Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Facsimile system interface
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-23
2003-01-07
Coles, Edward (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Facsimile system interface
C358S497000, C358S474000, C358S468000, C361S689000, C361S679090, C361S689000, C361S689000, C710S073000, C710S005000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06504626
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a scanner, and more particularly, to a scanner with an external keyboard for controlling operations of the scanner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective diagram of a prior art scanner
10
.
FIG. 2
is a functional block diagram of the scanner
10
in FIG.
1
. The scanner
10
comprises a scanner housing
12
, a control circuit
14
installed in the scanner housing
12
for controlling operations of the scanner
10
, a scanning module
16
installed in the scanner housing
12
and connected to the control circuit
14
for scanning a document and generating corresponding document image signals, and a user interface
20
installed on the scanner housing
12
and connected to the control circuit
14
. The user interface
20
comprises a plurality of keys
21
for inputting key signals.
The control circuit
14
comprises a memory
24
for storing programs and data, and a processor
26
for executing the programs in the memory
24
. The memory
24
comprises an operating system
28
for controlling the operations of the processor
26
, a scanning module driving program
30
executed under the operating system
28
for controlling the operations of the scanning module
16
and processing the document image signals generated by the scanning module
16
, a user interface driving program
32
executed under the operating system
28
for controlling the operations of the user interface
20
, and an application program
36
executed under the operating system
28
for setting the operation mode of the scanning module driving program
30
and the processing method of the image signals according to the key signals inputted by the user and transmitted by using the user interface driving program
32
.
The control circuit
14
controls the operations of the scanner
10
according to the key signals inputted by the user and transmitted from the user interface
20
. Because the space on the scanner housing
12
is very limited, the scanner housing
12
is unable to accommodate sufficient number of regular sized keys
21
. Unless the keys
21
are made very small, the small number of keys
21
may limit the performance of the scanner
10
. Moreover, it is very costly to install a large number of small keys
21
on the scanner
10
. And it will make the scanner
10
look cumbersome if a great number of large keys
21
are installed on the scanner
10
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a scanner with an external keyboard to solve the mentioned problem.
Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a scanner comprising:
a scanner housing;
a control circuit installed in the scanner housing for controlling operations of the scanner;
a scanning module installed in the scanner housing and connected to the control circuit for scanning a document and generating corresponding document image signals;
a keyboard connected to the control circuit for inputting key signals; and
a display panel installed on the surface of the scanner housing and connected to the control circuit for displaying signals transmitted from the control circuit;
wherein the control circuit controls the operations of the scanner according to the key signals inputted by a user through the keyboard, and displays the key signals or instruction messages on the display panel.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the scanner has an external keyboard. Therefore various key signals can be easily inputted through regular sized keys on the keyboard to control operations of the scanner.
These and other objects and the advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4571053 (1986-02-01), Kasama et al.
patent: 4893196 (1990-01-01), Koshiyouji et al.
patent: 5091747 (1992-02-01), Tsai
patent: 5550938 (1996-08-01), Hayakawa et al.
patent: 5555105 (1996-09-01), Shahir et al.
patent: 5822080 (1998-10-01), Chavez
patent: 5854945 (1998-12-01), Criscito et al.
patent: 5920401 (1999-07-01), Street et al.
patent: 5928337 (1999-07-01), Wieringa
patent: 6078407 (2000-06-01), Ma
patent: 6101004 (2000-08-01), Sung
patent: 6233065 (2001-05-01), Lee
patent: 6312175 (2001-11-01), Lum
patent: 1284688 (2002-02-01), None
Carter Tia A.
Coles Edward
e-Memory Technology, Inc.
Hsu Winston
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