System for digital transmission and synthesis of integrated data
First Claim
1. An information system for storage, retrieval, and generation of information from a plurality of multimedia sources, comprising an image-acquisition system, an electronic processing system, and a display workstation having a plurality of output modules, said electronic processing system including a serial input port module for receiving data from said image-acquisition system and coupling said data onto a local system bus, a program module coupled to said bus for directing the sequence and flow of information between said image-acquisition system and said display workstation via said electronic processing system, said workstation output modules being coupled to said bus, a functional control module coupled to said bus for controlling priority of operation of said workstation output modules coupled to said bus whereby said control module handles bus contention problems, a redundancy reduction module coupled to said bus for controlling the digital data rate of transfer of data through said bus, and a plurality of output port modules coupled to said bus for accessing various additional output modules including memory and communication modules.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An image acquisition subsystem, electronic processing subsystem and workstation subsystem produce information management networks that are almost unlimited in size and scope in integrating data and information stored in both digital form and in human readable form. Integration is by on-demand conversion in a scanner/digitizer of data and information to a transmittable, compatible electric signal which is encoded and converted into human readable form at the workstation of an information requester. The scanner rejects improperly oriented microfiche and recognizes microfilm data in a right reading or reversing orientation. An electronic circuit presents the data to the system'"'"'s buffer in the right reading orientation regardless of a right or reverse reading input from microfiche. The scanner/digitizer regulates scanning speed in conformity with the data rate and capability of the transmission line to absorb the data. A microprocessor master module performs various functions with only minor hardware changes.
147 Citations
15 Claims
- 1. An information system for storage, retrieval, and generation of information from a plurality of multimedia sources, comprising an image-acquisition system, an electronic processing system, and a display workstation having a plurality of output modules, said electronic processing system including a serial input port module for receiving data from said image-acquisition system and coupling said data onto a local system bus, a program module coupled to said bus for directing the sequence and flow of information between said image-acquisition system and said display workstation via said electronic processing system, said workstation output modules being coupled to said bus, a functional control module coupled to said bus for controlling priority of operation of said workstation output modules coupled to said bus whereby said control module handles bus contention problems, a redundancy reduction module coupled to said bus for controlling the digital data rate of transfer of data through said bus, and a plurality of output port modules coupled to said bus for accessing various additional output modules including memory and communication modules.
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6. An information system for the storage, retrieval, and generation of information for a plurality of multimedia sources, the system elements comprising image-acquisition means, electronic processing means, and a display workstation, said display workstation including two display screens, the first screen for display of high-resolution graphics, the second screen for display of alphanumeric characters, said electronic processing system disposed to process images acquired by said image-acquisition system, said display workstation disposed to display graphics derived from said processed images, said workstation further comprising a local bus, a processor module couped thereto, a plurality of output ports coupled to said bus including high and low-speed ports, an alphanumeric keyboard coupled to said bus, and local memory means coupled to said bus, said keyboard and said memory means cooperating with said processor module for controlling access to said ports, said system elements being connected to a system bus;
- each of said system elements including at least one microprocessor module, a memory, a direct memory access, I/O ports, and bus interrupt control;
said local bus including data lines, address lines, control lines and interrupt lines;
said electronic processing means comprising a plurality of individual modules interfacing with said image-acquisition means and said display workstation, each of said individual modules having means for locally controlling said system, said individual modules being substantially identical. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
- each of said system elements including at least one microprocessor module, a memory, a direct memory access, I/O ports, and bus interrupt control;
Specification