US 5546196

Patent Overview — US 5,546,196 A

Title: Supplemental photofinishing data system
Patent number: US 5,546,196 A
Application number: US 08/394,531
Inventors: Robert D. Huot; John J. Acello
Original assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
Current assignee (per listing): Kodak Alaris LLC
Priority/filing date: 1995-02-17
Publication/grant date: 1996-08-13
Legal status (as listed): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2015-02-17
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5546196/en

Purpose (from the supplied text): Recent photographic developments combine silver halide and magnetics technologies. New films with a magnetic strip, and the rising popularity of index prints, require compatible equipment; existing scanners for automatic print density and color determination (e.g., in older minilabs) are described as inadequate, and significant capital investment was otherwise needed. The invention provides a system for use in an existing minilab or photofinishing station that allows films having a magnetic strip to be processed therein.

Plain-language scope (from the supplied text): The basic system includes a digital scanner generating scanned film frame image signals plus a magnetic reader module generating read magnetic strip information signals. A processing device adapts the image and magnetic-strip information signals for use in a photofinishing station not equipped to handle magnetic-strip film, for determining print density and color correction, resizing scanned data to imagette size for index prints, and providing outputs (index print data, labeled print data, paper tape, floppy disc, or hardwired outputs, plus backprinting of magnetic information). Peripheral controllers, interfaces, a text display and keyboard, and film-track sensors/drives are described for adapting the system to existing stations. FIG. 1 shows a film format with magnetic strip; FIG. 2 an apparatus embodying the system; FIG. 3 the magnetic reader module; FIG. 4 the system with peripherals.

What the excerpt does not establish: It does not establish the full text of any original claim, the complete specification, the examiner's cited prior art, or the accuracy of the listed legal status and assignee transfers (the listing itself disclaims legal conclusions). It also does not establish litigation, validity, or ownership conclusions, which were outside scope.