Transmissive/reflective scanner

A transmissive/reflective optical scanner including a housing having a length dimension, a width dimension and a height dimension, wherein the length dimension is the longest dimension, sources of illumination for transmissive and reflective scanning, and a lens and scanning camera to generate electrical signals representative of images scanned comprising:

• a carriage extending along said width dimension adapted to move reciprocally along said length dimension disposed within said housing;
• a reflective scanning platen disposed in said housing positioned above said carriage;
• a transmissive scanning platen disposed in said housing positioned beneath said carriage;
• said carriage including a switch plate, a first mirror, a second mirror, a third mirror, said lens, said scanning camera and a rotatable switch mirror;
• said rotatable switch mirror is selectively positionable in a default first position or in a second position;
• said rotatable switch mirror is positioned in said default first position by gravity to establish a light path from a scanned object placed on said transmissive scanning platen to a first reflection from said first mirror, thence to said second mirror, thence to a second reflection from said first mirror, thence to said third mirror, thence to a third reflection from said first mirror, thence to said lens and through said lens to said scanning camera;
• said rotatable switch mirror is selectively positioned in said second position by contact with said switch plate to establish a light path from a scanned object placed on said reflective scanning platen to said rotatable switch mirror, thence to a first reflection from said first mirror, thence to said second mirror, thence to a second reflection from said first mirror, thence to said third mirror, thence to a third reflection from said first mirror, thence to said lens and through said lens to said scanning camera.

In a transmissive/reflective optical scanning apparatus comprising a scanner housing:

• a carriage;
• two rails extending along the length of the housing and adapted to carry said carriage;
• a reflective scanning platform;
• a transmissive scanning platform;
• a scanning camera positioned proximate to said reflective scanning platform and adapted to selectively view said platforms and generate electrical signals representative of the images viewed;
• and
• a rotatable optical switch, the improvement comprising a rotatably mounted mirror extending in the width direction across the housing and positioned in a first position to set up the apparatus for transmissive scanning;
• a switch plate adapted to rotate said rotatable optical switch from said first position to a second position;
• said switch plate removably disposed to position said rotatable optical switch in said second position;
• and
• said rotatable optical switch being positioned to set up the apparatus for reflective scanning.