Patent Application
20060231626
This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Serial No. 94112323, filed Apr. 18, 2005, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an image acquiring apparatus, and more particularly to an image acquiring apparatus capable of quickly processing an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to meet the user's demands or correct the defects due to capturing the image, such as the inclination of the acquired image, setting the size of the original document, changing or filtering the background color, the brightness and the resolution, the using demand of the image, and so on. The image data D1 has to be analyzed and computed to obtain the above-mentioned image acquiring parameters, such as the skew detection parameter, the page size parameter, the leading edge and trailing parameter, the brightness and resolution control parameter, the background filtering and filling parameter, the compression method selection parameter, and the like, such that the image data D1 may be adjusted.
However, the size of the image data D2 is very large. For instance, when an A4-size document is acquired to obtain the source image S0 in a black-and-white mode and with a resolution of 600 dpi, the size of the produced image data D1 may be several hundreds of KBytes. If the acquired source image S0 is acquired in a color mode and with the same resolution as that described hereinabove, the size of the produced image data D1 may reach several MBytes.
Thus, computing and analyzing the large image data D1 to obtain the image parameter P1 have to be utilized a high-level processor and a large-capacity memory of a computer host 140. If the image acquiring apparatus 100 has to analyze and compute the image data to obtain the image parameter P1, the apparatus 100 has to be equipped with the data processing hardware having the powerful processing function, which is the same as that of a computer host 140, and the manufacturing cost will be increased greatly.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an image acquiring apparatus capable of quickly processing an image and a method of processing the image. Converting the image data into a thumbnail image enables the image acquiring apparatus to quickly compute and analyze the image parameter to correct the image data.
The invention achieves the above-identified object by providing an image acquiring apparatus capable of quickly processing an image. The image acquiring apparatus includes an image acquiring unit and a processing unit. The image acquiring unit acquires a source image, converts the source image into a first image data, and then outputs the first image data. The processing unit produces a second image data according to the first image data, and produces an image parameter according to the second image data, The size of the second image data is lower than the size of the first image data.
The invention also achieves the above-identified object by providing a method of acquiring an image and quickly processing the image in an image acquiring apparatus. First, a source image is acquired and then converted into a first image data. Next, a second image data is produced according to the first image data, wherein the size of the second image data is smaller than the size of the first image data. Finally, an image parameter is produced according to the second image data.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG, 5 is a flow chart showing a method of acquiring an image and quickly processing the image according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.
In detail, the image acquiring unit 210 includes an image sensing component 211 and an analog-to-digital converter 212. The image sensing component 211 acquires the source image S0 to produce an electric charge signal S1. The analog-to-digital converter 212 converts the electric charge signal S1 into the image data D1 and then outputs the image data D1. The image data D1 is a digital signal. The processing unit 220 produces the image data D3 according to the image data D1. In this embodiment, the resolution of the image data D3 is also smaller than the resolution of the image data D1. The image data D3 may be, for example, a preview image or a thumbnail image. For example, the processing unit 220 compresses the image data D1 of an A4-size document into the image data D3, the resolution of the second image data D2 is about 72 dpi, and the size of several hundreds of KBytes before compression is reduced to about 100 KBytes to 150 Kbytes. The size reduction enables the processing unit 220 to quickly compute and analyze the image data D3 to produce the image parameter P2, which includes the skew detection parameter, the page size parameter, the leading edge and trailing parameter, the brightness and resolution control parameter, the background filtering and filling parameter and the compression method selection parameter. It is possible to get the skew of the placed original document, the image size, the leading edge and the trailing edge, the image brightness and resolution and the image background modification, and to select different compression methods according to different requirements and the above-mentioned parameters.
After the processing unit 220 has produced the image parameter P2 according to the image data D3, many subsequent processing methods can be used. For example, the processing unit 220 can correct the image data D1 to produce the image data D4 for output according to the image parameter P2. The processing unit 220 may also output the image parameter P2 and the image data D1 directly without the correcting operation.
If the image acquiring apparatus 200 wants to output the image data D4 directly, the image data D4 is output to an electronic apparatus. For example,
When the electronic apparatus 240 is a printing apparatus, the image acquiring apparatus 200 electrically connected to the printing apparatus can directly output the image data D4, which has better quality after correcting, to the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus may further print the image data D4. In addition, it is also possible to integrate the printing apparatus with the image acquiring apparatus 200 to form a multi-function peripheral. When the electronic apparatus 240 is a faxing apparatus, the image acquiring apparatus 200 electrically connected to the faxing apparatus directly outputs the image data D4, which has better image quality after correcting, to the faxing apparatus. The faxing apparatus may fax the image data D4 out.
When the electronic apparatus 240 is an Internet apparatus, the image acquiring apparatus 200 electrically connected to the Internet apparatus directly transmits the image data D4, which has better quality after correcting, to the Internet apparatus. Then, the Internet apparatus processes the image data D4 into an image file sand uploads the image file to the network. Alternatively, when the electronic apparatus 240 is a computer host, the image acquiring apparatus 200 corrects the image data D1 according to the image parameter P2 and then produces the image data D4, and directly outputs the image data D4, which has better quality, to the computer host.
In addition, the image acquiring apparatus 200 may also output the image parameter P2 and the image data D1 to the computer host, which corrects the image data D1 according to the image parameter P2. For example,
In the image acquiring apparatus and the image acquire method of quickly processing an image according to the embodiments of the invention, reducing the size and resolution of the image data enables the image acquiring apparatus to quickly compute and analyze the image parameter to correct the image data without being equipped with the data processing hardware having the same processing function as that of the computer host.
In addition, the image acquiring apparatus of this embodiment can further execute an correcting procedure according to the image parameter, such that the corrected image data can be directly transferred to a printing apparatus, a faxing apparatus, an Internet apparatus, or the like, and then the corrected image data can be outputted in the format according to the user's requirements.
While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 94112323 | Apr 2005 | TW | national |
