Abstract:
A method and an application installed in a computer system for controlling a plurality of scanners connected to the computer system being capable of feeding documents automatically. The scanners being parallel-connected to the computer system via an interface selecting from a group consisting of IEEE 1394, USB, and SCSI interfaces. The application comprises a scan code for controlling the scanners parallelly and a plurality of image files generated by the scanners scanning documents that can be transferred to the computer system, and a sort code for sorting the images files.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to a software application and a method for scanning documents with a scan system. More specifically, an application and a method of arrangement of image files generated by a plurality of scanners that scan documents simultaneously are disclosed. 
   2. Description of the Prior Art 
   A scanner involves many fields such as optics, machinery, electronics, and software algorithms. Its main job is transforming physical image information into digital images files. The transformation process comprises selecting an original object (or document) to scan, transforming analog signals into digital signals, and performing software algorithms, each of these processes being connected with the others. While scanning numerous documents, in addition to scanning precision with respect to color, a most important factor is scan speed. However, conventional scanners are limited by mechanical structure, software algorithm speed, and electronic and optical mechanisms and thus have limited scan speeds. 
   Please refer to FIG.  1 .  FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a conventional scan system  10 . The scan system  10  comprises a host computer  12 , a bus  14 , a plurality of scan codes  16 , and a plurality of scanners  18 . The scanners  18  connect with the host  12  via the bus  14 . The bus  14  is a universal serial bus (USB), a firewire (IEEE 1394), an Ethernet cable, or a small computer system interface (SCSI). Each scan code  16  is used to process algorithms and coordinate file arrangement after the corresponding scanner  18  scans a document and generates document image files. Even though the host computer  12  can simultaneously electrically connect to the plurality of scanners  18 , each scan code  16  still processes one image file from one scanner  18  at a time. If a user wants to operate the plurality of scanners  18  simultaneously, the user has to open the plurality of scan codes  16  in the host computer  12 . In this way, the method results in a heavy burden on the host computer  12  and user inconvenience for manipulating windows successively to oversee all the scan jobs. More specifically, after scanning, the user has to clearly record each job corresponding to each scanner to avoid incorrect arrangement of scattered image files. This is obviously quite inefficient. 
   If a user wants to purchase a ten-times-faster scanner, the cost will be more than, ten times that of a typical scanner. If a user wants to generate ten-times the scans with ten identical scanners connected to parallel, according to the prior art, no software is capable of controlling the plurality of scanners to operate simultaneously and to automatically return the scattered image files to an initial arrangement. The user has to open the plurality of scan codes  16  and manually arrange the image files. This method is inefficient and prone to mistakes. 
   The U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,684 discloses a scan system connected to a network. A plurality of scanners connects with computers and to each other through the network, and a single computer can control the plurality of scanners to scan to promote a speed suitable for mass scanning of documents. However, the scanners connected via the network are very expensive and bandwidth of the network being limited by hardware and data flow results in a bottleneck of data transmission. Moreover, controlling operation of the scanners via network protocol requires more complicated procedures, and is thus more complicated than via IEEE 1394, USB, and SCSI interfaces. 
   The Taiwan Patent No. 458454 discloses an expansible scanner system. Based on the patent, a plurality of platform scanners are connected in parallel via a transmission interface resulting in a bottleneck of data transmission. Furthermore, the patent also does not disclose any method of arranging files generated by the scanners resulting in inconvenience for users. 
   SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
   Accordingly, a software application and a method for a scan system to mass scan documents are disclosed. The application and method are capable of automatically arranging images files generated by a plurality of scanners using a sort code. In addition, users are capable of expanding the scan system via the method of the claimed invention permitting increasing a number of auxiliary computers and scanners connected with the auxiliary computers. 
   The claimed invention provides an application installed in a computer system for controlling a plurality of scanners connected to the computer system being capable of feeding documents automatically, the scanners parallel-connected to the computer system via an interface selecting from a group consisting of IEEE 1394, USB, and SCSI interfaces. The application comprises a scan code for controlling the scanners parallelly and a plurality of image files generated by the scanners scanning documents that can be transferred to the computer system, and a sort code for sorting the images files. 
   The application makes the arrangement of the scan system more efficient and the cost simply vary linearly according to an amount of auxiliary computers and scanners. 
   These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a conventional scan system. 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment scan system according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of three scanners connected with the host computer shown in FIG.  2 . 
       FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment scan system according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram of a third embodiment scan system according to the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   Please refer to  FIG. 2  illustrating a schematic diagram of a scan system  20  according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The scan system  20  comprises a host computer  22 , a scan code  23 , a sort code  24 , a post-process code  25 , a bus  26 , a plurality of scanners  28 , and an operating system (OS)  30 . The host computer  22  connects parallelly with the plurality of scanners  28  through the bus  26 . The bus  26  could be a USB, a firewire (IEEE 1394), or a SCSI to obtain high-speed transmission. The scan code  23  for controlling the scanners  28  parallelly is installed in the host computer  22 . The sort code  24  is used to arrange images files generated by the scanners  28  connected to the host computer  22 . The post-process code  25  is used to post-process the arranged images files, for instance, by cleaning random spots. The scan code  23 , the sort code  24 , and the post-process code  25  compose an, application. Each scanner  28  has a feeder  42  for feeding the scanning documents to each scanner  28  automatically piece by piece. After the host computer  22  starts and loads the OS  30 , the OS  30  detects the plurality of scanners  28  and connects the host computer  22  with the scanners  28  via the bus  26 . Then, a user can execute the sort code  24  that is going to control the whole scan system  20 . 
   After being executed, the sort code  24  generates a job tray and serves a stack of documents put into a scanner  28  each time as a scan job. The job tray records by which scanners each scan job is processed, when the user does the scan job, and to which scan job the generated images files belong. The method of the scan system  20  scanning and a first arrangement comprises the following steps:  1 . Put the documents into the feeders  42  of the plurality of scanners  28 ;  2 . Record by which scanner  28  each scan job is processed and the start time of each scan job in the job tray with the sort code  24  stored in the host computer  22 ;  3 . The feeders  42  send the scanning documents into the plurality of scanners  28  piece by piece and the scanners  28  execute the scan jobs;  4 . Images files generated by scanning documents are transferred to the host computer  22  via the bus  26 . At this time, the sort code  24  stored in the host computer  22  records which scan job generates the images files;  5 . The sort code  24  arranges the images files generated in each scan job based on the start time of each scan job recorded in the job tray. 
   Please refer to FIG.  3 .  FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of three scanners  32 ,  34 , and  36  connected with the host computer  22 . The user assigns a first scan job to the scanner  32 , a second scan job to the scanner  34 , and a third scan job to the scanner  36 . For example, after the scanner  34  finishes the second scan job, the scanners  32 ,  36  are still processing the first and the third scan jobs. Hence, the user assigns a fourth scan job to the scanner  34 . For this reason, the scanner  32  executes the scan jobs  1 , 6 , 7 , the scanner  34  executes the scan jobs  2 , 4 , 9 , and the scanner  36  executes the scan jobs  3 , 5 , 8 . The generated images files are transfer to the host computer  22  via the bus  26 . The sort code  24  stored in the host computer  22  records by which scanner  28  each scan job is processed and the start time of each scan job. The sort code  24  further records which scan job the generated images files belong to in a job tray  38 , and arranges each generated images files based on the start time of each scan job  1  to  9  recorded in the job tray  38 . Therefore, the sort code  24  of the host computer  22  arranges the generated images files based on a sequence of the scan jobs  1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8 → 9  or  9 → 8 → 7 → 6 → 5 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 . Under these circumstances, the user simply roughly evenly distributes a stack of documents and puts them on the three scanners  32 ,  34 ,  36  to scan. As the scanners finish their scan jobs, the user assigns the next scan job to a scanner that is idle. 
   A second arrangement method according to the present invention differs from the first arrangement method only in step  5 . In the second arrangement method, the sort code  24  arranges the generated images files based on a sequence of each scan job received by each scanner  28  and priority of the plurality of the scanners  28 , not based on the start time of each scan job recorded in the job tray  38 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , the scanner  32  executes the scan jobs  1 , 6 , 7 , the scanner  34  executes the scan jobs  2 , 4 , 9 , and the scanner  36  executes scan jobs  3 , 5 , 8 . According to the second arrangement method, given that the priority of the scanner  32  is higher than that of the scanner  34  and the priority of the scanner  34  is higher than that of the scanner  36 , the sort code  24  would arrange the images files generated by the scanners  32 ,  34 ,  36  based on the sequence  1 → 2 → 3 → 6 → 4 → 5 → 7 → 9 → 8 . For example, the scan job  4  and the scan job  6  are the second scan job executed by the scanner  34  and the scanner  32  respectively, but the start time of the scan job  4  is earlier than that of the scan job  6 . Because the scan job  4  is executed by the scanner  34 , the scan job  6  is executed by the scanner  32 , and the scanner  32  has priority over the scanner  34 , the sort code  24  arranges the images files generated from the scan job  4  ahead of those from the scan job  6 . In addition, the scan job  3  is the first scan job of the scanner  36  and the scan job  6  is the second scan job of the scanner  32 , so the images files generated from the scan job  3  are arranged ahead of those from the scan job  6 . Nevertheless, the sort code  24  also arranges the generated images files from the scanners  32 ,  34 ,  36  in the host computer  22  based on the sequence of the scan jobs  8 → 9 → 7 → 5 → 4 → 6 → 3 → 2 → 1  or a reverse sequence. In this way, the user can distribute documents to each scanner according to the above sequence. 
   Please refer to FIG.  4 .  FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of a second scan system  50  according to the present invention. The difference between the scan system  20  and the scan system  50  is that the scan system  50  further comprises an auxiliary computer  40  connected between the host computer  22  and the plurality of scanners  28 . The auxiliary computer  40  controls scan jobs and arrangement jobs of the plurality of scanners  28 . As a result of a mass of data generated by simultaneous operation of the scanners  28  if only one host computer  22  is in charge of arrangement, calculation, data-receiving, transmission, and post-processing, the host computer  22  becomes over-burdened resulting in inefficiency and even shut down. Consequently, the auxiliary computer  40  shown in  FIG. 4  specializes in receiving the generated images files from the scanners  28  and arranging them (executed by codes  23  and  24 ), and delivers the images files to the host computer  22  based on the above scan and arrangement steps to perform post-processing (executed by code  25 ). 
   Referring to  FIG. 5 ,  FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram of a third scan system  60  according to the present invention. Bus  26  bandwidth of present peripheral devices and bus control devices in computers still are limited. Hence, for simultaneous operation of numerous scanners, it is necessary that a plurality of auxiliary computers  40  be responsible for the scanners  28 . As shown in  FIG. 5 , the scan system  60  comprises a host computer  22 , a plurality of auxiliary computers  40 , and a plurality of scanners  28 . Each auxiliary computer  40  controls some of the plurality of scanners Each auxiliary computer  40  stores a scan code  23  and a sort code  24  to scan and to arrange. The host computer  22  stores a post-process code  25  to post-process the arranged images files. In this way, the user can expand the scan system  20  by increasing the amount of auxiliary computers  40  and the amount of scanners  28  connected to the auxiliary computers  40 . As a result of being able to compress the arranged images files, a transmission speed between the host computer  22  and the auxiliary computers  40  does not have to match a transmission speed between the auxiliary computers  40  and the scanners  28 . Using a typical network cable is satisfactory. 
   Consequently, using any of the described methods of the present invention, images files can be arranged as simultaneously generated by the plurality of scanners  28 . Moreover, the user is permitted theoretically unlimited expansion of the scan system  60  by increasing the amount of auxiliary computers  40  and the amount of scanners  28  connected with the auxiliary computers  40 . The present invention method makes the scan system more efficient and has a cost that remains linear with respect to the amount of the auxiliary computers  40  and scanners  28  employed. 
   Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.