Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Picture signal generator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-05
2003-10-28
Coles, Edward (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Picture signal generator
C358S482000, C358S483000, C358S474000, C358S486000, C250S208100, C348S219100, C348S270000, C348S351000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06639694
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an imaging apparatus with divers resolution, and more particularly to which can perform document scanning according to a predetermined resolution setting by switching among divers image-capture elements with respective resolution defaults.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
An imaging apparatus or a scanner is one of popular computer peripherals. In an imaging apparatus, an interior image-capture unit such as a CCD is used to generate an image from a document rested upon a document plate. The image as a form of digital signals are then forwarded to a computer for further image processing or storage.
Referring now to
FIG.1
, a conventional optical scanner is shown schematically. The optical scanner
1
includes a light source
10
, a document carrier plate
12
, a reflection lens set
14
, a major lens
16
and an image-capture element
18
. The light source
10
is usually a lengthy fluorescent tube for illuminating the document
2
rested upon the document carrier plate
12
. The document carrier plate
12
is a transparent plate made of glass or acrylic for supporting the document
2
thereofupon. The reflection lens set
14
includes a plurality of reflection lenses, say
141
,
142
and
143
for example. By providing these reflection lenses
141
,
142
and
143
, a proper light path for forwarding the document image can be established. In an imaging process, the reflection lens set
14
can receive and forward the document image captured from the document
2
rested upon the carrier plate
12
. The document image is then sent to the major lens
16
via the reflection lenses
141
,
142
and
143
. In the art, the major lens
16
is a convex lens for focusing the document image to its focal point. The image-capture element
18
for capturing the document image is located right at the focal point for the major lens
16
. In the art, the image-capture element
18
can be an electric charge coupling device (CCD) as an example.
Because the optical scanner is used to process document imaging and the imaging quality does highly depend upon the resolution of the image-capture element, a necessary condition for a scanner to have improved imaging quality is obvious that the scanner must include a high-resolution image-capture element. Generally, high resolution implies that the image-capture element needs to provide a huge number of pixels within a unit length of the document. Apparently, the more number of the pixels are required in the imaging process, the slower the imaging is performed.
Though a high-resolution scanner can provide better quality to the document image, yet plenty process time is required as an unavoidable tradeoff. However, for documents that the originals are already clear enough, for those that the originals include only simple drawing, or for those that clear copies are not required, a user might feel time-wasting to duplicate those document by using a high-resolution scanner. On the other hand, for the users to duplicate those documents, a simple, low-resolution and fast scanner may only meet the need. Therefore, to resolve the problem, some high-rank scanners in the market do provide a convenient switch function for the users being capable of determining if a document should apply a high-resolution imaging process or a low-resolution imaging process.
Currently, three methods as following have been applied to the switching mechanism of the aforesaid scanner. They are:
1. Integrating a zoom lens to the image-capture element;
2. Integrating a plurality of lens to the image-capture element; and
3. Integrating a plurality of lens to a plurality of image-capture elements.
Basically, a common ideology for all three methods to achieve the operation of resolution-alternating is to vary the focus of the major lens. Among these three aforesaid methods, method
3
might need much higher cost in production due to more components being applied. On the other hand, though the application of methods
1
and
2
might need fewer components, yet a complicate switching mechanism is required to render the focus alternation.
In the early development stage of the optical scanners, the adjusting of the imaging resolution is mainly done through varying the focus of the major lens due to the higher cost and lower resolution of the image-capture element (CCD, for example). However, current image-capture technology has been improved to an extend that lower production cost and higher resolution are feasible. Hence, developing a technique of applying a single major lens to integrate several image-capture elements with various resolution will definitely contribute a lot to the market competitiveness of the product.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an imaging apparatus with divers resolution, in which the lower production cost and the higher resolution are two basic features.
The imaging apparatus with divers resolution in accordance with the present invention includes a light source, a reflection lens set, a major lens and an image-capture unit. The light source is a lengthy fluorescent tube for illuminating a document to further generate a document image. The reflection lens set includes a plurality of reflection lenses for forwarding the document image consecutively to the major lens. The major lens is used to receive the document image transported by the reflection lens set and to form the document image at a focal point of the major lens. The image-capture unit includes a plurality of image-capture elements with various resolution for meeting divers usage requirements. According to the present invention, a suitable image-capture element with particular resolution can be shifted to the focal point of the major lens for performing the image capturing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4751376 (1988-06-01), Sugiura et al.
patent: 5802217 (1998-09-01), Suzuki et al.
patent: 6151419 (2000-11-01), Aoki
patent: 6236430 (2001-05-01), Suzuki et al.
patent: 6424433 (2002-07-01), Miyauchi et al.
Coles Edward
Safaipour Houshang
Troxell Law Office PLLC
Umax Data Systems Inc.
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