Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Picture signal generator
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-05
2001-07-31
Nguyen, Madeleine (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Picture signal generator
C358S496000, C399S388000, C271S314000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06268938
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanner, more particularly, to a scanner with a groove in its scanning surface for reducing sticking effect caused by a document with viscous membrane.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sheet-fed scanners are frequently used for scanning small documents into computers. Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a prior art sheet-fed scanner
10
.
FIG. 2
is a sectional view along line
2
—
2
of the scanner
10
shown in FIG.
1
. The scanner
10
comprises an image pickup module
12
, and a cylindrical document roller
14
rotatably mounted at one side of the image pickup module
12
. The image pickup module
12
comprises a housing
11
, a scanning surface
16
which is a transparent glass installed at one side of the housing
11
facing the roller
14
, a light source
22
which is a light emitting diode (LED), and an elongated light sensor
24
. Both the light source
22
and light sensor
24
are installed below the scanning surface
16
inside the housing
11
. The scanning surface
16
has a line-shaped scanning position
18
parallel to the light sensor
24
. When a document
26
is carried through the scanning position
18
, the light
28
emitted from the light source
22
will be reflected from the document
26
over the scanning position
18
and received by the light sensor
24
. The document roller
14
is driven by a stepping motor (not shown), and is rotatably mounted against the scanning surface
16
for carrying the document
26
through the scanning position
18
backward. When the document
26
is carried through the scanning surface
16
by the roller
14
at a constant speed, the image on the document
26
will be scanned by the light sensor
24
.
When a photo picture which comprises viscous membrane on the picture surface is carried through the scanning surface
16
, the roller
14
will press the viscous membrane against the scanning surface
16
which may be stuck to the scanning surface. Such sticking effect will interfere with the light reflected from the photo picture and generate a blurred image in the scanned image. Moreover, the sticking effect will greatly increase the viscosity between the photo picture and the scanning surface
16
which will drag the photo picture to prevent it from moving through. Sometimes the photo picture may completely get stuck on the scanning surface
16
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a scanner to solve the above mentioned problems.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a scanner comprising an image pickup module, and a cylindrical document roller. The image pickup module comprises a housing having a scanning surface, a light source and an elongated light sensor installed under the scanning surface inside the housing. The scanning surface has a line-shaped scanning position parallel to the light sensor. When a document is carried through the scanning position, the light reflected from the document over the scanning position will be received by the light sensor. The document roller is rotatably mounted against the scanning surface of the image pickup module for carrying the document backward through the scanning position. The scanning surface comprises a groove having a transparent bottom installed at the scanning position for allowing the light reflected from the document over the scanning position to pass through so as to scan the document so that when the document is carried through the groove of the scanning surface, the document will not be in contact with the bottom of the groove.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the viscous membrane of a photo picture will not stick to the bottom of the groove so that the blurred image caused by the sticking effect can thus be avoided.
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: 5121225 (1992-06-01), Murata et al.
patent: 5267058 (1993-11-01), Sata
patent: 5276536 (1994-01-01), Hokamura
patent: 5280368 (1994-01-01), Fullerton
patent: 5399850 (1995-03-01), Nagatani et al.
patent: 5434682 (1995-07-01), Imamura et al.
patent: 5532839 (1996-07-01), Beikirch et al.
patent: 6025936 (2000-02-01), Ishida
Hsu Winston
Mustek Systems Inc.
Nguyen Madeleine
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