Appeal No. 1999-0486
Application No. 08/633,389
BACKGROUND
The invention is directed to an image scanner which compensates for instability
of the scanner light source. Claim 1 is reproduced below.
1. An image scanner for scanning a document comprising:
(1) a test region;
(2) a light source for illuminating the document and the test region;
(3) optical means for conveying the light reflected from the document and
the test region;
(4) a line image sensor for receiving the light from the optical means and
generating an image signal corresponding to the light reflected from the
document and a brightness signal corresponding to the light reflected from the
test region; the line image sensor comprising an array of (red, green, blue)
(R,G,B) sensing elements for converting the light received from the optical
means into an array of corresponding (R,G,B) signals wherein both the image
signal and the brightness signals generated by the line image sensor are formed
by an array of (R,G,B) signals; and
(5) a signal compensation circuit for amplifying the image signal
according to the brightness signal to compensate the instability of the light
source; the signal compensation circuit comprising an A/D converter for digitizing
the (R,G,B) signals of the image signal and the brightness signal, and a digital
processor for adjusting the digitized (R,G,B) signals of the image signal
according to the digitized (R,G,B) signals of the brightness signal.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Ito et al. (Ito) 5,151,796 Sep. 29, 1992
Webb et al. (Webb) 5,278,674 Jan. 11, 1994
Nakakuki 5,587,746 Dec. 24, 1996
(filed Jun. 22, 1995)
Claims 1-4 and 8-12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Webb and Nakakuki.
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