US3318996A - Document copying device having parallel signal transmission parts - Google Patents

Description

May 9, 1967 E. GARFIELD ETAL 3,318,996

DOCUMENT COPYING DEVICE HAVING PARALLEL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION PARTS Filed Aug. 12, 1963 Q\ m R} 0 w a) w a R w j Q 6\ M POWER GEAERATWG CIRCUIT 4 s INVENTORS EUGENE GARF/ELD Y LAWRENCE LUTZKER ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,318,996 DOCUMENT COPYING DEVICE HAVING PARAL- LEL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION PARTS Eugene Garfield, Swarthmore, Pa., and Lawrence Lutzker,

Palo Alto, Calif., assignors to Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Aug. 12, 1963, Ser. No. 301,293 8 Claims. (Cl. 1786.6)

In general, this invention relates to a copying and reproducing device and, more particularly, to a device for copying and reproducing printed or written matter such as words, phrases, sentences or short paragraphs. The device is intended to be small enough to be manually portable so that it can be used wherever material is to be copied.

It is often desirable to copy and reproduce printed matter from books and the like. This is particularly desirable for such professions as technical or other types of researchers, lawyers, and statisticians who review books, files and other literature and must copy pertinent facts therefrom. Copying by hand, particularly if there is any quantity of material to copy, is tedious and timeconsuming. There are presently available many types of photocopying machines. However, such machines are relatively large. Therefore, the material to be copied must be taken to the machines which takes time so that the material is not available to others who may want to use it. Further, such machines copy whole pages which is wasteful when many times only small portions of a page need be copied. Additionally, such machines many times will only copy loose pages and not pages from a bound volume.

In order to avoid the foregoing, ducing device such as is shown in US. Patent 3,052,755 was developed. The device shown in this patent utilizes a rotating grain of wheat light source in a pencil-type pickup to feed an electrosensitive copying machine. This device, however useful, had the limitation that the user would have to move the reading unit horizontally from left to right over the individual words or phrases to be copied. This would give an output, the effect of which was similar to that used in animated cartoons for painting words on a screen.

In addition, there was no provision in prior devices for synchronizing the speed of the reading unit with the speed of the copying unit so that compression or stretching out of copied letters is avoided.

Therefore, it is the general object of this invention to avoid and overcome the foregoing and other difiiculties of prior art practices by the provision of a new and better copying and reproducing device.

A further object of this invention is the provision of a better copying and reproducing device utilizing a fiberoptic reader.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a new and more compact reader for a copying and reproducing device which is lightweight and easy to handle.

Another object of this invention is to provide a new and better copying and reproducing device which can copy paragraphs, pictures or sentences selectively from printed matter.

Still another object of this invention is the provision of a new and better copying and reproducing device for selectively copying portions of printed matter in which the reading head is synchronized with the copying device.

a copying and repro- Another object is the provision of a new and better copying and reproducing device wherein the copying apparatus can be positioned at a remote point from the reading head.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there are shown in the drawings forms which are presently pre ferred; it being understood, however, that this invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.

FIGURE 1 is a schematic representation of the device of the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a side cross sectional view of a second embodiment of a reader incorporating the principles of the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, the copying and reproducing device of this invention comprises in general a scanning or copying instrument generally designated by the numeral 10, a reproducing instrument generally desig nated by the numeral 12, and an amplifying and power generating circuit 14 connecting the scanning instrument 10 to the reproducing instrument 12 to amplify and transmit the information from one to the other.

The scanning or copying instrument 10 comprises a housing 16 having an open end 18. The scanning instrument 10 is small enough to be held in the hand of the user. Within casing 16 adjacent the open end 18 is a mask 20 which defines the opening exposing the interior of the casing 16 to the material to be copied. Normally, the open end 18 is placed adjacent the material which is to be copied so that it can be seen by the interior of the scanning head 10.

Immediately adjacent the mask 20is a block 22 made of a plastic such as methyl-methacrylate resin (preferably of the type sold under the trademark Lucite) which is transparent and is useful in transmitting light to a fiberoptic scanning unit 24. The Lucite block 22 allows the user to see what graphic matter is being reproduced by transmitting the image being copied to a viewer.

The fiber-optic scanning unit 24 consists of a large number of glass fiber arranged in a single effective line which will transmit an image by breaking it up into separate components and transmitting each of these components independently from one end of the array to the other. In order for this to occur, the glass fibers 24 must be in exactly the same arrangement at each end, or the picture will be scrambled or distorted at the exit end of the grouping. However, the fibers need not be precisely arranged in the middle where the light is trapped. Since the glass fibers are, gathered .very close together, they touch over an appreciable area and linkage may occur between fibers. For this reason, it is normally useful to insulate the fibers from one another by a thin jacket of transparent material whose index of refraction is lower than that of the fibers. An additional advantage. of the thin jacket is that it protects the wall where total internal reflection takes place, keeping it clean and smooth. It will be understood that since fiber-optics depends upon the number of reflections per unit length within each fiber, the surface quality of the fiber must be very high if the light is not to be lost by surface scattering. For example, a ray of light in a 50 micron fiber may be reflected 3,000 to 4,000 times per foot.

The fibers 24 are arranged so that their distal ends 26 extend across the length of the opening defined by the mask 20. The transmitting ends 28 of the fiber array 24 are placed adjacent a photosensitive strip 30 having coated thereon a plurality of photocells, each sensitive to a particular fiber end 28. It will be understood that the fiber array 24 may have its ends 28 separated to a far greater extent than the distal ends 26. This would effect an amplification of the image received by the distal ends 26*. Conversely, if the fibers are spaced closer together at the transmitting end 28, a reduction of the image is achieved.

Each of the photocells on the strip 30 is associated with a particular conductor and connected through a suitable cable 32 to the amplifier and power generating circuit 14. Circuit 14 is intended to amplify each of the signals from the individual photocells in the photoconducting strip 30 and to transmit a voltage signal only for those photocells which had not been excited. These signals are conducted through an output cable 34 to the connector 36 of a printing unit 38 associated with the reproducing device 12.

The printing unit 38 includes a printed circuit board 40 on which are provided a plurality of printed circuit styli 42 having their recording ends 44 fixedly mounted adjacent a strip 46 of recording paper. The strip 46 of recording paper is drawn from a supply reel 48 across a backing plate 50 where it passes beneath the styli 42. The paper strip 46 then passes to an electrostatic paper processor 52 and is drawn from the reel 48 by a suitable set of drive rollers 54.

The styli ends 44 ride lightly on the paper strip 46 which is an electrostatic paper, such as A.B. Dick electrostatic paper, so that when a voltage signal is applied to one of the styli 42, a mark (sometimes called a latent image.) will be made on the paper strip 46. The processor 52 will develop the latent image so that it is visible to the naked eye.

The reading instrument includes a synchronizing roll 56rotatably mounted along one side of the housing '16 so that it frictionally engages the material to be copied. Thus, as the housing 16 is moved along a page of printed matter, the wheel 56 will rotate in accordance with the speed of movement. The synchronizing wheel 56 controls a synchronizing relay 58 whose contacts control a stepping motor 60 through conductors 62. The stepping motor 60 provides the power for drive rolls 54 so that the paper 46 will move under the ends 44 of the styli 42 at a rate in accordance with the speed of movement of the reading unit 10. Further, there is provided a mask adjustment control 64 for controlling the opening of the mask in accordance with the particular material to be copied.

v In use, the person utilizing the reader 10 places it on the printed matter to be copied. He can see what he is copying by merely looking through the transparent Lucite block 22. As he moves the reader unit 10 along the printed page, the synchronizing reel 56 turns, causing stepping motor 60 to rotate and drive rolls 54 to pull strip 46 under the ends 44 of the styli 42 at a speed in accordance with the speed of movement of the reading unit 10.

In the present invention, it is intended that ambient light will be suflicient to provide a light signal for the reading unit 10. If desired, a separate light source can be attached to the reading unit to illuminate the printed matter to be copied.

If the light (ambient or not) shines onto an unprinted portion of the page, the light is reflected off of the White page. Those fibers adjacent the white portion pick up the reflected light and transmit it to the photocell strip 30. When light shines on a particular photocell, a current is produced which is amplified by the amplifier 14. The amplifier 14 then prevents a voltage signal from passing to the particular styli 42 associated with the particular energized light 30. The amplifier 14, in a preferred embodiment, was a plurality of common collector transistor amplifiers individually connected to each photocell. The common collector amplifier was chosen because of its extremely high input impedance. This high input impedance matches the impedence of the photocell. In this manner, very little current will be drawn through the photocells and overheating will be prevented. Further, by utilizing photocells in their high impedance range (10 megohms for dark signals and 1.2 megohms for light signals) the reader need not include a separate light source. Thus low light levels may be used during reading.

Those fibers 24 which have their ends 26 adjacent a printed portion of the sheet, will not excite their associated photocells on the strip 30. In this case, there would be little current applied to the associated transistor of amplifier 14. For the particular fiber and photocell which was not excited, a voltage signal would be transmitted through conductor 34 to connector 36 and the particular stylus 42 associated therewith. The energized stylus would apply the voltage signal to make a latent image or mark on the paper 44.

Since a voltage signal is applied to the styli 42 as the ends 26 sweep across the printed matter, marks are made on the paper 46 which will take the same shape and configuration as the printed matter being copied. Thus, the printed matter will be identically reproduced on the paper strip 46. If desired, suitable perforations 66 can be placed on the strip 46 so that uniform lengths of copied material can be made and stored as on 3" x 5" cards.

Since scanning instrument 10 is small enough to be carried in the hand, and is connected to the amplifying unit 14 and the reproducing unit 12 merely by electrical wiring, the reproducing instrument 12 and the circuitry 14 canbe located at one place and the scanning instrument 10 carried to a different location to be used. For example, in a library, the reproducing instrument 12 and the electronic circuitry 14 can be located at a central position and connected to a plurality of outlet plugs located at various places throughout the library. When a person desires to copy something from a book or magazine or the like, he merely plugs the scanning instrument into the nearest outlet and moves the scanning instrument over the printed matter to be copied. Therefore, the person can move from place to place throughout the library and copy any desired matter at any location. When the person has completed his work, he returns to the location of the recording instrument and tears off the strip contain ing the reproduced printed matter and arranges it for his own use. Thus, one can copy any printed matter from a line to a paragraph or a picture simply and easily. Since the scanning instrument can be carried to the matter to be copied, there is no time lost in carrying the books to the copying machine and back to the shelves. Also, since the books are not taken away from the shelves, they are always available. Furthermore, the reproduction takes place almost simultaneously with the copying so that the copying operation is much quicker than with full page photocopying machines which require the delay in processing the entire page.

In FIGURE 2, there is shown a second reading head 70 built in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The reading head 70 includes a housing 72 having an open end 74 adapted to be placed adjacent a graphic image to be copied. The open end 74 has a mask 76 spaced from the open end which determines the amount of material to be copied.

Spaced from the mask 76 is a suitable geometric optical lens system 78 mounted on supports 80 and 82 for directing the image seen through the mask 76 onto a photocell conducting strip 84. The photocell conducting strip 84 is exactly similar to the photocell conducting strip 30.

shown in FIGURE 1 and has connected thereto a suitable conductor conduit 86.

Between the geometric lens 78 and the photocell conducting strip 84 there may be placed a suitable mirror beam splitter or viewer 88 directed at an angle to the vertical. The mirror beam splitter 88 allows the image to pass therethrough to the photocell conducting strip g 84 and additionally reflects the image to a mirror 90 spaced adjacent a window 92 in the back wall of the housing 72.

The mirror 90 directs the image from the mask 76 into a viewer lens 94 so that the person utilizing the instrument can easily see what he is copying.

It should be noted that the geometric optical lens system 78 may be utilized to expand or reduce the image seen by the mask 76. By placing the mask 76 adjacent the open end 74 of the reading head 70, the user will always see exactly what is being copied. The conduit 86 is connected to the amplifier circuitry 14 and the reproducing apparatus 12 shown in FIGURE 1 in the same manner as the conduit 32 was connected.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof and, accordingly, reference should be made to the appended claims, rather than to the foregoing specification as indicating the scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. Copying and reproducing apparatus comprising a scanning head having an outer housing with an opening at the bottom thereof, a fiber-optic array comprising a group of light transmitting discrete fibers mounted within said housing, said array having one end thereof in an orderly arrangement adjacent the bottom of said housing, light sensitive pickup means adjacent the other end of said array for producing electrical signals in accordance with the light transmitted by said fibers, and recording means adapted to receive said light sensitive pickup means signals for recording a pattern determined by said orderly arrangement of said one end of said fibers, said recording means including a recording head and a web on which said pattern is recorded, drive means for producing relative movement between said recording head and said web, scanning head position sensing means for sensing the position of said scanning head, and synchronizing means adapted to control said drive means in accordance with signals received from said scanning head position sensing means to control the relative movement of said web with respect to said recording means in accordance with the position of said scanning head.

2. Copying and reproducing apparatus comprising a scaning head having an outer housing with an opening at the bottom thereof, a fiber-optic array comprising a group of light transmitting discrete fibers mounted within said housing, said array having one end thereof in an orderly arrangement adjacent the bottom of said housing, light sensitive pickup means adjacent the other end of said array for producing electrical signals in accordance with the light transmitted by said fibers, and recording means adapted to receive said light sensitive pickup means signals for recording a pattern determined by said orderly arrangement of said one end of said fibers, said array comprising an effective single line of light transmitting discrete fibers, said recording mean including a recording head arranged to record said signals on a web in a single straight line, a light transparent block between said one end of said array and said opening in the bottom of said housing, and mask means for controlling the size of said opening in said bottom of said housing.

3. Copying and reproducing apparatus comprising a scanning head having a housing with an opening at the bottom thereof, a mask across said opening passing light signals into said housing, optical transmission means disposed within said housing adjacent said mask for accurately transmitting said light signals, light sensitive pickup means responsive to said optical transmission means to receive said light signals, said light sensitive pickup means producing discrete electrical signals in accordance with said light signals, and recording means adapted to receive said light sensitive pickup means signals for recording a pattern determined by said discrete electrical signals, said recording means including a recording head and a web on which said pattern is recorded, drive means for producing relative movement between said recording head and said web, scanning head position sensing means for sensing the position of said scanning head, and synchronizing means adapted to control said drive means in accordance with signals received from said scanning head position sensing means to control the relative movement of said web with respect to said recording means in accordance with the position of said scanning head.

4. Copying and reproducing apparatus comprising a scanning head having a housing with an opening at the bottom thereof, a mask across said opening passing light signals into said housing, optical transmission means disposed within said housing adjacent said mask for accurately transmitting said light signals, light sensitive pickup means responsive to said optical transmission means to receive said light signals, said light sensitive pickup means producing discrete electrical signals in accordance with said light signals, and recording means adapted to receive said light sensitive pickup means signals for recording a pattern determined by said discrete electrical signals, said optical transmission means including an optical viewing means, said optical viewing means being operative to additionally transmit said light signals to a viewing apparatus whereby the user may continuously see the pattern being copied.

5. The copying and reproducing apparatus of claim 4 wherein said optical viewing means includes a transparent lock, said transparent block being spaced Within said housing adjacent said mask.

6. Copying and reproducing apparatus comprising a scanning head having a housing with an opening at the bottom thereof, a mask across said opening passing light signals into said housing, optical transmission means disposed within said housing adjacent said mask for accurately transmitting said light signals, light sensitive pickup means responsive to said optical transmission means to receive said light signals, said light sensitive pickup means producing discrete electrical signals in accordance with said light signals, and recording means adapted to receive said light sensitive pickup means signals for recording a pattern determined by said discrete electrical signals, said optical transmission means including a geometrical optical lens system, said lens system being placed within said housing between said mask and said light sensitive pickup means, a beam splitter, said beam splitter being spaced adjacent said geometrical optical lens system for allowing passage of said light signals to said light sensitive pickup means and additionally for transmitting said light signals to a viewing apparatus.

7. The copying and reproducing apparatus of claim 6 wherein said viewing apparatus includes a mirror mounted on a wall of said housing, said mirror transmitting said light signals to a viewing lens mounted on said wall of said housing.

8. Copying and reproducing apparatus comprising a scanning head having an outer housing with an opening at the bottom thereof, a fiber-optic array comprising a group of light transmitting discrete fibers mounted within said housing, said array having one end thereof in an orderly arrangement adjacent the bottom of said housing, light sensitive pickup means adjacent the other end of said array for producing electrical signals in accordance with the light transmitted by said fibers, and recording means adapted to receive said light sensitive pickup means signals for recording a pattern determined by said orderly arrangement of said one end of said fibers, said array comprising an effective single line of light transmitting discrete fibers, said recording means including a recording head arranged to record said signals on a web in a single straight line, said recording head being a printed circuit board, said printed circuit board having a plurality of conductors thereon, each particular conductor on said printed circuit board being responsive to a particular discrete fiber in said fiber array, said recording means including a source of electrical energy, said light sensitive pickup 7 means being operative to control said source to energize particular printed circuit conductors in accordance with the light transmitted by said fibers, said web being sensitive to signals from said source to produce marks on said web in accordance therewith, a roller mounted on said housing adjacent the bottom thereof, said roller frictionally engaging the surface of said matter to be copied to produce a signal proportional to the speed of movement of said housing with respect to said matter, said recording head and said Web being movable with respect to each other, drive means for said recording means, and synchronizing means controlled by said roller signal to energize said drive means in accordance with the speed of said housing with respect to said matter.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,751,584 3/1930 Hansell 17 86 2,616,983 11/1952 Zworykin 178-6 3,050,580 8/1962 Schwertz 178-6.6

10 DAVID G. REDINBAUGH, Primary Examiner.

H. W. BRITTON, Assistant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. COPYING AND REPRODUCING APPARATUS COMPRISING A SCANNING HEAD HAVING AN OUTER HOUSING WITH AN OPENING AT THE BOTTOM THEREOF, A FIBER-OPTIC ARRAY COMPRISING A GROUP OF LIGHT TRANSMITTING DISCRETE FIBERS MOUNTED WITHIN SAID HOUSING, SAID ARRAY HAVING ONE END THEREOF IN AN ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT ADJACENT THE BOTTOM OF SAID HOUSING, LIGHT SENSITIVE PICKUP MEANS ADJACENT THE OTHER END OF SAID ARRAY FOR PRODUCING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LIGHT TRANSMITTED BY SAID FIBERS, AND RECORDING MEANS ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID LIGHT SENSITIVE PICKUP MEANS SIGNALS FOR RECORDING A PATTERN DETERMINED BY SAID ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT OF SAID ONE END OF SAID FIBERS, SAID RECORDING MEANS INCLUDING A RECORDING HEAD AND A WEB ON WHICH SAID PATTERN IS RECORDED, DRIVE MEANS FOR PRODUCING RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN SAID RECORDING HEAD AND SAID WEB, SCANNING HEAD POSITION SENSING MEANS FOR SENSING THE POSITION OF SAID SCANNING HEAD, AND SYNCHRONIZING MEANS ADAPTED TO CONTROL SAID DRIVE MEANS IN ACCORDANCE WITH SIGNALS RECEIVED FROM SAID SCANNING HEAD POSITION SENSING MEANS TO CONTROL THE RELATIVE MOVEMENT OF SAID WEB WITH RESPECT TO SAID RECORDING MEANS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE POSITION OF SAID SCANNING HEAD.

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