Registers – Coded record sensors – Particular sensor structure
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-23
2002-12-17
Lee, Michael G. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Coded record sensors
Particular sensor structure
Reexamination Certificate
active
06494374
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention discloses a scanner and, in particular, a scanner installed with a movable reflecting surface module on a transparent platform for scanning both transparent and reflective documents.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a conventional scanner
10
.
FIG. 2
is a functional block diagram of the scanner
10
. The scanner
10
comprises a casing
12
with a transparent platform
14
onto which is placed a document to be scanned, a scanning module
16
, a driving device
18
installed inside the casing
12
for moving the scanning module
16
, and a control circuit
20
installed inside the casing
12
for controlling operations of the scanner
10
.
The scanning module
16
is movably installed underneath the transparent platform
14
and comprises a light source
22
for illuminating the document on the transparent platform
14
, an image sensing module
24
to scan images from the document on the transparent platform
14
to produce corresponding scanning signals, and a reflector module
28
to reflect light from the document to the image sensing module
24
. The scanner
10
further comprises a reflecting surface module
26
installed on the transparent platform
14
to reflect light emitted from the light source
22
down to the transparent platform
14
.
Please refer to
FIG. 3
, which is a cross-sectional view of the scanner
10
in
FIG. 1
along line
3
—
3
. The reflecting surface module
26
includes a first reflector
23
and a second reflector
25
, both being installed on either side of the upper portion of the light source
22
. The first reflector
23
reflects light emitted upwardly from the right side of the light source
22
horizontally to the second reflector
25
, which then reflects the light down to the transparent platform
14
.
When a user wishes to scan a transparent document
13
, the user must place the reflecting surface module
26
on the transparent platform
14
so that the light emitted from the right side of the light source
22
will pass down through the document
13
via the first reflector
23
and the second reflector
25
. Reflected by the reflector module
26
, the light is sent to the image sensing module
24
to produce corresponding image signals. The reflecting surface module
26
is unremovably installed on the transparent platform
14
.
The scanner
10
further comprises an upper cover (not shown). When a user wishes to scan a reflective document, the user can take off the reflecting surface module
26
and put on the upper cover. Light emitted from the light source
22
upwardly will reflect down off the document
13
. Through the reflector module
28
, the light is then reflected to the image sensing module
24
to produce corresponding image signals.
When the scanner
10
scans a transparent document, the light upwardly emitted from the light source
22
must be reflected by the first reflector
23
and the second reflector
25
to pass downward through the transparent document. The scanning area cannot be larger than the reflecting surface module
26
, and is limited by the sizes of the first reflector
23
and the second reflector
25
. Larger first and second reflectors
23
and
25
cover more area over the transparent platform
14
, permitting larger documents to be scanned.
To increase the scanning area for transparent documents in the scanner
10
, the area and height of the reflecting surface module
26
has to be increased correspondingly. As the area of the reflecting surface module
26
gets larger, the document area covered by the reflecting surface module
26
also becomes larger. As the reflecting surface module
26
gets higher, the area for installing the first reflector
23
and the second reflector
26
gets larger. Thus, the scanning area for transparent documents in the scanner
10
becomes larger.
Increasing the area and height of the reflecting surface module
26
increases the volume thereof. This does not only increase the manufacturing cost of the scanner
10
but also makes the use of the scanner
10
inconvenient.
Furthermore, as shown in
FIG. 3
, since the document
13
and the transparent platform
14
are not totally transparent, when scanning a transparent document the light emitted from the left side of the light source
22
will be partially downwardly reflected and absorbed by the image sensing module
24
. The image signal noise is thus increased, lowering the scanning quality.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is thus a primary objective of the present invention to provide a scanner with a reflecting surface module movably installed on a transparent platform for solving the aforementioned problems of the prior art.
Briefly, the present invention discloses a scanner with a casing having a transparent surface, a scanning module, a reflecting surface module, a driving device and a control circuit. A document to be scanned is placed on the transparent surface of the casing. The scanning module is moveably installed inside the casing under the transparent surface, and is used to scan the document and produce corresponding scanning signals. The scanning module has a light source installed under the transparent surface to illuminate the document, an image sensing module to scan images from the document and produce the corresponding scanning signals, and a reflective module to reflect the images from the document to the image sensing module. The reflecting surface module is moveably installed above the transparent surface, and is used to reflect light from the light source down to the transparent surface. The driving device is installed inside the casing to move the scanning module. The control circuit controls the operations of the scanner. The reflecting surface module moves synchronously along a predetermined direction following the scanning module to scan the document on the transparent platform. If the document is predominantly transparent, light emitted upwardly from the light source passes through the document, is reflected downward to the transparent platform by the reflecting surface module, and is then reflected by the reflective module to the image sensing module to produce the corresponding scanning signals. If the document is predominantly reflective, then light from the light source is reflected downward from the document to the image sensing module by the reflective module to produce the corresponding scanning signals.
It is an advantage of the present invention that, because the reflecting surface module moves with the scanning module, the scanning area is not limited by the areas of the mirrors in the reflecting surface module. Hence, the size of the reflecting surface module is greatly reduced. Additionally, the present invention helps to reduce the amount of noise caused by unwanted reflected light, thus improving image quality.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5606450 (1997-02-01), Chen
patent: 5760412 (1998-06-01), Yang et al.
patent: 6185011 (2001-02-01), William
patent: 6400484 (2002-06-01), Wang et al.
Tseng Lin-Ta
Wang Ping-Chih
Hsu Winston
Lee Michael G.
Mustek Systems Inc.
Nguyen Kim
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