Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/04—Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa
  • H04N1/19—Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using multi-element arrays
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/40—Picture signal circuits
  • H04N1/40056—Circuits for driving or energising particular reading heads or original illumination means
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N25/00—Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof
  • H04N25/40—Extracting pixel data from image sensors by controlling scanning circuits, e.g. by modifying the number of pixels sampled or to be sampled
  • H04N25/41—Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors

Definitions

• the invention relates to an electronic image sensor and a method for evaluation according to the preamble of claims 1 or 14.
• Generic image sensors are referred to as line sensors and are made up of a large number of light-sensitive pixels which are arranged along a line.
• the individual pixels convert light input signals into electrical output signals and thereby allow electronic evaluation of the image information recorded with the image sensor.
• Such line sensors are used, for example, in the inspection of printed products, in particular in the inspection of value notes.
• the required number of pixels of the line sensor essentially depends on the width of the object to be recorded and the resolution with respect to the object required for the application. Since the width of the object to be photographed can vary greatly depending on the application and smaller and smaller structures should be detectable, high-resolution special sensors are used according to the prior art, which, however, cause high procurement costs.
• DE 40 24 618 A1 discloses a device for recording surface information with several sensors, each of which is assigned a lens device. The surface information is supplied to these lens devices by means of beam splitting devices.
• JP 63-240261 A shows two CCD line sensors, each of which is assigned an optical system and whose image areas overlap. These overlapping image areas are stored and read selectively from the memory.
• the invention has for its object to provide an electronic image sensor and a method for evaluation.
• the invention is based on the basic idea of replacing the costly special sensor with the desired line width by a combination of several individually controllable and evaluable individual sensors.
• Such individual sensors are available as standard components and are therefore relatively inexpensive.
• the number of individual sensors can be varied in order to ensure the required sensor width overall.
• Each of the individual sensors is equipped with its own optics for imaging an image area.
• the individual sensors are arranged next to one another in the direction of their longitudinal axis, a certain distance being present between the individual sensors, depending on the application.
• all individual sensors are then controlled and evaluated jointly by an evaluation device, so that the image information received in the evaluation device corresponds to the image information as would be provided by a special sensor with a corresponding width.
• All of the individual sensors are arranged on a common carrier element in order to ensure that the individual sensors are sufficiently precisely aligned with one another using simple means.
• This carrier element can in particular be designed as an electronic circuit board on which the individual sensors are fitted.
• part of the control and evaluation electronics of the evaluation device can also be provided on the electronics board.
• the individual sensors are designed as partially readable sensors. With these partially readable sensors, it is possible to hide individual pixels of each individual sensor as a function of their respective geometric arrangement in the individual sensor. If, for example, it is known that no relevant image information is to be expected in a certain image section, this image area can be masked out by correspondingly controlling the partially readable sensors, so that the image data to be evaluated in the evaluation device are reduced accordingly.
• color information can also be recorded and passed on to the evaluation device.
• CMOS sensors Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors
• CMOS sensors are particularly suitable for forming image sensors according to the invention, since they are available at a very favorable price / performance ratio.
• CMOS sensors have an image structure corresponding to a memory chip, so that individual pixels such as memory cells can be queried. It is therefore only necessary to read out picture elements that are actually to be evaluated.
• the image sensor can be arranged at a distance relative to the object to be recorded, so that the image areas of the object to be recorded that can be detected by the individual sensors overlap at least slightly.
• the overlapping areas which are then recorded twice by adjacent individual sensors, can then be filtered out again in the evaluation device using appropriate evaluation algorithms.
• FIG. 1 shows the schematic structure of an image sensor in a first operating state
• FIG. 2 shows the image sensor according to FIG. 1 in a second operating state.
• the image sensor 01 shown in FIG. 1 has four individual sensors 02; 03; 04 and 06, which are equipped on a common electronics board 07. Each of the individual sensors 02; 03; An optical system 08 is assigned to 04 and 06, through which an object 09 to be recorded can be imaged along a line on the individual sensors 02 to 06.
• the individual sensors, 02; 03; 04 and 06, the optics 08 and the object 09 to be recorded are each arranged on a straight line according to FIG. 1.
• the image areas of the object 09 to be recorded are located directly opposite each optics 08.
• the properties of the optics 08 and the distance between the image sensors 01 and the object 09 to be recorded are selected such that, on the one hand, the The entire width of the object 09 to be recorded can be imaged on the individual sensors 02 to 06 and, on the other hand, the image areas that can be detected by the individual sensors 02 to 06 each have at least a slight overlap.
• Each of the individual sensors 02 to 06 is constructed from a large number of pixels arranged side by side, which can be controlled individually depending on their geometric arrangement. This allows selective masking of individual image areas in order to reduce the amount of image data to be processed.
• the object 09 to be recorded has two important features 11 and 12, the presence and geometric position of which is to be evaluated by the evaluation device.
• the other areas of the object 09 to be recorded are irrelevant for the evaluation.
• the pixels of the individual sensors 02 to 06 are selectively read out. Since there are no important features in the image area of the object 09 to be recorded by the individual sensor 06, the pixels of the individual sensor 06 are not read out at all, so that the corresponding image area is completely hidden.
• the necessary parameters for the image field restriction can be specified to the image sensor by the evaluation device.
• the important feature 12 of the object 09 to be recorded is from recorded the middle pixel of the individual sensor 04. Accordingly, only the middle pixels of the individual sensor 04 are read out, whereas the pixels arranged on the left and right edges of the individual sensor 04 are hidden.
• the important feature 11 is located on the object 09 in such a way that it is partially picked up by the individual sensors 02 and 03. Since only the position of the feature 11 is of interest, the individual sensors 02 and 03 are controlled in such a way that only the pixels on the left edge are read in the individual sensor 02 and only the pixels on the right edge in the individual sensor 03. All other pixels of the individual sensors 02 and 03 are not read out, so that the corresponding image areas of the object 09 are hidden.
• the overlap area is calculated out and the image data is also converted in such a way that the data to be evaluated correspond to the geometric shape of the feature 11.
• FIG. 2 shows the image sensor 01 in a second operating state.
• this operating state all pixels of the individual sensors 02 to 06 are read out, so that a line is recorded and evaluated over the entire width of the object 09 to be recorded.
• the recording areas of the individual sensors 02 to 06 overlap slightly in order to exclude gaps in the recording area of the image sensor 01 as a whole.
• the image sensor passes each pixel on the entire scanning line only once to the subsequent evaluation device.
• the resolution can also be reduced in partial areas of the entire scanning line by reading out subpixels (gaps are left between the read pixels).
• subpixels are left between the read pixels.
• areas of different importance can be read out here with full or reduced resolution.
• the image sensor can be used in particular for the inspection of printed products.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Image Input (AREA)
• Transforming Light Signals Into Electric Signals (AREA)
• Solid State Image Pick-Up Elements (AREA)
• Testing, Inspecting, Measuring Of Stereoscopic Televisions And Televisions (AREA)
• Studio Devices (AREA)
• Image Processing (AREA)
• Facsimile Heads (AREA)
• Length Measuring Devices By Optical Means (AREA)
• Facsimile Scanning Arrangements (AREA)

Priority Applications (2)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Related Child Applications (2)

Publications (1)

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Citations (4)

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• 2002
  • 2002-02-26 DE DE10208289A patent/DE10208289C1/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2003
  • 2003-02-22 AU AU2003223835A patent/AU2003223835A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-02-22 EP EP04104411A patent/EP1503569A3/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2003-02-22 US US10/504,319 patent/US7391441B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-02-22 CN CNB03804708XA patent/CN100338935C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-02-22 EP EP04104410A patent/EP1501276A3/de not_active Ceased
  • 2003-02-22 WO PCT/DE2003/000570 patent/WO2003073745A1/de active Application Filing
  • 2003-02-22 RU RU2004124528/09A patent/RU2305912C2/ru not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2003-02-22 JP JP2003572290A patent/JP4416513B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-02-22 EP EP03720128A patent/EP1479217A1/de not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (4)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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