness information separating unit 603 receives the unevenness information from the unevenness information acquisition unit 602, and forms the received unevenness information on the first uneven layer information for forming the received unevenness information under the coloring material layer and on the coloring material layer. Separated from the second uneven layer information for the purpose. Then, the concavo-convex information separation unit 603 sends the first concavo-convex layer information to the first concavo-convex data generation unit 605 and the second concavo-convex layer information to the second concavo-convex data generation unit 607. Similar to the unevenness information, the first uneven layer information and the second uneven layer information are data in which each pixel holds the height from the reference plane as a pixel value, and the height of each pixel is expressed by an 8-bit pixel value. This is a grayscale image. The details of the method for separating the unevenness information and the information on the first uneven layer and the second uneven layer will be described later.

The first concavo-convex data generation unit 605 receives the first concavo-convex layer information from the concavo-convex information separation unit 603, and converts the received first concavo-convex layer information into first concavo-convex data that can be output by the image forming apparatus 25. Here, the first unevenness data is decomposed into data corresponding to a plurality of scans according to the height (thickness) that the image forming apparatus 25 can form in one scan. The color material data generation unit 606 receives color information from the color information acquisition unit 601 and converts the received color information into color material data that can be output by the image forming apparatus 25. Here, the image data composed of RGB values is converted into the data of the color material (for example, cyan, magenta, black, yellow) output by the image forming apparatus 25. Further, after color conversion to each color, various processes such as halftone processing to the number of gradations that can be output by the image forming apparatus 25 are executed. The second concavo-convex data generation unit 607 receives the second concavo-convex layer information from the concavo-convex information separation unit 603, and converts the received second concavo-convex layer information into second concavo-convex data that can be output by the image forming apparatus 25. The image forming apparatus 25 acquires the first unevenness data, the coloring material data, and the second unevenness data generated by the image processing apparatus. The image forming apparatus 25 forms a three-dimensional image on a recording medium based on the acquired data.

<Processing in this example>
Hereinafter, the outline of the processing in this embodiment executed by the above-mentioned inkjet printer will be described. When the color and unevenness are reproduced by the laminating method, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), if the inclination angle β of the slope is large, the uneven surface is not completely covered, and the portion 103 where the coloring material layer becomes thin may appear. As mentioned above. On the other hand, when the inclination angle α of the slope is small as shown in FIG. 1B, the uneven surface is completely covered and the color material layers have substantially the same thickness. The image processing apparatus according to this embodiment generates data for forming a three-dimensional image in consideration of this characteristic.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of the processing in this embodiment. FIG. 7A is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the uneven shape reproduced by the unevenness information acquired by the unevenness information acquisition unit 602. The unevenness information separation unit 603 reproduces, for example, the first unevenness layer information for reproducing the unevenness information shown by the diagonal line in FIG. 7B and the unevenness shape shown by the diagonal line in FIG. 7C. Separated from the second uneven layer information for the purpose. Here, the concave-convex shape reproduced by the first concave-convex layer information is a shape in which ink can be fixed on the slope because the inclination angle of the slope is small, as shown in FIG. 7B. On the other hand, the concave-convex shape reproduced by the second concave-convex layer information is the shape of the difference between the concave-convex shape shown in FIG. 7 (a) and the concave-convex shape shown in FIG. 7 (b), as shown in FIG. 7 (c). Is. In this embodiment, the first concavo-convex layer is formed by using clear ink which is a UV-curable colorless and transparent liquid resin, and in the first concavo-convex data, the pixel value of each pixel is the height of the concavo-convex. This will be described as bitmap data which is the amount of clear ink corresponding to. However, the ink forming the first uneven layer is not limited to this ink. For example, the amount of color ink such as white ink may be used. The color material layer data is the amount of color ink such as cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and white described above. The second uneven layer is preferably formed of clear ink, which is a UV-curable colorless and transparent liquid resin, because it does not interfere with the observation of the coloring material layer.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the first uneven layer having an inclination angle on which the coloring material can be fixed is formed under the coloring material layer. Then, a three-dimensional image is formed by forming a coloring material layer and a second uneven layer on the upper layer, and the color and unevenness are reproduced on the recording medium. From the viewpoint of reproducibility of unevenness, the droplet size is preferably 50 pl or less when the height is controlled in the vicinity of 80 μm, and the droplet size is preferably 90 pl or less when the height is controlled in the vicinity of 100 μm. Therefore, when the concavo-convex layer composed of the first concavo-convex layer and the second concavo-convex layer becomes as thick as several hundred μm to several mm, the object to be reproduced looks unnatural. Therefore, both the first concavo-convex layer and the second concavo-convex layer are 50 pl or less. It is desirable that it is formed with a droplet size of.

Hereinafter, the processing in this embodiment executed by the image processing apparatus 24 will be described with reference to FIG. Each configuration shown in FIG. 6 is realized by the CPU 501 reading and executing the program corresponding to the flowchart shown in FIG. In step S801, the color information acquisition unit 601 acquires the color information of the reproduction target. The color information acquired in this step is sent to the color material data generation unit 606. In step S802, the unevenness information acquisition unit 602 acquires the unevenness information (concavo-convex image) of the reproduction target. The unevenness information acquired in this step is sent to the unevenness information separating unit 603. As described above, the unevenness information is data in which each pixel holds the height from the reference plane as a pixel value, and is a grayscale image in which the height of each pixel is expressed by an 8-bit pixel value.

In step S803, the unevenness information separating unit 603 calculates an inclination angle for each pixel of the unevenness image, and based on the calculated inclination angle, separates the unevenness information into the first unevenness layer information and the second unevenness layer information. To do. After separation, the first concavo-convex layer information is sent to the first concavo-convex data generation unit 605, and the second concavo-convex layer information is sent to the second concavo-convex data generation unit 607. The details of step S803 will be described later.

In step S804, the first concavo-convex data generation unit 605 generates the first concavo-convex data for forming a part of the concavo-convex of the reproduction target based on the first concavo-convex layer information. In this embodiment, the pixel value of the first uneven layer information expressed in 8-bit gray scale is normalized in the range of 0-1 (0% -100%), and the normalized pixel value is the ink amount. Corresponds to. For example, the pixel value 255 in the first uneven layer information corresponds to the ink amount of 100%, and the pixel value 128 corresponds to the ink amount of 50%. Here, the layer formed has a certain thickness, that is, a height, depending on the amount of ink ejected. Therefore, for example, when a layer formed with an ink amount of 100% has a thickness of 20 μm, in order to reproduce a height of 100 μm, five layers formed with an ink amount of 100% may be stacked. That is, in this case, if the first concavo-convex layer has a height of 100 μm, the first concavo-convex layer is formed by executing five main scans with an ink amount of 100%.

In step S805, the color material data generation unit 606 generates color material data having the amount of ink for forming the color material layer formed of the color ink as a pixel value based on the color information. The color material data is generated including the amount of special color ink for concealing the base in order to suppress the influence of the color change due to the recording medium. In this embodiment, the color material data includes data of a total of 5 channels in which the ink amounts of white ink are stored as special color inks for concealing the base in addition to the ink amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black described above. To do. In step S806, the second concavo-convex data generation unit 607 generates the second concavo-convex data for forming the second concavo-convex layer whose inclination angle is larger than the first concavo-convex layer based on the second concavo-convex layer information. In the second concavo-convex data generation, the ink amount is derived from the pixel value in the second concavo-convex layer information (grayscale image) based on the correspondence between the height and the ink amount, as in the formation of the first concavo-convex layer. After completing the above processing, the image processing device 24 outputs the first unevenness data, the coloring material data, and the second unevenness data to the image forming device 25.

Hereinafter, the unevenness information separation process (step S803 in FIG. 8) will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In step S901, the unevenness information separation unit 603 sets the variable (x, y) representing the pixel position to the initial value (0,0). In step S902, the unevenness information separating unit 603 acquires the pixel value h (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the unevenness information.

_{In step S903, the unevenness information separating unit 603 acquires the pixel value h 1} (x-1, y) at the coordinates (x-1, y) of the first uneven layer information. However, when x = 0, the corresponding pixel value does not exist, so the pixel value h ₁ (x-1, y) is obtained by the following equation (1).
h ₁ (x-1, y) = h (0, y) (when x = 0) ... Equation (1)
In step S904, the unevenness information separating unit 603 uses the following equation (2) based on h (x, y) acquired in step S902 and h _{1 (x-1, y) acquired in step S903.} To calculate the tilt angle θ. In the equation (2), R is the resolution (dpi) of the unevenness information (grayscale image). Further, h _max is the height corresponding to the maximum pixel value that can be taken in the unevenness information (in this embodiment, the unevenness information is a grayscale image expressed by an 8-bit pixel value, so the maximum pixel value is 255) ( mm).

In step S905, the unevenness information separating unit 603 determines by the equation (3) whether or not the absolute value | θ | of the inclination calculated in step S904 _{is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold angle θ 0.} If the unevenness information separating unit 603 determines that the equation (3) is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S906, and if the unevenness information separating unit 603 determines that the equation (3) is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step S907. Here, θ ₀ is an angle at which the color ink can be coated on the slope of the first uneven layer and the color can be seen appropriately in the reproduced object. It _{is particularly desirable that θ 0} is the largest angle among the angles.
| Θ | ≤ θ ₀ ... Equation (3)

_{In this embodiment, the threshold angle θ 0} is determined in advance by outputting a triangular wave shape pattern having various inclination angles and observing a three-dimensional image formed by ejecting color ink on the triangular wave shape pattern. This is because the covering state on the slope of the first uneven layer can be estimated from the result of such observation. However, _{the method for determining θ 0} is not limited to the above method. For example, the shape of the first concavo-convex layer does not have to be a triangular wave shape as long as the shape has a controlled inclination angle. In addition, the user may directly specify _{θ 0.}

In this embodiment, by observing a three-dimensional image formed by ejecting color ink on 13 types of triangular wave shape patterns in which the inclination angle is changed by 5 ° in the range of 15 ° to 75 °. , The threshold angle θ ₀ was determined. Specifically, the above-mentioned 13 types of patterns were formed with colorless and transparent liquid resin ink, and each of the formed 13 types of patterns was coated with a color material layer formed of color ink. Then, a layer was further formed on the upper layer with a colorless and transparent liquid resin ink so that the maximum height of the three-dimensional image having a three-layer structure was 100 μm or 500 μm. The three-dimensional image thus formed was visually observed. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the results of this observation. As shown in FIG. 10, regardless of whether the maximum height is 100 μm or 500 μm, when the inclination angle is 65 ° or more, color unevenness is anxious. This is because when the inclination angle is 65 ° or more, the thickness of the color material layer on the upper layer of the triangular wave shape pattern is not uniform, so that the density of the color ink becomes uneven. On the other hand, when the inclination angle is small, the triangular wave shape pattern is covered with the color material layer (color ink), but the thickness of the uppermost layer formed of the colorless and transparent liquid resin ink becomes thicker. , The phenomenon that the color looks muddy was confirmed. This phenomenon is particularly remarkable when the maximum height is 500 μm, and the result is that color unevenness is anxious when the inclination angle is 25 ° or less. From the above results, θ ₀ is preferably a value within the range of 30 ° or more and 60 ° or less, and more preferably θ ₀ is a value within the range of 40 ° or more and 50 ° or less. In this embodiment, θ ₀ = 45 °.

In step S906, as shown in the equation (4), the unevenness information separating unit 603 sets the pixel value h ₁ (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the first uneven layer information to the pixel value h of the unevenness information. Let it be (x, y). In step S905 of the previous step, it is determined that the color can be appropriately reproduced when the absolute value of θ is θ ₀ or less, that is, when the unevenness reproduced based on the unevenness information is coated with color ink. .. Therefore, in this step, the pixel value h (x, y) of the unevenness information is used as it is as _{the pixel value h 1 (x, y) of the first uneven layer information.}
h ₁ (x, y) = h (x, y) ... Equation (4)

In step S907, the unevenness information separating unit 603 calculates the pixel value h ₁ (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the first uneven layer information by the equation (5) or the equation (6). In step S905 of the previous step, when the absolute value of θ is _{larger than θ 0} , that is, when the unevenness reproduced based on the unevenness information is coated with color ink, it is difficult to reproduce the color properly. It has been judged. Therefore, in this step, _{the pixel value h 1} of the first concavo-convex layer information is generated so as to have _{an inclination of an angle θ 0 that can be covered.}

In step S908, the unevenness information separating unit 603 has a pixel value h (x, y) of the unevenness information and a pixel value h ₁ (x, y) of the first uneven layer information, as shown in the equation (7). _{By taking the difference, the pixel value h 2} (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the second uneven layer information is obtained.
h ₂ (x, y) = h (x, y) -h ₁ (x, y) ... Equation (7)

In step S909, the unevenness information separation unit 603 determines whether or not the process of _{obtaining the pixel values h 1} and h _{2 for all the pixels has been completed.} When the unevenness information separating unit 603 determines that the processing for obtaining the _{pixel values h 1} and h ₂ for all the pixels is completed, the processing in S803 ends. On the other hand, when the unevenness information separating unit 603 determines that the processing for obtaining the _{pixel values h 1} and h _{2 for all the pixels has not been completed, the processing proceeds to step S910.} In step S910, the unevenness information separating unit 603 updates the variables (x, y) representing the pixel positions in order to obtain the _{pixel values h 1} and h _{2 for the unprocessed pixels.} Then, the process returns to step S902. The process of separating the unevenness information in step S803 has been described in detail above. By performing the above processing, the unevenness information is obtained from the first unevenness layer information for forming the first uneven layer capable of forming the color material layer having a substantially uniform thickness on the upper layer, and the color having a substantially uniform thickness. It can be separated from the information of the second uneven layer for forming the second uneven layer, which is difficult to form the material layer on the upper layer.

According to this embodiment, the unevenness information is separated into the first uneven layer information for forming under the coloring material layer and the second uneven layer information for forming on the coloring material layer. Then, the first unevenness data for forming under the color material layer, the color material data based on the color information, and the second unevenness data for forming on the color material layer are generated. This makes it possible to prevent the color reproduction accuracy from being lowered even when the surface of the reproduced object has a steep slope. At this time, the shape of the second uneven layer is the shape of the difference between the shape of the unevenness of the reproduction target and the shape of the first uneven layer, and the thickness of the second uneven layer laminated on the upper layer of the coloring material layer. Is thinner than the thickness of the first uneven layer. Therefore, the amount of misalignment of the position of the light reflected by the coloring material layer due to the refraction of the light generated in the second uneven layer on the surface is reduced, so that the unevenness and the color can be reproduced well.

At the pixel position where the absolute value of θ _{is determined to be θ 0} or less in step S905, the unevenness reproduced based on the unevenness information is only the first uneven layer formed based on the first uneven layer information. It can be reproduced with. Therefore, the three-dimensional image formed by the image forming apparatus 25 is composed of two layers, a first concavo-convex layer and a coloring material layer, in a region where the absolute value of the tilt angle is equal to or less than the threshold angle (| θ | ≦ θ _0). It is formed. On the other hand, in the region where the absolute value of the inclination angle is larger than the threshold angle (| θ |> θ ₀ ), the three-dimensional image is composed of three layers of the first uneven layer, the coloring material layer, and the second uneven layer. It is formed.

Further, in this embodiment, the color information and the second uneven layer information are handled independently. However, the appearance of colors may change depending on the thickness of the second concavo-convex layer controlled based on the second concavo-convex layer information. Therefore, the color information may be adjusted according to the thickness of the second uneven layer. In this case, the color conversion may be performed based on the relationship between the amount of the colorless and transparent liquid resin ink that is required to form the second uneven layer and the color ink.

Further, in this embodiment, the case where the unevenness information is separated into the two uneven layer information of the first uneven layer information and the second uneven layer information has been described, but the unevenness information is separated into three or more uneven layer information. Is also good. Even when the unevenness information is separated into three or more uneven layer information, the present embodiment can be applied as long as the bottom layer and the uppermost layer are uneven layers and the coloring material layer is formed between the layers.

[Example 2]
In the first embodiment, the inclination angle θ of the slope was calculated for each pixel, and the unevenness information was separated into the first unevenness layer information and the second unevenness layer information. However, the method of separating the unevenness information is not limited to the one using the inclination angle. For example, when the unevenness information is frequency-decomposed, the low-frequency component tends to contain many gentle shapes, and the high-frequency component tends to contain many steep shapes. Therefore, the same effect as in Example 1 can be obtained even if the unevenness information is separated according to the frequency component. Hereinafter, a case where the unevenness information is divided into a low frequency component and a high frequency component will be described. However, in the following description, the description in common with the first embodiment will be simplified or omitted.

Hereinafter, the unevenness information separation process (step S803 in FIG. 8) in the second embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In step S1101, the unevenness information separation unit 603 calculates the Gaussian filter F (a, b) as a low-pass filter by the following equation (8).

The variance S of the Gaussian filter in the formula (8) is calculated by the following formula (9) using the resolution R of the unevenness information (grayscale image).
S = 0.1 × R / 25.4 + 0.5 (rounded down to the nearest whole number) ・ ・ ・ Equation (9)
In this embodiment, a concavo-convex space period of 0.1 mm or more is considered to be a low frequency, and a filter for extracting frequency components below the concavo-convex space frequency corresponding to this is created. Not limited to. For example, the user may specify the frequency component.

In step S1102, the unevenness information separating unit 603 performs a convolution operation between the unevenness information and the low-pass filter created in step S1101 according to the following equation (10) (filter processing).

In the equation (10), M is the number of pixels in the horizontal direction of the unevenness information (grayscale image), and N is the number of pixels in the vertical direction of the unevenness information (grayscale image). In step S1103, the unevenness information separating unit 603 sets the first unevenness layer information to the convolution calculation result h'obtained in step 1102.

In step S1104, the unevenness information separating unit 603 calculates the difference between the pixel value h (x, y) of the _{unevenness information and the pixel value h 1 (x, y) of the first uneven layer information obtained in step S1103. The pixel value h 2} (x, y) of the second uneven layer information is obtained for each pixel. As a result, the unevenness information separating unit 603 creates the second unevenness layer information. According to this embodiment, it is possible to prevent the color reproduction accuracy from being lowered even when the surface of the reproduced object has a steep slope. Further, in this embodiment, the unevenness information is separated into the first unevenness layer information and the second unevenness layer information without using the inclination angle of the slope. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform a process (observation or the like) for determining the _{threshold angle θ 0} as described in the first embodiment in advance.

[Example 3]
In Examples 1 and 2, the unevenness information is separated into the first uneven layer information and the second uneven layer information, and the first uneven layer and the second uneven layer are formed by using the colorless and transparent liquid resin ink. Data was generated. At this time, the unevenness and the color were reproduced by forming a coloring material layer with color ink between the first uneven layer and the second uneven layer.

On the other hand, by forming the uneven layer using color ink instead of colorless and transparent liquid resin ink, it is possible to reproduce the color while reproducing the unevenness with a steep inclination angle. However, when unevenness is reproduced with color ink, a desired color may not be reproduced due to a change in density caused by stacking a plurality of color material layers. For example, when reproducing an object with a single color and different thickness, if you try to reproduce unevenness with only color ink, the appearance of color will be seen in the part where the color material layer is thin and the part where the color material layer is thick. May be different.

In consideration of the above contents, in this embodiment, as in Examples 1 and 2, a method of reproducing unevenness and color with colorless and transparent liquid resin ink and color ink, and a method of reproducing unevenness and color only with color ink. And in combination. Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described in detail. However, in the following description, the description in common with Examples 1 and 2 will be simplified or omitted.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a software configuration example of the control unit 220 in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12, the control unit 220 includes a color information acquisition unit 1201, an unevenness information acquisition unit 1202, a look-up table (hereinafter, also referred to as LUT) holding unit 1203, a layer information creation unit 1204, and data generation. A unit 1205 is provided. The data generation unit 1205 includes a first unevenness data generation unit 1206, a color material data generation unit 1207, and a second unevenness data generation unit 1208.

Since the color information acquisition unit 1201 and the unevenness information acquisition unit 1202 are the same as the color information acquisition unit 601 and the unevenness information acquisition unit 602 of the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. The LUT holding unit 1203 holds the LUT. Details of the LUT held by the LUT holding unit 1203 will be described later. The layer information creation unit 1204 receives the color information from the color information acquisition unit 1201 and the unevenness information from the unevenness information acquisition unit 1202. Then, the layer information creating unit 1204 uses the LUT held in the LUT holding unit 1203 based on the received color information and the unevenness information, and uses the color material layer information, the first uneven layer information, and the second uneven layer. Create information and. Then, the layer information creation unit 1204 sends the first concavo-convex layer information to the first concavo-convex data generation unit 1206, the color material layer information to the color material data generation unit 1207, and the second concavo-convex layer information to generate the second concavo-convex data. Send to unit 1208. The color material layer information is data used for forming the color material layer, and is data including a color value for each pixel and the number of layers indicating how many layers of color ink are to be layered. The first concavo-convex layer information and the second concavo-convex layer information are the same as in the first embodiment.

The first concavo-convex data generation unit 1206 receives the first concavo-convex layer information from the layer information creation unit 1204, and generates the first concavo-convex data based on the received first concavo-convex layer information. The color material data generation unit 1207 receives the color material layer information from the layer information creation unit 1204, and generates the color material data based on the received color material layer information. The second concavo-convex data generation unit 1208 receives the second concavo-convex layer information from the layer information creation unit 1204, and generates the second concavo-convex data based on the received second concavo-convex layer information.

Hereinafter, the processing executed by the image processing apparatus 24 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Since steps S1301 and S1302 are the same as steps S801 and S802 in the first embodiment, description thereof will be omitted.

In step S1303, the layer information creation unit 1204 creates layer information using the LUT held by the LUT holding unit 1203 based on the color information acquired in step S1301 and the unevenness information acquired in step S1302. The layer information referred to here is the color material layer information used for forming the color material layer formed of the color ink, and the first uneven layer and the second uneven layer formed of the colorless and transparent liquid resin ink. The first concavo-convex layer information and the second concavo-convex layer information used for this purpose are included. The details of step S1303 will be described later.

In step S1304, the first concavo-convex data generation unit 1206 generates first concavo-convex data for forming a part of the concavo-convex of the reproduction target based on the first concavo-convex layer information created in step S1303. In step S1305, the color material data generation unit 1207 generates color material data based on the color material layer information created in step S1303. As described above, in this embodiment, the color of the reproduction target is reproduced by the color material layer, but in some cases, the unevenness of the reproduction target is also reproduced by the color material layer. In step S1306, the second concavo-convex data generation unit 1208 generates the second concavo-convex data for forming a part of the concavo-convex of the reproduction target based on the second concavo-convex layer information created in step S1303.

Hereinafter, the layer information creation process (step S1303 in FIG. 13) will be described with reference to FIG. In step S1401, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the variable (x, y) representing the pixel position to the initial value (0,0). In step S1402, the layer information creation unit 1204 acquires the pixel value h (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the unevenness information. In step S1403, the layer information creation unit 1204 acquires the pixel value RGB (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the color information.

In step S1404, the layer information creation unit 1204 acquires the LUT from the LUT holding unit 1203. Here, an example of the LUT held by the LUT holding unit 1203 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 15, the LUT holds a color combination of 9 gradations of RGB at equal intervals. h _RGB represents the height (mm) of one color material layer formed by the color inks of each RGB value. Further, the LUT also holds the CIELab value measured by forming one to a plurality of color material layers with the color inks of each RGB value. In this embodiment, the number of gradations of the RGB values is set to 9, but the number of gradations is not limited to this example. _{Further, although the height h RGB} of one layer of the color material layer is used as the height of the color material layer formed by the color ink of each RGB value, the color material layer formed by the color ink of each RGB value is used. As the height, the height of a plurality of layers (for example, two layers) of color material layers may be used.

In step S1405, the layer information creation unit 1204 is required when the height indicated by h (x, y) acquired in step S1402 is reproduced with the color ink corresponding to RGB (x, y) acquired in step S1403. The number of times k of overlapping of various color inks is calculated by the equation (11).

However, _{as in the first embodiment, h max} is a height (mm) corresponding to the maximum pixel value that can be obtained in the unevenness information.

In step S1406, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the Lab value when one layer is stacked and the Lab value when k layers are stacked for the ink corresponding to RGB (x, y) acquired in step S1403 in step S1404. It is acquired by referring to the acquired LUT. Then, the layer information creation unit 1204 calculates the color difference ΔE using the equation (12) based on the acquired Lab value.

In step S1407, the layer information creation unit 1204 determines whether or not the color difference ΔE calculated in step S1406 is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value ε by the equation (13). In this embodiment, ε is 3.2. When the layer information creation unit 1204 determines that the equation (13) is satisfied, it is determined that the unevenness of the reproduction target can be reproduced only with the color ink because the color does not change even if a plurality of layers of the color inks are stacked. .. At this time, the process proceeds to step S1408. On the other hand, when the layer information creating unit 1204 determines that the equation (13) is not satisfied, it is determined that the color changes when a plurality of layers of color ink are stacked. At this time, the process proceeds to step S1411. The processing after step S1411 is the same as in the first embodiment, in order to reproduce the unevenness of the reproduction target, based on the unevenness information, the first uneven layer information for forming under the color material layer and the color material layer. This is a process for generating information on the second uneven layer for forming on the top. In this embodiment, ε is 3.2, but other values may be used.
ΔE ≤ ε ・ ・ ・ Equation (13)

In step S1408, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the pixel value h ₁ (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the first uneven layer information to 0. In step S1409, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the pixel value at the coordinates (x, y) of the color material layer information to (R (x, y), G (x, y), B (x, y), k. ). In step S1410, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the pixel value h ₂ (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the second uneven layer information to 0. The processing of steps S1411 to S1419 is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment.

_{In step S1411, the layer information creation unit 1204 acquires the pixel value h 1} (x-1, y) at the coordinates (x-1, y) of the first uneven layer information. However, when x = 0, the pixel value h ₁ (x-1, y) is obtained by the equation (1). In step S1412, the layer information creation unit 1204 has an inclination angle θ according to the equation (2) based on _{h (x, y) acquired in step S1402 and h 1 (x-1, y) acquired in step S1411.} Is calculated. In step S1413, the layer information creation unit 1204 determines by the equation (3) whether or not the absolute value | θ | of the inclination calculated in step S1412 _{is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold angle θ 0. In step S1414, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the pixel value h 1} (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the first uneven layer information to the pixel value h (x, y) of the unevenness information acquired in step S1402. ).

In step S1415, the layer information creation unit 1204 calculates the pixel value h1 (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the first uneven layer information by the formula (5) or the formula (6). In step S1416, the layer information creation unit 1204 sets the pixel value at the coordinates (x, y) of the color material layer information to (R (x, y), G (x, y), B (x, y), 1). ). In step S1417, the layer information creation unit 1204 takes a difference between the pixel value h (x, y) of the unevenness information and the pixel value h ₁ (x, y) of the first unevenness layer information, so that the second unevenness is obtained. _{The pixel value h 2} (x, y) at the coordinates (x, y) of the layer information is obtained. In step S1418, the layer information creation unit 1204 determines whether or not the process of _{obtaining the pixel values h 1} and h _{2 for all the pixels has been completed.} In step S1419, the layer information creation unit 1204 updates the variables (x, y) representing the pixel positions in order to obtain the _{pixel values h 1} and h _{2 for the unprocessed pixels.}
According to this embodiment, it is possible to prevent the color reproduction accuracy from being lowered even when the surface of the reproduction target has a steep slope. Further, in this embodiment, since a part of the unevenness is reproduced with the color ink, the consumption amount of the colorless and transparent liquid resin ink can be reduced by that amount.

[Example 4]
In Examples 1 and 2, the unevenness information is separated into the first unevenness layer information and the second unevenness layer information, and a color material layer with color ink is formed between the first unevenness layer and the second unevenness layer. By doing so, unevenness and color were reproduced. However, the outermost layer of the formed three-dimensional image does not necessarily have to be the second uneven layer. For example, a gloss control layer for controlling gloss may be formed on the second uneven layer. In this embodiment, a case where a gloss control layer is further formed on the second uneven layer will be described. However, in the following description, the description in common with Examples 1 to 3 will be simplified or omitted.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a software configuration example of the control unit 220 in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 16, the control unit 220 includes a color information acquisition unit 1601, an unevenness information acquisition unit 1602, a gloss information acquisition unit 1603, an unevenness information separation unit 1604, a table holding unit 1605, and a data generation unit 1606. And. The data generation unit 1606 includes a first unevenness data generation unit 1607, a coloring material data generation unit 1608, a second unevenness data generation unit 1609, and a gloss data generation unit 1610.

Since the color information acquisition unit 1601 and the unevenness information acquisition unit 1602 are the same as the color information acquisition unit 601 and the unevenness information acquisition unit 602 of the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. The gloss information acquisition unit 1603 acquires gloss information representing the gloss distribution of the three-dimensional image to be output, and sends the acquired gloss information to the gloss data generation unit 1610. The gloss information is a grayscale image in which the mirror glossiness obtained by the method of JISZ8741 is expressed by an 8-bit pixel value. The unevenness information separation unit 1604 receives unevenness information from the unevenness information acquisition unit, and separates the received unevenness information into first unevenness layer information and second unevenness layer information. Then, the concavo-convex information separation unit 1604 sends the first concavo-convex layer information to the first concavo-convex data generation unit 1607, and sends the second concavo-convex layer information to the second concavo-convex data generation unit 1609 and the gloss data generation unit 1610. The table holding unit 1605 holds a LUT for converting gloss information into gloss data. Details of the table held by the table holding unit 1605 will be described later. The first unevenness data generation unit, the color material data generation unit, and the second unevenness data generation unit are the same as those in the first and second embodiments. The gloss data generation unit 1610 receives gloss information from the gloss information acquisition unit 1603 and also receives second uneven layer information from the uneven information separation unit 1604. Then, the gloss data generation unit 1610 uses the LUT held in the table holding unit 1605 based on the received gloss information and the second uneven layer information to generate gloss data for forming the gloss layer on the recording medium. Generate.

Hereinafter, the processing executed by the image processing apparatus in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Since steps S1701 and S1702 are the same as steps S801 and S802 in the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. In step S1703, the gloss information acquisition unit 1603 acquires gloss information representing the gloss distribution of the three-dimensional image of the reproduction target. Since steps S1704 to S1707 are the same as steps S803 to S806 in the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. In step S1708, the gloss data generation unit 1610 generates gloss data from the gloss information by using the second uneven layer information and the LUT held by the table holding unit 1605. Specifically, by converting the glossiness into the amount of clear ink, gloss data for forming a gloss layer on the second uneven layer is generated. The details of step S1708 will be described later.

Hereinafter, the details of the gloss data generation process (step S1708 in FIG. 17) will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In step S1801, the gloss data generation unit 1610 calculates a typical frequency that characterizes the second uneven layer information (referred to as h2). In order to calculate the typical frequency, first, the second uneven layer information h2 is decomposed into frequency components by using a known Fourier transform as shown in the equation (14). However, the method used for frequency component decomposition is not limited to the Fourier transform. For example, the wavelet transform may be used.
A (u, v) = FFT (H (x, y)) ... Equation (14)

Next, using the frequency-decomposed image A (u, v), a typical frequency (referred to as f _max ) that characterizes the second uneven layer information is calculated by the equation (15). In equation (15)

Is a function that finds the variable x that maximizes the function g (x). In this embodiment, as shown in the equation (15), the maximum amplitude value in the frequency space is set as the representative frequency that characterizes the second uneven layer information, but the frequency that characterizes the unevenness information is not limited to this. For example, it may be another statistical value such as an average frequency or a median frequency.

In step S1802, the gloss data generation unit 1610 acquires the gloss correction coefficient corresponding to the representative frequency of the second uneven layer information calculated in step S1801 from the correction table held in the table holding unit 1605. Here, an example of the correction table held in the table holding unit 1605 is shown in FIG. 19A. As shown in FIG. 19A, in the correction table, the frequency f of the unevenness and the correction coefficient α for correcting the gloss are associated with each other. Generally, as the frequency of the unevenness becomes higher, the mirror glossiness decreases. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 19A, the value of the correction coefficient decreases as the frequency of the unevenness increases. If the value corresponding to the frequency f _max does not exist in the table, the correction coefficient is calculated by known linear interpolation.

In step S1803, the gloss data generation unit 1610 corrects the glossiness by the equation (16) using the correction coefficient acquired in step S1802, and calculates the corrected glossiness (referred to as Gout). In the formula (16), Gin is the glossiness acquired in step S1703, and α is the correction coefficient acquired in step S1802.
Gout = Gin × α ・ ・ ・ Equation (16)

In step S1804, the gloss data generation unit 1610 converts the glossiness Gout acquired in step S1803 into the amount of gloss control ink (clear ink) using the table held in the table holding unit 1605, and performs processing. finish. In this embodiment, the amount of clear ink is applied to the outermost surface of the image under predetermined conditions such as the dot pattern and the number of passes based on the amount of ink, and the mirror glossiness is controlled by changing the surface roughness. FIG. 19B shows an example of a conversion table for converting glossiness into a clear ink amount. As shown in FIG. 19B, the glossiness and the amount of clear ink (%) are associated with each other. If the value corresponding to the glossiness Gout does not exist in the table, the amount of clear ink is acquired by known linear interpolation.

According to this embodiment, the gloss can be controlled by providing the gloss layer on the upper layer of the second uneven layer. At that time, since the glossiness is converted into the amount of ink for gloss control in consideration of the gloss that changes depending on the shape of the second uneven layer, it is possible to control the gloss more appropriately.

[Other Examples]
The present invention is also realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is supplied to the system or device via a network or various storage media, and the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or device reads the program. This is the process to be executed.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which the control unit 220 is realized by software processing has been described, but each configuration of the control unit 220 can also be realized by a dedicated image processing circuit or the like. Further, although the case where the image processing device 24 is an external device of the image forming device 25 has been described, the image processing device 24 may be in a form built in the image forming device 25. For example, each configuration shown in FIG. 6 can be realized by a circuit, and the image processing device 24 can be realized as an image processing circuit built in the image forming device 25.

Concavo-convex information acquisition unit ・ ・ ・ 602
Concavo-convex information separation part ・ ・ ・ 603

Claims (13)

An image processing device that generates information for forming a color material layer and an uneven layer on a recording medium.
The first acquisition means for acquiring shape information representing the height of an object for each pixel,
A height wherein the shape information is represented, for each pixel, by separating into a height of the second irregularities formed on the high Sato the coloring material layer of the first irregularities formed under the coloring material layer, A first generation means for generating first height information representing the height of the first unevenness and second height information representing the height of the second unevenness, and
An image processing device characterized by having. The height of the second unevenness, image processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the difference between the height of the height and the first concave-convex of the object. Claim 1 or claim, wherein the first generation means separates the height of the pixel of interest based on an inclination angle corresponding to the height of the pixel of interest and the height of a pixel adjacent to the pixel of interest. Item 2. The image processing apparatus according to item 2. The first generation means determines whether or not to separate the heights of the attention pixels based on the inclination angle, and when the inclination angle is larger than the threshold value, separates the heights of the attention pixels. The image processing according to claim 3, wherein when the inclination angle is equal to or less than the threshold value, the height represented by the shape information is set as the height of the first unevenness without separating the height of the pixel of interest. apparatus. A second acquisition means for acquiring color information representing the color of the object, and
A second generation means for generating color material data for forming the color material layer based on the color information, and
The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , further comprising. Said first generating means, by executing a filtering process using the low-pass filter to said shape information, according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that generating said first height information Image processing device. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the low-pass filter is a low-pass filter according to the characteristics of the coloring material forming the first unevenness. Before Symbol first generating means, on the basis of the shape information to generate the first height information, the pixel values of the pixels in the shape information, the pixel values of the pixels in the first height information, the The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the second height information is generated by calculating the difference for each pixel. It is characterized by further having a conversion means for converting each of the first height information and the second height information into first unevenness data and second unevenness data that can be output by the image forming apparatus forming the unevenness layer. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the inclination angle of the first unevenness is smaller than the inclination angle of the object. A forming means for forming the color material layer and the uneven layer, and
Further having a second acquisition means for acquiring color information representing the color of the object,
The forming means superimposes the first uneven layer based on the first height information, the coloring material layer based on the color information, and the second uneven layer based on the second height information on the recording medium in this order. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a layer is formed. An image processing method that generates information for forming a color material layer and an uneven layer on a recording medium.
An acquisition step for acquiring shape information that represents the height of an object for each pixel,
A height wherein the shape information is represented, for each pixel, to be separated into the height of the second unevenness formed on the height and front Kiirozai layer of the first irregularities formed under the coloring material layer A generation step of generating a first height information representing the height of the first unevenness and a second height information representing the height of the second unevenness.
Image processing method according to claim Rukoto to have a. A program for making a computer function as each means of the image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

Images