• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.43 no.2 s.308
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• pp.40-47
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• 2006

This paper proposes a multitoning method using threshold modulation of MJBNM(Modified Jointly Blue Noise Mask) for banding artifacts reduction. As banding artifacts in multitoning appear as uniform dot distributions around the intermediate output levels, such multitone output results in discontinuity and visually unpleasing patterns in smooth transition regions. Therefore, to reduce these banding artifacts, the proposed method rearranges the dot distribution by introducing pixels in the neighborhood of output levels that occurs banding artifacts. First of all principal cause of banding artifacts are analyzed using mathematical description. Based on this analytical result, a threshold modulation technique of MJBNM which takes account of chrominance error and correlation between channels is applied. The original threshold range of MJBNM is first scaled linearly sot that the minimum and maximum of the scaled range include two pixel more than adjacent two output levels that cover an input value. In an input value is inside the vicinity of any intermediate output levels produce banding artifacts, the output is set to one of neighboring output levels based on the pointwise comparison result according to threshold modulation parameter that determines the dot density and distribution. In this case, adjacent pixels are introduced at the position where the scaled threshold values are located between two output levels and the minimum and maximum threshold values. Otherwise, a conventional multitoning method is applied. As a result, the proposed method effectively decreased the appearance of banding artifacts around the intermediate output levels. To evaluate the quality of the multitone result, HVS-WRMSE according to gray level for gray ramp image and S-CIELAB color difference for color ramp image are compared with other methods.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.44 no.4 s.316
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• pp.17-25
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• 2007

Multilevel inkjet printer employs multiple ink droplets with variable dot size and/or different concentrations intended to preserve high fidelity color reproduction and the appearance of continuous tone. A variety of research efforts on multitoning techniques has progressed toward better image quality. However, banding artifacts appear due to the same dot distributions near the printable output levels. This results in discontinuity and visually unpleasing output, especially at the smooth tone transition region. In this paper, to reduce the banding artifacts, a multitoning method to arrange ink distribution by controlling the blending proportion of adjacent output pixels based on an improved threshold scaling function is proposed. Ink distributions across the banding regions are changed according to two factors of the threshold scaling function because these factors handle the blending point of adjacent output pixel. Therefore, 8 observers, subjectively investigated ink distributions around the printable output levels for a set of the improved threshold scaling function. For a threshold scaling function with the specific factor values, we can achieve smoother visual transition. In the experiment, the proposed method showed a reduction of banding artifacts in both u-ay and color image and represented better Performance of color reproduction.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.210-222
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• 2017

Purpose: To develop a novel combination of controlled aliasing in parallel imaging results in higher acceleration (CAIPIRINHA) with integrated SSFP (CAIPI-iSSFP) for accelerated SSFP imaging without banding artifacts at 3T. Materials and Methods: CAIPI-iSSFP was developed by adding a dephasing gradient to the balanced SSFP (bSSFP) pulse sequence with a gradient area that results in $2{\pi}$ dephasing across a single pixel. Extended phase graph (EPG) simulations were performed to show the signal behaviors of iSSFP, bSSFP, and RF-spoiled gradient echo (SPGR) sequences. In vivo experiments were performed for brain and abdominal imaging at 3T with simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) acceleration factors of 2, 3 and 4 with CAIPI-iSSFP and CAIPI-bSSFP. The image quality was evaluated by measuring the relative contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and by qualitatively assessing banding artifact removal in the brain. Results: Banding artifacts were removed using CAIPI-iSSFP compared to CAIPI-bSSFP up to an SMS factor of 4 and 3 on brain and liver imaging, respectively. The relative CNRs between gray and white matter were on average 18% lower in CAIPI-iSSFP compared to that of CAIPI-bSSFP. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that CAIPI-iSSFP provides up to a factor of four acceleration, while minimizing the banding artifacts with up to a 20% decrease in the relative CNR.