Automatic static image capturing device and method

• US 20030058364A1
• Filed: 09/27/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Transpacific IP Group Limited
• Inventors: Yu, Yu-Ru, Kuo, Shih-Zheng
• Granted Patent: US 7,139,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/375
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00681 Detecting the presence, position or size of a sheet or correcting its position before scanning H04N1/047 takes precedence; mode signalling H04N1/333; skew detection or correction in image signals H04N1/3878

Abstract

A method and a device for automatic capturing of a static image. The automatic static image-capturing device is a scanner. The method includes the following steps. Any changes on a scanning platform are monitored. If a change in the static image on the scanning platform is detected, the change is gauged for a preset time interval to check for any further change during this time interval. If no further change is detected within this time interval, a preset operation is triggered.

Claims

1. A method of capturing a static image using a static image-capturing device, the method includes the steps of:

detecting any changes in a static image;

if the static image changes, determining if the changed image remains the same for a period of time; and

if the changed image remains unchanged for the period of time, an image capturing operation is executed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the static image capturing device includes a digital camera.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the static image capturing device includes a platform scanner.

4. A static image capturing device for a scanner having a scanning platform, the device comprising:

a scanning head mounted underneath the scanning platform that shuttles across the scanning platform for continuous scanning of static image; and

a logic decision device comparing the data of a first image captured earlier with the data of a second image captured later and finding their difference.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the automatic static image capturing device further includes:

an image capturing device coupled to the logic decision device for capturing the first image data and the second image data captured by the scanning head; and

a buffer unit coupled to the image capturing device and the logic decision device for holding the first image data captured by the image capturing device in an early period.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the image capturing device includes a charge couple device.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein the image capturing device includes a contact image sensor.

8. The device of claim 4, wherein the image data includes focusing positions of the static image on the scanning platform.

9. The device of claim 4, wherein the earlier time and the later time are separated from each other by a fixed timing cycle.

10. An automatic static image capturing method for a scanner having a scanning platform, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting any changes in the static image on the scanning platform;

if the static image on the scanning platform changes, determining if the changed image remains the same for a period of time; and

if the changed image remains unchanged for the period of time, a predetermined operation is executed.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the predetermined operation includes pre-scanning the static image.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the predetermined operation includes scanning the static image.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein if the static image on the scanning platform remains unchanged, the automatic static image capturing method includes:

detecting the presence of any static image on the scanning platform;

if the scanning platform contains a static image, the pre-determined operation is executed; and

if the scanning platform does not contain any static image, the predetermined operation is skipped.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein if the static image continues to change before the end of a preset period, execution of the pre-determined operation is delayed until the changed static image remains identical for the preset period.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein if some other static images need to perform the pre-determined operation, the scanner continues to detect any change in static image on the scanning platform until no more pre-determined operation of the static image is required.