Portable document scanner having user interface and integrated communication means
First Claim
1. A portable document scanner comprising:
- an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image;
a processor;
a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services;
a user interface adapted to permit a user to select and to interact with software processes being executed by said processor; and
a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions including instructions that, when processed, cause said processor to (a) extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids, (b) communicate semaphore data to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port, and (c) perform image processing operations on the scan image, said image processing operations including at least one of auto cropping, scaling, rotating to deskew, background enhancement, image format conversion, despeckling, and modifying a histogram of the scan image under user control via said user interface.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A portable document scanner (PDS) is provided that need not be in communication with a local computer. The PDS includes an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image, a processor, a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services, and a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor to locally process the scan image. Such processing includes, for example, extracting identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids. The extracted semaphore data is communicated to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port. The processing operations may be managed by the user through an integrated display interface.
20 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A portable document scanner comprising:
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an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image; a processor; a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services; a user interface adapted to permit a user to select and to interact with software processes being executed by said processor; and a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions including instructions that, when processed, cause said processor to (a) extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids, (b) communicate semaphore data to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port, and (c) perform image processing operations on the scan image, said image processing operations including at least one of auto cropping, scaling, rotating to deskew, background enhancement, image format conversion, despeckling, and modifying a histogram of the scan image under user control via said user interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A portable document scanner comprising:
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an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image; a processor; a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services; and a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions including instructions that, when processed, cause said processor to extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids, and further including instructions that, when processed, cause said processor to communicate semaphore data to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port and to process the scan image to automatically append to the semaphore data further data including geolocation information related to the scan image.
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7. A portable document scanner comprising:
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an image scanner for scanning an input document to generate a scan image; a processor; a wireless communications port that enables wireless communications with remote computing services; and a memory that stores instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions including instructions that, when processed, cause said processor to extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids, and further including instructions that, when processed, cause said processor to communicate semaphore data to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port and to detect the availability and connectivity state of the wireless communications port. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A method of scanning a document with a portable document scanner, comprising:
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scanning the document with an image scanner to generate a scan image; processing the scan image, using a processor, to extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids; enabling a user to select and to interact with software processes being executed by said processor via a user interface of the portable document scanner; communicating the semaphore data to a remote computing service via a wireless communications port of the portable document scanner, and enabling a user to select, via said user interface, image processing operations to be performed on the scan image, said image processing operations including at least one of auto cropping, scaling, rotating to deskew, background enhancement, image format conversion, despeckling, and modifying a histogram of the scan image. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of scanning a document with a portable document scanner, comprising:
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scanning the document with an image scanner to generate a scan image; processing the scan image, using a processor, to extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids; processing the scan image, using said processor, to automatically append to the semaphore data further data including geolocation information related to the scan image; and communicating the semaphore data and geolocation information to a remote computing service via a wireless communications port of the portable document scanner.
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14. A method of scanning a document with a portable document scanner, comprising:
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scanning the document with an image scanner to generate a scan image; processing the scan image, using a processor, to extract identity, position, and/or orientation of one or more optical semaphores from the scan image, where the extracted semaphores include (1) optical characters including letters, numerals, and/or punctuation, (2) informational indicia including bar codes, data graphs, pictures, and/or icons, and/or (3) document formatting indicators including lines, bars, arrows, and/or grids; detecting, using said processor, the availability and connectivity state of a wireless communications port of the portable document scanner; and communicating the semaphore data to a remote computing service via the wireless communications port of the portable document scanner. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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Specification