Image reading apparatus and method thereof

Abstract

An image reading apparatus, comprising an image reading module having an image sensor to read an image from a document and a timing generator to generate a driving clock to control the image sensor, a main controller to output an enabling clock to the timing generator, and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter to convert an analog signal output from the image sensor into a digital signal.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view to partially show the configuration of a conventional image-reading apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram to describe driving of an image reading module in a conventional image reading apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view to show the configuration of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram to describe driving of an image reading module in an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram to describe driving of an image reading module in an image reading apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart to describe an image reading process according to the configuration of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart to describe an image reading process according to the configuration of FIG. 5.

Claims

1. An image reading apparatus, comprising: an image reading module having an image sensor to read an image from a document and a timing generator to generate a driving clock to control the image sensor;a main controller in a main module other than the image reading module to output an enabling clock to the timing generator; andan analog-to-digital (A/D) converter to convert an analog signal output from the image sensor into a digital signal.

2. The image reading apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal output from the image sensor is transmitted to the main controller in the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) form.

3. The image reading apparatus of claim 1, wherein the signal output from the image sensor is transmitted to the main controller in the low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) form.

4. The image reading apparatus of claim 3, further comprising an LVDS transmitter to convert the signal output from the image sensor into a signal of the LVDS signal level and to transmit the signal, and an LVDS receiver to convert the signal received from the LVDS transmitter into a signal of the original level.

5. The image reading apparatus of claim 4, wherein the LVDS transmitter is formed in the image reading module and the LVDS receiver is formed in the main controller.

6. The image reading apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image sensor is a charged couple device (CCD) sensor.

7. The image reading apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image reading module linearly reciprocates relative to the document.

8. The image reading apparatus of claim 1, wherein the A/D converter is formed in the image reading module.

9. The image reading apparatus of claim 8, wherein the timing generator and the A/D converter are formed in one package.

10. The image reading apparatus of claim 8, wherein the driving clock of the A/D converter is transmitted by the timing generator.

11. The image reading apparatus of claim 1, wherein the A/D converter is formed in the main controller.

12. An image reading method, comprising: outputting an enabling clock from a main controller to a timing generator in an image reading module;generating a driving clock from the timing generator to drive an image sensor in the image reading module according to the output enabling clock;operating the image sensor according to the generated driving clock; andconverting an analog signal output from the image sensor into a digital signal through an A/D converter.

13. The image reading method of claim 12, wherein the converting of the analog signal into the digital signal through the A/D converter is performed in the image reading module.

14. The image reading method of claim 13, further comprising outputting the enabling clock from the timing generator to the A/D converter.

15. The image reading method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting the converted digital signal to the main controller in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) form.

16. The image reading method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting the converted digital signal to the main controller in a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) form.

17. The image reading method of claim 16, further comprising: converting the converted digital signal into a signal of the LVDS form and transmitting the signal; andconverting the transmitted signal into a signal of the converted digital signal.

18. The image reading method of claim 17, wherein the converting of the converted digital signal into the signal of the LVDS form and the transmitting of the signal is performed in the image reading module, and the converting of the transmitted signal into the signal of the converted digital signal is performed in the main controller.

19. The image reading method of claim 12, wherein the converting of the analog signal into the digital signal through the A/D converter is performed in the main controller.

20. The image reading method of claim 19, wherein the analog signal output from the image sensor is transmitted to the A/D converter in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) form.

21. The image reading method of claim 19, wherein the analog signal output from the image sensor is transmitted to the A/D converter in a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) form.

22. The image reading method of claim 21, further comprising: converting the analog signal output from the image sensor into a signal of the LVDS signal level and transmitting the signal from the image reading module to the main controller; andconverting the transmitted signal into the analog signal and transmitting the analog signal to the A/D converter.

23. The image reading method of claim 22, wherein the converting of the analog signal output from the image sensor into the signal of the LVDS form and the transmitting of the signal is performed in the image reading module, and the converting of the transmitted signal into the signal of the converted digital signal is performed in the main controller.

24. An image reading apparatus, comprising: a main controller to receive a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) data signal, the main controller including: a selectively engageable memory,a clock generator to generate and transmit an enabling clock, anda receiver to receive a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) data signal, if the memory is engaged; anda module controller including: a timing generator coupled to the enabling clock received from the clock generator to generate a driving clock,an image sensor to generate an analog signal according to the driving clock,an A/D converter to convert the analog signal into a digital signal, the digital signal being transmittable to the main controller as the CMOS data signal, andan LVDS transmitter to convert the digital signal into the LVDS data signal and to transmit the LVDS data signal to the receiver.

25. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the timing generator outputs an enabling clock to operate the A/D converter.

26. An image reading apparatus, comprising: a main controller to receive a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) data signal, the main controller including: a selectively engageable memory,a clock generator to generate and transmit an enabling clock,a receiver to receive a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) data signal, if the memory is engaged, andan A/D converter to transmit the CMOS data signal to the memory and/or to transmit the LVDS data signal from the receiver to the memory; anda module controller including: a timing generator coupled to the enabling clock received from the clock generator to generate a driving clock,an image sensor to generate an analog signal to be transformed into the CMOS data signal according to the driving clock, andan LVDS transmitter to convert the analog signal into the LVDS data signal and to transmit the LVDS data signal to the receiver, if the memory is engaged.

27. An image reading apparatus, comprising: an image sensing module to move relative to a document and to read data from the document according to a received control signal, to generate an image signal from the read data, and to transmit the image signal as a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) data signal and/or a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) data signal; anda main controller to send the control signal to control the image sensing module, to receive the CMOS data signal and/or LVDS data signal, and to convert the receive the CMOS data signal and/or LVDS data signal back into the image signal.