A multiple-field sensor for a scanner suitable for scanning a document. The scanner includes a multiple-field sensor, an average accumulator, and a block of memory. The multiple-field sensor has a plurality of sensing lines for each color channel. Each sensing line picks up a portion of image signal from the document during scanning. The sensing lines scan the same portion of the document to produce corresponding image signals. The average accumulator averages the image signals obtained from the sensing lines of the same color channel to produce an average image signal. The block of memory is used as a storage area for image signals in general and the average image signal in particular.
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0. 8. A method, comprising:
scanning an image using a plurality of sensing lines to obtain a plurality of initial image signals that represent a same region of the image;
averaging the initial image signals to produce a final image signal; and
outputting the final image signal as a representation of the region;
wherein the initial image signals provide overlapping representation of the region.
0. 14. A system, comprising:
means for obtaining a plurality of initial image signals that provide overlapping representation of a region of a scanned document; and
means for averaging the initial image signals to produce a final image signal, the final image signal representing the region of the scanned document;
wherein the image signals correspond to an identical color channel for the region of the scanned document.
4. An image scanning method that utilizes a multiple-field sensor having a plurality of sensing lines for each color channel and with each sensing line capable of scanning configured to scan a scan document, the method comprising the steps of:
sequentially scanning an identical portion of the scan document using the sensing lines to obtain a plurality of corresponding image signals;
averaging the image signals to produce an average image signal; and
outputting the average image signal.
7. An image scanning method that utilizes a multiple-field sensor having a plurality of sensing lines for each color channel and with each sensing line capable of scanning configured to scan a scan document, the method comprising the steps of:
sequentially scanning an identical portion of the scan document using the sensing lines to obtain a plurality of corresponding image signals;
storing each image signal;
summing the image signals cumulatively; and
averaging the sum of the image signals to produce an average image signal.
0. 17. An apparatus, comprising:
a first sensing line to generate an initial image signal by scanning a region of an image;
a second different sensing line to generate another initial image signal by scanning the same region of the image as the first sensing line; and
a processor configured to synthesize a final image signal for the region of the image using the initial image signals;
wherein the processor is further configured to synthesize the final image signal by averaging the initial image signals.
0. 12. A method, comprising:
scanning an image using a plurality of sensing lines to obtain a plurality of initial image signals that represent a same region of the image;
storing the initial image signals;
averaging the initial image signals to produce a final image signal, wherein averaging the initial image signals to produce the final image signal includes:
summing the initial image signals; and
averaging the sum of the initial image signals to produce the final image signal; and
outputting the final image signal as a representation of the region.
1. A scanner having multiple-field sensor for scanning a document, the scanner comprising:
a multiple-field sensor having a plurality of sensing lines for each color channel, wherein each sensing line is able configured to obtain a corresponding image signal during scanning;
an average accumulator for adding together and averaging configured to add together and average image signals from all the sensing line lines that corresponds correspond to the scanning of an identical portion of the document, and outputting output an average image signal; and
a memory for storing configured to store the image signals obtained from the sensing lines and the average image signal.
2. The scanner of
3. The scanner of
5. The method of
storing each image signal;
summing the image signals cumulatively; and
averaging the sum of the image signals to produce an the average image signal.
6. The method of
0. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the image is scanned using a color scanner and the sensing lines correspond to a same single color channel.
0. 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the image is scanned using a mono-color scanning device.
0. 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising;
detecting at least one color channel; and
identifying the plurality of sensing lines used to scan the region of the image according to the detected color channel.
0. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the initial image signals are summed cumulatively.
0. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of initial image signals are obtained concurrently and without requiring a scanner sensor to shuttle forward and backward multiple times.
0. 16. The system of claim 14, wherein the image signals are mono-color.
0. 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first and second sensing lines are integrated in a same multi-field sensor.
0. 19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the image signals are mono-color.
0. 20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the sensing lines are arranged to generate the initial image signals concurrently and without requiring a scanner sensor to shuttle forward and backward multiple times.
0. 21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the sensing lines are positioned to generate the initial image signals concurrently responsive to light reflecting from the image or from a mirror above the image.
0. 22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the averaged image signal is a mathematical average of the initial image signals.
0. 23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the mathematical average is obtained using an accumulator component and a divider component.
0. 24. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
adding the initial image signals together; and
dividing a sum from the adding by a value equal to the quantity of the initial image signals, wherein the final image signal is a result of the dividing.
0. 25. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
dividing the sum of the initial image signals by a value equal to the quantity of the initial image signals, wherein the final image signal is a result of the dividing.
0. 26. The system of claim 14, further comprising:
means for adding the initial image signals together; and
means for dividing a sum from the adding by a value equal to the quantity of the initial image signals, wherein the final image signal is a result of the dividing.
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1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a scanner and a scanning method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multiple-field sensor for image scanning.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to the rapid development of multimedia technologies, image processing speed and clarity have become an important consideration in the selection of a scanner by users. However, a scanner operates according to light reflected from a document. Hence, outside light or any irregular dispersion, diffraction may lead to certain degree of distortion for a scanned image. In addition, limitations in the manufacturing of sensors also contribute to the production noise signals that further distort the image.
An attempt to deal with image distortion problem has been proposed in the Taiwan Patent No. 385608. In the invention, a sensor is used to scan a document a multiple of times to obtain a multiple of scanned images. Thereafter, the scanned images are averaged to reduce the amount of distortion to the actual image. However, this and similar type of designs require multiple scanning and the sensor has to shuttle forward and backward many times. Hence, the scanning is time-consuming and highly inefficient.
In brief, common defects of conventional scanning techniques include:
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to a multiple-field sensor for a scanner suitable for scanning a document. The scanner includes a multiple-field sensor, an average accumulator, and a block of memory. The multiple-field sensor has a plurality of sensing lines for each color channel. Each sensing line picks up a portion of image signal from the document during scanning. The sensing lines scan the same portion of the document to produce corresponding image signals. The average accumulator averages the image signals obtained from the sensing lines of the same color channel to produce an average image signal. The block of memory is used as a storage area for image signals in general and the average image signal in particular. In addition, the scanner further includes a memory read/write address controller. The memory read/write address controller supplies addresses for storing and retrieving the image data and the average image data to and from the memory blocks.
The invention also provides a scanning method that utilizes a multiple-field sensor. The multiple-field sensor has a plurality of sensing lines corresponding to each color channel. Each sensing line can be used for scanning a document to obtain a corresponding portion of the image signal. First, the scanning lines sequentially scan an identical portion of the document to obtain a plurality of image signals. Thereafter, the image signals are averaged to obtain an average image signal. Finally, the average image signal is output. In addition, the step of obtaining an average image signal includes first storing the image signals and then adding up the image signals. Lastly, the sum is averaged to obtain the average image signal. Furthermore, the steps for obtaining an average image signal by the scanning method of this invention are executed in a pipeline mode.
In brief, a multiple-field sensor is used to obtain a multiple of image signals at the same time. The image signals are then accumulated and averaged in a pipeline mode of operation. Hence, image distortion due to noise interference is reduced without increasing scanning time.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
In this embodiment, light emitted from an identical portion of the scan document 110 will be reflected by the reflecting mirror 120 and transmitted through the lenses 130. Thereafter, according to the sequence arrangement of the sensing elements 142, 144, 146 and the forward-moving direction of the multiple-field sensor 140, the light will shine onto the sensing elements 142, 144 and 146. In other words, the sensing elements 142, 144 and 146 pick up light from the same portion of the scan document 110 and then the scanned image signals are accumulated and averaged. The accumulated average signals thus obtained serves as data for subsequent image processing.
In the second embodiment, the memory read/write address controller 250 mainly serves as a memory administrator. The controller 250 provides the address of stored data to the average accumulator 230 and address for storing the results in the memory 240 after image data is added or averaged by the average accumulator 230.
Obviously, in signal processing, It should be apparent that image signal generated by the sensing line for color channel R can only accumulate is accumulated with image signal generated by other sensing line of the same color channel R to form an average image signal. Image signal of other color channel such as color channel G and color channel B will be unaffected. Similarly, the treatment of other color channels (G and B) will not mixed with the color channel R.
At T=t, image signal obtained by sense element 312 through scanning the portion 310a of the scan document is stored in the memory. At T=2t, the image signal obtained by sense element 312 through scanning the portion 310a of the scan document is added to a previous image signal similarly obtained by the sense element 312 through scanning the identical portion 310a. The result of the addition is stored in the memory. Such accumulation of image signal continues until time T=12t when the image signal obtained by sensing element 334 scanning over the portion 310a of the scan document is also added to the accumulated sum. After the addition of the last image signal, the accumulated sum of the images signals are averaged by the average accumulator 230 shown in
Other portions of the scan document 310 such as 310b and 310c are similarly processed according to the aforementioned method, executing in a pipeline mode. Hence, after obtaining the first average image signal at T=13t, an average image signal is obtained at every interval of t. Although the averaging method can obtain a low noise level scan image, a processing time very close to a conventional scanner is required (the invention requires only an additional 13t to process).
In summary, the scanner in this invention is able to produce low noise level scan images in a very short time.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
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