Image reading apparatus, method of reading image, and image reading system

• US 20040190080A1
• Filed: 12/24/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kojima, Toshiya, Tatsumi, Setsuji, Kusunoki, Naoki, Oku, Seiichiro, Inoue, Seiichi, Kodama, Kenichi, Nagashima, Kanji, Yamazaki, Yoshiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,499,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/474
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00129 with a display device, e.g. CRT or LCD monitor with a television apparatus H04N1/00283; arrangements for control of display devices G09G
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00283 with a television apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3252 Image capture parameters, e.g. resolution, illumination conditions, orientation of the image capture device H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3271 Printing or stamping
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/905 Display device with housing structure

Abstract

An object of the invention is to obtain a high-quality image by reading an image of an electronic paper with high accuracy. When optically copying the electronic paper, a controller reads out display characteristics such as a reading resolution and a reading light quantity from a display characteristic memory of the electronic paper. The controller performs optical copying processing after setting optimal conditions on the basis of the display characteristics which have been read out from the display characteristic memory.

Claims

1. An image reading apparatus comprising:

a readout section which reads out display characteristics of an image from a thin display device in which the display characteristics of the image for when the image is displayed are recorded; and

an image reading section which reads the image displayed on a display section of the thin display device, on the basis of the display characteristics read out by the readout section.

3. An image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display characteristics are recorded in the form of a bar code on a surface of the thin display device.

2. An image reading apparatus comprising:

a readout section which reads out display characteristics of an image from a thin display device in which the display characteristics of the image for when the image is displayed are recorded;

an image reading section which reads the image displayed on a display section of the thin display device; and

an image processing section which performs image processing with respect to the image read by the image reading section, on the basis of the display characteristics read out by the readout section.

4. An image reading apparatus comprising:

a type determining section which determines a display mode of a thin display device;

a reading light source which irradiates the thin display device with light;

a light quantity setting section which sets a light quantity of the reading light source on the basis of the display mode determined by the type determining section; and

an image reading section which reads the image displayed on the thin display device.

5. An image reading apparatus comprising:

an image reading section which reads an image displayed on a thin display device;

a controlling section which controls switching between a first mode in which the thin display device is caused to emit light so as to display the image, and a second mode in which the thin display device is not caused to emit light and the image is not displayed; and

a recognizing section which recognizes the image displayed on the thin display device and an image added to a display surface of the thin display device, on the basis of an image read by the image reading section in the first mode and an image read by the image reading section in the second mode.

6. An image reading apparatus comprising:

a display controlling section which performs control so as to display an image on a thin display device or so as not to display the image;

an image reading section which reads a display surface of the thin display device; and

a recognizing section which recognizes the image displayed on the thin display device, on the basis of an image read by the image reading section when the image is displayed on the thin display device and an image read by the image reading section when the image is not displayed on the thin display device.

7. An image reading system comprising:

a thin display device having a display section which displays an image based on display image data and has a surface upon which an additional image can be drawn; and

an image reading apparatus having a reading section which reads the display section, and a controlling section which controls the reading section so as to read the display section when the image based on the display image data is not displayed on the display section.

8. An image reading system according to claim 7, wherein the controlling section further controls the reading section so as to read the display section when the image based on the display image data is displayed on the display section.

9. An image reading system according to claim 8, wherein the image reading apparatus further includes a synthesizing section which synthesizes read image data obtained by reading of the display section by the reading section when the image based on the display image data is not displayed on the display section, and read image data obtained by reading of the display section by the reading section when the image based on the display image data is displayed on the display section.

10. An image reading system according to claim 7, wherein the image reading apparatus further includes a synthesizing section which synthesizes the display image data and read image data obtained by reading of the display section by the reading section when the image based on the display image data is not displayed on the display section.

11. An image reading apparatus comprising:

an image reading section which reads a display surface of a thin display device; and

an image processing section which performs image processing with respect to first read image data, on the basis of the first read image data obtained by reading of the display surface by the image reading section when an image is displayed on the thin display device and second read image data obtained by reading of the display surface by the image reading section when the image is not displayed on the thin display device.

12. An image reading apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the image processing section recognizes data corresponding to a flaw of the display surface based on the second read image data and substitutes other data for the data at a position corresponding to the position of the flaw in the first read image data.

13. A method of reading an image comprising the steps of:

reading out display characteristics from a thin display device for when the thin display device displays the image;

setting a condition under which the image is to be read by an image reading apparatus for reading the image displayed on the thin display devise, on the basis of the display characteristics which have been read out; and

reading the image under the set condition.

14. A method of reading an image according to claim 13, wherein the condition under which the image is to be read is at least one of a light quantity emitted from the image reading apparatus and a reading resolution of the image reading apparatus.

15. A method of reading an image according to claim 13, further comprising the step of performing image processing with respect to the image, which has been read by the image reading apparatus, on the basis of the display characteristics which have been read out.

16. A method of reading an image according to claim 15, wherein the image processing is conversion of resolution of the read image.

17. A method of reading an image according to claim 13, further comprising the step of determining a display mode of the thin display device, wherein a light quantity emitted from the image reading apparatus is set on the basis of the determined display mode in the step of setting the condition under which the image is to be read.

18. A method of reading an image comprising the step of reading a display section of the thin display device using an image reading apparatus when the image based on display image data is not displayed on the display section of the thin display device, in which an additional image can be drawn on a surface of the display section which displays the image based on the display image data.

19. A method of reading an image according to claim 18, further comprising of the step of reading the display section when the image based on the display image data is displayed on the display section.

20. A method of reading an image according to claim 19, further comprising the step of synthesizing read image data obtained by reading the display section when the image based on the display image data is not displayed on the display section and read image data obtained by reading the display section when the image based on the display image data is displayed on the display section.

21. A method of reading an image according to claim 18, further comprising the step of synthesizing the display image data and read image data which is obtained by reading the display section when the image based on the display image data is not displayed on the display section.

22. A method of reading an image comprising the steps of:

performing first reading processing in which a display surface of a thin display device is read using an image reading section when the image is displayed on the display surface;

performing second reading processing in which the display surface of the thin display device is read using the image reading section when the image is not displayed on the display surface; and

performing image processing with respect to first read image data on the basis of the first read image data obtained by the first reading processing and second read image data obtained by the second reading processing.

23. A method of reading an image according to claim 22, wherein the step of performing image processing further includes

recognizing data corresponding to a flaw of the display surface based on the second read image data;

and

substituting other data for the data at a position corresponding to the position of the flaw in the first read image data.