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Abstract

A method and apparatus for high speed conversion of tangible source documents to electronic images, and subsequent transmission or storage and retrieval of images, utilizing hybrid signal processing. The system employs a higher bandwidth analog signal for image capture and lower effective bandwidth analog signal for transmission or storage and retrieval, with an intervening digital memory utilized to construct a bitmap of the image to facilitate various dissection and seaming schemes which optimize image content and processing time. The system is designed around a conventional bus structure, and the memory serves as a junction with conventional personal computers, networks, and peripheral devices. In a representative embodiment, a tangible image is captured using a camera producing an analog signal with conventional raster synchronization. The synchronization is stripped from the analog signal, which is digitized for 8-bit grayscale and multiplexed to the memory where the image exists as a bitmap that may be divided into segments. The content is read from the memory, converted to an analog signal, and control signals are added. The control signals include horizontal and vertical sync pulses and interval blanking, a pilot signal to maintain alignment between adjacent segments along seams and to compensate for time-based errors, and calibration pulses to permit instantaneous adjustment of the gray level for each line, ensure accurate image content, and permit display enhancement. The resultant analog signal is stored on a randomly accessible storage medium as one or more frames, transmitted and reassembled, or displayed on a conventional monitor.

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First Claim