Scanner apparatus having printing unit and scanning unit, related method and computer program product
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorsMirko Guarnera, Alfio Castorina, Giuseppe Spampinato, Osvaldo M. Colavin, John Bloomfield, Armand Hekimian
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An embodiment of an integrated scanner apparatus, includes a support surface for objects to be scanned, a scanner unit to perform a scanning movement relative to the support surface to capture images of portions of objects to be scanned, and a printer unit carried by a carriage mobile with respect to said support surface, wherein said scanner unit is carried by said carriage carrying said printer unit to be imparted said scanning movement by said carriage.
Claims21
An integrated scanner apparatus, including:
- a support surface for objects to be scanned;
- a scanner to perform a scanning movement relative to said support surface to capture images of portions of objects being scanned when in a capture scanning position;
- a printer carried by a carriage mobile with respect to said support surface;
- wherein said scanner is carried by said carriage mobile carrying said printer to be imparted said scanning movement by said carriage mobile;
- and
- wherein said scanner is selectively tiltable between a preview scanning position and the capture scanning position, the scanner configured to be automatically moved between the preview and capture scanning positions and to image a document to be scanned from a stationary position when in the preview scanning position.
A system, comprising:
- a transparent member having a structure to hold an object;
- a carriage transporter disposed adjacent to the member;
- a carriage coupled to the carriage transporter;
- and
- an image sensor coupled to the carriage that captures images of respective portions of the object while the carriage is in respective positions;
- and
- wherein the image sensor is automatically controllable to move between an image capture position and a preview position, and when in the preview position to capture a preview image of the entire object while the carriage transporter maintains the carriage in a stationary preview position.
A method, comprising:
- moving an image-capture unit including a scanner unit;
- capturing images of respective parts of an object with the image-capture unit when the scanner unit is in a first position relative to the object;
- generating an image of the object from the images of the parts of the object;
- maintaining the image-capture unit stationary;
- moving the scanner unit to a second position relative to the object;
- and
- capturing an image of the whole object while the image-capture unit is stationary and the scanner unit is in the second position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.