1. A method for temperature control of thermal film imaging, comprising:

receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head;

acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data;

and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the paper feed speed is calculated by the formula:

wherein, Width is the effective Width of the line printing head and is expressed in inches, Count is the number of the electronic heating elements of the line printing head, Period is the actual line Period and is expressed in seconds, and Speed is the linear Speed of paper feeding and is expressed in millimeters/second.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before printing, the line head is kept at a standby temperature.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

after receiving a printing instruction, heating the standby line printing head to the temperature of a printable film and then printing;

the temperature of the line head is controlled to be kept within a preset range during printing.

After printing, the temperature of the line head is quickly cooled back to the standby temperature.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of splitting the pixel row data into any number of subrows, and assigning pixel gray-scale values to the subrows by weight to obtain the subrow weight mapping data comprises:

splitting pixel line data into 12 sub-lines:

1. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32; wherein the total value of the sub-line weight values is equal to 255;

the pixel gray-scale values are distributed to the subrows according to the weight values, the pixel gray-scale value 255-:

1、1、1、1、1、0、0、0、0、0、0、0；

each sub-row has the same basic heating time and basic row period as well as the extra heating time and sub-row period of the sub-row determined according to the weight, and the sub-row gray scale mapping bit is used for indicating whether the point position of the sub-row needs extra heating or not.

6. The method of claim 6, wherein the order of the weights of the subrows is adjusted by a random number generation algorithm.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising setting a line duty cycle:

line duty cycle ═ (total line heating time 100)/total line period, the line duty cycle is 6% -60.9%.

8. A thermographic temperature control system for a thermal film, comprising:

a conversion module: receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head;

a weight assignment module: acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data;

a heating module: and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor, at least one memory, and a data bus; wherein:

the processor and the memory complete mutual communication through the data bus; the memory stores program instructions executable by the processor, the processor calling the program instructions to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 8.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, having one or more programs stored thereon, the one or more programs being executable by one or more processors to perform the method of any of claims 1-7.

Background

The medical thermal printer is widely applied to hospitals, and brings great convenience for doctor diagnosis, patient image examination information reservation and referral. As medical film imaging concerns the physical health of patients and doctors accurately judge, higher requirements are put forward on imaging quality.

The principle of the medical thermal printer is that a thermo-sensitive optical film is coated on a color-talking material (such as a white PET or BOPET substrate), a chemical reaction is generated in the film under the conditions of heating and applying a certain pressure, and pixel points with different depths are generated at determined positions according to the difference of heating temperature, time and pressure, and finally a corresponding image is generated.

The printing head is provided with electronic heating elements for heating the printing head, and at present, a line type thermal printing head is mostly adopted, the width of the line type thermal printing head determines the maximum printable film width, and the horizontal resolution is determined by the number of the electronic heating elements contained in the unit length. The line head is installed at a fixed position, and when printing, the paper is longitudinally fed, and the control unit controls the temperature and heating time of the electric heating element and the synchronization with the feeding of the paper. And finally, printing the medical image through line-by-line thermosensitive sensitization and development. In actual operation, it often happens that the time and temperature of heating on the print head are out of synchronization with the paper feed, which results in distortion of the image finally presented.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to overcome the above problems or at least partially solve the above problems, embodiments of the present invention provide a method for controlling temperature of a thermal film image, which improves accuracy of temperature and heating time to improve image quality.

The embodiment of the invention is realized by the following steps:

in a first aspect, the present invention provides a temperature control method for thermal sensitive film imaging, comprising: receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head; acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data; and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the invention, the velocity formula of the paper feed is:

wherein, Width is the effective Width of the line printing head and is expressed in inches, Count is the number of the electronic heating elements of the line printing head, Period is the actual line Period and is expressed in seconds, and Speed is the linear Speed of paper feeding and is expressed in millimeters/second.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the controlling the paper-feeding driving motor to synchronize paper feeding in a cycle set by a line cycle and heat the line head according to the heating time and the heating cycle in the sub-line weight map data includes: before printing, the line head is kept at a standby temperature.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: after receiving the printing instruction, the line printing head in standby state is heated to the temperature of the printable film and then is printed.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: the temperature of the line head is controlled to be kept within a preset range during printing.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: after printing, the temperature of the line head is quickly cooled back to the standby temperature.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the step of splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and the step of assigning the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data includes:

splitting pixel line data into 12 sub-lines:

1. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32; wherein the total value of the sub-line weight values is equal to 255;

the pixel gray-scale values are distributed to the subrows according to the weight values, the pixel gray-scale value 255-:

1、1、1、1、1、0、0、0、0、0、0、0；

each sub-row has the same basic heating time and basic row period as well as the extra heating time and sub-row period of the sub-row determined according to the weight, and the sub-row gray scale mapping bit is used for indicating whether the point position of the sub-row needs extra heating or not.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the invention, the order of the sub-row weights is adjusted by a random number generation algorithm.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the invention, further comprising setting a row duty cycle:

line duty cycle ═ (total line heating time 100)/total line period, the line duty cycle is 6% -60.9%.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a thermal film imaging temperature control system comprising:

a conversion module: receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head;

a weight assignment module: acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data;

a heating module: and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus comprising:

at least one processor, at least one memory, and a data bus; wherein:

the processor and the memory complete mutual communication through the data bus; the memory stores program instructions executable by the processor, which calls the program instructions to perform the method.

In a fourth aspect, the invention provides a computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs being executable by one or more processors to perform the method.

The embodiment of the invention at least has the following advantages or beneficial effects:

splitting pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data; and heating the line head according to the heating time and the heating period in the sub-line weight mapping data while synchronously moving the paper in the line period. The method determines the heating time of the sub-line, thereby determining the heating time of the line printing head, effectively improving the printing quality in the vertical direction, ensuring the coordination of the horizontal resolution and the vertical resolution of the line printing head during printing, effectively avoiding the deformation of the final printed image and improving the printing quality.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments will be briefly described below, it should be understood that the following drawings only illustrate some embodiments of the present invention and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope, and for those skilled in the art, other related drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without inventive efforts.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a temperature control method for thermal film imaging according to the present invention;

FIG. 2a is a flowchart of acquiring medical image print data according to an embodiment of a method for controlling temperature of thermal film imaging according to the present invention;

FIG. 2b is a flowchart of the conversion of medical images into image data adapted to the physical resolution of the line head according to an embodiment of the temperature control method for thermal film imaging of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a thermal film imaging temperature control system according to the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of an apparatus according to the present invention.

Icon: 1. a conversion module; 2. a weight distribution module; 3. a heating module; 4. a processor; 5. a memory; 6. a data bus.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. The components of embodiments of the present invention generally described and illustrated in the figures herein may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.

Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention, presented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

It should be noted that: like reference numbers and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus, once an item is defined in one figure, it need not be further defined and explained in subsequent figures.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted that, if the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc. indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings or the orientations or positional relationships that the products of the present invention are usually placed in when used, the orientations or positional relationships are only used for convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, but the terms do not indicate or imply that the devices or elements indicated must have specific orientations, be constructed in specific orientations, and operate, and therefore, should not be construed as limiting the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," "third," and the like are used solely to distinguish one from another and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

Furthermore, the terms "horizontal", "vertical", "overhang" and the like do not require that the components be absolutely horizontal or overhang, but may be slightly inclined. For example, "horizontal" merely means that the direction is more horizontal than "vertical" and does not mean that the structure must be perfectly horizontal, but may be slightly inclined.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, "a plurality" represents at least 2.

In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, it should be further noted that unless otherwise explicitly stated or limited, the terms "disposed," "mounted," "connected," and "connected" should be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those skilled in the art according to specific situations.

Examples

Referring to fig. 1, the present embodiment provides a temperature control method for thermal film imaging, and in a first aspect, the present invention provides a temperature control method for thermal film imaging, including:

s10: acquiring medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line type printing head;

the step can be processed by a server arranged in the printer, namely the server converts the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head; for example: referring to fig. 2a and 2b, the printer uses the DICOM Print service data stream to obtain the medical image Print data, and the received DICOM Print protocol data stream contains the size and frame of the Print film, i.e. the background color information. The server built in the printer converts it into image data adapted to the physical resolution of the line head.

S20, acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data;

the pixel format of the image data is generally monochrome, and 16, 24, and 32-bit color. Monochrome, i.e., one pixel is represented by a single gray scale value (0-255), and a color or gray scale image is represented by three primary colors of RGB, the present invention maps a color pixel to a single gray scale value, and the formula is as follows:

the pixel gray scale value ((0x4D × R +0x96 × G +0x1D × D) > > 8).

The horizontal resolution of the line head is fixed, and the vertical resolution is determined by the synchronous paper feed control unit. In order to keep the coordination of the horizontal resolution and the vertical resolution and avoid the deformation of the final printed image, the high-precision paper feeding driving motor and the synchronous and temperature control circuit are needed, and the heating time and the heating period of the line printing head are also needed to be controlled. In the horizontal direction, one device independent pixel width corresponds to one electronic heating element, in the vertical direction the paper feed is continuous or stepwise, the height of one pixel depends on the speed of the paper feed, and the way the electronic heating element acts in the vertical direction is of importance.

In the step, a multi-stage temperature control heating mode is adopted, specifically, one device-independent pixel row is divided into 12, 17 and 24 or any number of sub-rows, and pixel gray-scale values are distributed to the sub-rows according to weights to determine the heating time of the sub-rows. The printing quality in the vertical direction can be effectively improved.

Exemplarily, the sub-row gray scale weight distribution method:

as 12 subrows:

1、2、4、8、16、32、32、32、32、32、32、32；

as 17 subrows:

1、2、4、8、16、32、32、24、16、24、32、32、16、8、4、2、1；

it is only necessary to ensure that the total value of the weight values of the subrows equals 255.

Assigning each device independent pixel value to a subline by weight value, such as line 12:

the gray level value 255 once 224 is 31, the mapping at the subrow is:

1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	total up to
													1	2	4	8	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	31

The gray level value 255-:

1	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	total up to
													1	2	0	0	0	32	32	0	0	0	0	0	67

Further, the order of the weights of the subrows may be adjusted according to a certain algorithm. Illustratively, using the above weighting method, there is a significant drawback, as shown in the gray-scale value 255-. To overcome this, a random number generation algorithm (such as monte carlo method, normal random number generation algorithm) may be used at the row level, and the sequence of the subrows may be randomly adjusted to achieve the goal of unbiased random distribution. Alternatively, simply by exchanging the front and rear intervals, the weighting order is fixed, for example, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and is modified to 32, 2, 32, 8, 32, 16, 32, 4, 32, 1, 32. The above methods can improve the distribution of the deflected subrows.

And S30, sending heating time and heating period data to the line head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, and controlling the paper feeding driving motor to synchronously feed paper according to the set period of the line period.

In the present embodiment, each sub-row is set to have the same basic heating time and basic row period, and an additional row period determined by weight. And the sub-column gray scale mapping bit is used for indicating whether the temperature control circuit needs additional heating at the point of the sub-column.

The above 12-line weight assignment is taken as an example:

nominal pixel line period 12 x (base line period +1) + (subrow 1 additional line period +1) + … + (subrow 5 additional line period +1) + (subrow 6 additional line period +1) × 7;

the actual pixel line period is determined by the clock period of the temperature control circuit of the printer itself, and the nominal line period is in units of clock periods. If the clock period is 40 μ s, the actual line period is: nominal pixel row period 40 mus.

Continuous heating of the electric heating element has two effects: first, there is damage to the electronic heating element; secondly, it is difficult to ensure that the temperature of the next subrow is calculated or controlled nominally due to the effects of cumulative heating. Therefore, the heating is not continuous, and a certain duty time needs to be ensured. The duty cycle is calculated as follows:

line duty cycle ═ (total line heating time 100)/total line period;

illustratively, the duty cycle is 6% -60.9%, avoiding damage to the heating element and cumulative heating effects.

The printer is provided with a synchronization and temperature control software, and the synchronization and temperature control software processes the image and continuously writes the sub-line weight mapping data into a data cache of a main control circuit of the printer.

The main control circuit of the printer sends heating time and heating period data to the line printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, and controls the paper feeding driving motor to synchronously feed paper according to the line period setting period.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the invention, the velocity formula of the paper feed is:

wherein, Width is the effective Width of the line printing head and is expressed in inches, Count is the number of the electronic heating elements of the line printing head, Period is the actual line Period and is expressed in seconds, and Speed is the linear Speed of paper feeding and is expressed in millimeters/second. The actual line period is equal to the heating period of the line head.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: before printing, the line head is kept at a standby temperature.

Film thermal printing is primarily temperature and pressure dependent to enable development of a photosensitive coating to produce an image, and appropriate temperature and pressure are necessary. In order to speed up the print response process, it is desirable to maintain the print head at an appropriate standby temperature even if there is no film printing, so that the printable state can be quickly entered. Also to increase the quality of the print.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: after receiving the printing instruction, the line printing head in standby state is heated to the temperature of the printable film and then is printed.

After receiving the film printing instruction, the synchronous and temperature control software heats the printing head with the standby temperature to the temperature of the printable film.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: the temperature of the line head is controlled to be kept within a preset range during printing.

During printing, the temperature of the print head is kept within a certain range by a cooling fan due to the temperature accumulation effect, which is a process of maintaining the temperature by the overlapping action of heating and cooling.

Based on the first aspect, in some embodiments of the present invention, the method further includes: after printing, the temperature of the line head is quickly cooled back to the standby temperature.

To avoid overheating the print head, the temperature needs to be quickly cooled back to the standby temperature.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a thermal film imaging temperature control system comprising:

a conversion module: receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head;

a weight assignment module: acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data;

a heating module: and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus comprising:

at least one processor, at least one memory, and a data bus; wherein:

the processor and the memory complete mutual communication through the data bus; the memory stores program instructions executable by the processor, which calls the program instructions to perform the method. For example, performing: s10: receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head; s20: acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data; s30: and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

In a fourth aspect, the invention provides a computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs being executable by one or more processors to perform the method. For example, performing: s10: receiving medical image printing data, and converting the medical image printing data into image data matched with the physical resolution of the line printing head; s20: acquiring pixel line data and pixel gray-scale values in the image data, splitting the pixel line data into any number of sub-lines, and distributing the pixel gray-scale values to the sub-lines according to weights to obtain sub-line weight mapping data; s30: and sending heating time and heating period data to the line type printing head according to the sub-line weight mapping data, controlling a paper feeding driving motor, and synchronously feeding paper according to a period set by the line period.

In summary, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a system, and an apparatus for controlling temperature in thermal film imaging, which split pixel line data into any number of subrows, and distribute pixel gray-scale values to the subrows according to weights to obtain subrow weight mapping data; and heating the line head according to the heating time and the heating period in the sub-line weight mapping data while synchronously moving the paper in the line period. The method determines the heating time of the sub-line, thereby determining the heating time of the line printing head, effectively improving the printing quality in the vertical direction, ensuring the coordination of the horizontal resolution and the vertical resolution of the line printing head during printing, effectively avoiding the deformation of the final printed image and improving the influence on the quality.

The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the present application is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the present application may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the application being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned.