Image reader
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHidekazu Okada
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image reader is provided, which includes a first analog front end unit configured to perform A/D conversion for analog signals that are output via a first group of channels of a number resulting from rounding up, to a closest whole number, an average value between a number of at least one channel for a first image reading unit and a number of channels for a second image reading unit, among analog signals output from the first image reading unit and the second image reading unit, and a second analog front end unit configured to perform A/D conversion for analog signals that are output via a second group of channels other than the channels in the first group, among the analog signals output from the first image reading unit and the second image reading unit.
Claims9
An image reader comprising:
- a first image reading unit comprising a plurality of first light receiving elements, the first image reading unit being configured to output analog signals output from the plurality of first light receiving elements, via at least one channel for the first image reading unit;
- a second image reading unit comprising a plurality of second light receiving elements, the second image reading unit being configured to output analog signals output from the plurality of second light receiving elements, via a plurality of channels for the second image reading unit;
- an analog front end unit connected with the at least one channel for the first image reading unit and at least one channel of the plurality of channels for the second image reading unit, the analog front end unit being configured to perform A/D conversion for the analog signals output via the at least one channel for the first image reading unit and analog signals output via the at least one channel for the second image reading unit;
- a switching circuit connected with the analog front end unit, the switching circuit configured to receive digital signals output from the analog front end unit;
- a first digital signal processor connected with the switching circuit, and the first digital signal processor configured to process input digital signals;
- and
- a second digital signal processor connected with the switching circuit, and the second digital signal processor configured to process input digital signals,
- wherein the switching circuit is configured to switch an output destination by:
- outputting, to the first digital signal processor, digital signals generated from analog signals output from the first image reading unit;
- and
- outputting, to the second digital signal processor, digital signals generated from analog signals output from the second image reading unit.
An image reader comprising:
- a first image reading unit comprising a plurality of first light receiving elements, the first image reading unit being configured to output analog signals output from the plurality of first light receiving elements, via at least one channel for the first image reading unit;
- a second image reading unit comprising a plurality of second light receiving elements, the second image reading unit being configured to output analog signals output from the plurality of second light receiving elements, via a plurality of channels for the second image reading unit;
- an analog front end unit simultaneously connected with the at least one channel for the first image reading unit and at least one channel of the plurality of channels for the second image reading unit, the analog front end unit being configured to perform A/D conversion for the analog signals output via the at least one channel for the first image reading unit and analog signals output via the at least one channel for the second image reading unit;
- and
- a different analog front end unit connected with two or more remaining channels, other than the at least one channel connected with the analog front end unit, of the plurality of channels for the second image reading unit, the different analog front end unit being configured to perform A/D conversion for analog signals output via the two or more remaining channels for the second image reading unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.