| 摘要 |
A method and apparatus for processing thermal film includes a process sequence that involves a pre-process of a portion of a thermal film to determine optimal conditions for a subsequent process for developing images on the film. In a first feature of the invention, the thermal film undergoes a pre-process for determining the requirements of the subsequent full process of the thermal film. During the pre-process, a portion of the film, preferably before or after an area in which images are captured is used as a process test area. Thereafter, processing during a subsequent processing as well as scanning conditions can be modified based on the optimum processing characteristics determined during the pre-process. In a second feature of the invention, the process sequence can include a pre-process of the entire film and an infrared scanning of the entire film to determine optimal processing conditions for the second process for developing the image. In the latter feature, the entire film is processed at a minimum temperature, and scanned at an illumination wavelength that does not cause imagewise exposure. The results of scanning can be used to interpret physical characteristics of the film. This information can be used to determine for example, the temperature and the time of the subsequent process to allow for optimum extraction of information from the film.
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