What is claimed is:
1. A battery element useful as a recombinant separator in a valve regulated lead acid battery having active material and sulfuric acid electrolyte comprising a recombinant separator and an additive amount of a plurality of acid resistant three dimensional elongated fresh water inorganic diatomite macroporous particles having at least a part hydrophobic surface properties to improve participation of the electrolyte contained in the separator during repetitive discharge and charge cycles of the battery provided that said macroporous particles are associated with said recombinant separator and in contact with the electrolyte to allow said electrolyte to substantially permeate the internal surfaces of the macroporous polymers.
2. The element of claim 1 wherein the porous particles have a fiber-like geometry.
3. The element of claim 1 wherein the mean macropore diameter is from about 0.075 to about 10 microns.
4. The element of claim 1 wherein the part hydrophobic surface is from surface treatment with a silica based size.
5. The element of claim 2 wherein the part hydrophobic surface is from surface treatment with a silica based size.
6. The element of claim 3 wherein the porous particles have a mean pore diameter of from about 0.1 to about 5 microns.
7. A battery element useful as a recombinant separator in a valve regulated lead acid battery having active material and sulfuric acid electrolyte comprising a recombinant separator and an additive amount of a plurality of acid resistant three dimensional elongated organic macroporous particles having at least a part hydrophobic surface properties to improve participation of the electrolyte contained in the separator during repetitive discharge and charge cycles of the battery provided that said macroporous particles are associated with said recombinant separator and in contact with the electrolyte to allow said electrolyte to substantially permeate the internal surfaces of the macroporous polymers.
8. The element of claim 7 wherein the particles are selected from the group consisting of a polyolefin, a poly-vinyl polymer, a phenol formaldehyde polymer, a polyester polymer, a polyvinylester polymer and mixtures thereof.
9. The element of claim 7 wherein the porous particles are polyolefin and the polyolefin is polypropylene.
10. The element of claim 7 wherein the mean macropore diameter is from about 0.075 to about 10 microns.
11. The element of claim 9 wherein the mean macropore diameter is from about 0.075 to about 10 microns.
12. The element of claim 7 wherein the macroporous particles have at least part hydrophobic and hydrophillic surfaces.
13. A battery element useful as a recombinant separator in a valve regulated lead acid battery having active material and sulfuric acid electrolyte comprising a recombinant separator and an additive amount of a plurality of acid resistant three dimensional elongated resilient organic macroporous particles having at least a part hydrophobic surface properties to improve participation of the electrolyte contained in the separator during repetitive discharge and charge cycles of the battery provided that said macroporous particles are associated with said recombinant separator and in contact with the electrolyte to allow said electrolyte to substantially permeate the internal surfaces of the macroporous polymers.
14. The element of claim 13 wherein the particles are selected from the group consisting of a polyolefin, a poly-vinyl polymer, a phenol formaldehyde polymer, a polyester polymer, a polyvinylester polymer and mixtures thereof.
15. The element of claim 14 wherein the porous particles are polyolefin and the polyolefin is polypropylene.
16. The element of claim 13 wherein the mean macropore diameter is from about 0.075 to about 10 microns.
17. The element of claim 15 wherein the mean macropore diameter is from about 0.075 to about 10 microns.
18. The element of claim 13 wherein the macroporous particles have at least part hydrophobic and hydrophillic surfaces.
19. The element of claim 14 wherein the macroporous particles have at least part hydrophobic and hydrophillic surfaces.
20. The element of claim 17 wherein the macroporous particles have at least part hydrophobic and hydrophillic surfaces.
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. An image processing apparatus comprising:
a reference pixel determination unit configured to determine a reference pixel by scanning first image data, wherein saturation of the reference pixel is larger than a predetermined threshold;
a color space division unit configured to set a plurality of regions in a hue circle by determining a region of the hue circle that a saturation is smaller than the predetermined threshold and by dividing, in a hue direction, the region of the hue circle that a saturation is larger than the predetermined threshold based on the hue value of the reference pixel determined by the reference pixel determination unit, and configured to set a plurality of luminance levels by dividing a luminance direction, and configured to determine a plurality of bins based on the set regions of the hue circle and the set luminance levels;
a frequency distribution generation unit configured to generate a frequency distribution by counting a number of pixels that belong to each of the bins determined by the color space division unit;
a determination unit configured to select N bins based on the generated frequency distribution and configured to determine N types of pixel values respectively corresponding to the selected N bins; and
a substitution unit configured to substitute each of pixels included in the first image data using the determined N types of pixel values.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color space division unit sets (Q+1) regions in the hue circle by determining one region of the hue circle that the saturation is smaller than the predetermined threshold and by dividing, in the hue direction, the region of the hue circle that the saturation is larger than the predetermined threshold into Q small regions based on the hue value of the reference pixel, and sets (P+1) luminance levels by dividing the luminance direction with predetermined P luminance thresholds, and determines (P+1)\xd7(Q+1) bins based on the set (Q+1) regions of the hue circle and the set (P+1) luminance levels.
3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a color space conversion unit configured to derive hue and saturation values of an HSV color space and a luminance value of a YUV color space from pixel values of each pixel included in the first image data.
4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substitution unit substitutes each of pixels included in the first image data by a pixel value having a smallest Euclidian distance from the determined N types of pixel values.
5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference pixel determination unit scans pixels included in the first image data in turn, and determines, as the reference pixel, a first pixel of which the saturation is larger than the predetermined threshold.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit derives the N types of pixel values based on average pixel values of each of the selected N bins or based on average pixel values of pixels in the first image data, which are respectively included in the selected N bins.
7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a input unit configured to input an image; and a division unit configured to divide the input image into a plurality of tile images,
wherein the first image data is respective one of the tile images divided by the division unit.
8. A method of controlling an image processing apparatus, the method comprising:
using a processor to perform the following:
a reference pixel determination step of determining a reference pixel by scanning first image data, wherein saturation of the reference pixel is larger than a predetermined threshold;
a color space division step of setting a plurality of regions in a hue circle by determining a region of the hue circle that a saturation is smaller than the predetermined threshold and by dividing, in a hue direction, the region of the hue circle that a saturation is larger than the predetermined threshold based on the hue value of the determined reference pixel, and setting a plurality of luminance levels by dividing a luminance direction, and determining a plurality of bins based on the set regions of the hue circle and the set luminance levels;
a frequency distribution generation step of generating a frequency distribution by counting a number of pixels that belong to each of the bins determined in the color space division step;
a determination step of selecting N bins based on the generated frequency distribution and configured to determine N types of pixel values respectively corresponding to the selected N bins; and
a substitution step of substituting each of pixels included in the first image data using the determined N types of pixel values.
9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program causes a computer to function as:
a reference pixel determination unit configured to determine a reference pixel by scanning first image data, wherein saturation of the reference pixel is larger than a predetermined threshold;
a color space division unit configured to set a plurality of regions in a hue circle by determining a region of the hue circle that a saturation is smaller than the predetermined threshold and by dividing, in a hue direction, the region of the hue circle that a saturation is larger than the predetermined threshold based on the hue value of the reference pixel determined by the reference pixel determination unit, and configured to set a plurality of luminance levels by dividing a luminance direction, and configured to determine a plurality of bins based on the set regions of the hue circle and the set luminance levels;
a frequency distribution generation unit configured to generate a frequency distribution by counting a number of pixels that belong to each of the bins determined by the color space division unit;
a determination unit configured to select N bins based on the generated frequency distribution and configured to determine N types of pixel values respectively corresponding to the selected N bins; and
a substitution unit configured to substitute each of pixels included in the first image data using the determined N types of pixel values.