1. A mold attachingdetaching apparatus for detachably attaching a stationary metal mold to a stationary platen and detachably attaching a movable metal mold to a movable platen of a molding machine, the apparatus comprising:
a plurality of platen-side attachments secured to the stationary platen and the movable platen, and
a plurality of mold-side attachments secured to the stationary metal mold and the movable metal mold,
wherein each of the platen-side attachments includes:
a cam which moves between a locking position and a lock-releasing position, and which has inclined-locking grooves and inclined-pushing grooves, each groove being formed on an outer circumferential surface of the cam;
an operating member which is adapted to move the cam back and forth;
a ball-supporting member which is adapted to be inserted with the cam and which has ball-supporting holes, each hole having an axis extending at right angles to a direction in which the cam moves;
a plurality of locking balls each of which is supported in one of the ball-supporting holes, is adapted to face one of the inclined-locking grooves, and is movable in the direction at right angles to the direction in which the cam moves; and
a plurality of pushing balls each of which is supported in one of the ball-supporting holes, is adapted to face one of the inclined-pushing grooves, and is movable in the direction at right angles to the direction in which the cam moves,
wherein each of the mold-side attachments includes:
a ball-receiving member which has: (i) a hollow part that is adapted to be inserted with the ball-supporting member, (ii) engaging-locking grooves each groove being formed in an inner surface and adapted to face one of the locking balls, and (iii) engaging-pushing grooves each groove being formed in the inner surface and adapted to face one of the pushing balls,
wherein when the cam moves from the lock-releasing position to the locking position while the ball-supporting member remains inserted in the ball-receiving member, the locking balls slide on respective inclined-locking grooves of the cam, and are moved outward in directions at right angles to the direction in which the cam moves, and are thereby set in respective engaging-locking grooves of the ball-receiving member, thereby fixing the mold-side attachment to the platen-side attachment, and
wherein when the cam moves from the locking position to the lock-releasing position while the ball-supporting member remains inserted in the ball-receiving member, the pushing balls slide on respective inclined-pushing grooves of the cam, and are moved outward in directions at right angles to the direction in which the cam moves, and are thereby abut on respective engaging-pushing grooves of the ball-receiving member, thereby projecting the mold-side attachment from the platen-side attachment.
2. The mold attachingdetaching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
each platen-side attachment is secured in a recess made in one of the stationary platen and the movable platen, and each mold-side attachment is secured in a recess made in one of the stationary metal mold and the movable metal mold.
3. A mold attachingdetaching method of detachably attaching a stationary metal mold to a stationary platen and detachably attaching a movable metal mold to a movable platen of a molding machine, the method comprising:
moving a cam provided in a platen-side attachment from a lock-releasing position to a locking position while a mold-side attachment fixed to the stationary or movable metal mold remains inserted in the platen-side attachment provided on the stationary platen or the movable platen, wherein the moving of the cam to the locking position causes a locking ball to slide on an inclined-locking groove formed on the cam, and to be pushed outward in a direction at right angles to a direction in which the cam moves, and to thereby engage with an engaging-locking groove made in a ball-receiving member of the mold-side attachment, thereby fixing the mold-side attachment to the platen-side attachment; and
moving the cam from the locking position to the lock-releasing position while the mold-side attachment remains inserted in the platen-side attachment, wherein the moving of the cam to the lock-releasing position causes a pushing ball to slide on an inclined-pushing groove formed on the cam, and to be pushed outward in a direction at right angles to the direction in which the cam moves, and to thereby abut on an engaging-pushing groove made in the ball-receiving member, thereby projecting the mold-side attachment from the platen-side attachment.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A machine-implemented method for enhancing a saturation contrast of a digital image, the machine-implemented method comprising:
converting, by a digital imaging tool, an original color space of a digital image to a second color space having a saturation channel;
applying a saturation contrast enhancement to original saturation values of the saturation channel, based, at least partially, on at least one user-provided parameter to produce enhanced saturation values, the at least one user-provided parameter including a magnitude value representing a strength of a saturation effect, the applying a saturation contrast enhancement further comprising:
computing saturation statistics of the digital image, the saturation statistics including a median saturation value of the digital image,
computing an s-curve based, at least partially, on the at least one user-provided parameter, a position of an inflection point of the s-curve being based on the median saturation value, and
producing the enhanced saturation values based on the original saturation values and the computed s-curve;
converting, by the digital imaging tool, the second color space, including the saturation channel with the enhanced saturation values, to the original color space; and
outputting or saving, using the original color space, a saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image, the saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image being based, at least partially, on the enhanced saturation values of the saturation channel of the second color space.
2. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second color space is a perceptually uniform color space.
3. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the applying of a saturation contrast enhancement to original saturation values of the saturation channel to produce enhanced saturation values further comprises:
independently producing, by the digital imaging tool, a respective enhanced saturation value for at least some of a plurality of pixels of the digital image.
4. The machine-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the independent producing of a respective enhanced saturation value is performed only for ones of the plurality of pixels that satisfy a luminance threshold condition.
5. The machine-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the applying of a saturation contrast enhancement to original saturation values of the saturation channel to produce enhanced saturation values further comprises:
applying, by the digital imaging tool, the original saturation values to the s-curve to produce the enhanced saturation values.
6. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second color space is an HSV color space.
7. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the s-curve is defined as:
f
\u2061
(
x
)
=
(
1
–
m
)
+
m
\u2061
(
s
+
Q
\u2061
(
s
)
\u2062
(
1
1
+
\u2147
P
\u2061
(
t
)
\u2062
k
\u2061
(
s
+
Q
\u2061
(
s
)
\u2062
x
)
+
1
)
)
,
where m is the magnitude value, such that 0<m<1,
t is an input threshold value, such that \u22120.5<t<0.5,
s is ceiling(t),
Q(s)=1-2 s, and
P
\u2061
(
t
)
=
2
1
+
\u03b1
\u2062
\uf603
t
\uf604
0.3
–
\u03b2
\u2062
\uf603
t
\uf604
0.6
.
wherein k=6.0, \u03b1=0.3758773, and \u03b2=1.9481615.
8. A digital imaging tool for enhancing a saturation contrast of a digital image, the digital imaging tool comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory connected to the at least one processor, the memory comprising instructions for the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:
converting an original color space of the digital image to a second color space having a saturation channel, when the original color space lacks a saturation channel;
enhancing the saturation contrast of the digital image such that some pixels of a saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image will have increased saturation values and other pixels of the saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image will have decreased saturation values, the enhancing the saturation contrast of the digital image further comprising:
receiving at least one user-provided parameter,
computing a median saturation value of the digital image,
computing an s-curve based on a magnitude value representing a strength of a saturation contrast effect, the magnitude value being included in the at least one user-provided parameter, a position of an inflection point of the s-curve being based on the computed median saturation value, and
producing enhanced saturation values for the saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image based on original saturation values of the saturation channel and the computed s-curve;
converting the second color space to the original color space if the original color space of the digital image was previously converted to the second color space, and
outputting or saving, using the original color space, the saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image.
9. The digital imaging tool of claim 8, wherein the second color space is a perceptually uniform color space.
10. The digital imaging tool of claim 8, wherein the enhancing the saturation contrast of the digital image further comprises adjusting respective saturation values of only ones of a plurality of pixels of the digital image that satisfy a luminance threshold condition.
11. The digital imaging tool of claim 8, wherein:
the magnitude value is provided via a user interface including a slider control.
12. The digital imaging tool of claim 8, wherein:
the enhancing the saturation contrast of the digital image further comprises:
applying the s-curve to independently adjust respective saturation values of at least some of a plurality of pixels of the digital image.
13. The digital imaging tool of claim 8, wherein the second color space is CIELCH.
14. The digital imaging tool of claim 8, wherein the s-curve is defined as:
f
\u2061
(
x
)
=
(
1
–
m
)
+
m
\u2061
(
s
+
Q
\u2061
(
s
)
\u2062
(
1
1
+
\u2147
P
\u2061
(
t
)
\u2062
k
\u2061
(
s
+
Q
\u2061
(
s
)
\u2062
x
)
+
1
)
)
,
where m is the magnitude value, such that 0<m<1,
t is an input threshold value, such that \u22120.5<t<0.5,
s is ceiling(t),
Q(s)=1-2 s, and
P
\u2061
(
t
)
=
2
1
+
\u03b1
\u2062
\uf603
t
\uf604
0.3
–
\u03b2
\u2062
\uf603
t
\uf604
0.6
.
wherein k=6.0, \u03b1=0.3758773, and \u03b2=1.9481615.
15. A tangible machine-readable medium having instructions recorded thereon for at least one processor of a processing device, the instructions comprising:
instructions for converting an original color space of a digital image to a perceptually uniform color space having a saturation channel;
instructions for receiving at least one user-provided parameter for adjusting a saturation contrast of the digital image, the at least one user-provided parameter including a magnitude value representing a strength of a saturation contrast effect;
instructions for adjusting the saturation contrast of the digital image based, at least partially, on the received at least one user-provided parameter, the instructions for adjusting the saturation contrast of the digital image further comprising:
instructions for computing saturation statistics including a median saturation value of the digital image,
instructions for computing an s-curve based, at least partially, on the magnitude value,
instructions for positioning an inflection point of the s-curve based on the computed saturation statistics, and
instructions for adjusting the saturation contrast of the digital image based on the computed s-curve;
instructions for converting the perceptually uniform color space back to the original color space; and
instructions for outputting, using the original color space, a saturation-contrast-adjusted digital image.
16. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:
instructions for determining whether a plurality of pixels of the digital image satisfy a luminance threshold condition, and
the instructions for adjusting the saturation contrast of the digital image further comprise instructions for adjusting respective saturation values of only ones of the plurality of pixels that satisfy the luminance threshold condition.
17. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein:
the instructions for receiving at least one user-provided parameter further comprise instructions for receiving the magnitude value via a user interface including a slider control settable by a user.
18. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions for computing saturation statistics further comprise:
instructions for generating a histogram of saturation values of a plurality of pixels of the digital image, and
instructions for determining the median saturation value of the digital image based on the generated histogram of the saturation values.
19. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the s-curve is defined as:
f
\u2061
(
x
)
=
(
1
–
m
)
+
m
\u2061
(
s
+
Q
\u2061
(
s
)
\u2062
(
1
1
+
\u2147
P
\u2061
(
t
)
\u2062
k
\u2061
(
s
+
Q
\u2061
(
s
)
\u2062
x
)
+
1
)
)
,
where m is the magnitude value, such that 0<m<1,
t is an input threshold value, such that \u22120.5<t<0.5,
s is ceiling(t),
Q(s)=1-2 s, and
P
\u2061
(
t
)
=
2
1
+
\u03b1
\u2062
\uf603
t
\uf604
0.3
–
\u03b2
\u2062
\uf603
t
\uf604
0.6
.
wherein k=6.0, \u03b1=0.3758773, and \u03b2=1.9481615.
20. A machine-implemented method comprising:
converting an original color space of a digital image to a second color space having a saturation channel;
applying a saturation contrast enhancement to original saturation values of the saturation channel to produce enhanced saturation values, the applying comprising:
computing saturation statistics of the digital image, including determining a median saturation value of the digital image, and
computing an s-curve, wherein an inflection point of the s-curve is based on the median saturation value;
converting the second color space, including the saturation channel with the enhanced saturation values, to the original color space; and
outputting or saving, using the original color space, a saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image, the saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image being based, at least partially, on the enhanced saturation values of the saturation channel of the second color space.
21. A digital imaging tool comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory connected to the at least one processor, the memory comprising instructions for the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:
enhancing a saturation contrast of a digital image with a saturation channel, comprising:
computing a median saturation value of the digital image,
computing an s-curve, a position of an inflection point of the s-curve being based on the computed median saturation value, and
producing enhanced saturation values for the saturation-contrast-enhanced digital image based on original saturation values of the saturation channel and the computed s-curve.
22. A machine-readable storage device having instructions recorded thereon for at least one processor of a processing device, the instructions comprising:
converting an original color space of a digital image to a perceptually uniform color space having a saturation channel;
adjusting a saturation contrast of the digital image comprising:
computing saturation statistics including a median saturation value of the digital image,
computing a function, including positioning an inflection point of the function based on the median saturation value, and
adjusting the saturation contrast of the digital image based on the computed function;
converting the perceptually uniform color space back to the original color space; and
outputting, using the original color space, a saturation-contrast-adjusted digital image.
23. The machine-readable storage device of claim 22, wherein the adjusting the saturation contrast of the digital image further comprises:
receiving at least one user-provided parameter, including a magnitude value representing a strength of a saturation contrast effect, and
computing the function based, at least partially, on the magnitude value.