Flying spot scanner-printer

In combination, a fiber optic bundle having a linear face and an area face, a CRT optically coupled to said area face, said combination including first look up table means for storing a first list of addresses of positions on the face plate of said CRT for organizing pixel data at said face plate to match the organization of pixels in said linear face, said combination also including second look up table means for storing a rearrangement of said first sequence of addresses into a second sequence for reducing the length of the path the beam of said CRT traverses on the face plate in accessing the addresses of said first sequence.

A method for initializing apparatus comprising a fiber optic bundle having a linear and an area face and a CRT optically coupled to said area face where the linear face end defines a linear segment including a sequence of pixels, said method comprising the steps of sequentially positioning a photodetector at each of incremental positions in said linear face directly opposite each fiber end in such a manner as to detect light coming only from that fiber, moving the beam of the CRT, recording the optimum address for the beam at which the photodetector senses light, incrementing the position of the photodetector, repeating the beam procedure until the beam addresses for all fiber positions are determined forming a first sequence of such addresses corresponding to said sequence of pixels, and forming a second sequence for the addresses of said first sequence, said second sequence reordering said addresses into a list of consecutive near neighbor address positions on said face plate.

A combination of elements comprising a cathode ray tube (CRT) and a fiber optic bundle having an array of light-guiding fibers in a first area face, said bundle also having a second face which defines a linear first segment including a linear array of pixels, said CRT having a light output face plate optically coupled to said area face, first means for storing a first sequence of electron beam addresses corresponding to pixels in said linear segment and characterized by a first succession of slew paths from address to address required to scan the succession of electron beam addresses so as to access the pixels in a progressive sequence and produce a sequential line scan and second means for applying to said CRT a second sequence of addresses including only addresses from said first sequence for providing a second succession of slew paths of total length shorter than that of said first succession of slew path.

Apparatus comprising means for generating light at each of selected addresses in an area array of addresses of a field, optical path means comprising a plurality of light paths constrained to area and linear faces at first and second ends thereof respectively, said field being optically coupled to said area face, said apparatus also including means for storing a second sequence of addresses, said second sequence including only addresses selected from a first sequence of addresses determined during an initialization procedure to correspond to the sequence of pixels in said linear face, said second sequence being organized such that each address therein is physically a closely spaced address in said field with respect to the next preceding address of said sequence.

Apparatus comprising means for generating light at each of selected addresses in an array of addresses of a field, optical path means comprising a plurality of light paths constrained to linear and area faces at first and second ends thereof respectively, said field being optically coupled to said area face, said apparatus also including means for storing a first sequence of addresses determined during an initialization procedure to correspond to a sequence of light paths and associated pixels in said linear face, memory means for storing pixel data for pixels at said linear face, signal processing means responsive to said pixel data for determining the presence or absence of light at each of said addresses, and means for skipping addresses of said first sequence of addresses responsive to said pixel data.