GB2244188A - Portable facsimile machine - Google Patents

Portable facsimile machine Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2244188A
GB2244188A GB9011138A GB9011138A GB2244188A GB 2244188 A GB2244188 A GB 2244188A GB 9011138 A GB9011138 A GB 9011138A GB 9011138 A GB9011138 A GB 9011138A GB 2244188 A GB2244188 A GB 2244188A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
facsimile machine
portable facsimile
speed
document
wheeling
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB9011138A
Other versions
GB9011138D0 (en
Inventor
Mike Yu
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Copam Electronics Corp
Original Assignee
Copam Electronics Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Copam Electronics Corp filed Critical Copam Electronics Corp
Priority to GB9011138A priority Critical patent/GB2244188A/en
Publication of GB9011138D0 publication Critical patent/GB9011138D0/en
Publication of GB2244188A publication Critical patent/GB2244188A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/04Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa
    • H04N1/047Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N1/0476Indicating the scanning velocity
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/04Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa
    • H04N1/047Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N1/0473Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position in subscanning direction, e.g. picture start or line-to-line synchronisation
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/04Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa
    • H04N1/10Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using flat picture-bearing surfaces
    • H04N1/107Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using flat picture-bearing surfaces with manual scanning
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N2201/00Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
    • H04N2201/04Scanning arrangements
    • H04N2201/047Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N2201/04701Detection of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N2201/0471Detection of scanning velocity or position using dedicated detectors
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N2201/00Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
    • H04N2201/04Scanning arrangements
    • H04N2201/047Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N2201/04701Detection of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N2201/04715Detection of scanning velocity or position by detecting marks or the like, e.g. slits
    • H04N2201/04724Detection of scanning velocity or position by detecting marks or the like, e.g. slits on a separate encoder wheel
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N2201/00Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
    • H04N2201/04Scanning arrangements
    • H04N2201/047Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N2201/04701Detection of scanning velocity or position
    • H04N2201/04734Detecting at frequent intervals, e.g. once per line for sub-scan control

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Facsimile Scanning Arrangements (AREA)
  • Facsimiles In General (AREA)

Abstract

A portable facsimile machine which scans a document to be transmitted by being manually moved over the document includes a pair of wheeling mechanisms 20 disposed at a forward and a rearward position in a case of the facsimile machine to provide a stable support, speed encoder mechanism 30, which links to the forwardly positioned wheeling mechanism via a gear train mechanism 26, 27, 28, and cooperates with a speed indicator mechanism 40 to indicate the speed of the machine relative to the document by lighting one or more light element sources 42 of the speed indicator mechanism. and a pair of ratchet mechanisms 50 which cooperate with the forwardly positioned wheeling mechanism to permit the facsimile machine to move only in a forward direction. <IMAGE>

Description

TITLE: PORTABLE FACSIMILE MACHINE This invention relates to facsimile machines which are of limited physical size and weight. Particularly, this invention relates to a portable facsimile machine of facsimile signals. The portable facsimile machine of the present invention scans the contents of a document by being manually pushed over the document via machine rollers, and stores the signals in a built-in memory for later processing. namely, sending them out via a telephone line, to other receiving devices.
Facsimile machines capable of operating as a transmitter/receiver of document information are well known and widely utilized. Generallv, the data transmission system consists of a scanner a compressor which compresses the video output of the scanner, a transmit buffer for temporarily storing therein the data to be transmitted and a line through which the output of the transmit buffer is transmitted to the modem. Since the data transmission system is not directly related to the present invention further description thereof will not be made in the specification. Similarly, the construction and operation of the data reception system per se are not part of the present invention and will not be further described herein.
While the reduction in weight and physical size of these facsimile machines has been achieved to a certain degree, they are however still not portable. For those circumstances such as when traveling to a site where there is no facsimile machine available, the shortcomings of conventional facsimile machines are more apparent.
To obviate the inconvenience of the conventional facsimile machine, the present invention proposes a portable facsimile machine which scans the contents or images of a document by manually pushing the former over the latter. The scanned images read by a contact image sensor are compressed and stored in a known manner, and then the stored data can be transmitted to a modem through a line in a manner also familiar to those skilled in the art.
The speed of the scanning operation of the portable facsimile machine of the present invention must be performed in a controlled manner in order that the scanned image is reliably read. So that the user may visually aware of the scanning speed of the portable facsimile machine, a speed encoder means is provided in cooperation with a speed indicator means, such as a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), for indication of the speed of the portable facsimile machine relative to the document b the lighting of one or more light element sources of the speed indicator means.The speed encoder means comprises a speed encoder disk in cooperation with a photo-coupler, wherein the speed encoder disk is designed to be turnable in response to the movement of the portable facsimile machine over the document, the photo-coupler thereby sensing the turning speed of the speed encoder disk and turning on a predetermined number of the light element sources.
Further, in order to enhance the directional stability of the portable facsimile machine itself during the scanning of the contents of the document, a pair of wheeling means are provided at a forward and a rearward positions inside the case of the portable facsimile machine in accordance with the present invention. The wheeling means comprises a shaft which is rotatably mounted in the case and fixedly carries a plurality of rollers so that the shaft and the rollers will rotate together. The pair of wheeling means thus support the portable facsimile machine to form a predetermined distance between the bottom surface of the case of the machine and a supporting plane of the document for a contact image sensor to perform its normal scanning operation.
To prevent inadvertent backward movement of the portable facsimile machine of the present invention during scanning operation, a pair of ratchet mechanisms are provided to permit the portable facsimile machine to move only in one direction. The pair of ratchet mechanisms, which are preferably disposed on the forwardly positioned wheeling means, each comprises a ratchet wheel coaxially fixed on one of the two ends of the shaft, and a ratchet pawl pivotally mounted in the case of the portable facsimile machine. As can be understood from the above construction, the ratchet pawl permits the ratchet wheel to turn only in one direction; i.e., the portable facsimile machine moves unidirectionally.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a portable facsimile machine in which image to be transmitted is scanned by passing the portable facsimile machine over a document.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a portable facsimile machine which during scanning images will operate in a directionally stable manner by the use of a pair of wheeling means disposed at a forward and a rearward positions in the case of the portable facsimile machine and which is constrained to advance in a forward direction only by the use of a pair of ratchet means disposed on the forwardly positioned wheeling means thereby preventing inadvertent backward movement of the portable facsimile machine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable facsimile machine comprising speed indicator means in cooperation with speed encoder means for visual indication of the speed of the portable facsimile machine relative to the document during its scanning operation.
These and additional objects, if not set forth specifically herein, will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the portable facsimile machine of this invention, wherein the case is shown to be transparent for convenience of description and increased clarity:: Fig. 2 is cross-sectional vieFi taken along line 2 of the portable facsimile machine of Fig. 1, showing particularly the gear train means provided for interconnecting the wheeling means to the speed encoder means in accordance with the present invention; Figs. 3(are) show the speed indicator means by displaying different proportions of its given maximum speed at which the portable facsimile machine of this invention is moving during its scanning operation; Fig. 4 is a simplified block diagram for explaining the principle of the photo-coupler of this invention; and Fig. 5 is a block diagram for explaining the principle of the portable facsimile machine of the present invention.
As shown in Fig. 1, which illustrates the internal components of the portable facsimile machine and which, for the purpose of clarity, depicts the case as transparent, a speed indicator means 40 and two buttons 16, 18 are disposed on the case 10 of the machine of this invention. The scanning button 16 disposed on the top surface of the case 10 is continually pressed during scanning of the document (not shown). The transmit button 18 disposed on a side surface of the case 10 will upon being pressed, in accordance with the present invention, send a control signal so that the scanned images stored in the memory will be transferred to a modem for transmission. The speed indicator means 40 will be described in more detail by reference later to Figs. 3(a-e).
Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2. the portable facsimile machine of this invention substantially comprises a case 10, a pair of wheeling means 20, a speed encoder means 30 in cooperation with the speed indicator means 40, and a pair of ratchet mechanisms 50 preferably mounted on the forwardly disposed wheeling means 20. According to this invention a contact image sensor (CIS) 12 for scanning images and a battery 14 acting as a power source required for proper operation of the present portable facsimile machine are also suitably provided within the case 10. The wheeling means 20, the speed encoder means 30 and the speed indicator means 40, and the ratchet mechanism 50 will be described hereinbelow.However, since the CIS 12 and the battery 14 are known elements and are not per se part of this invention, their detailed description unnecessary.
As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the pair of wheeling means 20 are disposed respectively at a forward and a rearward positions inside the case 10 of the portable facsimile machine. Each wheeling means 20 comprises a shaft 22 which is horizontally and rotatably mounted at a suitable position in the case 10. The shaft 22 fixedly carrying a plurality of rollers 24 so that all the rollers 24 turn together with the shaft 22. This ensures that the portable facsimile machine will not deflect from its desired direction of movement during its scanning operation due to the fact that all rollers 24 turn in the same speed as the shaft 22. As can be understood, the pair of wheeling means 20 support the present portable facsimile machine so that a predetermined distance is formed between the bottom surface of the case 10 of the portable facsimile machine and a supporting plane where a document is placed.The construction of the wheeling means 20 thus enhance the directional stability of the portable facsimile machine itself during scanning the contents of the document.
The speed encoder means 30 cooperates with a speed indicator means 40 for indication of the speed of the machine relative to the document by lighting one or more light element sources 42 of the speed indicator means 40. The speed encoder means 30 comprises a speed encoder disk 32 in cooperation with a photo-coupler 34.
The speed encoder disk 32 is turnable by the shaft 22 of the forwardly disposed wheeling means 20 via a gear train means. As can be seen from Figs. 1 and 2, the gear train means comprises a drive gear 26 fixed to the shaft 22 of the wheeling means 20, an intermediary gear 27. and a driven gear 28 suitably supported in the case 10 and engaging with the speed encoder disk 32. The photo-coupler 34 may sense a turning speed of the speed encoder disk 32 and therefore will turn on a predetermined number of said light element sources 42 in response to the turning speed of the speed encoder disk 32. The speed encoder disk and photo-coupler are known to those skilled in this art, and are not per se part of this invention.
The pair of ratchet mechanisms 50 each comprises a ratchet wheel 52 coaxially fixed on one of the two ends of the shaft 22 of the wheeling means 20 and a ratchet pawl 54 pivotally disposed in the case 10 of the portable facsimile machine. As is understood from Fi.
1, the ratchet pawl 54 will permit the ratchet wheel 52 to turn only in one direction. This ensures that the inadvertent backward movement of the portable facsimile machine of the present invention during scanning operation is prevented.
Fig. 3(a-e) shows the light element sources 42, or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), which respectively indicate the speed at which the portable facsimile machine passes over the scanned document. The single one light element source depicted on the right hand side of the LCD in the figures also serves to indicate that the portable facsimile machine is moving over the allowable maximum speed. And, the rest six light element sources grouped on the left hand side are utilized to reflect the moving speed of the machine itself: i.e., the proportion of the LCD which is lit is the same as the proportion of its maximum speed at which the portable facsimile machine is moving. In this embodiment the display can show many quantized speeds.When the display is biank the portable facsimile machine is not moving; when the two-sixths of the display is lit, as shown in Fig. 3(b), the portable facsimile machine is moving at two-sixths of its maximum speed; when the display is fully lit, as shown in Fig. 3(d!, the portable facsimile machine is moving at its maximum speed. As is apparent, when the display is fulls lit including the right side single one light element source, as shown in Fig. 3we), the machine is moving over its allowable maximum speed.
The photo-coupler 34 reads the speed at which the portable facsimile machine is moving. A signal is sent from the photo-coupler 34 to the CPU where it is processed before being sent to the speed indicator means 40 or LCD (see Fig. 4).
The logic circuitry of the portable facsimile machine is shown in Fig. 5. The CPU 60 is the main processor of the system. The memory 62 is used to store the scanned and compressed image for later transmission. The I/O decoder 64 decodes an address sent to it bp the CPU and transmits the chip select signal CSl to the I/O port 68 and the chip select signal CS2 to the LCD 40. The data buffer 66 is used for bi-directional buffering of data. The LCD 40 displays the speed at which the portable facsimile machine is moving. The I/O port 68 interfaces the various I/O devices to the logic circuitry. The RS-232 port 70 provides a communication channel for downloading the contents of the memory to an external computer or transferring data from an external computer to the portable facsimile machine of this invention.
The CPU 60 strobes the Read/Write (R/W) line on the I/O port 68 and and the LCD 40. The LCD 40 will be updated when the CPU writes and the input data is received from the keyboard and the photo coupler 34 via the I/O port 68 when the CPU reads. The CPU 60 sends an address to the I/O decoder 64 which lifts the CS1 line on the I/O port or the CS2 line on the LCD to select which one will be activated by the stroking of the R/W.
This use of the decoder 64 and the R/W and CS1, CS2 lines is well known in the art.
When the portable facsimile machine is scanning the contents or images of a document by continually pressing the scanning button 16 disposed on the top surface of the case 10, the CPU 60 reads the data from the scanning means and then stores it in the memory 62.
Later, when the data is to be transmitted. the user presses the transmit button 18 disposed on the side surface of the case 10. The CPU 60. in its strobing of the I/O port 68, will detect the control signal to transmit the stored data. On receipt of the transmit control signal the CPU 60 reads the data from the memory 62 and transfers it first to the data buffer 66 and then to the modem for transmission.
While the portable facsimile machine is scanning a document, the CPU 60 must, concurrently with reading the scanning means, also read the signal from the photo-coupler 34 and activate the LCD 40 to display the speed at which the portable facsimile machine is moving. The CPU 60 will select the I/O port 68 using the CS1 line, and on the read signal, if there is a signal from the photo-coupler 34, it will be transferred to the LCD 40. The CPU 60 will then use the I/O decoder 64 to select the LCD 40 and on the write signal the LCD 40 will be updated to.display the new signal received from the photo-coupler 34.
While the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that various modifications thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading this specification. Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention disclosed herein is intended to cover all such modifications as shall fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (3)

CLAIMS:
1. A portable facsimile machine being capable of scanning images of a document to be transmitted and having a control circuit capable of storing the scanned images read by a contact image sensor in a memory and transmitting the images via a data buffer to a modem, said portable facsimile machine comprising: wheeling means being disposed at a forward and a rearward positions in a case of the portable facsimile machine respectively, each wheeling means comprising a shaft which is rotatably mounted in said case, said shaft fisedly carrying a plurality of rollers, said wheeling means supporting the portable facsimile machine so that a scanning operation is performed by manually moving the portable facsimile machine over the document; and a pair of ratchet mechanisms for a corresponding wheeling means, each ratchet mechanism being disposed on one of the two ends of said shaft of said wheeling means and comprising a ratchet wheel coaxially fixed on said shaft and a ratchet pawl pivotally disposed in said case of the portable facsimile machine, said ratchet pawl permitting said ratchet wheel to turn only in one direction.
2. A portable facsimile machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising combination of speed encoder means and speed indicator means in responsive to the movement of the portable facsimile machine over the document for indication of the speed of the portable facsimile machine relative to the document by lighting one or more light element sources of said speed indicator means.
3. A portable facsimile machine which scans images to be transmitted by being manually moved over a document, a control circuit capable of storing the scanned images read by a contact image sensor in a memory and transmitting the images via a data buffer to a modem.
said portable facsimile machine comprising: a pair of wheeling means being disposed respectively at a forward and a rearward positions in a case of the portable facsimile machine, each wheeling means comprising a shaft which is rotatably mounted in said case, said shaft fixedly carrying a plurality of rollers, said pair of wheeling means supporting the portable facsimile machine so that a predetermined distance is formed between a bottom surface of said case of the portable facsimile machine and a supporting plane where the document is placed;; a speed encoder means in cooperation with a speed indicator means for indication of the speed of said portable facsimile machine relative to the document by lighting one or more light element sources of said speed indicator means. said speed encoder means comprising a speed encoder disk in cooperation with a photo-coupler, said speed encoder disk being turnable by said shaft of said forwardly disposed wheeling means via a gear train means, said photo-coupler sensing a turning speed of said speed encoder disk and turning on a predetermined number of said light element sources; ; a pair of ratchet mechanisms each comprising a ratchet wheel coaxially fixed on one of the two ends of said shaft of said wheeling means in cooperation with a ratchet pawl pivotally disposed in said case of the portable facsimile machine, said ratchet pawl permitting said ratchet wheel to turn only in one direction.
GB9011138A 1990-05-15 1990-05-15 Portable facsimile machine Withdrawn GB2244188A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9011138A GB2244188A (en) 1990-05-15 1990-05-15 Portable facsimile machine

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9011138A GB2244188A (en) 1990-05-15 1990-05-15 Portable facsimile machine

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB9011138D0 GB9011138D0 (en) 1990-07-04
GB2244188A true GB2244188A (en) 1991-11-20

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GB9011138A Withdrawn GB2244188A (en) 1990-05-15 1990-05-15 Portable facsimile machine

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Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1995028800A1 (en) * 1994-04-19 1995-10-26 Optionexist Limited Portable communication apparatus
EP0827104A2 (en) * 1996-08-24 1998-03-04 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Device and method for displaying scanning speed in hand scanner
GB2386017A (en) * 2002-02-27 2003-09-03 Portable Peripheral Co Ltd Scanner for personal digital assistant

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0146472A2 (en) * 1983-12-19 1985-06-26 Sony Corporation Image input apparatus
EP0168256A2 (en) * 1984-07-12 1986-01-15 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Hand scanner
WO1987007805A1 (en) * 1986-06-12 1987-12-17 Casio Computer, Co., Ltd. Manually scanned image data processor

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0146472A2 (en) * 1983-12-19 1985-06-26 Sony Corporation Image input apparatus
EP0168256A2 (en) * 1984-07-12 1986-01-15 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Hand scanner
WO1987007805A1 (en) * 1986-06-12 1987-12-17 Casio Computer, Co., Ltd. Manually scanned image data processor

Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1995028800A1 (en) * 1994-04-19 1995-10-26 Optionexist Limited Portable communication apparatus
US5854694A (en) * 1994-04-19 1998-12-29 Optionexist Limited Portable communication apparatus
EP0827104A2 (en) * 1996-08-24 1998-03-04 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Device and method for displaying scanning speed in hand scanner
EP0827104A3 (en) * 1996-08-24 2000-06-28 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Device and method for displaying scanning speed in hand scanner
GB2386017A (en) * 2002-02-27 2003-09-03 Portable Peripheral Co Ltd Scanner for personal digital assistant

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
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