Xerox Corporation

Anthony Michael Frumusa

Robert Michael Chapin

Kenneth D Romano

Aron Nacman

Gordon Francis Lupien, Jr

Samuel D Ambalavanar

Francis Kapo Tse

Ramesh Nagarajan

Daniel A Mohabir

William A Cook

Mehdi M Mansoori

Orlando Diaz

Michael K Carney

Ronnie E Sanford

David L Salgado

Khalid M Rabb

Michael E Meyers

Thomas I Yeh

Whynn Victor Lovette

Michael L Davidson

John F Seward, Jr

James G Nargi

John Stewart Ceci

Benjamin D Brown

Bonnie R Coonan

Phillip A Sciuto

The present invention generally relates to a digital scanner for scanning images. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for accurately scanning documents and for processing digital data to provide digital images stored in memory, which can be retrieved for printing on support material or for displaying on a display screen.

Digital scanner for capturing and processing images

An image is rotated in opponent color space, such as L*a*b* or Y C C color space, by inputting the opponent color space image data, subsampling the opponent color space image data, and addressing the subsampled opponent color space image data into an output configuration corresponding to a specified rotation angle. For 90&deg; and 270&deg; rotation, the opponent color space image data is scaled before being addressed. This eliminates distortion of the rotated image, while allowing real-time rotation of the image in hardware.

Image rotation in opponent color space

An image data flow control and storage facility having a secondary storage, a secondary storage controller, an image input controller, an image output controller and an optional loop-back controller. According to one embodiment, the image input controller, the image output controller and the loop-back controller communicate with the secondary storage controller by way of a PCI-type bus. The secondary storage controller communicates with the secondary storage by way of an SCSI interface. Preferably, the secondary storage controller operates in master mode to transfer blocks of image data directly between the secondary storage and the image output, image input and loop-back controllers. By performing direct image data transfers, the facility of the invention avoids intermediately storing image data in costly DRAM page buffers.

Data flow control and storage facility for an image reproduction system

The present invention generally relates to a digital scanner for scanning images. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for quickly processing and storing digital data in memory.

Direct memory access control system for a digital scanner

A system and method for reducing an image by receiving a scaling factor which defines a window. Input pixel intensities of the image are summed in real time as they are input and stored until all pixels within the window have been received. The sum is then divided by the number of pixels within the window which produces an average intensity. A pixel having the average intensity is output.

Apparatus and method for efficient implementation of 2-dimensional pixel window averaging

The present invention generally relates to a loopback direct memory access control system for a digital scanner for processing images. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for quickly reading digital data from memory, processing the digital data and writing the processed digital data to memory.

Loopback direct memory access control system for a digital scanner

A system and method for selective scaling of an image by selective implementation of a window averaging processing technique or an interpolation processing technique. For enlargement scaling, the interpolation processor is implemented. For reduction scaling, the window averaging processor is implemented. For anamorphic scaling, the window averaging processor may be selected and implemented for reduction processing pursuant to a two-pass processing technique wherein the interpolator processing will be implemented thereafter.

High quality digital scaling using pixel window averaging and linear interpolation

A multiplexing bus controller with input conditioning is provided in which the need for a dedicated microprocessor for handling input filtering, input change detection and serial-to-parallel/parallel-to-serial I/O data conversion is eliminated. The controller is realized in a gate array and provides input data oversampling and output refreshing to eliminate random noise coupled to the data lines. In addition, the oversampled data is filtered to debounce the signal received from the input devices. The input data is converted from serial-to-parallel and checked to detect any change from the previous input data stream. Upon detection of an input change, the host microprocessor is interrupted. When the host microprocessor sends data to the bus controller, the bus controller then converts the data to a serial stream for communication to the appropriate output device. Additionally, the bus controller is provided with an internal turnaround circuit to loop back outputs to the inputs for diagnostic purposes. Very low gate counts realized in the design of the multiplexing bus controller allow it to be realized on a single chip.

Multiplexing bus controller with input conditioning

A printing system, for merging a scanned image with a merge image to produce a composite image, is provided. The printing system includes a memory for storing the merge image, in the form of a first set of image data, and a decompression device for decompressing the first set of image data. The printing system further includes a scanner, for reading a hard-copy page to generate a second set of image data, and a annotate/merge device, the annotate/merge device electronically merging the decompressed first set of image data with the second set of image data to produce the composite image.

Printing machine with merging/annotating/signaturizing capability

A method of managing memory allocation in a printing system including the steps of creating a plurality of blocks and designating each block with an identifier. In response to a request from a client, a first set of identifiers, corresponding with a first set of blocks, is placed into a database by a resource manager. The client then accesses the database and, by reference to the first set of identifiers, begins filling up the first set of blocks with image data. As each block is filled, the client transmits an interrupt signal to a controller. After a predesignated one of the first set of blocks has been filled, the controller causes the resource manager to place a second set of identifiers in the database so that the client can access the second set of identifiers as soon as it has completed filling the first set of blocks.

Method of managing memory allocation in a printing system

A printing system for processing one or more images of a job is provided. The printing system includes a video bus communicating with both a first transfer module and an image processing section. In operation, a first segment of the job is processed in the image processing section while a second segment of the job is buffered in the first transfer module. Subsequently, the first segment of the job is transferred away from the image processing section, with a second transfer module, coincidentally with the the second segment being transferred to the image processing section.

Apparatus and method for maximizing a rate of image data transfer in a

The present invention is a method and apparatus for tuning the appearance and controlling dot growth of bitmap images rendered on a printing system. The invention operates to recognize those pixels with a bitmap image that are appropriate for alteration and, in response to downloadable output values, adjusts the identified pixels so as to ensure a desired output.

Multifunctional apparatus for appearance tuning and resolution

An apparatus for processing an input image, represented by an input bit stream including a plurality of first bit sets, is provided. The apparatus includes a device for processing the input bit stream in such a manner that each of the first bit sets is represented by a second bit set with each of the second bit sets having less bits than each of the first bit sets and a selected number of bits in the input bit stream, corresponding to image-related information, being discarded as a result of the encoding. The apparatus is provided with an electronic volatile memory for storing a resulting encoded bit stream and a bit stream analyzer for analyzing the stored encoded bit stream to generate positional signals. The apparatus is further provided with a reconstruction circuit for reconstructing the stored encoded bit stream, by reference to the positional signals. The reconstruction circuit operates in such a manner that, upon outputting an image representation of the reconstructed bit stream, the outputted image includes at least a part of the discarded, image-related information.

Apparatus and method for encoding and reconstructing image data

A low-cost, high-speed system for converting high-grayscale-resolution image data to a grayscale resolution optimized for a particular output device, such as an LED bar or ink-jet printhead. A static random-access memory accepts at its address port a full image datum. The most significant digits of the datum relate to a look-up table selected for optimum performance in a given situation. The least significant digits of the datum represent the actual image datum. When the full image datum is applied to the address port, the address location identical to the full image datum outputs an output value which has been pre-loaded into the memory.

Growing community of inventors

Penfield, NY, United States of America

Anthony Michael Frumusa