Low cost digital scanners
First Claim
1. A system for generating digital image signals representing an object on a physical medium, comprising:
- (a) a scanner comprising a detector andan analog-to-digital converter, wherein;
the detector generates analog signals representing the object on the physical medium; and
the analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signals to raw digital image signals at a rate of transmission;
(b) a high-speed serial bus coupled to the scanner; and
(c) an external processor external to the scanner and coupled to the high-speed serial bus, wherein the external processor is capable of processing the raw digital image signals at the rate of transmission; and
the high-speed serial bus has a sufficiently high bandwidth and a sufficiently low latency to enable the scanner to transmit the raw digital image signals to the external processor in real time, at the rate of transmission, without prior interim storage in an on-board buffer and without prior processing of the raw digital image signals by an on-board processor, wherein the bandwidth is at least 750 Megabits per second.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A scanner for generating digital image signals representing an object on a physical medium includes a detector and an analog-to-digital converter. The detector generates analog signals representing the object on the physical medium. The analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signals to digital image signals. The scanner is coupleable to an external processor by a high-speed serial bus that enables the scanner to transmit the digital image signals to the external processor without interim storage in an on-board buffer. The external processor may perform various imaging routines on the raw digital image signals from the scanner in real time, eliminating a need for an on-board processor in the scanner.
-
Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A system for generating digital image signals representing an object on a physical medium, comprising:
-
(a) a scanner comprising a detector and an analog-to-digital converter, wherein; the detector generates analog signals representing the object on the physical medium; and
the analog-to-digital converter converts the analog signals to raw digital image signals at a rate of transmission;(b) a high-speed serial bus coupled to the scanner; and (c) an external processor external to the scanner and coupled to the high-speed serial bus, wherein the external processor is capable of processing the raw digital image signals at the rate of transmission; and the high-speed serial bus has a sufficiently high bandwidth and a sufficiently low latency to enable the scanner to transmit the raw digital image signals to the external processor in real time, at the rate of transmission, without prior interim storage in an on-board buffer and without prior processing of the raw digital image signals by an on-board processor, wherein the bandwidth is at least 750 Megabits per second. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A scanner for generating digital image signals representing an object on a physical medium, the object comprising at least one of text and graphics, the scanner comprising:
-
(a) means for generating analog signals representing the object on the physical medium; and (b) means for converting the analog signals to raw digital image signals at a rate of transmission, wherein; the scanner is coupleable to an external means for processing by a high-speed serial bus means; the external means for processing is capable of processing the raw digital image signals at the rate of transmission and comprises means for recognizing characters, means for character-recognition error correction, means for signal compression, and means for color transformation from an RGB format to one of a YUV and YIQ format at the rate of transmission; and the high-speed serial bus has a sufficiently high bandwidth and a sufficiently low latency to enable the scanner to transmit the raw digital image signals to the external means for processing in real time, at the rate of transmission, without prior interim storage in an on-board means for storage and without prior processing of the raw digital image signals by an on-board processing means, wherein the bandwidth is at least 750 Megabits per second. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. In a system comprising a scanner and an external processor, a method for generating digital image signals representing an object on a physical medium, the object comprising at least one of text and graphics, the method comprising the steps of:
-
(a) generating analog signals representing the object on the physical medium; (b) converting the analog signals to raw digital image signals at a rate of transmission (c) transmitting with the scanner the raw digital image signals to an external processor by a high-speed serial bus without prior local interim storage of the raw digital image signals wherein the serial bus has a sufficiently high bandwidth and a sufficiently low latency to enable the scanner to transmit the raw digital image signals to the external processor in real time, at the rate of transmission, wherein the bandwidth is at least 750 Megabits per second; and (d) performing in real time, at the rate of transmission, at least one of the following on the raw digital image signals with the external processor;
character recognition, character-recognition error correction, signal compression, and color transformation from an RGB format to one of a YUV and YIQ format, wherein the scanner is able to transmit the raw digital image signals to the external processor without prior processing of the raw digital image signals by an on-board scanner processor. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
-
Specification