U.S. patent application number 11/507086 was filed with the patent office on 2007-03-22 for method for determining restored scanning position.
This patent application is currently assigned to Transpacific IP, Ltd.. Invention is credited to Cheng-Kuei Chen, Chun-Hui Yu.
Application Number | 20070064284 11/507086 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 31975634 |
Filed Date | 2007-03-22 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070064284 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chen; Cheng-Kuei ; et
al. |
March 22, 2007 |
Method for determining restored scanning position
Abstract
A method for position restoration. By comparing the graphic data
and the restored graphic data, the graphic data closest to the
restored graphic data is selected. Therefore, the graphic data
scanned subsequently is correctly connected to the restored graphic
data to avoid the missing line or repetition of graphic data.
Inventors: |
Chen; Cheng-Kuei; (Hsinchu,
TW) ; Yu; Chun-Hui; (Hsinchu, TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BERKELEY LAW & TECHNOLOGY GROUP
1700NW 167TH PLACE
SUITE 240
BEAVERTON
OR
97006
US
|
Assignee: |
Transpacific IP, Ltd.
|
Family ID: |
31975634 |
Appl. No.: |
11/507086 |
Filed: |
August 18, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10064907 |
Aug 28, 2002 |
7136200 |
|
|
11507086 |
Aug 18, 2006 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
358/497 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 1/401 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
358/497 |
International
Class: |
H04N 1/04 20060101
H04N001/04 |
Claims
1.-6. (canceled)
7. A method, comprising: moving a scanning head in a first
direction to obtain first image data; designating a portion of the
first image data as connecting image data; moving the scanning head
in the first direction to obtain second image data, the second
image data including at least a portion of said connecting image
data; and combining at least a portion of the first and second
image data based, at least in part, on a comparison of the
connecting image data included in said first image data with the
connecting image data included in said second image data.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising moving the scanning
head in a second direction opposite said first direction prior to
obtaining said second image data.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least a portion of the second
image data includes image data that is also included in said first
image data.
10. The method of claim 7, and further comprising determining said
comparison by combining the connecting data of said first image
data with the connecting data of said second image data.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the combined first and second
image data comprises third image data.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the third image data comprises
a complete image of the document.
13. The method of claim 7, wherein the first image data comprises a
first plurality of pixel values, and the second image data
comprises a second plurality of pixel values, and wherein comparing
comprises comparing a portion of the second plurality of pixel
values to a portion of the first plurality of pixel values.
14. The method of claim 7, wherein the connecting data comprises
image data obtained near a stopping point of the scanning head.
15. A method, comprising: performing a first scan of a document to
obtain first image data for a portion of the document; designating
a portion of the first image data as connecting data; performing a
second scan of the document to obtain second image data for a
portion of the document, at least a portion of the second image
data including the same image data as obtained from said first
scan; and combining the first and second image data by use of the
connecting data to form a third image.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein said combining comprises
combining the first image data with the portion of the second image
data not including the same image data as obtained from said first
scan.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the third image comprises a
complete image of the document.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein the connecting data comprises
image data obtained near a stopping point of a scanning head after
the first scan.
19. An article comprising: a storage medium having stored thereon
instructions that, when executed, result in: moving a scanning head
along a first direction to obtain first image data; stopping the
scanning head at a stopping point, and designating a portion of the
obtained image data as connecting image data; moving the scanning
head along the first direction to obtain second image data, the
second image data including at least a portion of said connecting
image data; comparing the connecting image data included in said
first image data with the connecting image data included in said
second image data; and combining at least a portion of the first
and second image data based on the comparing.
20. The article of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when
executed, further result in: moving the scanning head a second
direction opposite said first direction prior to obtaining said
second image data.
21. The article of claim 19, wherein the instructions, when
executed, further result in: combining the connecting data of said
first image data with the connecting data of said second image
data.
22. The article of claim 19, wherein the combined first and second
image data comprises third image data.
23. The article of claim 22, wherein the third image data comprises
a complete image of the document.
24. The article of claim 19, wherein the first image data comprises
a first plurality of pixel values, and the second image data
comprises a second plurality of pixel values, and wherein the
instructions, when further executed, further result in: comparing a
portion of the second plurality of pixel values to a portion of the
first plurality of pixel values.
25. The article of claim 19, wherein the connecting data comprises
image data obtained near the stopping point.
26. An article comprising: a storage medium, having stored thereon
instructions, that, when executed, result in: performing a first
scan of a document to obtain first image data for a portion of the
document; designating a portion of the first image data as
connecting data; performing a second scan of the document to obtain
second image data for a portion of the document, at least a portion
of the second image data including the same image data as obtained
from said first scan; and combining the first and second image data
by use of the connecting data to form a third image.
27. The article of claim 26, wherein the instructions, when further
executed, further results in: combining the first image data with
the portion of the second image data not including the same image
data as obtained from said first scan.
28. The article of claim 26, wherein the third image comprises a
complete image of the document.
29. The article of claim 26, wherein the connecting data comprises
image data obtained near the stopping point.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a Continuation Patent Application of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 10/064,907, filed Aug. 28, 2002.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates in general to a method for determining
restored position, and more particular, to a restoration method to
avoid missing line and image repetition.
RELATED ART OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Due to advancing and fast-developing electronic techniques,
the electronic industry has become one of the most important
industries in modern society. Many high performance calculating
systems are consequently being produced, and more and more
electronic products are being used in daily life. In recent years,
the growing processing speed and data storage capacity of the
processor has greatly enhanced the performance of image processing,
while the image processor such as the optical scanner or digital
camera have become widely applied.
[0004] In the current operating process of the scanner, the graphic
data generating speed is far faster than the data transmission
speed between the scanner and the host, and therefore the graphic
data scanned by the scanner requires a place for temporary storage.
Such place for temporary storage is called a buffer, which ranges
between about 32 Kbytes to about 512 Kbytes.
[0005] The faster the graphic data is generated; the more graphic
data is stored in the buffer. When the buffer is full of the
graphic data, the scanner has to stop scanning. If the scan
continues under such circumstances, the graphic data will be lost,
or operation problems may occur.
[0006] When the scanner head is performing scanning, the scanning
process has to be stopped if the buffer is filled with the graphic
data. Generally speaking, the stopped position is called the
restored position. To allow each area of the document to have the
same exposure time, the scanner head has a constant speed during
scanning. Thus, the scanner head has to move backward with a
certain distance. When the is completely emptied, the scanner head
proceeds to the previously stopped position, that is, the restored
position, to continue scanning. The scanning speed has to reach the
previous scanning speed to result in a stable performance.
[0007] The procedure from filling the buffer with the graphic data,
stopping scanning, the scanner head moving backward and restoring
to the restored position and starting scanning is called
smearing.
[0008] The smearing procedure is normally determined by the low
transmission speed of interface connected to the host, such as the
SCSI, USB and EPP. Alternatively, it also occurs when the computer
host is too busy with other operation processes to read data from
the interface. As a result, the graphic data is accumulated in the
buffer until it is completely filled to cause smearing.
[0009] In the above smearing procedure, while returning to the
restored position after moving backward, the scanner head may not
return to the exact restored position due to the inertia effect or
mechanic error of the scanner; therefore missing line and
repetition of graphic data may occur.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The present invention provides a method for determining the
restored position to avoid missing line and image repetition.
[0011] The method for determining the restored position provided by
the present invention includes the following steps. In the first
step, a scanner head moves along a first direction to scan a
document. In the second step, the scanner head stops moving, and
the position where the scanner head stops is defined as a restored
position. Meanwhile, the data of the document located at the
restored position is scanned by the scanner head, while the scanned
data is defined as the restored graphic data. In the third step,
the scanner head moves to a second direction opposing to the first
direction with a first distance. In the fourth step, the scanner
head moves along the first direction with a second distance to
reach an initial scanning position, where the second distance is
smaller than the first distance. In the fifth step, after moving
along the second direction with the second distance, the scanner
head proceeds in a stepping manner to scan a plurality of
corresponding graphic data. In the sixth step, being compared to
the restored graphic data, the scanned graphic data closest is
selected and defined as the connecting graphic data. In the seventh
step, the graphic data subsequent to the connecting graphic data is
connected to the restored data.
[0012] According to one embodiment of the present invention, an
additional step for erasing the scanned graphic data prior to the
connecting graphic data is required, while the connecting graphic
data can be used to replace the restored graphic data. In addition,
while performing the third step, the first distance includes 36
steps. That is, the scanner head moves 36 steps along the second
direction. While performing the fourth step, the scanner head moves
34 steps along the first direction.
[0013] In one embodiment of the present invention, the restored
graphic data comprises a plurality of standard pixels, and each
scanned graphic data comprises a plurality of pixels. While
performing the sixth step, a part of the standard pixels is used as
the comparison reference to compare with a part of the pixels of
each graphic data in the corresponding positions. Alternatively,
while performing the sixth step, all the standard pixels can be
used as the comparison reference to compare to the pixels of each
of the graphic data in the corresponding position.
[0014] Accordingly, the present invention compares the scanned
graphic data with the restored graphic data to select the graphic
data closest to the restored graphic data. The selected graphic
data scanned subsequently can thus be connected with the restored
graphic data correctly.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] These, as well as other features of the present invention,
will become more apparent upon reference to the drawings
wherein:
[0016] FIGS. 1 and 2 are process flows showing the method for
determining restored position according to the present
invention;
[0017] FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing showing the arrangement of the
standard pixels of the restored graphic data in one embodiment of
the present invention; and
[0018] FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing showing the arrangement of the
pixels of the graphic data.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, schematic diagrams illustrating
a method to determine restored position in one preferred embodiment
of the present invention are shown. In FIG. 1, when the scanner
(not shown) is scanning, the scanner head moves along a first
direction 180, where the movement of the scanner head is in a
stepping manner. The scanned graphic data is then stored in the
buffer (not shown) of the scanner. When the buffer has insufficient
capacity, the scanner head stops moving. The position where the
scanner head stops is defined as the restored position 110. The
data of the document scanned by the scanner head at the restored
position 110 is defined as the restored graphic data.
[0020] The scanner head then moves with a first distance along a
second direction to reach an initial position 130. For example, in
a stepping manner, the scanner head moves 36 steps to reach the
initial position 130. The second direction 190 is an opposite
direction to the first direction 180 in this embodiment.
[0021] Referring to FIG. 2, after the scanner head reaches the
initial position 130, the scanner head moves along the first
direction 180 with a second distance 140 to reach an initial
scanning position 150. The second distance 140 is smaller than the
first distance 120. The scanner head obtains a graphic data by
scanning at the initial scanning position 150, and such graphic
data is defined as the initial graphic data. It is appreciated that
before reaching the initial scanning position 150, sufficient
capacity of the buffer of the scanner is required to store the
subsequent scanned graphic data. For the relationship between the
remaining capacity of the buffer and the movement of the scanner
head refer to the Taiwanese Patent No. 432861; whereby the scanning
speed can be increased.
[0022] After the scanner head moves with the second distance 140
along-the first direction 180, the scanner head continues moving
along the first direction 180 and scans the document 110 until he
buffer is again short of capacity. The scanner head proceeds in a
stepping manner. A graphic data is scanned for each step that the
scanner head steps forward. In one embodiment, the scanner head
steps many steps to various positions such as the first to eighth
positions 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164 and 166. Corresponding
to the first to eighth positions 152 to 166, first to eighth
graphic data are scanned, respectively.
[0023] After the scanner head starts scanning, a comparison step is
performed. That is, the scanned graphic data such as the first to
the eighth graphic data are compared to the restored graphic data,
respectively, among which the one closest to the restored graphic
data, for example, the second graphic data, is selected as the
connecting graphic data.
[0024] After realizing that the second graphic data is the one
closest to the restored graphic data, the third graphic data is
connected to the restored graphic data. The initial graphic data,
the first graphic data and the second graphic data are removed.
Therefore, the subsequently scanned graphic data can be correctly
connected to the previously scanned graphic data without the
problems of missing line and image repetition. Alternatively, the
restored graphic data can also be replaced by the second graphic
data.
[0025] Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, FIG. 3 schematically shows
arrangement of the standard pixels of the restored graphic data,
and FIG. 4 schematically shows arrangement of the pixels of the
scanned graphic data. As shown in FIG. 3, the restored graphic data
200 comprises a plurality of standard pixels 202, while in FIG. 4,
each of the scanned graphic data 300 comprises a plurality of
pixels 302. During the comparison procedure, a part of the standard
pixels 202 can be used as the comparison reference to respectively
compare a part of the pixels 302 for each of the graphic data 300.
The part of the pixels to be compared includes parts of the pixels
of the initial graphic data, the first to the fourth graphic data,
while the pixels 302 to be compared to the standards pixels 202 are
in the positions corresponding to those of the standard pixels 302,
respectively. For example, the one hundredth to two hundredth
pixels 302 are compared to the one hundredth to the two hundredth
standard pixels 202. Alternatively, all of the standard pixels 202
can also be used as the comparison reference to respectively
compare each of the pixels 302 of each graphic data. Again, the
pixels 302 are compared to the standard pixels 202 in the
corresponding positions.
[0026] According to the above, the present invention selects a
closest graphic data of a restored graphic data by comparing the
scanned graphic data with the restored graphic data, such that the
subsequently scanned graphic data can be correctly connected to
avoid the missing line and data repetition.
[0027] Other embodiments of the invention will appear to those
skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and
practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the
specification and examples are to be considered as exemplary only,
with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by
the following claims.
* * * * *