Patent ID: 7298921

Claim:
A document scanning method for producing image data from a document from which data an image of the document can be produced, the method comprising the steps of causing relative movement between a document and both of first and second imaging elements at the same time, such that each of a succession of scan lines of the document is exposed in turn to the imaging elements; generating by means of the first and second imaging elements respective first and second image data words representative of respective first and second overlapping portions of each scan line, the first and second image data words being one-dimensional strings of pixel values; and concatenating at least a portion of each of the first and second words to generate a third image data word representative of the scan line, the third image data word being a one-dimensional string of pixel values, the method further including the steps of cross-correlating at least a portion of each of the first and second words to identify a portion of the second word that is included in the first word; discarding a portion of at least one of the first and second words; concatenating the first word or remainder thereof with the second word or remainder thereof to form the third image data word; and, if necessary, compressing or expanding the third word by linear interpolation so as to obtain an image data word of a predetermined length.