Digital color image capture and processing module
First Claim
1. A digital image capture and processing module comprising:
- a housing having a light transmission aperture with an optically transparent imaging window mounted thereover;
at least one digital camera board mounted within said housing, and supporting an area-type color image sensing array, sensing array control electronics, and image capture and buffering electronics;
an imaging lens assembly supported within said housing and having image forming optics with a field of view (FOV) on said area-type color image sensing array;
a plurality of broad-band LEDs supported within said housing for producing a field of broad-band illumination;
a light focusing reflector operably mounted for focusing said field of broad-band illumination into and over the FOV of said area-type color image sensing array;
LED driver circuitry disposed in said housing for driving said plurality of broad-band LEDs in response to control signals;
a digital image-processing subsystem for supporting image capture, processing and display functions, as well as digital image file transmission functions within said digital image capture and processing module;
a system control subsystem for controlling and/or orchestrating the operation of components within said digital image capture and processing module; and
a plurality of mode selection buttons integrated with said housing so that, upon depression, control signals are generated and transmitted to said system control subsystem.
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Abstract
A digital image capture and processing module for use with an Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery network. The module includes a housing having a light transmission aperture with an optically transparent imaging window mounted thereover. A digital camera board supports an area-type color image sensing array, sensing array control electronics, and image capture and buffering electronics. An imaging lens assembly supported within said housing and having image forming optics with a field of view (FOV) on the area-type color image sensing array. A plurality of broad-band LEDs are supported within said housing for producing a field of broad-band illumination. A light focusing reflector is operably mounted for focusing the field of broad-band illumination. A digital image-processing subsystem supports image capture, processing and display functions, as well as digital image file transmission functions within the module. A system control subsystem controls and/or orchestrates the operation of components within the module; and a plurality of mode selection buttons are provided on the housing so that, upon depression, control signals are generated and are to the system control subsystem.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A digital image capture and processing module comprising:
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a housing having a light transmission aperture with an optically transparent imaging window mounted thereover; at least one digital camera board mounted within said housing, and supporting an area-type color image sensing array, sensing array control electronics, and image capture and buffering electronics; an imaging lens assembly supported within said housing and having image forming optics with a field of view (FOV) on said area-type color image sensing array; a plurality of broad-band LEDs supported within said housing for producing a field of broad-band illumination; a light focusing reflector operably mounted for focusing said field of broad-band illumination into and over the FOV of said area-type color image sensing array; LED driver circuitry disposed in said housing for driving said plurality of broad-band LEDs in response to control signals; a digital image-processing subsystem for supporting image capture, processing and display functions, as well as digital image file transmission functions within said digital image capture and processing module; a system control subsystem for controlling and/or orchestrating the operation of components within said digital image capture and processing module; and a plurality of mode selection buttons integrated with said housing so that, upon depression, control signals are generated and transmitted to said system control subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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5. The digital image capture and processing module of claim 5, wherein said first set of client-side operations include one or more operations selected from the group consisting of:
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(i) generating multiple digital images of the shipping document; (ii) forwarding the high-resolution monochromatic (BW) image data frame to an image-processing based bar code (1D and 2D) symbol reading engine for automated reading/recognition of bar-coded shipping tracking numbers or other bar-coded identifiers graphically represented in the digital image; and (iii) automatically encoding, as tags, within the header of the digital image files of said digital images, (1) the bar-coded shipping tracking number and/or other bar-coded shipment or shipper identifiers recognized by the image-processing based bar code symbol reading engine; and (iv) automatically naming or titling the digital image files using the machine-recognized shipment tracking number. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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Specification