US 5,012,349 AGranted

Method and portable device for detection, storage and for eventual processing and reproduction of graphic symbols appearing on any type of carrier

OwnerStefan G. de Fayinventor

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A method and device for recording, storing and reproducing graphic symbols such as text, indeograms and the like on a carrier comprises an independent portable assembly with an optical pick up, a memory for the storage of data and a printer. Graphic symbols can be picked up by placing the optical pick up in contact with, or in close proximity to, the carrier and drawing it along the line of text or symbols to be copied. These symbols are recorded in the memory and can be reproduced by placing the printer against another carrier and drawing the device across it. The quality of recording and reproduction is independent of the speed at which the device is drawn along the line of text, since the optical pick up is arranged to scan the symbols each time the device is advanced a predetermined distance.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A process of manually displaying a movable and independently portable assembly without material guidance for the purpose of reading and storing visual data appearing on a first unspecified carrier and reproducing said visual data on a second unspecified carrier, the process being of the type wherein said assembly comprises a reading head and a printing head and according to which, furthermore:

the assembly is placed to confront the first carrier,
the assembly is moved along a selected linear path on said first carrier,
graphic symbols in said path are read by the reading head,
the graphic symbols read by the reading head are transcoded into electrical data signals,
the data signals are introduced into a memory, characterized in that the assembly is portable and independent and contains a memory and its own energy source, and:
the assembly is moved along said path in one direction only at an unspecified speed,
the graphic symbols read by said reading head extend over a width the minimum value of which is of the order of the smallest dimension of a standard line of words or ideograms,
the transcoded data signals are fed from the reading head into the memory as a function of the extent of the displacement of the assembly,
subsequently, the assembly is placed to confront the said second carrier,
the assembly is then moved along a linear path on said second carrier in only one direction at an unspecified speed,
the stored data signals are then extracted at a speed correlated with the extent of displacement of the assembly,
the extracted data signals are transcoded into electrical signals and fed to the printing head,
printing on said second carrier with said printing head symbols by depositing ink on the said second carrier with said printing head in response to the received electrical signals at a speed correlated with the extent of displacement of the assembly relative to said second carrier,
the operation in progress, whether reading or printing, is interrupted when the assembly is stopped,
the operation in progress, whether reading or printing is interrupted when the assembly is displaced in the direction opposite to that originally selected.

12 more elements

An independently portable and manually movable assembly for reading, storing, and reproducing visual data appearing on an unspecified carrier, said assembly characterized in that it comprises oblong casing (400) of the tracing instrument type, which has an optical pickup (300) for reading said visual data and at least one printing head (600) for reproducing said visual data in ink, functionally independent of one another, and which contains at least one memory (306) for storing data corresponding to said visual data, an independent energy source (307) and other functional components a first circuit incorporating the pickup (300), a transcoder (304) and the memory (306), a second circuit incorporating the memory (306), a transcoder (312) and the printing head (600), and at least one contactor (350-351) intended to activate selectively either the first circuit for reading the visual data and storing correspoding transcoded data, or the second circuit for the extraction of stored transcoded data and reproduction of corresponding visual data, the assembly further comprising at least one element (302-370-380 to 384-700) which is sensitive to relative displacement of the assembly and a carrier (200-500) confronting which the said assembly is to be placed, and which is intended on the one hand to generate enabling signals to activate either the first or the second circuit, as a function of the number of the number of distance units travelled by the assembly and not as a function of the speed at which the latter is displaced and, on the other hand, to prohibit access to the memory (306), input and output, when the assembly is either stopped or displaced in the direction opposite to that originally selected.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 07/210,494Filed 8 Aug 1988
Priority: FR 86 138966 Oct 1986
Granted: 30 Apr 1991
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04N 1/1075
With manual scanning: arrangements for facilitating holding of the scanner, e.g. shapes, grips
G06K 7/089
By means detecting the change of an electrostatic or magnetic field, e.g. by detecting change of capacitance between electrodes: hand-held scanners
H04N 1/107
Using flat picture-bearing surfaces: with manual scanning
H04N 1/0461
Scanning arrangements , i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing…:…