Photon Imaging, Inc.

Eugene I Gordon

An electronic printer employing a fiber optic bundle arranged linearly at a first face and in an area array in a second face also employs an area light emission device for directing light signals into the fibers of the second face simultaneously in a manner to faithfully reproduce an image at the first face even though there was no predetermined relationships between the ends of the same fibers in the two faces. An initialization procedure establishes the addresses of the cells which correspond to pixels in the first face. Data representative of the on or off state of the cells is stored in memory and applied to all the enabled cells simultaneously also. The arrangement is usefull for similar scanners.

Electronic printer or scanner using a fiber optic bundle and an array

A color image scanner comprises a noncoherent fiber optic bundle having a linear entrance face and an area exit face coupled to an array of photosensors. The density of sensors of the array is such that each fiber end in the exit face corresponds to a plurality of sensors. A striped (RGB) color filter positioned between the exit face and the sensor array permits a sensor to be selected for each color for each pixel in the entrance face. The addresses of the three sensors for each pixel are stored in a lookup table in a proper sequence to correspond to the proper pixel sequence in the entrance face. the addresses are stored in sequence in ROM and the sequence is triggered for each of the consecutive scan lines of a page being scanned. Thus, color scanner operation is achieved with a monochrome photosensor array in the absence of time-sequential color illumination.

Color page scanner using fiber optic bundle and a photosensor array

A color image scanner comprises a noncoherent fiber optic bundle having a linear entrance face and an area exit face coupled to an array of photosensors. The density of sensors of the array is such that each fiber end in the exit face corresponds to a plurality of sensors. A striped (RGB) color filter positioned between the exit face and the sensor array permits a sensor to be selected for each color for each pixel in the entrance face. The addresses of the three sensors for each pixel are stored in a lookup table in a proper sequence to correspond to the proper pixel sequence in the entrance face. The addresses are stored in sequence in ROM and the sequence is triggered for each of the consecutive scan lines of a page being scanned. Thus, color scanner operation is achieved with a monochrome photosensor array in the absence of time-sequential color illumination.

An electronic printer, comprising a fiber optic bundle having the fiber ends organized in a linear array in a first face and in an area array in a second face, includes a linear array of LEDs or LCSs adapted to image light into the fiber ends in one linear segment of the area face at a time. A rotating mirror is operative to move the light image onto each of the consecutive linear segments on the area face and to provide a digital signal indicative of the position of the light image in each instance. The arrangement provides a low cost, high speed, and small size electronic printer which is easily adapted to high resolution and color printing.

Electronic printer using a fiber optic bundle and a linear,

A document scanner or printer includes a fiber optic bundle which has the fibers of one end arranged in a linear array and the fibers of the other end arranged in an area array. A CRT, or equivalent device, is coupled to the area array and adopted to generate light in a sequence of positions there. The sequence of positions is determined by an algorithm which organizes the addresses of those positions in a list of consecutive near neighbors. Other embodiments are operative to eliminate from the address sequence any address at which no light is to be generated. By shortening the path that a beam traverses or by eliminating some addresses from the address sequence, improved operating speeds are achieved.

Flying spot scanner-printer

An image scanner utilizes an area CRT while avoiding the low linear resolution limitations of such a device. The CRT is coupled to a noncoherent fiber optic bundle (area array) having a proximal end of a geometry to optically match the scanned area of the face plate. The remote end of the fiber array is linear and coupled to a scan segment of a page to be scanned. The beam of the CRT is directed to the consecutive fibers of the bundle in a sequence imposed by a look-up table containing digital addresses and digital to analog converters to produce the required x-y deflection voltages. Since there need only be 5100 fibers for a 600 line per inch scanner and the spot resolution of the CRT need only be in excess of 5100 positions, the resolution is easily obtained. For example, 5100 spots implies a linear resolution of 72 elements in a scan line. The decay time of the phosphor is chosen to be short enough that only one fiber is illuminated at any instant. A single output photodetector is used for monochrome and a three output photodetector is used for color.

Growing community of inventors

Summit, NJ, United States of America

Eugene I Gordon