KR20100023218A - High-speed pen-shaped scanner - Google Patents

High-speed pen-shaped scanner Download PDF

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Publication number
KR20100023218A
KR20100023218A KR1020080081871A KR20080081871A KR20100023218A KR 20100023218 A KR20100023218 A KR 20100023218A KR 1020080081871 A KR1020080081871 A KR 1020080081871A KR 20080081871 A KR20080081871 A KR 20080081871A KR 20100023218 A KR20100023218 A KR 20100023218A
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KR
South Korea
Prior art keywords
pen
scanner
light receiving
receiving element
image
Prior art date
Application number
KR1020080081871A
Other languages
Korean (ko)
Inventor
홍영표
Original Assignee
제노젠(주)
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.)
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Publication date
Application filed by 제노젠(주) filed Critical 제노젠(주)
Priority to KR1020080081871A priority Critical patent/KR20100023218A/en
Publication of KR20100023218A publication Critical patent/KR20100023218A/en

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    • 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
    • H04N1/10—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 flat picture-bearing surfaces
    • H04N1/107—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 flat picture-bearing surfaces with manual scanning
    • H04N1/1077—Arrangements for facilitating movement over the scanned medium, e.g. disposition of rollers
    • 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
    • H04N1/10—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 flat picture-bearing surfaces
    • H04N1/107—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 flat picture-bearing surfaces with manual scanning
    • H04N1/1078—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 flat picture-bearing surfaces with manual scanning by moving the scanned medium
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B43—WRITING OR DRAWING IMPLEMENTS; BUREAU ACCESSORIES
    • B43K—IMPLEMENTS FOR WRITING OR DRAWING
    • B43K29/00—Combinations of writing implements with other articles

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Image Input (AREA)
  • Facsimile Scanning Arrangements (AREA)

Abstract

PURPOSE: A high-speed pen-shaped scanner is provided to scan a part of a surface. CONSTITUTION: A housing is formed long like a pen shape. A tip(110) is arranged in the front end of the housing. A lens(124) is formed around the tip. A light receiving element(122) converts light into an electric signal. The light receiving element is an area light receiving element arranged on a plane.

Description

High Speed Pen Scanner {HIGH-SPEED PEN-SHAPED SCANNER}

The present invention relates to a scanner, and more particularly to a pen-shaped scanner capable of scanning at high speed.

Instead of pointing devices or keyboards, which are the common interface between computers and humans, various developments of human-centered interfaces (HCIs) are provided that enable humans, belongings, or other devices or tools used to communicate with a computer. ought. Pens are one of the important items being studied for such HCI development.

The most prominent pen-based HCI is the digital pen. Digital pens have been developed for the purpose of making computers recognize human writing behaviors, and have achieved great results in hardware.

Pen mice begin in an attempt to make the shape of a mouse traditionally used convenient for use and / or portable purposes. In other words, it evolved into a pen-like shape while deforming to various shapes that are convenient to use and / or carry while maintaining the original function of pointing. At present, there is active development to add useful functions in addition to pointing functions.

Meanwhile, a scanner, which is a peripheral device used to input characters or graphics printed on the ground into a computer, is one of the important peripheral devices widely used. The most common type of scanner is a stationary type that is placed on a table and scans the surface of an object to be scanned using a line light receiving element that moves along an image plane. Other forms of roller scanners are also used. Unlike cameras, it is important for scanners to image the ground at a uniform magnification, generally isometric, so that both stationary and roller scanners use line light receivers instead of the area light receivers used in digital cameras. A scanner using a line light receiving device can obtain an image with a uniform magnification without distortion of the image such as lens aberration naturally occurring in the camera, but it takes time to move the light receiving element or the subject along one axis of the scanning area. As a result, the imaging speed is slower than that of the camera.

Stationary or roller scanners are large in size and not portable, and even when only a part of the ground needs to be scanned, it is a hassle to take the necessary images by scanning all the defined scan areas and then cutting them out on the computer. There is a feeling. A two-dimensional barcode scanner is a handy scanner using a camera that captures a dot pattern or an image of a part of the ground, but cannot capture an area outside a predetermined field of view, and designates and scans a specific area within an area of the fixed field of view. Can't.

Recently, HCI developers have noticed that specifying and scanning only some of the characters printed on the page can be very useful in some applications. This scanner is a product developed to scan only the desired portion of the floor of the pen Iris (IRIS pen) TM. The iris pen TM has a pen-like elongated shape, and a line light receiving element used in a stationary or roller scanner is disposed at the tip. The Iris Pen ™ can capture images of a row while using it sideways against a row of characters printed on the ground. According to the Instructions for Iris Pen ™ , the scanning speed, ie the speed of moving the Iris Pen ™ along a line, is limited to within 8 cm per second. This means that if it exceeds 8 cm per second, skip may occur in the captured image beyond the imaging speed of the line light receiving element. If a skip occurs in the image, the captured image becomes useless or an error occurs in subsequent processing such as optical character recognition (OCR). Given that the Iris Pen ™ is a handy scanner that the user must hold and move by hand, the average scan speed that can actually be used will be well below 8 cm per second. The manual movement speed is not constant and partly different because image skipping will occur at locations where the instantaneous speed exceeds 8 cm per second. Therefore, it is necessary to scan at a much slower speed so that the maximum instantaneous speed does not exceed 8 cm per second. It is difficult for the Iris Pen ™ to dramatically improve the scanning speed unless the imaging speed of the line light receiving device is dramatically increased.

The present invention seeks to provide a pen-shaped handy scanner that can scan only a portion of the ground.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a high speed pen scanner having a scanning speed of practically useful degree.

In addition, the present invention is to provide a pen scanner having a unique pen function.

The scanner according to the present invention comprises a housing having a pen-shaped elongated shape, a tip disposed at the tip of the housing, a lens formed near the tip, and a light incident from the field of view of the lens. And a light receiving element for converting into a signal, wherein the light receiving element is an area light receiving element arranged in a plane.

Preferably, the tip comprises a ball in rolling contact with the ground.

Preferably, the apparatus further includes a pressure sensing switch which is operated by the pressure applied to the tip when the tip is pressed against the scan object.

Preferably, the apparatus further includes a light source for illuminating the object to be scanned.

Using the scanner according to the present invention, it is possible to scan only a portion desired by the user on the ground. For example, an image of the line can be easily obtained by placing a tip under the line to be scanned among the characters printed on the paper and underlining with a pen. The acquired image can be used in various applications through subsequent processing such as OCR.

The scanner according to the invention can scan at a high speed, which is practically sufficiently useful. For example, assuming that the light receiving area of the area light receiving element used in the scanner has an aspect ratio of 4: 3 and an image pickup speed of 100 frames per second, and scans a 1 cm wide ground, the maximum scanable per second The distance can be calculated as

Max Scan Distance = Scan Width × Aspect Ratio × Image Speed

= 1 × ¾ × 100 = 75 cm

In other words, if the scanner according to the present invention has a sufficient processing speed of a device for subsequent processing such as a processor, it means that the scanner can scan at a high speed about 10 times faster than a conventional pen scanner using a line light receiving element.

The scanner according to the present invention not only can be easily carried like a pen, but can also be used for writing like an ink pen, and thus has a condition as a wearable PC.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a view schematically showing the appearance of a pen scanner 100 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The pen scanner 100 housing according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is thin and elongated to be convenient to hold and use in one hand with a pen grip method.

The tip of the housing of the pen scanner 100 is formed with a pen nib 110 that can move against the ground. The nib 110 may be formed only in the form of a pointed tip, or may be formed of a ball nib for minimizing friction with the ground. The nib 110 may be a regular nib or ball nib that deposits ink on the ground, or may be a dummy nib for targeting only the locations where the pen scanner 100 will scan.

An area light receiving element 122 is disposed in the housing of the pen scanner 100 near the pen tip 110. The nib 110 facilitates moving the scanner 100 along a desired position on the ground while maintaining a substantially constant distance between the light receiving element 122 and the ground.

2 is a schematic diagram illustrating internal components of a pen scanner 100 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, the pen scanner 100 according to the present invention includes an area light receiving element 122. The area light receiving element 122 is configured of an image sensor that converts light into an electrical signal, for example, a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). The area light receiving element 122 is used in a digital camera or a webcam, and is a light receiving element in which a plurality of pixels (ie, light receiving elements) are arranged to form a rectangle having a predetermined aspect ratio, and a rectangular field of view formed through the lens 124. The image of the subject inside is imaged.

The light receiving element 122 and the lens 124 have a position and orientation relative to the pen tip 110 so as to capture the ground at a position to be determined in detail below. The length of the nib 110 and the positions of the light receiving element 122 and the lens 124 are determined depending on the size of the light receiving element 122, the scan width, and the imaging angle of the lens 124. In the preferred embodiment, the lens 124 is configured as a single convex lens to reduce the unit cost. In the lens 124 composed of a single convex lens, as the imaging angle is widened, lens aberration in which the captured image at the portion incident through the edge of the lens 124 is distorted becomes more severe. Therefore, the size of the imaging angle of the lens 124 is advantageously limited to an appropriate degree. When the imaging angle of the lens 124 is determined, the depth of field, that is, the distance of the lens 124 from the ground is determined according to the size of the image to be captured, that is, the scan width. The distance of the lens 124 in the pen scanner 100 is determined by the distance and the length of the pen tip 110. The position of the light receiving element 122 from the lens 124 is determined by the focal length of the lens 124.

In a preferred embodiment, the barrel of the lens 124 and the light receiving element 122 are assembled in a screwed manner, and are configured to telescopic focus adjustment by rotating the barrel. In the preferred embodiment, the pen scanner 100 is configured with the depth of field of the lens 124 fixed, so there is no need to readjust the adjusted focus. However, if desired, it may be configured to adjust the scan width by adjusting the depth of field in a manner that stretches the length of the nib 110 or changes the position of the lens 124. At this time, the mechanism may be configured to automatically adjust the focus in conjunction with the expansion and contraction of the length of the nib 110 or the position change of the lens 124.

In the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment, the scan width may be adjusted by the driving software of the pen scanner 100 or an application program for subsequent processing. The drive software of the pen scanner 100 may ignore the image pickup signal acquired at a portion of the edge of the light receiving element 122 to adjust the scan width within the predetermined maximum scan width. The application for subsequent processing ignores some of the images near the top and / or bottom of the image acquired by the pen scanner 100 before or after subsequent processing.

In order to capture a good image, an appropriate amount of light must be incident on the light receiving element 122. The incident light amount is a function relationship depending on the brightness of the subject, ie the ground, the exposure time per frame, and the aperture of the lens 124 or the aperture. In the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment, the aperture and the shutter are not used to reduce the unit cost and simplify the apparatus. Therefore, the lens 124 is always open to a predetermined aperture. Therefore, the light receiving element 122 is always in the exposure state, and the exposure time per frame is adjusted by the time for acquiring the electrical signal converted by the light receiving element. The electrical signal acquisition time is controlled by the drive software that controls the operation of the devices. The exposure time per frame is advantageously controlled as short as possible due to the characteristics of the scanner which should image the relatively moving subject at a relatively high speed. This is because a long exposure time causes blurring of the captured image. On the other hand, the aperture of the lens 124 is limited for miniaturization of the scanner. Given the limited exposure time and limited lens aperture as much as possible, the brightness of the ground should be bright to obtain an adequate amount of incident light to capture a good image. Given the exposure time and lens aperture of the pen scanner 100 in accordance with the preferred embodiment, the brightness of the ground in normal daylight conditions is somewhat lacking. Accordingly, the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment includes an illumination light source 126 for illuminating the ground. The illumination light source 126 is constructed and arranged to illuminate the field of view of the lens 124, ie, the portion of the ground to be imaged, as uniformly as possible. In order to achieve uniform and natural lighting, it is advantageous that the illumination light source 126 is configured to emit indirect or scattered light, rather than direct sunlight on the ground.

FIG. 3 shows an image capturing area, that is, a field of view of the area light receiving element 122 which meets the ground when the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is held in a hand with the pen nib 110 held on the ground. 320 is shown. The field of view 320 is determined by the position and orientation of the light receiving element 122 and the lens 124 with respect to the pen tip 110 described above.

Although the field of view 320 of the area light receiving element 122 is preferably formed directly above the contact point 310 of the nib 110 with respect to the ground as shown in FIG. 3, the configuration of the present invention is such a field of view 320. It is not limited by location. As shown in FIGS. 3A to 3E, the field of view 320 of the area light receiving device 122 may be formed at various positions such as the upper left, upper right, left, right, and bottom of the contact point 310 of the nib 110. That is, the pen scanner 100 having a positional relationship between the nib 110 and the field of view 320 as shown in FIG. 3 moves the pen scanner 100 by moving the pen scanner 100 under the pen to underline the row to be scanned. You can scan. Meanwhile, the pen scanner 100 having a positional relationship between the nib 110 and the field of view 320 illustrated in FIGS. 3A to 3E may be used to place the pen scanner 100 in a line above or in the middle of a row to be scanned. You can scan that row by moving it. The pen scanner 100 having a positional relationship according to this variation may be advantageous according to a user's habit, preference, use of the scanner, and the like.

The pen scanner 100 according to the present invention is for scanning an image of a long rectangular area having a width corresponding to one or more rows of a document or a book. Although the vertical length of the field of view 320 of the area light receiving element 122 shown in FIG. 3 or FIGS. 3A to 3E corresponds to the width of the region to be scanned, the horizontal length is one tenth of the length of the region to be scanned. It is only.

In the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2, the scanning area is extended using an image stitching technique. In other words, by photographing a plurality of images while moving the pen scanner 100 to the side, by comparing the vertical pixel arrangement of the adjacent images to join the two images at the corresponding position, by deleting the overlapping portion One elongated approximately rectangular image is obtained.

4 illustrates an example image obtained by capturing an image of a book using a pen scanner 100 configured as illustrated in FIG. 2, and then bonding the same by using the image stitching technique described above. The jagged edges in the transverse direction in the image of FIG. 4 indicate that a plurality of images are obtained by joining by image stitching techniques.

The pen tip 110 makes it easy to move the pen scanner along an area to be scanned by the user in the process of capturing an image while moving the pen scanner 100 sideways. That is, in the pen scanner 100 in which the field of view 320 of the area light receiving element 122 is disposed above the pen tip, as shown in FIG. 3, the user grabs the pen scanner 100 and the left end of the row to scan the pen tip. At the bottom, an elongated approximately rectangular image as shown in FIG. 4 can be obtained by moving to the right underlined the row to be scanned. In scanning a row of books, approximately 100 images are captured and stitched.

Before stitching, it is preferable that a process for correcting distortion due to lens aberration of the image picked up by the light receiving element 122 is performed. Since the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment is used in a state in which the imaging angle, the depth of field, the focal length, and the lens aperture are fixed, it is possible to correct all the plurality of images captured in the same manner. Although the depth of field and the imaging angle of the subject change slightly due to the change of the angle of the pen scanner 100 according to the movement of the user's hand in the process of use, in order to achieve the purpose of stitching a plurality of consecutive images immediately adjacent to each other. It doesn't have a big impact. As a method of correcting various lens aberrations, techniques well known in the camera field may be used, and thus are not described in detail herein. In addition, it is also possible to collectively apply a correction factor for each pixel determined by contrasting a representative image obtained by such a lens with an image of an actual subject, for a particular lens mass-produced to a certain standard.

In the pen scanner 100 according to the preferred embodiment, the controller 132 controls the operation of various components such as the light receiving element 122 and serves to process an image obtained by the light receiving element 122. Processing of the image involves continuous stitching of the image stitching or straight line image described above. The processing of the image may also include extracting the character from the acquired image in an optical character recognition (OCR) manner.

Although not shown, the pen scanner 100 may include a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD). In addition, although not shown, the pen scanner 100 may include a wired and / or wireless communication port or communication module 136 that may be connected to other machines on various communication networks such as an intranet, the Internet, a wired or wireless telephone network, and the like. There will be. The communication port or communication module 136 may be configured using an appropriate communication protocol such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), Ultra-wideband (UWB), Zigbee, Bluetooth, etc. It may be configured to be connected directly as.

If the pen scanner 100 is configured to be able to connect with other machines on a network, at least some of the various operations relating to image processing and character extraction and use of the extracted characters described above may be distributed on at least one machine. Could be

The controller 136 may be a simple controller that controls the operation of the light receiving element 122, or a programmable logic controller (PLC) that processes at least some of the various operations related to image processing, character extraction, and use of extracted characters described above. Or it could be a central processing unit (CPU).

In addition, the pen scanner 100 may include a power source 138 such as, for example, a rechargeable battery, or may include a memory 134.

In addition, the pen scanner 100 may include a pressure-sensitive switch 112 that is operated by the pressure applied to the nib 110 when the nib 110 is placed on the ground, and the pressure-sensitive switch 112 is provided. When ON, the light is turned on to acquire an image of the light-receiving device 122 scanning the ground, and when the pressure-sensitive switch 112 is OFF, the light may be configured to be turned off.

In the illustrated embodiment, although the microphone 154 and the speaker 152 are shown disposed near the rear end of the pen scanner 100, the pen scanner 100 according to the present invention is such a microphone 154 and the speaker 152. ) Is not limited by the configuration provided.

While the invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments, it is merely illustrative to assist in understanding the purpose, features, and advantages of the invention, and for those of ordinary skill in the art, It will be appreciated that modifications or variations from the illustrated embodiments can be made without departing from the scope of protection of the invention and the spirit of the invention described in the scope. It is to be understood that the scope of the claims is to cover such changes or modifications.

1 is a view schematically showing the appearance of a pen scanner according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the internal components of a pen scanner according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows an imaging area of the pen scanner according to the preferred embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 2.

3A to 3E show exemplary positions of change of the imaging area of the pen scanner shown in FIG.

4 shows an exemplary scan image obtained using a pen scanner according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2.

Claims (4)

In the scanner, The housing is elongated in the shape of a pen, A tip disposed at the tip of the housing, A lens having a field of view formed near the tip, It includes a light receiving element for converting the light incident from the field of view of the lens into an electrical signal, And the light receiving element is an area light receiving element arranged in a plane. The method according to claim 1, And the ball comprises a ball in cloud contact with the ground. The method according to claim 1, And a pressure sensing switch actuated by the pressure applied to the tip when the tip is placed on the object to be scanned. The method according to claim 1, The scanner further comprises a light source for illuminating the object to be scanned.
KR1020080081871A 2008-08-21 2008-08-21 High-speed pen-shaped scanner KR20100023218A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
KR1020080081871A KR20100023218A (en) 2008-08-21 2008-08-21 High-speed pen-shaped scanner

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
KR1020080081871A KR20100023218A (en) 2008-08-21 2008-08-21 High-speed pen-shaped scanner

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
KR20100023218A true KR20100023218A (en) 2010-03-04

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Family Applications (1)

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KR1020080081871A KR20100023218A (en) 2008-08-21 2008-08-21 High-speed pen-shaped scanner

Country Status (1)

Country Link
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