Global Graphics Softwarehas been granted a US patent (Patent No. 11,720,769) for ‘Methods and Systems for Enhancing Raster Image Processing Using Artificial Intelligence’ – technology has already been embodied in the company’s SmartDFETM, a digital front end (DFE) for high-speed industrial inkjet presses.
“Real-time inline rasterisation of variable data for high-speed digital presses poses a significant challenge, as it requires a very high constant rate of raster data to be delivered to the press. Unfortunately, the diversity of PDF files and computing hardware ensures that very complex jobs may process too slowly for inline rasterisation. Compounding this issue is the vast number of PDF creators in the market, who prioritize design flexibility without considering rasterisation or printing. Digital press operators have been forced to process jobs in advance – while their press sits idle – or to process jobs inline and hope that the DFE can provide data at the speed of the digital press. This risk has made the production use of inline Rips for high- speed inkjet presses impractical until now,” said Eric Worrall, VP of products and services and the inventor of the patented technology.
With this invention, SmartDFE harnesses the power of AI and machine learning to create an intelligent Rip model, uniquely tailored to each press manufacturer’s chosen computing hardware and encompassing an extensive range of over 1000 PDF operations which take place in the Harlequin Rip that powers SmartDFE.
Once trained, this model can deconstruct any PDF print job and predict the minimum constant raster data rate and hence the printing speed that can be achieved, so press operators can make informed decisions and plan their production processes. This data-driven approach allows SmartDFE to automatically fine-tune the Rip settings for each job.
“We applied for this patent two years ago, long before artificial intelligence became an everyday term. But this is a very practical application of AI that solves some long-standing challenges in inkjet production printing. By applying this invention to the Harlequin DirectTM technology in SmartDFE, we have the first true production-quality solution for inline rasterization on high-speed digital presses,” added Worrall.
SmartDFE has been co-developed using components from other Hybrid Software Group companies including Hybrid Software’s STEPZ, the native PDF job creation solution for pre-press and VDP, and its Cloudflow workflow automation. SmartDFE also includes support for Meteor Inkjet’s printhead drive electronics and software.
