Appeal No. 2000-2057
Application 08/838,791
Representative claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. An image forming apparatus with an image sensor for
scanning a document to produce an electric signal representative
of an image from the document, comprising:
a converter for converting said electric signal to
produce image data with a predetermined number of bits;
a shading memory unit for storing said image data on a
pixel by pixel basis from a least significant address to a most
significant address scanned during a first mode operation with
said converter, and for storing shading factors each
corresponding to each pixel from said image data;
a controller for sequentially reading said image data
stored from the least significant address to the most significant
address of said shading memory unit during said first mode of
operation, calculating each shading factor for each pixel by
dividing a preset maximum brightness value by said image data
sequentially read from said shading memory unit, recording the
shading factors in said shading memory unit, and for outputting
the shading factors stored in said shading memory unit
corresponding to each pixel of said image data produced by said
converter during second mode of operation;
a shading compensation unit for multiplying each pixel of
said image data produced from said converter by a corresponding
one of said shading factors during said second mode of operation
to produce shading-compensated image data; and
a half-tone processing unit for producing a half-tone
image data from said shading-compensating image data produced
from said shading compensating unit.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Nosaki et al. (Nosaki) 5,099,341 Mar. 24, 1992
Ito 5,317,421 May 31, 1994
Augusti et al. (Augusti) EP 0 200 438 Nov. 05, 1986
Gahang GB 2 292 283 Feb. 14, 1996
2
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