Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Picture signal generator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-25
2003-12-09
Grant, II, Jerome (Department: 2624)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Picture signal generator
C358S487000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06661538
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image reading apparatus for reading the image information of an original such as a photograph or a document and a method of assembling the same.
2. Related Background Art
FIGS. 5A
,
5
B and
5
C of the accompanying drawings are a plan view, a cross-sectional view and a side view, respectively, schematically showing the construction of a colored image reading apparatus according to the earlier technology.
The letter P designates an original placed on an original supporting glass plate
100
, and a reading unit
101
is scanned in parallelism to the original supporting glass plate
100
to thereby read an image on the original.
The reading unit
101
, as schematically shown in
FIG. 6
of the accompanying drawings, has incorporated therein LED's of three colors (
101
R,
101
G and
101
B) which are light sources for irradiating the original, a rod lens array
101
L for imaging the reflected light from the original on the light receiving element of an image sensor, and an image sensor
101
S.
The light sources of three colors are successively changed over and turned on, and the image sensor reads the reflected light of each color from the original to thereby effect color separating and reading.
The reading unit
101
is fixedly supported on a slider
102
sliding on a guide shaft
103
fixed to the apparatus body. Also, a belt
104
for transmitting the motive power from a motor
105
which is a scanning drive source is fixed to the slider
102
. By the forward and reverse rotations of the motor
105
, the reading unit
101
can be reciprocally scanned within the image reading range of the original supporting glass plate
100
.
The constituents of the image reading apparatus further include an electrically equipped portion
106
comprising a control board and a power source. These constituents are disposed in a housing comprising a combination of an upper cover
112
for fixedly supporting the original supporting glass plate and a lower cover
113
.
An original cover
111
for pressing the original against the original supporting glass plate is openably and closably mounted on the original supporting glass plate
100
.
FIG. 7
of the accompanying drawings is a read image data processing block diagram by the present image reading apparatus. An image output signal read by the image sensor
101
S in synchronism with the LED's successively turned on and off is sent to an amplifier
121
and is amplified thereby, whereafter it is converted into an image signal by an A/D converter
122
.
The A/D converter
122
divides the dynamic range (the difference between the read outputs of the pure white portion and intense black portion on the original) of the image sensor into the number of bits thereof, and allots the number of gradation in conformity with the brightness of the image on the original. When for example, an A/D converter of resolving power of 8 bits is used, white to black can be discriminated into 256 gradation levels, and when an A/D converter of resolving power of 10 bits is used, white to black can be discriminated into 1024 dradation levels.
Accordingly, in an image reading apparatus using an A/D converter of 8 bits, 24 bits=about 16,700,000 colors can be discriminated in the cover reading by light sources of three colors R, G and B, and in the case of 10 bits, 30 bits=about 1,074,000,000 colors can be discriminated.
There are several kinds of output forms of the image signal of the image reading apparatus, and depending on the use of a read image, an output form suited therefor can be selected.
When a writing is to be read and its content is applied to OCR or when a monochromatic line drawing is to be read, a monochromatic binary image is suited therefor, and use is made of image data resulting from an image signal obtained with e.g. only G of the above-mentioned R, G and B light sources turned on having been binarized by a certain threshold value in an image processing circuit incorporated in a gate array
123
.
When an image is to be read with a view to read an image such as a photograph and output it to a monochromatic printer, use is made of image data binarized by using an image signal also by the G light source and by the use of half-tone processing such as a dither method or an error diffusing method.
When the processing of a colored image is to be effected, image data of multiple values (such as 24 bits) is suitable.
The image signal passed through the image processing circuit is outputted to an apparatus
200
such as a personal computer through an interface circuit
124
.
General as the construction of the housing of the above-described image reading apparatus is a two-piece construction in which the upper cover
112
made of resin on which the original supporting glass plate
100
is mounted is put on the lower cover
113
made of resin on which the constituents are placed.
However, the covers made of resin has the disadvantages that their cost is high and moreover they are weak in rigidity and are difficult to provide dimensional accuracy.
Accordingly, it has been necessary to cope with it by a construction in which the covers are provided with a number of reinforcing ribs to secure rigidity or a designing technique for making the structure of the place constituent side firm and difficult to deform.
Also, the constituent for effecting reading scan is placed on the lower cover
113
and thus, the upper cover
112
intervenes between it and the original supporting glass plate
100
, and the dimensional accuracy of the upper cover
112
had the possibility of affecting the scanning parallelism to the original supporting glass plate
100
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-noted problems peculiar to the earlier technology and an object thereof is to provide an image reading apparatus which is inexpensive and easy to provide dimensional accuracy as well as high in rigidity.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image reading apparatus having a transparent plate for supporting an original thereon, a reading unit for reading the original, and a one-piece frame member containing the reading unit therein.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method of assembling an image reading apparatus having the step of mounting a reading unit on a frame member, the step of inserting the fore end of a transparent plate for supporting an original thereon into the transparent plate holding portion of the frame member, and the step of dropping the rear end of the transparent plate onto the frame member.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3615134 (1971-10-01), Newcomb
patent: 5060018 (1991-10-01), Watanabe
patent: 5311015 (1994-05-01), Takeuchi
patent: 5483325 (1996-01-01), Boapati
patent: 5781313 (1998-07-01), Nose et al.
patent: 5920758 (1999-07-01), Ohtsuki
patent: 5986775 (1999-11-01), Yoshimizu
patent: 6076460 (2000-06-01), Kagawa
patent: 6085063 (2000-07-01), Morita
patent: 6088025 (2000-07-01), Akamine
patent: 6101004 (2000-08-01), Sung
patent: 6369875 (2002-04-01), Ito
patent: 0653876 (1995-05-01), None
patent: 9153987 (1997-09-01), None
patent: 2001-238012 (2001-08-01), None
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