WO2002017617A1

WO2002017617A1 - Method and device for continuous digitizing and archiving of photographic films

Info

Publication number: WO2002017617A1
Application number: PCT/IB2000/001169
Authority: WO
Inventors: Armin Wittmann; Werner Graff; Rudolf Gschwind; Anton Gunzinger; Lukas Rosenthaler
Original assignee: Armin Wittmann; Werner Graff; Rudolf Gschwind; Anton Gunzinger; Lukas Rosenthaler
Priority date: 2000-08-25
Filing date: 2000-08-25
Publication date: 2002-02-28
Also published as: AU2000264634A1

Abstract

A method and device for continuous digitizing and archiving of films (1) in full width, including image frames (2), perforations (3), sound tracks (5, 6) and inter-frame areas (7), is disclosed. A digital image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) generated from scanning the film (1) is split into several data substreams (24; 24a, 24b, 24c), each substream (24; 24a, 24b) is switched to at least one of a plurality of computers (28) for caching the substreams (24; 24a, 24b) in parallel, and the cached substreams (24; 24c) are written by the computers (28) in parallel to a plurality of mass storage media (30a). Preferred embodiments refer to: An optimal time management of the parallel computers (28, 25); adding an on-the-fly correction stage (26) and/or processing stage (29); using a tape robot (31) for exchanging written tapes (30a) as needed; parallelizing standard personal computers (25, 28) in a digital network (23, 27) to get high data throughput at reduced cost; implementing a trigger sensor (13) and/or a lateral film strip misalignment sensor (14) based on optical cross-correlation in film strip optical content (2, 5, 6, 7); and providing means for rendering the device independent of film strip and perforation formats.

Description

Method and Device for Continuous Digitizing and Archiving of Photographic Films

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention refers to the field of archiving digitized photographic and in particular cinematographic film strips. The invention is based on the subject-matter as set forth in the preamble of the independent claims .

BACKGROUND ART

In the publication by W. Graff, A. Wittmann, L. Rosentha- ler, A. Gunzinger, and R. Gschwind, "New Scanning Approach for Motion-Picture Digitizing" , in Electronic Imaging: Processing, Printing, and Publishing in Color, Proceedings of SPIE, Europto Series, Vol. 3409, Zurich (1998) , a new scanning and digitization method for cinema films is proposed. In contrast to conventional stepwise frame-by-frame scanning, the film strip is continuously scanned over its entire width, including the non-frame areas, sound tracks and perforations. The film transport is accomplished by frictional force, i.e. by compressing the film strip edges between a drive axle and rubber wheels, instead of using the perforations. The scanner system can be calibrated to correct for the scanner optics and for film movements in the plane of the film strip perpendicular to the scanning direction. On-the-fly data pre-processing, correction of nonlinearities of the scanning process as well as extraction of image sequences can be implemented by software. However, the storage speed of the system is limited by the rate at which data can be written to the mass storage device. It is the object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for continuous digitizing and archiving of films, that is inexpensive, flexible and capable of storing data at sustained high data rate. This object is achieved according to the invention by the sub ect-matter as set forth in the independent claims . The invention resides in a method for digitizing and archiving films, comprising the steps of continuously optically scanning a film strip with image frames and non- image areas, generating from scanned data a digital image data stream, and acquiring the image data stream in a computer-readable format, comprising the further steps of: Splitting the image data stream into several data substreams, switching each substrea to at least one of a plurality of computers for caching the substreams in parallel, and writing by the computers in parallel the cached substreams to a plurality of mass storage media. By parallel switching, caching and writing the image data stream to several mass storage media using several computers simultaneously, the storage of digital data from the scanned film strip is accomplished with high speed at low cost. Thus the bottleneck of a slow storage or packaging stage in the continuous film strip digitization procedure is eliminated.

In a first embodiment the caching of individual substreams is done by using a working memory, such as a RAM me- mory, and/or a fast mass storage or bulk memory, such as a hard disk, of the corresponding computer.

A second embodiment comprises the steps of generating several digital image data streams, acquiring the image data streams in parallel in a computer-readable format, and combining the image data streams for said splitting into substreams. Preferably the image data streams represent different colours and/or different sections of the film strip.

In a third embodiment substreams are switched among the computers such that at any time during the scanning and digitizing of the film strip, at least one computer is receiving and caching a portion of a substream and no computer currently writing a portion of a substream to a mass storage medium is a the same time receiving a porti- on of another substream to be cached. Thereby a continuous substream handling is guaranteed without any need for parallel processing or multi-tasking by the single computers themselves. Thus each computer can work at its maximum data throughput rate . Further embodiments refer to: Using a robot for individually exchanging mass storage media during the scanning and digitizing of the film strip such that a number of simultaneously writing mass storage devices provides a time-averaged writing data rate at least as large as a data rate of the image data stream or streams; deriving correction data characterizing inaccuracies introduced by the scanning procedure and correcting the substreams immediately before storage or storing the correction data for later use e. g. during data retrieval; generating triggering data from a transport movement and/or correction data from an edge movement or an edge orientation of the film strip by optically measuring and calculating changes in film strip content, i. e. without reference to perforations . In a second' aspect the invention resides in a device for digitizing and archiving films, comprising scanning means, including a digitizing camera, for continuously optically scanning a film strip with image frames and non-image areas, and acquisition means for acquiring a digital image data stream in a computer-readable format, wherein computing means for splitting the image data stream into several substreams and for switching each substream to at least one of a plurality of caching computers are provided, the caching computers are programmed for caching the substreams in parallel, and the caching computers are equipped with a plurality of mass storage devices for writing in parallel the cached substreams to a plurality of mass storage media.

In a first embodiment several output channels of a digitizing camera and/or several digitizing cameras are con- nected in a one-to-one fashion to several acquisition means for acquiring several image data streams in parallel in a computer-readable format . Preferably the output channels and/or digitizing cameras are designed for generating data streams that represent different colours and/or different sections of the film strip.

Other preferred embodiments refer to: The computing means comprising at least one digital network with at least one managing host; the caching computers or additional processing computers being programmed for correcting the image data stream and/or the substreams; the caching computers, processing computers and/or managing hosts are mass-produced computing units, such as personal computers; the computing means comprising a first digital network, within which the acquisition means and the correc- ting computers are interconnected via .data links, and a second digital network, within which the correcting computers and the caching computers are interconnected via data links; the mass-storage devices being tape drives and/or optical storage devices contained within a robot, that is in particular designed for handling tapes and/or optical storage media in order to write the cached sub- streams with a sustained data rate of at least 90 Mbytes/s, preferred 500 Mbytes/s and most preferably 2.7 Gbytes/s. Other embodiments concern: A trigger sensor for triggering the digitizing camera, which trigger sensor comprises a trigger camera for optically monitoring changes in film strip content and calculation means for determining from the changes a transport movement of the film strip and therefrom triggering intervals; a movement sensor that comprises an edge camera for monitoring an edge movement and/or an edge orientation of the film strip and calculation means for determining correction data for correcting lateral misalignments introduced by the scanning of the film strip; and calculation means that are designed for performing cross-correlations of subsequent data sets from the trigger and/or edge camera. Such optical content-related trigger and movement sensors render the scanning device independent from perforations that may be distorted, damaged or missing. A cross-correlatio- nal image analysis is particularly useful for determining even minor displacements of the film strip with a high degree of spatial accuracy.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from independent claims and from the description in connection with the accompanying drawings .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings show in

Fig. 1 the structure of a typical photographic cinema film and rectangular-shaped sampling or trigger windows ;

Fig. 2 a -possible arrangement of the digitizing components of the invention including a trigger sensor and a lateral misalignment sensor; Fig. 3a, 3b, 3c a preferable design for a scanning gate having adjustment means for fitting to arbitrary film gauges, shown in top, front and side view;

Fig. 4 a preferable design for guide or drive rollers having adjustment means for fitting to arbitrary film gauges; and

Fig. 5a and 5b an overall system for archiving cinema films comprising a digitizing and acquisition stage, optionally a correction and/or processing stage, a packaging stage and an archiving stage.

In the drawings identical parts are designated by identical reference numerals .

MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Fig. 1 shows a typical cinema film strip 1 having image frames 2, perforation columns 3, edges 4, an optical analogue monosound track 5 and/or an optical digital sound track 6, e. g. between the perforations 3, and inter-frame areas 7. During a transport movement la the film strip 1 is moved across a scanning apparatus taking samples in the rectangular or linewise trigger windows 8. Lateral misalignment movements lb in the plane of the film strip 1 during the scanning procedure shall be compensated for. Fig. 2 shows the scanning mechanics and optics in detail. The film strip 1 is guided by guide rollers 9 and guide edges 10 past a scanning gate 11. The transport movement la is conveyed to the film strip 1 by at least one drive roller 12. A light source 15 with a diffusor 16 produces a homogeneous illumination of the film strip 1 in the gate 11. The light then travels along a light path 15a towards a lens 18 of a digitizing camera 17 having an array of light-sensitive elements 19. Electrical signals from these elements 19 are directed towards a digitizing stage or computing means 20 for signal digitization and data acquisition. Trigger signals for activating the digitizing camera 17 are derived from a trigger sensor 13. Lateral movements lb or edge misorientations of the film strip 1 in the gate 11 are monitored by a movement sensor 14 and used for further processing of the digital data.

Preferably the trigger sensor 13 and/or the movement sensor 14 are optical cross-correlation sensors. They comprise a trigger camera 13 or edge camera 14 that shall be positioned in close proximity to the film strip 1 in the neighbourhood of the gate 11. The camera 13, 14 monitors changes in film strip optical content, such as optical changes originating from passing image frames 2, sound tracks 5, 6 or inter-frame areas 7. The sensors 13, 14 further comprise calculation means for determining from the optical changes either a transport movement la of the film strip 1 and therefrom triggering intervals or correction data for correcting lateral misalignments introduced by the scanning of the film strip 1. In particular, the calculation means calculate cross-correlations of subse- quent data sets delivered by the trigger and/or edge camera 13, 14 and therefrom determine displacement distances along the directions of the film transport movement la or the lateral film movement lb in the plane of the film strip 1. Fig. 3a, 3b and 3c show a scanning gate 11 designed for accepting various film gauges. The guide edges 10 comprise flanges 10a and film carrying areas 10b for safely guiding the film strip 1 along its edges 4 and keeping the film strip 1 flat over its width across the gate 11. The dis- tance between the upper and lower guide edges 10 can be varied over an adjustment range lOd by using adjustment screws 10c or similar adjustment means 10c.

Fig. 4 shows a guide roller 9 and a drive roller 12 that are adjustable to various film gauges independently of the perforations 3. The rollers 9, 12 again comprise flanges 21a and film carrying areas 21b for safely guiding the film strip 1 at its edges 4. The guide roller 9 has an upper and lower bearer wheel 21c mounted on a common axle 21 for supporting the film strip edges 4. The distance bet- ween the upper and lower bearer wheels 21c is adjustable over an adjustment range 21d using suitable adjustment means (not shown) . The guide roller 9 has a coating with low friction for the film strip 1. The drive roller 12 is constructed in essentially the same way as the guide rol- ler 9. However, it has a coating with a high friction for the film strip 1, as known from so-called capstan drives, and preferably has a larger diameter than guide rollers 9, such that the film strip 1 is transported by frictional forces without using film perforations 3. In an optimal arrangement the area of the perforations 3 is used as the contact or guiding area at the rollers 9, 12. The edge guiding is preferable to the capstan drive, wherein the film strip 1 is guided and therefore touched over its en- tire width.

The perforation-independent guide and drive rollers 9, 12 are suitable for the continuous digitization process. Furthermore, they are particularly important for film strips 1 having deteriorated perforations 3 or less common perforation formats. The adjustment ranges are provided in order to adjust the distances between the upper and lower bearer wheels 21c and guide edges 10 to film gauges at least between 8 mm and 70 mm.

Fig. 5a shows a schematic exemplary layout of a system for archiving cinema films 1. A digitizing camera 17 delivers a digital image data stream 22 typically in a camera protocol. The data stream 22 is acquired by acquisition means 20, such as a computer 20 or personal computer 20, in order to transform it into a computer-readable data format. The digitization stage in the camera 17 and the acquisition stage in the computer 20 may also be performed jointly in a common digitization/acquisition unit 17, 20 that forms part of the digital network 27. The digital network 27 further comprises data links for connecting the digi- tization and/or acquisition means 17, 20 to caching computers 28 in a network-like fashion. The image data stream 22 and the data substreams 24 as well as a communication within the digital network 27 are directed by at least one managing host 27a. Thus the image data stream 22 is split by the computing means 27, 27a into a plurality of data substreams 24, that are directed to a number of caching computers 28.^' The computing means 27, 27a may be capable of performing some correcting operations 26 and/or processing operations 29 on the image data stream 22 and/or the data substreams 24. 32 signifies the data packaging or writing stage.

The caching of the substreams 24 is typically done into a working memory, such as a RAM memory, and/or a bulk memory 28a of the caching computer 28. The data substreams 24c are then written at lower speed to mass storage devices 30, such as tape drives 30 and/or optical storage devices 30, loadable with mass storage media 30a, such as tapes 30a or optical storage media 30a. The switching of the substreams 24 shall be performed in such a way that at any time during the scanning and digitizing of the film strip 1, at least one computer 28 is receiving and caching a portion of a substream 24 and no computer 28 currently writing a portion of a substream 24 to a mass storage medium 30a is at the same time receiving a portion of another substream 24 to be cached. The writing speed or time-averaged writing data rate of a number of simultaneously writing mass storage devices 30 shall be chosen at least as large as a sustained data rate of the image data stream or streams 22; 22a, 22b, 22c. For this purpose a suitable number of caching computers 28 or substreams 24 and mass storage devices 30 shall be chosen. As shown in Fig. 5a and 5b, several mass storage devices 30 per caching computer 28 may be provided e. g. for writing safety copies of each cached subtream 24c in parallel.

The acquisition means 20, 20a, 20b, 20c and the computing means 27, 27a, optionally including a robot 31, shall have a sustained data rate of the image data stream or streams 22; 22a, 22b, 22c of at least 90 Mbytes/s, preferred 500 Mbytes/s and most preferably 2.7 Gbytes/s. An image data stream 22; 22a, 22b, 22c of 90 Mbytes/s is sufficient to digitize, acquire, cache, write and archive within 45 hours a colour film with 90 minutes playback time re- corded on a film strip gauge of 35 mm. In order to fully exploit presently available data rates deliverable by digitizing cameras 17 image data rates of several 100 Mbytes/s up to 1 Gbytes/s are desirable. Finally, real time scanning may be achieved, as inferred from the typi- cal example mentioned above, with image data rates above 2.7 Gbytes/s.

Fig. 5b shows an example wherein e. g. three output channels 17a, 17b, 17c of a digitizing camera 17 or three separate digitizing cameras 17a, 17b, 17c are provided for generating three digital image data streams 22a, 22b, 22c that are acquired by three acquisition means 20a, 20b, 20c in parallel and are fed into the data links of a network 23 or 27 managed by a host 23a or 27a as discussed above. The output channels or digitizing cameras 17a, 17b, 17c may represent colours and/or different sections of the film strip 1. The image data streams 22a, 22b, 22c are split by the computing means 23, 23a into a plurality of data substreams 24a, that are directed to a number of par- allel correcting computers 25, possibly equipped with bulk memories 25a, that represent a correction stage 26. In this correction stage 26, the substreams 24a are corrected for optical and/or mechanical inaccuracies introduced by the scanning process described earlier. In particular, da- ta from the movement sensor 14 and/or the trigger sensor 13 can be fed to the correcting computers 25. The corrected data substreams 24b are redistributed in a second digital network 27 comprising the correcting computers 25, interconnecting data links and the caching computers 28, here shown without bulk memories 28a. The second network 27 is again managed by at least one host computer 27a, that may be congruent with the previous host computer 23a. In the second network 27 the same or newly split sub- streams 24, 24b are switched, e. g. in round robin fashion, to a plurality of caching computers 28, that are programmed for caching the substreams 24, 24b in parallel, so a high data throughput rate can be achieved, and that are equipped with a plurality of mass storage devices 30 for writing in parallel the cached substreams 24, 24c to a plurality of mass storage media 30a, such as tapes 30a or optical storage media 30a.

It should be emphasized that the correction stage 26 can be eliminated during data storage and that the image data can be corrected during retrieval. On the other hand, on- the-fly data correction and/or data processing may be done in parallel with caching. This may be exemplified by eliminating in Fig. 5b the second network 27 and connecting e. g. every correction computer 25 directly to one caching computer 28 with its attached storage devices 30. This is favourable with respect to correction and/or processing speed and simplifies retrieval of already corrected and/or processed data.

The second network 27 and the caching computers 28 may al- so represent an optional processing stage 29 for additional data substream processing before caching. This may include extracting from the image data stream 22 or streams 22a, 22b, 22c and/or from the substreams 24, 24a and 24b portions pertaining to the image frames 2 , to perforations 3 , to at least one optical sound track 5, 6 and/or to the inter-frame areas 7 of the film strip 1 for further processing. A packaging stage 32 is represented by the caching computers 28, the mass storage devices 30 and preferably a robot 31 for exchanging written mass storage me- dia 30a for fresh ones, as required not to slow down the digitization and acquisition process 17, 20 and the continuous writing of substream data 24c. The robot 31 may physically contain the mass storage devices 30 for a simplified exchange of the mass storage media 30a. In a final archiving stage 33 the written mass storage media 30a are stored in an ordered manner, preferably by using the robot 31, for later retrieval.

Data retrieval is done analogous to the described data digitization and storage process. The mass storage media 30a are inserted into the storage devices 30, read out and cached by the caching computers 28, possibly processed in computers 28 or 25 and the desired portions are fed to a projection and/or recording system capable of recovering the optical content 2, 5-7 of the original film 1 and, if desired, of the perforations 3. A major objective of data retrieval is the manufacturing of copies e. g. in an analogue or digital video film standard, cinema film standard or any other future standard. Depending on the digitization process, present or future film and/or sound track standards can be supported with very high film resolutions, such as 5000 dpi (dots per inch) for three colours or double that resolution for interpositive films, corresponding to 100-200 linepairs per millimeter. Furthermore, image distortions and/or film shrinkage of the original film strip material may be corrected during the data retrieval by using present or future image correction algorithms .

The digital network 27 or networks 23, 27 with many inex- pensive computers 28 or 25 working in parallel is well suited to handle the enormous data rates occurring during the film strip digitization. Note that extremely high data input rates, data throughput rates and data output rates must be and are accomplished over very long time periods (e. g. days or weeks) in the network configuration according to invention. In contrast, much more expensive conventional supercomputers cannot store data at such high sustained data rates over such long time periods. Therefore, the proposed network solution is advantageous over conventional supercomputers both technically and economically.

The computers for substream management 23a, 27a, the correcting computers 25, that may perform some processing as well, and the caching computers 28 may be any mass- produced computing units 23a, 27a, 25, 28 that comprise each at least a processor and a memory, such as a working memory and/or an attached or internal bulk memory 25a, 28a. Typical inexpensive computing units 23a, 27a, 25, 28 may be standard personal computers or workstations or fragments of personal computers or workstations. At present such computing units 23a, 27a, 25, 28 are characterized by an internal PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) bus that allows limited burst data rates of 133-512 Mbytes/s, but much lower sustained data rates. In the fu- ture the computing units 23a, 27a, 25, 28 shall also include mass-produced computers or computer fragments having a comparable or successor generation of internal bus topology.

By massively parallelizing such cheap computers 23a, 27a, 25, 28 and their attached mass storage devices 30 in a network 23, 27 as described above, the enormous data rates and data loads involved in the continuous digitization and archiving of cinema films 1 can be handled for the first time in a reasonable time, preferably in real time, and at low cost . Through the invention the concept of continuous full-width film digitization, storage, archiving and retrieval is made available for broad public use.

Claims

1. A method for digitizing and archiving films, comprising the steps of continuously optically scanning a film strip (1), that comprises image frames (2) and non-image areas (2, 3, 5-7), generating from scanned data a digital image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c), and acquiring the image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) in a computer-readable data format, characterized by the further steps of a) splitting the image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) into several substreams (24; 24a), b) switching each substream (24; 24b) to at least one of a plurality of computers (28) for caching the substreams (24; 24b) in parallel, and c) writing by the computers (28) in parallel the cached substreams (24; 24c) to a plurality of mass storage media (30a) .

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized by the steps of a) caching each substream (24; 24b) into a working memory, such as a RAM memory, and/or a bulk memory (28a) of the corresponding computer (28) and/or b) generating several digital image data streams (22a, 22b, 22c) , acquiring the image data streams (22a, 22b, 22c) in parallel in a computer-readable data format, and combining the image data streams (22a, 22b, 22c) for the splitting into substreams (24; 24a), wherein in particular the image data streams (22a, 22b, 22c) represent different co- lours and/or different sections of the film strip

(1) , and/or c) providing a sustained data rate of the image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) of at least 90 Mbytes/s, preferred 500 Mbytes/s and most pre- ferably 2.7 Gbytes/s.

3. The method according to one of the previous claims, characterized by the step of switching the substreams (24; 24b) among the computers (28) in such a way that a) at any time during the scanning and digitizing of the film strip (1) , at least one computer (28) is receiving and caching a portion of a substream (24; 24b) and b) no computer (28) currently writing a portion of a substream (24; 24c) to a mass storage medium (30a) is at the same time receiving a portion of another substream (24; 24b) to be cached.

4. The method according to one of the previous claims, characterized by the steps of using at least one robot (31) a) for exchanging written mass storage media (30a) individually for fresh mass storage media (30a) during the scanning and digitizing of the film strip (1) such that a number of simultaneously writing mass storage devices (30) provides a time- averaged writing data rate at least as large as a sustained data rate of the image data stream or streams (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) and b) in particular, for archiving (33) written mass storage media (30a) in an ordered manner.

5. The method according to one of the previous claims, characterized by the steps of a) deriving correction data characterizing inaccuracies introduced by the scanning of the film strip

(1) and b) deriving in parallel by several computers (25, 28) corrected substreams (24b) from original sub- streams (24a) and the correction data and feeding the corrected substreams (24b) into the computers (28) for the caching and writing or c) storing the correction data for later correcting digital image data retrieved from archived mass storage media (30a) .

6. The method according to one of the previous claims, characterized by the steps of a) generating triggering data from a transport movement (la) and/or correction data from an edge movement (lb) or an edge orientation of the film strip (1) by optically measuring and calculating changes in film strip optical content (2, 5, 6, 7) and b) in particular using a camera (13, 14) and cross- correlation of subsequent camera data sets for generating the triggering and/or correction data.

7. The method according to one of the previous claims, characterized by the step of a) additionally processing the image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) and/or the substreams (24; 24a,

24b) before caching and b) in particular extracting from the image data stream (22) and/or the substreams (24; 24a, 24b) portions pertaining to the image frames (2), to perforations (3), to at least one optical sound track (5, 6) and/or inter-frame areas (7) of the film strip (1) for further processing.

8. A device for digitizing and archiving films, in particular for executing the method according to one of the claims 1-7, comprising scanning means (9-12, 15- 19), including a digitizing camera (17; 17a, 17b, 17c) , for continuously optically scanning a film strip (1), that comprises image frames (2) and non- image areas (2, 3, 5-7), and acquisition means (20; 20a, 20b, 20c) for acquiring a digital image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) in a computer-readable data format, characterized in that a) computing means (23a, 23; 27, 27a) for splitting the image data stream (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) into se- veral substreams (24; 24a) and for switching each substream (24; 24b) to at least one of a plurality of caching computers (28) are provided, b) the caching computers (28) are programmed for caching the substreams (24; 24b) in parallel and c) the caching computers (28) are equipped with a plurality of mass storage devices (30) for writing in parallel the cached substreams (24; 24c) to a plurality of mass storage media (30a) .

9. The device according to claim 8, characterized in that a) several output channels (17a, 17b, 17c) of a digi- tizing camera (17) and/or several digitizing cameras (17a, 17b, 17c) are connected in a one-to-one fashion to several acquisition means (20a, 20b, 20c) for acquiring several image data streams (22a, 22b, 22c) in parallel in a computer-readable data format and b) in particular that the output channels and/or digitizing cameras (17a, 17b, 17c) are designed for generating data streams (22a, 22b, 22c) that represent different colours and/or different sec- tions of the film strip (1) .

10. The device according to one of the claims 8-9, characterized in that a) the computing means (23a, 23; 27, 27a) comprise at least one digital network (23, 27), within which the acquisition means (20; 20a, 20b, 20c) and the caching computers (28) are interconnected via data links, and at least one managing host (23a, 27a) for managing the image data stream or streams (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) and the substreams (24; 24a, 24b, 24c) and a communication within the digital network (23, 27), in particular for executing the method according to one of the claims 1-7, and/or b) the caching computers (28) and/or correcting computers (25) are programmed for correcting the image data stream or streams (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) and/or the substreams (24; 24a, 24b) on the fly and/or c) the caching computers (28) and/or correcting computers (25) and/or managing hosts (23a, 27a) are mass-produced computing units (28, 25), such as personal computers (28, 25, 23a, 27a), having at least a processor and a memory, such as^* a working memory and/or a bulk memory (28a, 25a) .

11. The device according to one of the claims 8-10, characterized in that a) the computing means (23a, 23; 27, 27a) comprise a first digital network (23), within which the acquisition means (20; 20a, 20b, 20c) and the correcting computers (25) are interconnected via data links, and a second digital network (27), within which the correcting computers (25) and the caching computers (28) are interconnected via data links, and b) in particular that the image data stream or streams (22; 22a, 22b, 22c) and/or the substreams (24; 24a, 24b, 24c) and a communication within the first . and second digital network (23, 27) are managed by one managing host (23a or 27a).

12. The device according to one of the claims 8-11, characterized in that a) the mass-storage devices (30) are tape drives (30) and/or optical storage devices (30) contained within at least one robot (31) and b) in particular that the robot (31) is designed for handling tapes (30a) and/or optical storage media

(30a) in order to write the cached substreams (24; 24c) with a sustained data rate of at least

90 Mbytes/s, preferred 500 Mbytes/s and most preferably 2.7 Gbytes/s.

13. The device according to one of the claims 8-12, characterized in that a) a trigger sensor (13) for triggering the digitizing camera (17; 17a, 17b, 17c) comprises a trigger camera (13) for monitoring changes in film strip optical content (2, 5, 6, 7) and calculation means for determining from the changes a transport movement (la) of the film strip (1) and triggering intervals and/or b) a movement sensor (14) comprises an edge camera

(14) for monitoring an edge movement (lb) and/or an edge orientation of the film strip (1) and calculation means for determining correction data for correcting lateral misalignments introduced by the scanning of the film, strip (1) and c) in particular that the calculation means are designed for performing cross-correlations of subsequent data sets delivered by the trigger camera (13) and/or the edge camera (14) .

14. The device according to one of the claims 8-13, characterized in that a) the scanning means (9-12, 15-19) comprise guide rollers (9) and at least one drive roller (12), wherein each roller (9, 12) has an upper and lower bearer wheel (21c) mounted on a common axle (21) for supporting the film strip (1) at its edges (4) and wherein a distance between the bearer wheels (21c) is adjustable to a variety of film gauges and/or b) the scanning means (9-12, 15-19) comprise upper and lower guide edges (10) for guiding the film strip (1) before and after a scanning gate (11) , wherein a distance between the guide edges (10) is adjustable to a variety of film gauges and c) in particular adjustment ranges (lOd, 21d) are provided in order to adjust the distances between the upper and lower bearer wheels (21c) and the guide edges (10) to film gauges at least between 8 mm and 70 mm.