Image analysis – Image sensing
Reexamination Certificate
1996-06-10
2001-09-25
Couso, Jose L. (Department: 2624)
Image analysis
Image sensing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295388
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates in general to scanning systems. More specifically, the present invention provides a method for selecting and viewing a portion of a scanned image in full resolution during scanning to simplify the workflow and computing resources required to perform a quality check on the scanned image.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Acquiring high resolution digital image data from a scanner is traditionally done in a multiple step process. Usually a low resolution image is scanned, on which cropping, rotation, and other image processing operations are performed. Once the operator is pleased with the result on the low resolution image, a final image is scanned at higher resolution. The image processing steps performed on the low resolution image are automatically applied to the high resolution image during or after it is scanned.
The high resolution image may be scanned directly to disk, or it may appear in the operators window. Regardless of the output location, the high resolution image usually must be checked for image quality, since there are details in the high resolution image that cannot be seen in the low resolution version, and some image processing operations are resolution dependent, like descreening and unsharp masking. These operations cannot be accurately previewed on the low resolution image. A sample of the image may be scanned at high resolution, before scanning the entire image at high resolution, but this can be very time consuming relative to scanning the whole image with the hope that the quality will be good enough. The final quality check requires the operator to wait while the relatively large high resolution image is scanned, processed and displayed on his screen. Or, the operator must reload the final image at a later time.
Viewing these large images usually involves examining a scaled down version of the image, similar to the low resolution image, and selecting a portion of the image to view at full resolution. The scaled down version of the image is either made in advance and saved on disk, or created on the fly as the image is loaded from disk. These steps consume time and memory.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method for selecting and viewing a detail area of a scanned image in full resolution during scanning to perform a quality check on the scanned image. The method generally includes the following steps:
1. Perform a low resolution preview scan on an image in a conventional manner, and display the low resolution image data of the preview scan.
2. Specify a portion (e g., via cropping) of the preview scan to be scanned at a high resolution.
3. Select at least one detail area within the specified portion of the preview scan to be examined in high resolution.
4. Perform a high resolution scan on the image based on the specified portion of the preview scan, and save the high resolution image data to disk.
5. Display the detail area in full resolution in a separate detail window after it becomes available during the high resolution scan of the specified portion of the preview scan.
6. Accept or reject the high resolution scan based on the quality of the image data in the detail window.
The present invention offers many advantages over the traditional quality checking approaches of the prior art. First, the invention allows an operator to specify at least one area of a low resolution scan that may need quality checking. This is done prior to a high resolution scan of the image. When the high resolution image data corresponding to a selected area is available, it is automatically displayed in a separate detail window, preferably at a 1:1 ratio (1 display pixel for 1 data pixel). The operator can then accept or reject the high resolution scan, based on the selected area of high resolution image data displayed in the detail window, without having to load into memory and view the entire high resolution image at a 1:1 ratio. Second, depending on the relative location of the selected area on the scanned image, the detail window may be displayed prior to the completion of the full high resolution scan. This will save scanning operators a significant amount of time by allowing them to cancel the high resolution scan at an early stage. Finally, the high resolution image data displayed in the detail window is “tapped” out during the high resolution scan, thereby requiring no additional scanning steps. If the high resolution image data displayed in the detail window is acceptable to the operator, no time has been lost since no extra scanning steps were needed to create these detail views.
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Merecki John A.
Omvik John F.
Stokes Earle B.
Agfa Corporation
Couso Jose L.
Do Anh Hong
Kelley Edward L.
Merecki John A.
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