Data processing: structural design – modeling – simulation – and em – Simulating electronic device or electrical system – Target device
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-14
2002-04-23
Teska, Kevin J. (Department: 2123)
Data processing: structural design, modeling, simulation, and em
Simulating electronic device or electrical system
Target device
C703S021000, C348S241000, C348S243000, C348S247000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06377910
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image-sensor emulating device. More particularly, it relates to an image-sensor emulating device capable of emulating image sensor output signals and generating image-sensor timing signals for use in debugging an image processing system or image-sensor under development.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
schematically illustrates a circuit block diagram of a scanner
10
. In
FIG. 1
, a light-source driver
101
of the scanner
10
controls a light source (not shown in
FIG. 1
) to scan an object and obtain an image pattern
102
. The image pattern
102
is processed through the mechanism of projection and focus and then received by an image-sensor
103
, for example a CCD or CIS device. The image-sensor
103
is controlled by the timing signal (Timing) transmitted from a scanner-engine controller
106
. The image pattern
102
processed by the image-sensor
103
is amplified by an amplifier
104
and then inputted to an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter
105
, thereby converting the analog image data amplified by the amplifier
104
to digital image data. At the time of A/D conversion, the scanner-engine controller
106
outputs a reference voltage to the A/D converter
105
via a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter
110
. The converted digital image data is stored in a memory buffer
109
for further processing via the scanner-engine controller
106
. The memory buffer
109
, for example, has FIFO structure and consists of SRAM. When the image data are displayed in a host system
108
, the scanner-engine controller
106
reads and processes the digital image data from the memory buffer
109
. Then the digital image data is sent to the host system
108
for display via an interface controller
107
.
In addition to the devices mentioned above, a scanner further comprises an oscillator
111
for providing elementary timing signals, a power-on-reset device
112
for power management, a step-motor driver
113
monitored by the scanner-engine controller
106
, and other sensors
114
such as PIP, POP, etc. The scanner can also connect to other peripheral devices, if necessary, via the interface controller
107
.
During the process of developing a scanner, if the scanner output images have defects or do not meet the desired level of quality, the problem may originate in the image-sensor
103
. For example, the characteristic of the image-sensor
103
could be poor or the image patterns
102
could be distorted by noise before being inputted to the image-sensor
103
. If the image-sensor
103
functions without problems, then the problems must occur in the subsequent processing circuits, such as the A/D converter, etc.
At present, function generators can not emulate the output signals of image-sensors or the timing signals controlling the image-sensors. Engineers can not use function generators to emulate “proper” output signals of image-sensors and “proper” timing signals for triggering the image-sensors to supply to the subsequent processing circuits, thereby testing whether or not the subsequent processing circuits are functioning correctly. Therefore, the debugging process is more complicated and time consuming.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In view of these problems, one object of the present invention is to provide an emulating device for emulating the functions of image-sensors by programmably generating the relevant image-sensor and timing signals. The timing signals also can be generated from timing signals outputted by an outside image-sensor. Therefore, the emulating device can generate predetermined image-sensor signals and timing signals such that the debugging process is simplified and the developing efficiency is also improved. Moreover, the emulating device according to the present invention can also generate a timing signal serving as a reference timing signal for emulating image-sensors. The reference timing signal can be used to compare with the actual timing signals of image-sensors.
In order to achieve the above objects, an image-sensor emulating device is provided for emulating the functions of the image-sensors of an image processing system in a debugging process. The image-sensor emulating device comprises: a controller establishing a link with a host system in which the image processing system displays images by using peripheral interface bus, the controller generating a reference timing signal for sensing images; at least one buffering memory device for storing reference image patterns downloaded from the host system to the controller; and at least one output converter receiving the reference image patterns read from the buffering memory device by the controller and converting the reference image patterns as output signals of the image-sensor emulating device; wherein, the controller reads the reference image patterns in response to the reference timing signal for image sensing generated by the controller itself or a timing signal generated by the image processing system.
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patent: 4926489 (1990-05-01), Danielson et al.
patent: 5086343 (1992-02-01), Cook et al.
patent: 5457493 (1995-10-01), Leddy et al.
patent: 5475425 (1995-12-01), Przyborski et al.
patent: 5784529 (1998-07-01), Richmond
patent: 5801970 (1998-09-01), Bowland et al.
patent: 5844226 (1998-12-01), Suzuki
patent: 6169562 (2001-01-01), Morimoto
Fan Ching-Chih
Hsu Adolf T. R.
Mustek Systems Inc.
Nath & Associates PLLC
Novick Harold L.
Phan T.
Teska Kevin J.
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