USOO6602656B1 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 6,602,656 B1 Shore et al. (45) Date of Patent: Aug. 5, 2003 (54) SILVER HALIDE IMAGING ELEMENT 5.998,109 A 12/1999 Hirabayashi WITH RANDOM COLOR FILTER ARRAY 6,117,627 A 9/2000 Tanaka et al. 6,387,577 B2 5/2002 Simons ......................... 430/7 (75) Inventors: Joel D. Shore, Rochester, NY (US); Krishnan Chari, Fairport, NY (US); FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Dennis R. Perchak, Penfield, NY (US) JP 97145909 6/1997 (73) Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, * cited by examiner NY (US) Primary Examiner John A. McPherson (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm Arthur E. Kluegel patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. (57) ABSTRACT Disclosed is an imaging element comprising a Single layer (21) Appl. No.: 10/225,608 containing a random distribution of a colored bead popula (22) Filed: Aug. 22, 2002 tion of one or more colors coated above one or more layers a 149 comprising light Sensitive Silver halide emulsion grains, (51) Int. Cl." ............................ G02B 5/20; G03C 1/825 wherein the population comprises beads of at least one color (52) U.S. Cl. .................. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 430/511; 430/7 in which at least 25% (based on projected area) of the beads (58) Field of Search ... - - - - - - - - - - - - 430/511, 7 of that color have an ECD less than 2 times the ECD of the Silver halide grains in Said one emulsion layer or in the (56) References Cited f emulsion layer in the case of more than one emulsion ayer U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 3,728,116 A 4/1973 Waxman ..................... 430/222 18 Claims, 1 Drawing Sheet U.S. Patent Aug. 5, 2003 US 6,602,656 B1 6 7 6 7 Z2222-NY . for 6 8 7 9 8 NNN(SM62/62SASMINNyas 4 r RYNY2. YY Ya NYN US 6,602,656 B1 1 2 SILVER HALIDE IMAGING ELEMENT U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,869 discloses a film with a regular WITH RANDOM COLOR FILTER ARRAY repeating filter array which claims to be leSS Susceptible to aliasing problems. The film comprises a panchromatic pho tographic emulsion and a repetitive pattern of a unit of FIELD OF THE INVENTION adjacent colored cells wherein at least one of the cells is of This invention relates to an imaging element comprising a Subtractive primary color (e.g. yellow, magenta or cyan) or a layer containing a random distribution of colored beads of is of a pastel color. Scene information can be extracted from one or more colors coated above one or more layers of Silver the developed film by opto-electronic Scanning methods. halide emulsion grains, wherein the bead population com U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,627 discloses a light sensitive material prises beads of at least one color in which at least 25% comprising a transparent Support having thereon a Silver (based on projected area) of the beads of that color have an halide emulsion layer and a randomly arranged color filter ECD less than 2 times the ECD of the silver halide grains layer comprising colored resin particles. The material has either comprising Said one layer or comprising the fastest layer arrangement limitations and results in increased fog layer of more than one layer. ging of the Sensitized layer. The patent discloses the prepa 15 ration of a color filter array using heat and pressure to form BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION the color filter layer prior to application of the light Sensitive The great majority of color photographs today are taken layer to a Support. Due to the necessary use of pressure and using chromogenic color film in which color-forming heat, it is not practical to use the teachings of this patent to couplers, which may be incorporated in the film or present prepare a film having a light Sensitive layer between the in the processing Solution, form cyan, magenta and yellow color filter layer and the Support. Attempting to apply the dyes by reaction with oxidized developing agent which is needed heat and pressure to bond the filter layer to the rest formed where Silver halide is developed in an imagewise of the multilayer would damage the light Sensitive layer. The pattern. Such films require a development process which is patent also discloses exposing, processing and electro carefully controlled in respect of time and temperature, optically Scanning the resultant image in Such a film and which is usually followed by a Silver bleaching and a fixing 25 reconstructing the image by digital image processing. Step, and the whole process typically takes Several minutes Color photographic films which comprise a color filter and needs complex equipment. array and a single image recording layer or layer pack have Color photography by exposing a black-and-white pho the advantage of rapid and convenient photographic tographic emulsion through a color filter array which is an processing, as the Single image recording layer or layer pack integral part of the film or plate on which the photographic can be processed rapidly without the problem of mismatch emulsion is coated, has long been known to offer certain ing different color records if Small variations occur in the advantages of Simplicity or convenience in color photogra process. A Small change in extent of development for phy. Thus the Autochrome process, disclosed by the Lum example will affect all color records equally. Exceptionally iere brothers in 1906 (U.S. Pat. No. 822,532) exposed the rapid processing is possible using Simple negative black emulsion through a randomly disposed layer of red, green 35 and-white development, and if Suitable developing agents and blue-colored potato Starch grains, and the emulsion was are included in the coating, the photographic response can be reversal processed to give a positive image of the Scene remarkably robust or tolerant towards inadvertent variations which appeared colored when Viewed by light transmitted in processing time or temperature. through the plate. The proceSS allowed the formation of a Copending and commonly assigned U.S. Ser. No. 09/922, colored photograph without the chemical complexity of later 40 273, filed Aug. 3, 2001, the contents of which are incorpo photographic methods. rated herein by reference, discloses a color film comprising The Dufaycolor process (initially the Dioptichrome plate, (1) a Support layer, (2) a light sensitive layer, and (3) a water L.Dufay, 1909) used a regular array of red, green and blue permeable color filter array (CFA) layer comprising a con dyed patches and lines printed on a gelatin layer in con 45 tinuous phase transparent binder containing a random dis junction with a reversal-processed black-and-white emul tribution of colored transparent beads, Said beads compris Sion System, which Similarly gave a colored image of the ing a water-immiscible Synthetic polymer or copolymer. Scene when Viewed by transmitted light. An undesirable feature of the random color filter array in Polavision (Edwin Land and the Polaroid Corporation, general is the introduction of noise into the imaging System 1977) was a color movie System employing a rapid and 50 due to the randomneSS of the array. For the purposes of convenient reversal processing method on a black-and-white illustration, consider the case of a System with three bead emulsion System coated above an array of red, green and colors, red, green, and blue, although the ideas to be dis blue Stripes, which gave a colored projected image. It was cussed hold independent of this specific embodiment. Define marketed as a still color transparency System called Polach the average projected areal coverage of beads of each color rome in 1983. 55 is <rd, <g>, and <br> for red, green, and blue beads, These methods suffered a number of disadvantages. The respectively. If one considers a certain aperture size images were best viewed by passing light through the corresponding, for example, to the aperture size of a Scan processed film or plate, and the image quality was not ning device used to Scan this film, then because of random Sufficient to allow high quality prints to be prepared from fluctuations the actual areal coverages of the beads in this them, due to the coarse nature of the Autochrome and 60 aperture region, r, g, and b, will not in general be exactly Dufaycolor filter arrays, and the coarse nature of the positive equal to the above average values. Rather, as the aperture is silver image in the Polavision and Polacolor systems. The Scanned over the array, the values of r, g, and b will fluctuate regular array patterns were complicated and expensive to about the average values of <r>, <g>, and <br>. It is desirable manufacture. In addition, the films which used regular or to minimize the magnitude of these fluctuations in areal repeating filter arrays were Susceptible to color aliasing 65 cOVerage. when used to photograph Scenes with geometrically repeat It is well-understood from basic Statistical considerations ing features. that, for a given aperture size, the noise (i.e., the magnitude US 6,602,656 B1 3 4 of these fluctuations) will decrease as the size of all of the AS used herein the following terms are as defined: beads, in toto, is made Smaller. However, if the System "bead” means a Solid or liquid particle having a Substan contains beads with a distribution of sizes, it is not clear to tially curvilinear shape. Examples of beads are particles what extent reducing the Size of only a portion of the beads having a spheroid or ellipsoid shape. Particles with will reduce the noise.