Scanners and scanning
A scanner is a device used to continuously read: an image, a barcode or magnetic code, radio waves, etc. into an electronic form (usually digital). The scanner scans the serial streams of information, reading or registering them.
40-ies The first device that can be called the progenitor of the fax/scanner was developed in the early XNUMXs by a Scottish inventor. Aleksandra Butwhich is primarily known as inventor of the first electric clock.
On May 27, 1843, Bain received a British patent (No. 9745) for an improvement in manufacturing and regulation. electricity Oraz timer improvements, w electric seal and then made some improvements to another patent issued in 1845.
In his patent description, Bain claimed that any other surface, consisting of conductive and non-conductive materials, could be copied using these means. However, its mechanism produced poor quality images and was uneconomical to use, mainly because the transmitter and receiver were never synchronized. Bain fax concept was somewhat improved in 1848 by an English physicist Frederica Bakewellbut the Bakewell device (1) also produced poor quality reproductions.
1861 The first practically working electromechanical fax machine commercially used is called "pantograph'(2) was invented by an Italian physicist Giovannigo Casellego. In the XNUMXs, the pantelegraph was a device for transmitting handwritten text, drawings and signatures over telegraph lines. It has been widely used as a signature verification tool in banking transactions.
A machine made of cast iron and more than two meters high, for us today it is clumsy, but quite efficient at the timehe acted by having the sender write the message on a tin sheet with non-conductive ink. This sheet was then attached to a curved metal plate. The sender's stylus scanned the original document, following its parallel lines (three lines per millimeter).
Signals were transmitted by telegraph to the station, where the message was marked with Prussian blue ink, obtained as a result of a chemical reaction, since the paper in the receiving device was impregnated with potassium ferrocyanide. To ensure that both needles scan at the same speed, the designers used two extremely precise clocks that drove a pendulum, which in turn was connected to gears and belts that controlled the movement of the needles.
1913 rises belinographwho could scan images with a photocell. Idea Eduard Belin (3) allowed transmission over telephone lines and became the technical basis for the AT&T Wirephoto service. Belinograph this allowed images to be sent to distant locations over telegraph and telephone networks.
In 1921, this process was improved so that photographs could also be transmitted using radio waves. In the case of a belinograph, an electrical device is used to measure the intensity of light. Light intensity levels are transmitted to the receiverwhere the light source can reproduce the intensity measured by the transmitter by printing them on photographic paper. Modern photocopiers use a very similar principle in which light is captured by computer-controlled sensors and the print is based on laser technology.
3. Eduard Belin with a belinographer
1914 Roots optical character recognition technology (optical character recognition), used to recognize characters and whole texts in a graphic file, bitmap form, date back to the beginning of the First World War. Then this Emanuel Goldberg i Edmund Fournier d'Albe independently developed the first OCR devices.
Goldberg invented a machine capable of reading characters and converting them into telegraphic code. Meanwhile, d'Albe developed a device known as the optophone. It was a portable scanner that could be moved along the edge of printed text to produce distinct and distinct tones, each corresponding to a specific character or letter. The OCR method, although developed over decades, works in principle similar to the first devices.
1924 Richard H. Ranger invention wireless photoradiogram (4). He uses it to send a photo of the president Calvin Coolidge from New York to London in 1924, the first photograph to be faxed over the radio. Ranger's invention was used commercially in 1926 and is still used to transmit weather charts and other weather information.
4. Reproduction of the first photoroentgenogram by Richard H. Ranger.
1950 Designed by Benedict Cassin medical rectilinear scanner preceded by the successful development of the directional scintillation detector. In 1950, Cassin assembled the first automated scanning system, consisting of engine-driven scintillation detector connected to relay printer.
This scanner was used to visualize the thyroid gland after the administration of radioactive iodine. In 1956, Kuhl and his colleagues developed a Cassin scanner that improved its sensitivity and resolution. With the development of organ-specific radiopharmaceuticals, a commercial model of this system was widely used from the late 50s to the early 70s to scan the major organs of the body.
1957 rises drum scanner, the first designed to work with a computer to perform digital scanning. It was built at the US National Bureau of Standards by a team led by Russell A. Kirsch, while working on America's first internally programmed (stored in memory) computer, the Standard Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC), which allowed Kirsch's group to experiment with algorithms that were precursors to image processing and pattern recognition.
Russell and Kirshovi it turned out that a general-purpose computer could be used to simulate many character recognition logics that were proposed to be implemented in hardware. This will require an input device that can convert the image into the appropriate form. store in computer memory. Thus the digital scanner was born.
CEAC Scanner used a rotating drum and a photomultiplier to detect reflections from a small image mounted on the drum. The mask placed between the image and the photomultiplier was tessellated, i.e. divided the image into a polygonal grid. The first image scanned on the scanner was a 5×5 cm photograph of Kirsch's three-month-old son, Walden (5). The black and white image had a resolution of 176 pixels per side.
60s-90s Twentieth century First 3D scanning technology was created in the 60s of the last century. Early scanners used lights, cameras, and projectors. Due to hardware limitations, accurately scanning objects often took a lot of time and effort. After 1985, they were replaced by scanners that could use white light, lasers, and shading to capture a given surface. Terrestrial medium-range laser scanning (TLS) was developed from applications in space and defense programs.
The main source of funding for these cutting-edge projects came from US government agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This continued until the 90s, when the technology was recognized as a valuable tool for industrial and commercial applications. Breakthrough when it comes to commercial implementation 3D laser scanning (6) was the emergence of TLS systems based on triangulation. The revolutionary device was created by Xin Chen for Mensi, founded in 1987 by Auguste D'Aligny and Michel Paramitioti.
5. The first image scanned by the SEAC scanner
6. Visualization of the TLS ground-based scanning laser
1963 German inventor Rudolf Ad represents another breakthrough innovation, chromograph, described in studies as "the first scanner in history" (although it should be understood as the first commercial device of its kind in the printing industry). In 1965 he invented the kit first electronic typing system with digital memory (computer kit) revolutionized the printing industry around the world.. In the same year, the first "digital compositor" was introduced - Digiset. Rudolf Hella's DC 300 commercial scanner from 1971 has been hailed as a world-class scanner breakthrough.
7. Inventor of the Kurzweil reading machine.
1974 start OCR devicesas we know it today. It was established then Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc. Later known as a futurist and promoter of the "technological singularity", he invented a revolutionary application of the technique of scanning and recognition of signs and symbols. His idea was building a reading machine for the blind, which allows visually impaired people to read books through a computer.
Ray Kurzweil and his team created Kurzweil's reading machine (7) and Omni-Font OCR Technology Software. This software is used to recognize text on a scanned object and convert it into data in text form. His efforts led to the development of two techniques that were later and still are of great importance. Speaking of word synthesizer i flatbed scanner.
Kurzweil flatbed scanner from the 70s. had no more than 64 kilobytes of memory. Over time, engineers have improved the scanner's resolution and memory capacity, allowing these devices to capture images up to 9600 dpi. Optical image scanning, текст, handwritten documents or objects and converting them into a digital image became widely available in the early 90s.
In the 5400 century, flatbed scanners became inexpensive and reliable pieces of equipment, first for offices and later for homes (most often integrated with fax machines, copiers, and printers). It is sometimes called reflective scanning. It works by illuminating the scanned object with white light and reading the intensity and color of the light reflected from it. Designed to scan prints or other flat, opaque materials, they have an adjustable top, which means they can easily accommodate large books, magazines, and more. Once average quality images, many flatbed scanners now produce copies up to XNUMX pixels per inch. .
1994 3D Scanners is launching a solution called REPLICATION. This system made it possible to quickly and accurately scan objects while maintaining a high level of detail. Two years later, the same company offered ModelMaker technique (8), touted as the first such precise technique to "capture real XNUMXD objects".
2013 Apple joins Touch ID fingerprint scanners (9) for the smartphones it manufactures. The system is highly integrated with iOS devices, allowing users to unlock the device, as well as make purchases from various Apple digital stores (iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore) and authenticate Apple Pay payments. In 2016, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 camera enters the market, equipped not only with a fingerprint scanner, but also with an iris scanner.
8. One of the ModelMaker 3D scanner models
9. Touch ID Scanner on iPhone
Scanner classification
A scanner is a device used to continuously read: an image, a barcode or magnetic code, radio waves, etc. into an electronic form (usually digital). The scanner scans the serial streams of information, reading or registering them.
So it's not a normal reader, but a step-by-step reader (for example, an image scanner doesn't capture the entire image at one moment like a camera does, but instead writes successive lines of the image - so the scanner's read head is moving, or the medium being scanned underneath).
optical scanner
Optical scanner in computers a peripheral input device that converts a static image of a real object (for example, a leaf, the surface of the earth, the human retina) into a digital form for further computer processing. The computer file resulting from the scanning of an image is called a scan. Optical scanners are used for image processing preparation (DTP), handwriting recognition, security and access control systems, archiving of documents and old books, scientific and medical research, etc.
Types of optical scanners:
- handheld scanner
- flatbed scanner
- drum scanner
- slide scanner
- film scanner
- Barcode Scanner
- 3D scanner (spatial)
- book scanner
- mirror scanner
- prism scanner
- fiber optic scanner
Magnetic
These readers have heads that read information usually written on a magnetic stripe. This is how information is stored, for example, on most payment cards.
Digital
The reader reads the information stored at the facility through direct contact with the system at the facility. Thus, among other things, the computer user is authorized using a digital card.
Радио
The radio reader (RFID) reads the information stored in the object. Typically, the range of such a reader is from a few to several centimeters, although readers with a range of several tens of centimeters are also popular. Due to their ease of use, they are increasingly replacing magnetic reader solutions, for example in access control systems.
