Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Recording apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
1997-03-20
2002-01-01
Toatley, Jr., Gregory J. (Department: 2838)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Recording apparatus
C358S471000, C399S211000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06335802
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image reading head for an image scanner, a facsimile machine, or a copier. In particular, the present invention discloses a flat bed image reading head having a motor mounted thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Flat bed image scanners are widely used today as periphery equipment for computers. A flat bed image scanner can rapidly scan a document, a magazine, a book, a graph or a picture for inputting images thereof into a computer for processing. A flat bed scanner has an optical reader, a driving mechanism, a processing circuit, a scanning window and a frame. Today, the trend is to make the scanner lightweight, thin, narrow and miniaturized. It is thus desirable that the optical reading mechanism and the driving mechanism occupy as little space as possible.
A conventional image reading head
199
is shown in FIG.
1
and includes: a light source
101
, a series of reflecting mirrors
131
,
132
,
133
, a lens
104
and an image sensor
105
. The driving mechanism includes: a motor
107
, a gear train
108
, an idler
181
, a closed-loop belt
109
, and a sliding rail
110
. The operation of the flat bed scanner is as follows: Referring to
FIG. 1
, a document D to be scanned is placed on top of a window
102
. After the light source
101
illuminates the document D, the reflected light from the document D reflects from the reflecting mirrors
131
,
132
,
133
to the lens
104
to reach the image sensor
105
. The image sensor
105
feeds image signals to an image processing circuit (not shown) for digitizing the signals, which are then fed to a computer for further processing. When the image sensor
105
completes a row of image signals, the driving mechanism moves the image reader to a next scanning area until the whole image is read.
Structurally, the advancing motor
107
and the gear train
108
are both fixed on the frame
112
. The closed-loop belt
109
has one end connected to the gear train
108
and the other end connected to the idler
181
. The closed-loop belt
109
is attached to the optical reading mechanism
199
to move the optical reading mechanism for effecting scanning action.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to reduce the size of a flat bed scanner. Another object of this invention is to reduce the number of parts in a flat bed scanner to enhance the quality and to reduce the cost of the flat bed scanner.
These objects are obtained by combining the driving mechanism and the reading mechanism of the scanner into the same module. A fixture is mounted on the frame of the scanner. When the driving mechanism exerts a force on the fixture, the reaction causes the movable module to slide back and forth along a guiding portion and to scan the image to be read. The force from the movable module can be exerted on the fixture through a rack and pinion mechanism or through a friction wheel and friction tape.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4525748 (1985-06-01), Carbone et al.
patent: 5235353 (1993-08-01), Hirano et al.
patent: 5669048 (1997-09-01), Nishio et al.
Hung-Che Chang
Yen-Cheng Chen
Avision Inc.
Hsu Winston
Toatley , Jr. Gregory J.
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