COMPUTER SCANNING

AND
SCANNERS
COMPUTER SCANNING
AND
SCANNERS

Sean White
Computer Scanning and Scanners
by Sean White

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 Computer Scanning and Scanners

Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Computer Machine 12

Chapter 3 The Scanners Capture Process 60

Chapter 4 Barcode Reader 64

Chapter 5 Desktop Digital Camera Scanner 74

Chapter 6 Charge-Coupled Device 82

Chapter 7 Digital Image 96

Chapter 8 Computer Scanography 131

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 1
Introduction

The process of creating art with a scanner can be as

simple as arranging objects on the scanner and capturing
the resulting image; in fact, some early artists in the field
worked with photocopiers to capture and print in a single
step, resulting in the field of Xerox art. Artist Sonia Landy
Smith, artist in residence at 3M and founder of the Generative
Systems programme at the Art Institute of Chicago was one
of the first to exploit this ability in 1968, altering the
variables of the photocopying process to produce artwork
rather than mere copies.
Using a computer and a photo editor between the scanning
and the printing process provides the artist with a greater
level of control, allowing, at a minimum, the ability to
“clean” the image by removing specks and other imperfections
in the capture. With the increased availability of photocopiers
 Computer Scanning and Scanners

in the 1980s and 1990s, a vernacular form of scanography

developed from people making photocopies of body parts,
notably their hands, faces, or their buttocks, generally
humorously.
Harold Feinstein’s One Hundred Shell and One Hundred
Flower series contained scanned images side by side with
traditional large format photography. Joseph Scheer scanned
moths in Night Visions: The Secret Designs of Moths. A 2008
exhibition titled “Scanner as Camera” at Washington and
Lee University in Lexington, Virginia drew eight artists from
across the United States whose subjects ranged from scanned
and digitally manipulated historic ambrotype and tintype
photographs and drawings to dead birds and insects found
by the artist.

Compact Digital Cameras

Compact cameras are designed to be tiny and portable
and are particularly suitable for casual and “snapshot” use,
thus are also called point-and-shoot cameras. The smallest,
generally less than 20 mm thick, are described as
subcompacts or “ultra-compacts” and some are nearly credit
card size.
Most, apart from ruggedized or water-resistant models,
incorporate a retractable lens assembly allowing a thin
camera to have a moderately long focal length and thus fully
exploit an image sensor larger than that on a camera phone,
and a mechanized lens cap to cover the lens when retracted.
The retracted and capped lens is protected from keys, coins

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and other hard objects, thus making a thin, pocketable

package. Subcompacts commonly have one lug and a short
wrist strap which aids extraction from a pocket, while thicker
compacts may have two lugs for attaching a neck strap.
Compact cameras are usually designed to be easy to use,
sacrificing advanced features and picture quality for
compactness and simplicity; images can usually only be
stored using lossy compression (JPEG). Most have a built-
in flash usually of low power, sufficient for nearby subjects.
Live preview is almost always used to frame the photo.
Most have limited motion picture capability. Compacts
often have macro capability and zoom lenses but the zoom
range is usually less than for bridge and DSLR cameras.
Generally a contrast-detect autofocus system, using the
image data from the live preview feed of the main imager,
focuses the lens.
Typically, these cameras incorporate a nearly-silent leaf
shutter into their lenses. For lower cost and smaller size,
these cameras typically use image sensors with a diagonal
of approximately 6 mm, corresponding to a crop factor
around 6.
This gives them weaker low-light performance, greater
depth of field, generally closer focusing ability, and smaller
components than cameras using larger sensors. Some recent
compact digital cameras can now able to take 3D still
photos. These new 3D compact digital cameras can capture
3D panoramic photos for play back on a 3D TV.

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Bridge Cameras
Bridge are higher-end digital cameras that physically
and ergonomically resemble DSLRs and share with them
some advanced features, but share with compacts the use
of a fixed lens and a small sensor. Like compacts, most use
live preview to frame the image. Their autofocus uses the
same contrast-detect mechanism, but many bridge cameras
have a manual focus mode, in some cases using a separate
focus ring, for greater control.
Due to the combination of big physical size but a small
sensor, many of these cameras have very highly specified
lenses with large zoom range and fast aperture, partially
compensating for the inability to change lenses. To
compensate for the lesser sensitivity of their small sensors,
these cameras almost always include an image stabilization
system to enable longer handheld exposures. The highest
zoom lens so far on a bridge camera is on the Nikon Coolpix
P500 digital camera, which encompasses an equivalent of
a super wide to ultra-telephoto 22.5-810 mm (36x).
These cameras are sometimes marketed as and confused
with digital SLR cameras since the appearance is similar.
Bridge cameras lack the reflex viewing system of DSLRs, are
usually fitted with fixed (non-interchangeable) lenses
(although some have a lens thread to attach accessory wide-
angle or telephoto converters), and can usually take movies
with sound. The scene is composed by viewing either the
liquid crystal display or the electronic viewfinder (EVF).
Most have a longer shutter lag than a true dSLR, but they

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are capable of good image quality (with sufficient light) while

being more compact and lighter than DSLRs. High-end
models of this type have comparable resolutions to low and
mid-range DSLRs. Many of these cameras can store images
in a Raw image format, or processed and JPEG compressed,
or both. The majority have a built-in flash similar to those
found in DSLRs.
In bright sun, the quality difference between a good
compact camera and a digital SLR is minimal but bridgecams
are more portable, cost less and have a similar zoom ability
to dSLR. Thus a Bridge camera may better suit outdoor
daytime activities, except when seeking professional-quality
photos. In low light conditions and/or at ISO equivalents
above 800, most bridge cameras (or megazooms) lack in
image quality when compared to even entry level DSLRs.

Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Camera

In late 2008 a new type of camera emerged, combining
the larger sensors and interchangeable lenses of DSLRs
with the live preview viewing system of compact cameras,
either through an electronic viewfinder or on the rear LCD.
These are simpler and more compact than DSLRs due to
the removal of the mirror box, and typically emulate the
handling and ergonomics of either DSLRs or compacts. The
system is use by Micro Four Thirds, borrowing components
from the Four Thirds DSLR system. The Ricoh GXR of 2009
puts the sensor and other electronic components in the
interchangeable sensor lens unit rather than in the camera
body. The first interchangeable 3D lens Lumix G 12.5mm/

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F12 (H-FT012) has been announced by Panasonic. It use

two lenses quite close together in one lens module adaptor
and record both 3D and 2D pictures altogether. The lens
module is compatible with Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2.
Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras
Digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) are digital
cameras based on film single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs).
They take their name from their unique viewing system, in
which a mirror reflects light from the lens through a separate
optical viewfinder.
In order to capture an image the mirror is flipped out
of the way, allowing light to fall on the imager. Since no light
reaches the imager during framing, autofocus is
accomplished using specialized sensors in the mirror box
itself. Most 21st century DSLRs also have a “live view” mode
that emulates the live preview system of compact cameras,
when selected.
These cameras have much larger sensors than the other
types, typically 18 mm to 36 mm on the diagonal (crop
factor 2, 1.6, or 1). This gives them superior low-light
performance, less depth of field at a given aperture, and a
larger size.
They make use of interchangeable lenses; each major
DSLR manufacturer also sells a line of lenses specifically
intended to be used on their cameras. This allows the user
to select a lens designed for the application at hand: wide-
angle, telephoto, low-light, etc. So each lens does not require

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its own shutter, DSLRs use a focal-plane shutter in front

of the imager, behind the mirror. The mirror flipping out of
the way at the moment of exposure makes a distinctive
“clack” sound.

Image Sensors
Image Resolution
The resolution of a digital camera is often limited by the
image sensor (typically a CCD or CMOS sensor chip) that
turns light into discrete signals, replacing the job of film
in traditional photography. The sensor is made up of millions
of “buckets” that essentially count the number of photons
that strike the sensor. This means that the brighter the
image at a given point on the sensor, the larger the value
that is read for that pixel.
Depending on the physical structure of the sensor, a
color filter array may be used which requires a demosaicing/
interpolation algorithm. The number of resulting pixels in
the image determines its “pixel count”. For example, a
640x480 image would have 307,200 pixels, or approximately
307 kilopixels; a 3872x2592 image would have 10,036,224
pixels, or approximately 10 megapixels.
The pixel count alone is commonly presumed to indicate
the resolution of a camera, but this simple figure of merit
is a misconception. Other factors impact a sensor’s
resolution, including sensor size, lens quality, and the
organization of the pixels (for example, a monochrome camera
without a Bayer filter mosaic has a higher resolution than

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a typical color camera). Many digital compact cameras are

criticized for having excessive pixels. Sensors can be so
small that their ‘buckets’ can easily overfill; again, resolution
of a sensor can become greater than the camera lens could
possibly deliver.
As the technology has improved, costs have decreased
dramatically. Counting the “pixels per dollar” as a basic
measure of value for a digital camera, there has been a
continuous and steady increase in the number of pixels
each dollar buys in a new camera, in accord with the
principles of Moore’s Law. This predictability of camera
prices was first presented in 1998 at the Australian PMA
DIMA conference by Barry Hendy and since referred to as
“Hendy’s Law”.
Since only a few aspect ratios are commonly used (mainly
4:3 and 3:2), the number of sensor sizes that are useful is
limited. Furthermore, sensor manufacturers do not produce
every possible sensor size, but take incremental steps in
sizes. For example, in 2007 the three largest sensors (in
terms of pixel count) used by Canon were the 21.1, 17.9,
and 16.6 megapixel CMOS sensors.
Methods of Image Capture
Since the first digital backs were introduced, there have
been three main methods of capturing the image, each
based on the hardware configuration of the sensor and color
filters. The first method is often called single-shot, in reference
to the number of times the camera’s sensor is exposed to

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the light passing through the camera lens. Single-shot

capture systems use either one CCD with a Bayer filter
mosaic, or three separate image sensors (one each for the
primary additive colors red, green, and blue) which are
exposed to the same image via a beam splitter.
The second method is referred to as multi-shot because
the sensor is exposed to the image in a sequence of three
or more openings of the lens aperture. There are several
methods of application of the multi-shot technique. The
most common originally was to use a single image sensor
with three filters (once again red, green and blue) passed
in front of the sensor in sequence to obtain the additive
color information.
Another multiple shot method is called Microscanning.
This technique utilizes a single CCD with a Bayer filter but
actually moved the physical location of the sensor chip on
the focus plane of the lens to “stitch” together a higher
resolution image than the CCD would allow otherwise. A
third version combined the two methods without a Bayer
filter on the chip.
The third method is called scanning because the sensor
moves across the focal plane much like the sensor of a
desktop scanner. Their linear or tri-linear sensors utilize
only a single line of photosensors, or three lines for the
three colors. In some cases, scanning is accomplished by
moving the sensor e.g. when using Color co-site sampling
or rotate the whole camera; a digital rotating line camera
offers images of very high total resolution.

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The choice of method for a given capture is determined

largely by the subject matter. It is usually inappropriate to
attempt to capture a subject that moves with anything but
a single-shot system.
However, the higher color fidelity and larger file sizes and
resolutions available with multi-shot and scanning backs
make them attractive for commercial photographers working
with stationary subjects and large-format photographs.
Dramatic improvements in single-shot cameras and raw
image file processing at the beginning of the 21st century
made single shot, CCD-based cameras almost completely
dominant, even in high-end commercial photography. CMOS-
based single shot cameras remained somewhat common.
Filter Mosaics, Interpolation, and Aliasing
Most current consumer digital cameras use a Bayer filter
mosaic in combination with an optical anti-aliasing filter to
reduce the aliasing due to the reduced sampling of the
different primary-color images. A demosaicing algorithm is
used to interpolate color information to create a full array
of RGB image data. Cameras that use a beam-splitter single-
shot 3CCD approach, three-filter multi-shot approach, Color
co-site sampling or Foveon X3 sensor do not use anti-
aliasing filters, nor demosaicing.
Firmware in the camera, or a software in a raw converter
programme such as Adobe Camera Raw, interprets the raw
data from the sensor to obtain a full color image, because
the RGB color model requires three intensity values for each

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pixel: one each for the red, green, and blue (other color
models, when used, also require three or more values per
pixel). A single sensor element cannot simultaneously record
these three intensities, and so a color filter array (CFA) must
be used to selectively filter a particular color for each pixel.
The Bayer filter pattern is a repeating 2×2 mosaic pattern
of light filters, with green ones at opposite corners and red
and blue in the other two positions. The high proportion
of green takes advantage of properties of the human visual
system, which determines brightness mostly from green
and is far more sensitive to brightness than to hue or
saturation. Sometimes a 4-color filter pattern is used, often
involving two different hues of green. This provides potentially
more accurate color, but requires a slightly more complicated
interpolation process.
The color intensity values not captured for each pixel can
be interpolated (or guessed) from the values of adjacent
pixels which represent the color being calculated.

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2
Computer Machine

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according

to a list of instructions. Although mechanical examples of
computers have existed throughout history, the first
resembling a modern computer were developed in the mid-
20th century (1940–1945).
The first electronic computers were the size of a large
room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern
personal computers (PC).
Modern computers based on tiny integrated circuits are
millions to billions of times more capable than the early
machines, and occupy a fraction of the space. Simple
computers are small enough to fit into a wristwatch, and
can be powered by a watch battery.
Personal computers in their various forms are icons of
the Information Age, what most people think of as a

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“computer”, but the embedded computers found in devices

ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital
cameras, and toys are the most numerous.
The ability to store and execute lists of instructions
called programmes makes computers extremely versatile,
distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing
thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any
computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle,
capable of performing the same tasks that any other
computer can perform.
Therefore computers ranging from a personal digital
assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the
same computational tasks, given enough time and storage
capacity.
A computer is a device that accepts information (in the
form of digitalized data) and manipulates it for some result
based on a programme or sequence of instructions on how
the data is to be processed. Complex computers also include
the means for storing data (including the programme, which
is also a form of data) for some necessary duration.
A programme may be invariable and built into the
computer (and called logic circuitry as it is on
microprocessors) or different programmes may be provided
to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started
by an administrator or user). Today’s computers have both
kinds of programming.
Most histories of the modern computer begin with the
Analytical Engine envisioned by Charles Babbage following
the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician

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who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today’s

digital computer. Babbage’s assistant and collaborator, Ada
Lovelace, is said to have introduced the ideas of programme
loops and subroutines and is sometimes considered the
first programmer.
Apart from mechanical calculators, the first really useable
computers began with the vacuum tube, accelerated with
the invention of the transistor, which then became embedded
in large numbers in integrated circuits, ultimately making
possible the relatively low-cost personal computer. Modern
computers inherently follow the ideas of the stored
programme laid out by John von Neumann in 1945.
Essentially, the programme is read by the computer one
instruction at a time, an operation is performed, and the
computer then reads in the next instruction, and so on.
Recently, computers and programmes have been devised
that allow multiple programmes (and computers) to work
on the same problem at the same time in parallel. With the
advent of the Internet and higher bandwidth data
transmission, programmes and data that are part of the
same overall project can be distributed over a network and
embody the Sun Microsystems slogan: “The network is the
computer.”

Main Units
Central Processing Unit
A central processing unit (CPU) or processor is an
electronic circuit that can execute computer programmes.
This broad definition can easily be applied to many early
computers that existed long before the term “CPU” ever

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came into widespread usage. The term itself and its initialism
have been in use in the computer industry at least since
the early 1960s (Weik 1961). The form, design and
implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since
the earliest examples, but their fundamental operation has
remained much the same. Early CPUs were custom-designed
as a part of a larger, sometimes one-of-a-kind, computer.
However, this costly method of designing custom CPUs
for a particular application has largely given way to the
development of mass-produced processors that are made
for one or many purposes. This standardization trend
generally began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes
and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the
popularization of the integrated circuit (IC).
The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be
designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of
nanometers. Both the miniaturization and standardization
of CPUs have increased the presence of these digital devices
in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated
computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in
everything from automobiles to cell phones to children’s
toys.
History of CPU
Prior to the advent of machines that resemble today’s
CPUs, computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically
rewired in order to perform different tasks. These machines
are often referred to as “fixed-programme computers,” since
they had to be physically reconfigured in order to run a
different programme. Since the term “CPU” is generally

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defined as a software (computer programme) execution

device, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs
came with the advent of the stored-programme computer.
The idea of a stored-programme computer was already
present during ENIAC’s design, but was initially omitted so
the machine could be finished sooner. On June 30, 1945,
before ENIAC was even completed, mathematician John
von Neumann distributed the paper entitled “First Draft of
a Report on the EDVAC.”
It outlined the design of a stored-programme computer
that would eventually be completed in August 1949 (von
Neumann 1945). EDVAC was designed to perform a certain
number of instructions (or operations) of various types.
These instructions could be combined to create useful
programmes for the EDVAC to run. Significantly, the
programmes written for EDVAC were stored in high-speed
computer memory rather than specified by the physical
wiring of the computer.
This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was
the large amount of time and effort it took to reconfigure
the computer to perform a new task. With von Neumann’s
design, the programme, or software, that EDVAC ran could
be changed simply by changing the contents of the
computer’s memory.
While von Neumann is most often credited with the
design of the stored-programme computer because of his
design of EDVAC, others before him such as Konrad Zuse
had suggested similar ideas. Additionally, the so-called
Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was

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completed before EDVAC, also utilized a stored-programme

design using punched paper tape rather than electronic
memory.
The key difference between the von Neumann and Harvard
architectures is that the latter separates the storage and
treatment of CPU instructions and data, while the former
uses the same memory space for both. Most modern CPUs
are primarily von Neumann in design, but elements of the
Harvard architecture are commonly seen as well.
Being digital devices, all CPUs deal with discrete states
and therefore require some kind of switching elements to
differentiate between and change these states. Prior to
commercial acceptance of the transistor, electrical relays
and vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) were commonly used
as switching elements. Although these had distinct speed
advantages over earlier, purely mechanical designs, they
were unreliable for various reasons.
For example, building direct current sequential logic
circuits out of relays requires additional hardware to cope
with the problem of contact bounce. While vacuum tubes
do not suffer from contact bounce, they must heat up before
becoming fully operational and eventually stop functioning
altogether.
Usually, when a tube failed, the CPU would have to be
diagnosed to locate the failing component so it could be
replaced.
Therefore, early electronic (vacuum tube based) computers
were generally faster but less reliable than electromechanical
(relay based) computers.

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Tube computers like EDVAC tended to average eight

hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the
(slower, but earlier) Harvard Mark I failed very rarely (Weik
1961:238). In the end, tube based CPUs became dominant
because the significant speed advantages afforded generally
outweighed the reliability problems.
Most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock
rates compared to modern microelectronic designs . Clock
signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very
common at this time, limited largely by the speed of the
switching devices they were built with.
Discrete Transistor and IC CPUs
The design complexity of CPUs increased as various
technologies facilitated building smaller and more reliable
electronic devices. The first such improvement came with
the advent of the transistor.
Transistorized CPUs during the 1950s and 1960s no
longer had to be built out of bulky, unreliable, and fragile
switching elements like vacuum tubes and electrical relays.
With this improvement more complex and reliable CPUs
were built onto one or several printed circuit boards
containing discrete (individual) components.
During this period, a method of manufacturing many
transistors in a compact space gained popularity. The
integrated circuit (IC) allowed a large number of transistors
to be manufactured on a single semiconductor-based die,
or “chip.” At first only very basic non-specialized digital
circuits such as NOR gates were miniaturized into ICs.
CPUs based upon these “building block” ICs are generally

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referred to as “small-scale integration” (SSI) devices. SSI

ICs, such as the ones used in the Apollo guidance computer,
usually contained transistor counts numbering in multiples
of ten.
To build an entire CPU out of SSI ICs required thousands
of individual chips, but still consumed much less space and
power than earlier discrete transistor designs. As
microelectronic technology advanced, an increasing number
of transistors were placed on ICs, thus decreasing the
quantity of individual ICs needed for a complete CPU. MSI
and LSI (medium- and large-scale integration) ICs increased
transistor counts to hundreds, and then thousands.
In 1964 IBM introduced its System/360 computer
architecture which was used in a series of computers that
could run the same programmes with different speed and
performance. This was significant at a time when most
electronic computers were incompatible with one another,
even those made by the same manufacturer.
To facilitate this improvement, IBM utilized the concept
of a microprogram (often called “microcode”), which still
sees widespread usage in modern CPUs . The System/360
architecture was so popular that it dominated the mainframe
computer market for the decades and left a legacy that is
still continued by similar modern computers like the IBM
zSeries.
In the same year (1964), Digital Equipment Corporation
(DEC) introduced another influential computer aimed at the
scientific and research markets, the PDP-8. DEC would
later introduce the extremely popular PDP-11 line that

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originally was built with SSI ICs but was eventually

implemented with LSI components once these became
practical. In stark contrast with its SSI and MSI predecessors,
the first LSI implementation of the PDP-11 contained a CPU
composed of only four LSI integrated circuits (Digital
Equipment Corporation 1975).
Transistor -based computers had several distinct
advantages over their predecessors. Aside from facilitating
increased reliability and lower power consumption,
transistors also allowed CPUs to operate at much higher
speeds because of the short switching time of a transistor
in comparison to a tube or relay.
Thanks to both the increased reliability as well as the
dramatically increased speed of the switching elements
(which were almost exclusively transistors by this time),
CPU clock rates in the tens of megahertz were obtained
during this period. Additionally while discrete transistor
and IC CPUs were in heavy usage, new high-performance
designs like SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) vector
processors began to appear. These early experimental designs
later gave rise to the era of specialized supercomputers like
those made by Cray Inc.
Microprocessors
The introduction of the microprocessor in the 1970s
significantly affected the design and implementation of CPUs.
Since the introduction of the first microprocessor (the Intel
4004) in 1970 and the first widely used microprocessor (the
Intel 8080) in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost completely
overtaken all other central processing unit implementation

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methods. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of

the time launched proprietary IC development programmes
to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually
produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that
were backward-compatible with their older hardware and
software.
Combined with the advent and eventual vast success of
the now ubiquitous personal computer, the term “CPU” is
now applied almost exclusively to microprocessors.
Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as
discrete components and numerous small integrated circuits
(ICs) on one or more circuit boards. Microprocessors, on the
other hand, are CPUs manufactured on a very small number
of ICs; usually just one. The overall smaller CPU size as a
result of being implemented on a single die means faster
switching time because of physical factors like decreased
gate parasitic capacitance.
This has allowed synchronous microprocessors to have
clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several
gigahertz. Additionally, as the ability to construct exceedingly
small transistors on an IC has increased, the complexity
and number of transistors in a single CPU has increased
dramatically. This widely observed trend is described by
Moore’s law, which has proven to be a fairly accurate
predictor of the growth of CPU (and other IC) complexity to
date.
While the complexity, size, construction, and general
form of CPUs have changed drastically over the past sixty
years, it is notable that the basic design and function has

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not changed much at all. Almost all common CPUs today

can be very accurately described as von Neumann stored-
programme machines.
As the aforementioned Moore’s law continues to hold
true, concerns have arisen about the limits of integrated
circuit transistor technology. Extreme miniaturization of
electronic gates is causing the effects of phenomena like
electromigration and subthreshold leakage to become much
more significant.
These newer concerns are among the many factors
causing researchers to investigate new methods of computing
such as the quantum computer, as well as to expand the
usage of parallelism and other methods that extend the
usefulness of the classical von Neumann model.
CPU Operation
The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of
the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of
stored instructions called a programme. The programme is
represented by a series of numbers that are kept in some
kind of computer memory. There are four steps that nearly
all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode, execute, and
writeback.
The first step, fetch, involves retrieving an instruction
(which is represented by a number or sequence of numbers)
from programme memory. The location in programme
memory is determined by a programme counter (PC), which
stores a number that identifies the current position in the
programme. In other words, the programme counter keeps
track of the CPU’s place in the current programme. After

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an instruction is fetched, the PC is incremented by the

length of the instruction word in terms of memory units.
Often the instruction to be fetched must be retrieved from
relatively slow memory, causing the CPU to stall while
waiting for the instruction to be returned. This issue is
largely addressed in modern processors by caches and
pipeline architectures.
The instruction that the CPU fetches from memory is
used to determine what the CPU is to do. In the decode step,
the instruction is broken up into parts that have significance
to other portions of the CPU. The way in which the numerical
instruction value is interpreted is defined by the CPU’s
instruction set architecture (ISA).
Often, one group of numbers in the instruction, called
the opcode, indicates which operation to perform. The
remaining parts of the number usually provide information
required for that instruction, such as operands for an
addition operation. Such operands may be given as a
constant value (called an immediate value), or as a place
to locate a value: a register or a memory address, as
determined by some addressing mode.
In older designs the portions of the CPU responsible for
instruction decoding were unchangeable hardware devices.
However, in more abstract and complicated CPUs and ISAs,
a microprogram is often used to assist in translating
instructions into various configuration signals for the CPU.
This microprogram is sometimes rewritable so that it can
be modified to change the way the CPU decodes instructions
even after it has been manufactured.

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After the fetch and decode steps, the execute step is

performed. During this step, various portions of the CPU
are connected so they can perform the desired operation.
If, for instance, an addition operation was requested, an
arithmetic logic unit (ALU) will be connected to a set of
inputs and a set of outputs.
The inputs provide the numbers to be added, and the
outputs will contain the final sum. The ALU contains the
circuitry to perform simple arithmetic and logical operations
on the inputs (like addition and bitwise operations). If the
addition operation produces a result too large for the CPU
to handle, an arithmetic overflow flag in a flags register may
also be set.
The final step, writeback, simply “writes back” the results
of the execute step to some form of memory. Very often the
results are written to some internal CPU register for quick
access by subsequent instructions. In other cases results
may be written to slower, but cheaper and larger, main
memory. Some types of instructions manipulate the
programme counter rather than directly produce result
data.
These are generally called “jumps” and facilitate behavior
like loops, conditional programme execution (through the
use of a conditional jump), and functions in programmes.
Many instructions will also change the state of digits in a
“flags” register. These flags can be used to influence how
a programme behaves, since they often indicate the outcome
of various operations. For example, one type of “compare”
instruction considers two values and sets a number in the

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flags register according to which one is greater. This flag

could then be used by a later jump instruction to determine
programme flow.
After the execution of the instruction and writeback of
the resulting data, the entire process repeats, with the next
instruction cycle normally fetching the next-in-sequence
instruction because of the incremented value in the
programme counter. If the completed instruction was a
jump, the programme counter will be modified to contain
the address of the instruction that was jumped to, and
programme execution continues normally.
In more complex CPUs than the one described here,
multiple instructions can be fetched, decoded, and executed
simultaneously. This section describes what is generally
referred to as the “Classic RISC pipeline,” which in fact is
quite common among the simple CPUs used in many
electronic devices (often called microcontroller). It largely
ignores the important role of CPU cache, and therefore the
access stage of the pipeline.

Evolution of Computer
• The first counting device was the abacus, originally
from Asia. It worked on a place-value notion meaning
that the place of a bead or rock on the apparatus
determined how much it was worth.
• 1600s: John Napier discovers logarithms. Robert
Bissaker invents the slide rule which will remain in
popular use until 19??.

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• 1642: Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and

philosopher, invents the first mechanical digital
calculator using gears, called the Pascaline. Although
this machine could perform addition and subtraction
on whole numbers, it was too expensive and only
Pascal himself could repare it.
• 1804: Joseph Marie Jacquard used punch cards to
automate a weaving loom.
• 1812: Charles P. Babbage, the “father of the computer”,
discovered that many long calculations involved many
similar, repeated operations. Therefore, he designed a
machine, the difference engine which would be steam-
powered, fully automatic and commanded by a fixed
instruction programme. In 1833, Babbage quit working
on this machine to concentrate on the analytical engine.
• 1840s: Augusta Ada. “The first programmer” suggested
that a binary system shouled be used for staorage
rather than a decimal system.
• 1850s: George Boole developed Boolean logic which
would later be used in the design of computer circuitry.
• 1890: Dr. Herman Hollerith introduced the first
electromechanical, punched-card data-processing
machine which was used to compile information for
the 1890 U.S. census. Hollerith’s tabulator became so
successful that he started his own business to market
it. His company would eventually become International
Business Machines (IBM).

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• 1906: American physicist Lee De Forest invents the

vacuum tube.
• 1939: Dr. John V. Atanasoff and his assistant Clifford
Berry build the first electronic digital computer. Their
machine, the Atanasoff-Berry-Computer (ABC)
provided the foundation for the advances in electronic
digital computers.
• 1941, Konrad Zuse (recently deceased in January of
1996), from Ger many, introduced the first
programmable computer designed to solve complex
engineering equations. This machine, called the Z3,
was also the first to work on the binary system instead
of the decimal system.
• 1943: British mathematician Alan Turing developed
hypothetical devices, the Turing machine which would
be designed to perform logical operation and could
read and write. It would presage programmable
computers. He also used vacuum technology to build
British Colossus, a machine used to counteract the
German code-scrambling device, Enigma.
• 1944: Howard Aiken, in collaboration with engineers
from IBM, constructed a large automatic digital
sequence-controlled computer called the Harvard Mark
I. This computer could handle all four arithmetic
operations, and had special built-in programmes for
logarithms and trigonometric functions.

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• 1945: Dr. John von Neumann presented a paper

outlining the stored-programme concept.
• 1947: The giant ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator
and Calculator) machine was developed by John W.
Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. at the University
of Pennsylvania. It used 18, 000 vacuums, punch card
input, weighed thirty tons and occupied a thirty-by-
fifty-foot space. It wasn’t programmable but was
productive from 1946 to 1955 and was used to compute
artillery-firing tables. That same year, William Shockley,
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Labs invented
the transistor. It would rid computers of vacuum tubes
and radios.
• 1949: Maurice V. Wilkes built the EDSAC (Electronic
Delay Storage Automatic Computer), the first stored-
programme computer. EDVAC (Electronic Discrete
Variable Automatic Computer), the second stored-
programme computer was built by Mauchly, Eckert,
and von Neumann. An Wang developed magnetic-core
memory which Jay Forrester would reorganize to be
more efficient.
• 1950: Turing built the ACE, considered by some to be
the first programmable digital computer.

Generation of Computers
The history of computer development is often referred to
in reference to the different generations of computing devices
A generation refers to the state of improvement in the

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development of a product. This term is also used in the

different advancements of computer technology. With each
new generation, the circuitry has gotten smaller and more
advanced than the previous generation before it. As a result
of the miniaturization, speed, power, and memory of
computers has proportionally increased. New discoveries
are constantly being developed that affect the way we live,
work and play.
Each generation of computer is characterized by major
technological development that fundamentally changed the
way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller,
cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable
devices. Read about each generation and the developments
that led to the current devices that we use today.
First Generation - 1940-1956
The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and
magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous,
taking up entire rooms. A magnetic drum, also referred to
as drum, is a metal cylinder coated with magnetic iron-
oxide material on which data and programmes can be stored.
Magnetic drums were once used as a primary storage device
but have since been implemented as auxiliary storage devices.
The tracks on a magnetic drum are assigned to channels
located around the circumference of the drum, forming
adjacent circular bands that wind around the drum.
Single drum can have up to 200 tracks. As the drum
rotates at a speed of up to 3,000 rpm, the device’s read/
write heads deposit magnetized spots on the drum during
the write operation and sense these spots during a read

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operation. This action is similar to that of a magnetic tape

or disk drive. They were very expensive to operate and in
addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot
of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine language
to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem
at a time. Machine languages are the only languages
understood by computers. While easily understood by
computers, machine languages are almost impossible for
humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers.
Programmers, therefore, use either a high-level programming
language or an assembly language. An assembly language
contains the same instructions as a machine language, but
the instructions and variables have names instead of being
just numbers.
Programmes written in high-level languages retranslated
into assembly language or machine language by a compiler.
Assembly language programmes retranslated into machine
language by a programme called an assembler. Every CPU
has its own unique machine language.
Programmes must be rewritten or recompiled, therefore,
to run on different types of computers. Input was based on
punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed
on printouts. The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are
examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC
was the first commercial computer delivered to a business
client.
Acronym for Electronic Numerical Integrator And
Computer, the world’s first operational electronic digital

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computer, developed by Army Ordnance to compute World

War II ballistic firing tables. The ENIAC, weighing 30 tons,
using 200 kilowatts of electric power and consisting of
18,000 vacuum tubes,1,500 relays, and hundreds of
thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors, was
completed in 1945.
In addition to ballistics, the ENIAC’s field of application
included weather prediction, atomic-energy calculations,
cosmic-ray studies, thermal ignition, random-number
studies, wind-tunnel design, and other scientific uses. The
ENIAC soon became obsolete as themed arose for faster
computing speeds.
Second Generation - 1956-1963
Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the
second generation of computers. Transistor is a device
composed of semiconductor material that amplifies a signal
or opens or closes a circuit. Invented in 1947at Bell Labs,
transistors have become the key ingredient of all digital
circuits, including computers.
Today’s microprocessors contain tens of millions of
microscopic transistors. Prior to the invention of transistors,
digital circuits were composed of vacuum tubes, which had
many disadvantages. They were much larger, required more
energy, dissipated more heat, and were more prone to
failures. It’s safe to say that without the invention of
transistors, computing, as we know it today would not be
possible.
The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see
widespread use in computers until the late 50s. The

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transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing

computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-
efficient and more reliable than their first-generation
predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great
deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was
a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-
generation computers still relied on punched cards for input
and printouts for output.
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary
machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages,
which allowed programmers to specify instructions inwards.
High-level programming languages were also being
developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL
and FORTRAN.
These were also the first computers that stored their
instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic
drum to magnetic core technology. The first computers of
this generation were developed for the atomic energy
industry.
Third Generation - 1964-1971
The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark
of the third generation of computers. Transistors were
miniaturized and placed on siliconchips, called
semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and
efficiency of computers.
A nonmetallic chemical element in the carbon family of
elements. Silicon - atomic symbol “Si” - is the second most
abundant element in the earth’s crust, surpassed only by
oxygen. Silicon does not occur uncombined in nature. Sand

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and almost all rocks contain silicon combined with oxygen,

forming silica. When silicon combines with other elements,
such as iron, aluminum or potassium, a silicate is formed.
Compounds of silicon also occur in the atmosphere, natural
waters, and many plants and in the bodies of some animals.
Silicon is the basic material used to make computer
chips, transistors, silicon diodes and other electronic circuits
and switching devices because its atomic structure makes
the element an ideal semiconductor. Silicon is commonly
doped, or mixed, with other elements, such as boron,
phosphorous and arsenic, to alter its conductive properties.
A chip is a small piece of semi conducting material (usually
silicon) on which an integrated circuit is embedded.
A typical chip is less than ¼-square inches and can
contain millions of electronic components(transistors).
Computers consist of many chips placed on electronic boards
called printed circuit boards. There are different types of
chips. For example, CPU chips (also called microprocessors)
contain an entire processing unit, whereas memory chips
contain blank memory.
Semiconductor is a material that is neither a good
conductor of electricity (like copper) nor a good insulator
(like rubber). The most common semiconductor materials
are silicon and germanium. These materials are then doped
to create an excess or lack of electrons.
Computer chips, both for CPU and memory, are composed
of semiconductor materials. Semiconductors make it possible
to miniaturize electronic components, such as transistors.
Not only does miniaturization mean that the components
take up less space, it also means that they are faster and
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require less energy. Instead of punched cards and printouts,

users interacted with third generation computers through
keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating
system, which allowed the device to run many different
applications at one time with a central programme that
monitored the memory.
Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass
audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their
predecessors.
Fourth Generation - 1971-Present
The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of
computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built
onto a single silicon chip. A silicon chip that contains a
CPU.
In the world of personal computers, the terms
microprocessor and CPU are used interchangeably. At the
heart of all personal computers and most workstations sits
a microprocessor. Microprocessors also control the logic of
almost all digital devices, from clock radios to fuel-injection
systems for automobiles.
Three basic characteristics differentiate microprocessors:
• Instruction Set: The set of instructions that the
microprocessor can execute.
• Bandwidth: The number of bits processed in a single
instruction.
• Clock Speed: Given in megahertz (MHz), the clock
speed determines how many instructions per second
the processor can execute.

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In both cases, the higher the value, the more powerful

the CPU. For example, a 32-bit microprocessor that runs
at 50MHz is more powerful than a 16-bitmicroprocessor
that runs at 25MHz.
What in the first generation filled an entire room could
now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004chip, developed
in 1971, located all the components of the computer - from
the central processing unit and memory to input/output
controls - on a single chip.
Abbr eviation of central pr ocessing unit, and
pronounced as separate letters. The CPU is the brains
of the computer.
Sometimes referred to simply as the processor or central
processor, the CPU is where most calculations take place.
In terms of computing power, the CPU is the most important
element of a computer system. On large machines, CPUs
require one or more printed circuit boards. On personal
computers and small workstations, the CPU is housed in
a single chip called a microprocessor.
Two typical components of a CPU are:
• The arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs
arithmetic and logical operations.
• The control unit, which extracts instructions from
memory and decodes and executes them, calling on
the ALU when necessary.
In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home
user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh.
Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop

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computers and into many areas of life as more and more

everyday products began to use microprocessors.
As these small computers became more powerful, they
could be linked together to form networks, which eventually
led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation
computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse
and handheld devices
Fifth Generation
Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial
intelligence, are still in development, though there are some
applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used
today.
Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer science
concerned with making computers behave like humans.
John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Artificial intelligence includes coined the term in 1956:
• Games Playing: Programming computers to play games
such as chess and checkers
• Expert Systems: Programming computers to make
decisions in real-life situations (for example, some
expert systems help doctors diagnose diseases based
on symptoms)
• Natural Language: Programming computers to
understand natural human languages
• Neural Networks: Systems that simulate intelligence
by attempting to reproduce the types of physical
connections that occur in animal brains

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• Robotics: Programming computers to see and hear

and react to other sensory stimuli
Currently, no computers exhibit full artificial intelligence
(that is, are able to simulate human behaviour). The greatest
advances have occurred in the field of games playing. The
best computer chess programmes are now capable of beating
humans.
In May,1997, an IBM super-computer called Deep Blue
defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov in a chess
match. In the area of robotics, computers are now widely
used in assembly plants, but they are capable only of very
limited tasks. Robots have great difficulty identifying objects
based on appearance or feel, and they still move and handle
objects clumsily.
Natural-language processing offers the greatest potential
rewards because it would allow people to interact with
computers without needing any specialized knowledge. You
could simply walk up to a computer and talk to it.
Unfortunately, programming computers to understand
natural languages has proved to be more difficult than
originally thought. Some rudimentary translation systems
that translate from one human language to another are in
existence, but they are not nearly as good as human
translators.
There are also voice recognition systems that can convert
spoken sounds into written words, but they do not
understand what they are writing; they simply take dictation.
Even these systems are quite limited — you must speak
slowly and distinctly.

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In the early 1980s, expert systems were believed tore

present the future of artificial intelligence and of computers
in general. To date, however, they have not lived up to
expectations.
Many expert systems help human experts in such fields
as medicine and engineering, but they are very expensive
to produce and are helpful only in special situations.
Today, the hottest area of artificial intelligence is a neural
network, which is proving successful in a number of
disciplines such as voice recognition and natural language
processing.
There are several programming languages that are known
as AI languages because they are used almost exclusively
for AI applications. The two most common are LISP and
Prolog.

Supercomputer and Mainframe

Supercomputer is a broad term for one of the fastest
computers currently available. Supercomputers are very
expensive and are employed for specialized applications
that requir e immense amounts of mathematical
calculations. For example, weather forecasting requires a
supercomputer.
Other uses of supercomputers scientific simulations,
(animated) graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear
energy research, electronic design, and analysis of
geological data (e.g. in petrochemical prospecting).
Mainframe was a term originally referring to the cabinet
containing the central processor unit or “main frame” of
a room-filling Stone Age batch machine. After the

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emergence of smaller “minicomputer” designs in the early

1970s, the traditional big iron machines were described
as “mainframe computers” and eventually just as
mainframes. Nowadays a Mainframe is a very large and
expensive computer capable of supporting hundreds, or
even thousands, of users simultaneously.
The chief difference between a supercomputer and a
mainframe is that a supercomputer channels all its power
into executing a few programmes as fast as possible, whereas
a mainframe uses its power to execute many programmes
concurrently. In some ways, mainframes are more powerful
than supercomputers because they support more
simultaneous programmes.
But supercomputers can execute a single programme
faster than a mainframe. The distinction between small
mainframes and minicomputers is vague, depending really
on how the manufacturer wants to market its machines.
It is a midsize computer. In the past decade, the distinction
between large minicomputers and small mainframes has
blurred, however, as has the distinction between small
minicomputers and workstations. But in general, a
minicomputer is a multiprocessing system capable of
supporting from up to 200 users simultaneously.
It is a type of computer used for engineering applications
(CAD/CAM), desktop publishing, software development, and
other types of applications that require a moderate amount
of computing power and relatively high quality graphics
capabilities. Workstations generally come with a large, high-
resolution graphics screen, at large amount of RAM, built-

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in network support, and a graphical user interface. Most

workstations also have a mass storage device such as a disk
drive, but a special type of workstation, called a diskless
workstation, comes without a disk drive.
The most common operating systems for workstations
are UNIX and Windows NT. Like personal computers, most
workstations are single-user computers. However,
workstations are typically linked together to form a local-
area network, although they can also be used as stand-
alone systems.

Personal Computer
It can be defined as a small, relatively inexpensive
computer designed for an individual user. In price, personal
computers range anywhere from a few hundred pounds to
over five thousand pounds.
All are based on the microprocessor technology that
enables manufacturers to put an entire CPU on one chip.
Businesses use personal computers for word processing,
accounting, desktop publishing, and for running spreadsheet
and database management applications. At home, the most
popular use for personal computers is for playing games
and recently for surfing the Internet.
Personal computers first appeared in the late 1970s. One
of the first and most popular personal computers was the
Apple II, introduced in 1977 by Apple Computer. During the
late 1970s and early 1980s, new models and competing
operating systems seemed to appear daily. Then, in 1981,
IBM entered the fray with its first personal computer, known
as the IBM PC. The IBM PC quickly became the personal

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computer of choice, and most other personal computer

manufacturers fell by the wayside. P.C. is short for personal
computer or IBM PC.
One of the few companies to survive IBM’s onslaught was
Apple Computer, which remains a major player in the
personal computer marketplace. Other companies adjusted
to IBM’s dominance by building IBM clones, computers that
were internally almost the same as the IBM PC, but that
cost less. Because IBM clones used the same microprocessors
as IBM PCs, they were capable of running the same software.
Over the years, IBM has lost much of its influence in
directing the evolution of PCs.
Therefore after the release of the first PC by IBM the term
PC increasingly came to mean IBM or IBM-compatible
personal computers, to the exclusion of other types of
personal computers, such as Macintoshes. In recent years,
the term PC has become more and more difficult to pin
down. In general, though, it applies to any personal computer
based on an Intel microprocessor, or on an Intel-compatible
microprocessor.
For nearly every other component, including the operating
system, there are several options, all of which fall under the
rubric of PC Today, the world of personal computers is
basically divided between Apple Macintoshes and PCs. The
principal characteristics of personal computers are that
they are single-user systems and are based on
microprocessors.
However, although personal computers are designed as
single-user systems, it is common to link them together to

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form a network. In terms of power, there is great variety.

At the high end, the distinction between personal computers
and workstations has faded. High-end models of the
Macintosh and PC offer the same computing power and
graphics capability as low-end workstations by Sun
Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and DEC.

Personal Computer Types

Actual personal computers can be generally classified by
size and chassis/case. The chassis or case is the metal
frame that serves as the structural support for electronic
components. Every computer system requires at least one
chassis to house the circuit boards and wiring.
The chassis also contains slots for expansion boards. If
you want to insert more boards than there are slots, you
will need an expansion chassis, which provides additional
slots. There are two basic flavours of chassis designs–
desktop models and tower models–but there are many
variations on these two basic types. Then come the portable
computers that are computers small enough to carry.
Portable computers include notebook and subnotebook
computers, hand-held computers, palmtops, and PDAs.
Tower Model
The term refers to a computer in which the power supply,
motherboard, and mass storage devices are stacked on top
of each other in a cabinet. This is in contrast to desktop
models, in which these components are housed in a more
compact box. The main advantage of tower models is that
there are fewer space constraints, which makes installation
of additional storage devices easier.

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Desktop Model
A computer designed to fit comfortably on top of a desk,
typically with the monitor sitting on top of the computer.
Desktop model computers are broad and low, whereas tower
model computers are narrow and tall.
Because of their shape, desktop model computers are
generally limited to three internal mass storage devices.
Desktop models designed to be very small are sometimes
referred to as slim line models.
Notebook Computer
An extremely lightweight personal computer. Notebook
computers typically weigh less than 6 pounds and are small
enough to fit easily in a briefcase. Aside from size, the
principal difference between a notebook computer and a
personal computer is the display screen.
Notebook computers use a variety of techniques, known
as flat-panel technologies, to produce a lightweight and
non-bulky display screen. The quality of notebook display
screens varies considerably.
In terms of computing power, modern notebook computers
are nearly equivalent to personal computers. They have the
same CPUs, memory capacity, and disk drives. However, all
this power in a small package is expensive.
Notebook computers cost about twice as much as
equivalent regular-sized computers. Notebook computers
come with battery packs that enable you to run them
without plugging them in. However, the batteries need to
be recharged every few hours.

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Laptop Computer
A small, portable computer — small enough that it can
sit on your lap. Nowadays, laptop computers are more
frequently called notebook computers.
Sub Notebook Computer
A portable computer that is slightly lighter and smaller
than a full-sized notebook computer. Typically, sub notebook
computers have a smaller keyboard and screen, but are
otherwise equivalent to notebook computers.
Hand-held Computer
A portable computer that is small enough to be held in
one’s hand. Although extremely convenient to carry,
handheld computers have not replaced notebook computers
because of their small keyboards and screens. The most
popular hand-held computers are those that are specifically
designed to provide PIM (personal information manager)
functions, such as a calendar and address book. Some
manufacturers are trying to solve the small keyboard problem
by replacing the keyboard with an electronic pen.
However, these pen-based devices rely on handwriting
recognition technologies, which are still in their infancy.
Hand-held computers are also called PDAs, palmtops and
pocket computers.
Palmtop
A small computer that literally fits in your palm. Compared
to full-size computers, palmtops are severely limited, but
they are practical for certain functions such as phone books
and calendars. Palmtops that use a pen rather than a

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keyboard for input are often called hand-held computers or

PDAs. Because of their small size, most palmtop computers
do not include disk drives. However, many contain PCMCIA
slots in which you can insert disk drives, modems, memory,
and other devices. Palmtops are also called PDAs, hand-
held computers and pocket computers.
PDA
Short for personal digital assistant, a handheld device
that combines computing, telephone/fax, and networking
features. A typical PDA can function as a cellular phone,
fax sender, and personal organizer.
Unlike portable computers, most PDAs are pen-based,
using a stylus rather than a keyboard for input. This
means that they also incorporate handwriting recognition
features.
Some PDAs can also react to voice input by using voice
recognition technologies. The field of PDA was pioneered by
Apple Computer, which introduced the Newton MessagePad
in 1993. Shortly thereafter, several other manufacturers
offered similar products.
To date, PDAs have had only modest success in the
marketplace, due to their high price tags and limited
applications. However, many experts believe that PDAs will
eventually become common gadgets.

Classification of Computers according to

Size
Microcomputers are the most common type of computers
in existence today, whether at work in school or on the desk
at home. The term “microcomputer” was introduced with
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the advent of single chip microprocessors. The term

“microcomputer” itself is now practically an anachronism.
These computers include:
• Desktop computers – A case and a display, put under
and on a desk.
• In-car computers (“carputers”) – Built into a car, for
entertainment, navigation, etc.
A separate class is that of mobile devices:
• Laptops, notebook computers and Palmtop computers
– Portable and all in one case. Varying sizes, but other
than smartbooks expected to be “full” computers
without limitations.
• Tablet PC – Like laptops, but with only a touch-screen
instead of a physical keyboard.
• Smartphones, smartbooks and PDAs (personal digital
assistants) – Small handheld computers with limited
hardware.
• Programmable calculator– Like small handhelds, but
specialised on mathematical work.
• Game consoles – Fixed computers specialized for
entertainment purposes (computer games).
• Handheld game consoles – Ditto, but small and
portable.

Minicomputers (Midrange Computers)

A minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a class of multi-
user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing

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spectrum, in between the smallest multi-user systems

(mainframe computers) and the largest single-user systems
(microcomputers or personal computers). The contemporary
term for this class of system is midrange computer, such
as the higher-end SPARC, POWER and Itanium-based
systems from Sun Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
Mainframe Computers
The term mainframe computer was created to distinguish
the traditional, large, institutional computer intended to
service multiple users from the smaller, single user machines.
These computers are capable of handling and processing
very large amounts of data quickly. Mainframe computers
are used in large institutions such as government, banks
and large corporations.
These institutions were early adopters of computer use,
long before personal computers were available to individuals.
“Mainframe” often refers to computers compatible with the
computer architectures established in the 1960s. Thus, the
origin of the architecture also affects the classification, not
just processing power.
Mainframes are measured in millions of instructions per
second or MIPS. An example of integer operation is moving
data around in memory or I/O devices. A more useful
industrial benchmark is transaction processing as defined
by the Transaction Processing Performance Council.
Mainframes are built to be reliable for transaction
processing as it is commonly understood in the business
world: a commercial exchange of goods, services, or money.
A typical transaction, as defined by the Transaction

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Processing Performance Council, would include the updating

to a database system for such things as inventory control
(goods), airline reservations (services), or banking (money).
A transaction could refer to a set of operations including
disk read/writes, operating system calls, or some form of
data transfer from one subsystem to another.
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is focused on performing tasks involving
intense numerical calculations such as weather forecasting,
fluid dynamics, nuclear simulations, theoretical astrophysics,
and complex scientific computations. A supercomputer is
a computer that is at the frontline of current processing
capacity, particularly speed of calculation. The term
supercomputer itself is rather fluid, and today’s
supercomputer tends to become tomorrow’s ordinary
computer. Supercomputer processing speeds are measured
in floating point operations per second or FLOPS. Example
of floating point operation is the calculation of mathematical
equations in real numbers. In terms of computational
capability, memory size and speed, I/O technology, and
topological issues such as bandwidth and latency,
Supercomputers are the most powerful. Supercomputers
are very expensive and not cost-effective just to perform
batch or transaction processing. Transaction processing is
handled by less powerful computer such as server computer
or mainframe.
Classes by Function
Server usually refers to a computer that is dedicated
to providing a service. For example, a computer dedicated

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to a database may be called a “database server”. “File

servers” manage a large collection of computer files.
“Web servers” process web pages and web applications.
Many smaller servers are actually personal computers
that have been dedicated to providing services for other
computers.
Information Appliances
Information appliances are computers specially designed
to perform a specific user-friendly function —such as playing
music, photography, or editing text. The term is most
commonly applied to mobile devices, though there are also
portable and desktop devices of this class.
Embedded Computers
Embedded computers are computers that are a part of
a machine or device. Embedded computers generally execute
a program that is stored in non-volatile memory and is only
intended to operate a specific machine or device. Embedded
computers are very common.
Embedded computers are typically required to operate
continuously without being reset or rebooted, and once
employed in their task the software usually cannot be
modified. An automobile may contain a number of embedded
computers; however, a washing machine and a DVD player
would contain only one.
The central processing units (CPUs) used in embedded
computers are often sufficient only for the computational
requirements of the specific application and may be slower
and cheaper than CPUs found in a personal computer.

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Classification of Computers
Computers are classified according to their data
processing speed, amount of data that they can hold and
price. Generally, a computer with high processing speed
and large internal storage is called a big computer. Due to
rapidly improving technology, we are always confused among
the categories of computers.
Depending upon their speed and memory size, computers
are classified into following four main groups.
• Supercomputer.
• Mainframe computer.
• Mini computer.
• Microcomputer.

Supercomputer: powerful and fastest

Supercomputer is the most powerful and fastest, and
also very expensive. It was developed in 1980s. It is used
to process large amount of data and to solve the complicated
scientific problems. It can perform more than one trillions
calculations per second. It has large number of processors
connected parallel. So parallel processing is done in this
computer. In a single supercomputer thousands of users
can be connected at the same time and the supercomputer
handles the work of each user separately.
Supercomputer are mainly used for:
• Weather forecasting.
• Nuclear energy research.
• Aircraft design.

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• Automotive design.
• Online banking.
• To control industrial units.
The supercomputers are used in large organizations,
research laboratories, aerospace centres, large industrial
units etc. Nuclear scientists use supercomputers to create
and analyse models of nuclear fission and fusions, predicting
the actions and reactions of millions of atoms as they
interact. The examples of supercomputers are CRAY-1,
CRAY-2, Control Data CYBER 205 and ETA A-10 etc.

Mainframe Computers: large-scale computers

Mainframe computers are also large-scale computers
but supercomputers are larger than mainframe. These are
also very expensive. The mainframe computer specially
requires a very large clean room with air-conditioner. This
makes it very expensive to buy and operate.
It can support a large number of various equipments.
It also has multiple processors. Large mainframe systems
can handle the input and output requirements of several
thousand of users.
For example, IBM, S/390 mainframe can support 50,000
users simultaneously. The users often access then
mainframe with terminals or personal computers. Tere are
basically two types of terminals used with mainframe
systems. These are:
Dumb Terminal
Dumb terminal does not have its own CPU and storage
devices. This type of terminal uses the CPU and storage

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devices of mainframe system. Typically, a dumb terminal

consists of monitor and a keyboard (or mouse).
Intelligent Terminal
Intelligent terminal has its own processor and can perform
some processing operations. Usually, this type of terminal
does not have its own storage. Typically, personal computrers
are used as intelligent terminals.
A personal computer as an intelligent terminal gives
facility to access data and other services from mainframe
system. It also enables to store and process data locally.
The mainframe computers are specially used as servers
on the World Wide Web. The mainframe computers are
used in large organizations such as Banks, Airlines and
Universities etc. where many people (users) need frequent
access to the same data, which is usually organized into
one or more huge databases. IBM is the major
manufacturer of mainframe computers. The examples of
mainframes are IBM S/390, Control Data CYBER 176
and Amdahl 580 etc.

Minicomputers: smaller in size

These are smaller in size, have lower processing speed
and also have lower cost than mainframe. These computers
are known as minicomputers because of their small size as
compared to other computers at that time. The capabilities
of a minicomputer are between mainframe and personal
computer. These computers are also known as midrange
computers.
The minicomputers are used in business, education and
many other government departments. Although some
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minicomputers are designed for a single user but most are

designed to handle multiple terminals.
Minicomputers are commonly used as servers in network
environment and hundreds of personal computers can be
connected to the network with a minicomputer acting as
server like mainframes, minicomputers are used as web
servers. Single user minicomputers are used for sophisticated
design tasks.
The first minicomputer was introduced in the mid-1960s
by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). After this IBM
Corporation (AS/400 computers) Data General Corporation
and Prime Computer also designed the mini computers.

Microcomputer: personal computers

The microcomputers are also known as personal
computers or simply PCs. Microprocessor is used in this
type of computer.
These are very small in size and cost. The IBM’s first
microcomputer was designed in 1981 and was named as
IBM-PC. After this many computer hardware companies
copied the design of IBM-PC. The term “PC-compatible”
refers any personal computer based on the original IBM
personal computer design.
The most popular types of personal computers are the
PC and the Apple. PC and PC-compatible computers have
processors with different architectures than processors in
Apple computers. These two types of computers also use
different operating systems. PC and PC-compatible
computers use the Windows operating system while Apple
computers use the Macintosh operating system (MacOS).

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The majority of microcomputers sold today are part of IBM-

compatible. However the Apple computer is neither an IBM
nor a compatible. It is another family of computers made
by Apple computer. Personal computers are available in two
models.
These are:
• Desktop PCs
• Tower PCs.
A desktop personal computer is most popular model of
personal computer. The system unit of the desktop personal
computer can lie flat on the desk or table. In desktop
personal computer, the monitor is usually placed on the
system unit.
Microcomputer are further divided into following
categories:
• Laptop computer
• Workstation
• Network computer
• Handheld computer.

Laptop Computer: Notebook Computer

Laptop computer is also known as notebook computer.
It is small size (85-by-11 inch notebook computer and can
fit inside a briefcase. The laptop computer is operated on
a special battery and it does not have to be plugged in like
desktop computer. The laptop computer is portable and
fully functional microcomputer. It is mostly used during
journey. It can be used on your lap in an airplane. It is
because it is referred to as laptop computer. The memory

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and storage capacity of laptop computer is almost equivalent

to the PC or desktop computer. It also has the hard dist,
floppy disk drive, Zip disk drive, CD-ROM drive, CD-writer
etc. it has built-in keyboard and built-in trackball as pointing
device.
Laptop computer is also available with the same
processing speed as the most powerful personal computer.
It means that laptop computer has same features as personal
computer. Laptop computers are more expensive than
desktop computers. Normally these computers are frequently
used in business travellers.
Network Computers: Personal Computers
Network computers are also version of personal computers
having less processing power, memory and storage. These
are specially designed as terminals for network environment.
Some types of network computers have no storage.
The network computers are designed for network,
Internet or Intranet for data entry or to access data on the
network.
The network computers depend upon the network’s server
for data storage and to use software. These computers also
use the network’s server to perform some processing tasks.
Network computers are cheaper to purchase and to maintain
than personal computers.
Workstations: Single User Computers
Workstations are special single user computers having
the same features as personal computer but have the
processing speed equivalent to minicomputer or mainframe
computer. A workstation computer can be fitted on a desktop.
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Scientists, engineers, architects and graphic designers mostly

use these computers. Workstation computers are expensive
and powerful computers. These have advanced processors,
more RAM and storage capacity than personal computers.
These are usually used as single-user applications but
these are used as servers on computer network and web
servers as well.
Handheld Computer
In the mid 1990s, many new types of small personal
computing devices have been introduced and these are
referred to as handheld computers. These computers are
also referred to as Palmtop Computers.
The handheld computers sometimes called Mini-Notebook
Computers.
The type of computer is named as handheld computer
because it can fit in one hand while you can operate it with
the other hand. Because of its reduced size, the screen of
handheld computer is quite small.
Similarly it also has small keyboard. The handheld
computers are preferred by business traveller. Some
handheld computers have a specialized keyboard.
These computers are used by mobile employees, such as
meter readers and parcel delivery people, whose jobs require
them to move from place to place.
The examples of handheld computers are:
• Personal Digital Assistance
• Cellular telephones
• H/PC Pro devices.

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Types of Computers
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to
manipulate symbols. Its principal characteristics are:
• It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-
defined manner.
• It can execute a prerecorded list of instructions (a
programme).
• It can quickly store and retrieve large amounts of
data.
Therefore computers can perform complex and repetitive
procedures quickly, precisely and reliably. Modern computers
are electronic and digital.
The actual machinery (wires, transistors, and circuits)
is called hardware; the instructions and data are called
software. All general-purpose computers require the following
hardware components:
• Central processing unit (CPU): The heart of the
computer, this is the component that actually executes
instructions organized in programmes (“software”)
which tell the computer what to do.
• Memory (fast, expensive, short-term memory): Enables
a computer to store, at least temporarily, data,
programmes, and intermediate results.
• Mass storage device (slower, cheaper, long-term
memory): Allows a computer to permanently retain
large amounts of data and programmes between jobs.

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Common mass storage devices include disk drives

and tape drives.
• Input device: Usually a keyboard and mouse, the
input device is the conduit through which data and
instructions enter a computer.
• Output device: A display screen, printer, or other
device that lets you see what the computer has
accomplished.
In addition to these components, many others make it
possible for the basic components to work together efficiently.
For example, every computer requires a bus that transmits
data from one part of the computer to another.

Computer Sizes and Power

Computers can be generally classified by size and power
as follows, though there is considerable overlap:
• Personal computer: A small, single-user computer
based on a microprocessor.
• Workstation: A powerful, single-user computer. A
workstation is like a personal computer, but it has a
more powerful microprocessor and, in general, a
higher-quality monitor.
• Minicomputer: A multi-user computer capable of
supporting up to hundreds of users simultaneously.
• Mainframe: A powerful multi-user computer capable
of supporting many hundreds or thousands of users
simultaneously.

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• Supercomputer: An extremely fast computer that can

perform hundreds of millions of instructions per
second.

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3
The Scanners Capture Process

Scanners differ significantly from digital camera in

many areas. First, the optical resolution of a flatbed
scanner can exceed 5000 pixels per inch (200 pixels per
mm). Even at a relatively low resolution of 1200 pixels
per inch (47 p/mm) a letter sized image would be 134
megapixels in size.
The depth of field of most scanners is very limited,
usually no more than half an inch (12 mm), but the built-
in light source provides excellent sharpness, color
saturation, and unique shadow effects.
The time it takes the scanning head to traverse the bed
means that scanners can only be used to capture still
objects, and common items used are flowers, leaves, and
other suitable “still life” subjects.

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Equipment
Using a flatbed scanner to scan items other than paper
documents exceeds the original purpose of the scanner, so
special care must be taken with the process. The bed of the
scanner is typically made of glass, and care needs to be
taken that the glass not be scratched or cracked when
placing or removing items on the bed.
Since the items to be captured are often placed directly
on the bed, dust and other particles will often land on the
glass, and care must be taken to keep the glass clean.
Scanners will also hold only a limited amount of weight, and
items that may damage the scanner, such a liquids or items
that might scratch the glass, should be placed on a plastic
barrier to protect the bed.
The larger the scanner bed, the larger an image may be
captured, so scanners with large beds provide the artist
with more flexibility than smaller document scanners. Many
scanners advertise two resolutions, an optical resolution
and a higher resolution that is achieved by interpolation.
A higher optical resolution is desirable, since that captures
more data, while interpolation can actually result in reduced
quality.
Flatbed scanners typically have a hinged cover that covers
the bed, and reflects light back into the scan head. This
cover is usually removed or propped open when scanning
3-D objects, to prevent damage or compression of the subject.
Removal of the cover also allows the artist to use additional
light sources positioned above the bed, which can be used

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to enhance the depth captured by the scanner. Scanners

can also be modified to provide additional capture abilities.
For example, the scanner, with the illumination removed or
disabled, can be used as a giant CCD replacement, producing
a large format digital camera back at a fraction of the cost
of professional large format systems.

Techniques
The simplest use of the scanner, which also most closely
matches its use for document capture, is as a specialized
tool for macro photography. As long as the subject can be
placed on the scanner bed, the scanner is excellent for
capturing very high resolution images, within its limitations.
A common artistic use of the scanner is to capture
collages of objects. The objects are arranged by the artist
on the scanner bed, and then captured. Since the artist is
working from the back of the image, it can be difficult to
get the desired arrangement. Scanning software with the
ability to generate a low resolution preview scan can help
in obtaining the desired arrangement before the final, high
resolution scan is made. Since the subjects are often placed
in contact with the scanner, there is a high potential for
damage to the scanner from objects scratching or cracking
the surface of the bed, or from liquids that might seep from
the subject into the interior of the scanner. These risks can
be mitigated by placing a layer of transparent protective
material, such as clear plastic film, onto the scanner bed.
Another approach is to invert the scanner, so the bed is
above the subject and not quite in contact with it.

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Capturing a moving subject with the scanner can be

viewed as a problem, or as an opportunity for artistic effect.
As the subject moves during the scan, distortions are caused
along the axis of the scan head’s movement, as it captures
different periods of the subject’s movement line by line in
a manner similar to slit-scan photography. The artist can
use this by aligning the direction of the scan head’s movement
to deliberately caused the desired distortion.

Further Manipulation
While the result of a scanner capture provides a work
of digital art, just as a digital photograph does, further
manipulation of the captured image are possible as well.
This may be as simple as flattening the background to
enhance the “floating” effect provided by the scanner to
complete reworking of the image.

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4
Barcode Reader

A barcode reader (or barcode scanner) is an electronic

device for reading printed barcodes. Like a flatbed scanner,
it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor
translating optical impulses into electrical ones. Additionally,
nearly all barcode readers contain decoder circuitry analyzing
the barcode’s image data provided by the sensor and sending
the barcode’s content to the scanner’s output port.

Types of Barcode Readers

Methods
Types of Technology
The reader types can be distinguished as follows:

Pen-type Readers
Pen-type readers consist of a light source and a photodiode
that are placed next to each other in the tip of a pen or

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wand. To read a bar code, the tip of the pen moves across
the bars in a steady motion. The photodiode measures
the intensity of the light reflected back from the light
source and generates a waveform that is used to measure
the widths of the bars and spaces in the bar code. Dark
bars in the bar code absorb light and white spaces reflect
light so that the voltage waveform generated by the photo
diode is a representation of the bar and space pattern in
the bar code. This waveform is decoded by the scanner
in a manner similar to the way Morse code dots and
dashes are decoded.

Laser Scanners
Laser scanners work the same way as pen type readers
except that they use a laser beam as the light source and
typically employ either a reciprocating mirror or a rotating
prism to scan the laser beam back and forth across the bar
code. As with the pen type reader, a photodiode is used to
measure the intensity of the light reflected back from the
bar code. In both pen readers and laser scanners, the light
emitted by the reader is rapidly varied in brightness with
a data pattern and the photodiode receive circuitry is
designed to detect only signals with the same modulated
pattern.

CCD Readers
CCD readers use an array of hundreds of tiny light
sensors lined up in a row in the head of the reader. Each
sensor measures the intensity of the light immediately in
front of it. Each individual light sensor in the CCD reader
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is extremely small and because there are hundreds of sensors

lined up in a row, a voltage pattern identical to the pattern
in a bar code is generated in the reader by sequentially
measuring the voltages across each sensor in the row. The
important difference between a CCD reader and a pen or
laser scanner is that the CCD reader is measuring emitted
ambient light from the bar code whereas pen or laser
scanners are measuring reflected light of a specific frequency
originating from the scanner itself.

Camera-based Readers
Two-dimensional imaging scanners are the fourth and
newest type of bar code reader. They use a camera and
image processing techniques to decode the bar code. Video
camera readers use small video cameras with the same
CCD technology as in a CCD bar code reader except that
instead of having a single row of sensors, a video camera
has hundreds of rows of sensors arranged in a two
dimensional array so that they can generate an image.
Large field-of-view readers use high resolution industrial
cameras to capture multiple bar codes simultaneously. All
the bar codes appearing in the photo are decoded instantly
(ImageID patents 6801245 & 6922208). There are a number
of open source libraries for barcode reading from images.
These include the ZXing project, which reads one- and two-
dimensional barcodes using Android and JavaME, the JJIL
project, which includes code for reading EAN-13 barcodes
from cellphone cameras using Java ME, and ZBar, which
reads various one-dimensional barcodes in C.

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Even web site integration, either by image uploads (e.g.

Folke Ashberg: EAN-13 Image-Scanning and code creation
tools) or by use of plugins (e.g. the Barcodepedia uses a
flash application and some web cam for querying a database),
have been realized options for resolving the given tasks.
Finally, there are free closed source libraries including
Barcode Scanner, which read one- and two-dimensional
barcodes on iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry
and Symbian smartphones.

Omni-directional Barcode Scanners

Omni-directional scanning uses “series of straight or
curved scanning lines of varying directions in the form of
a starburst, a lissajous pattern, or other multiangle
arrangement are projected at the symbol and one or more
of them will be able to cross all of the symbol’s bars and
spaces, no matter what the orientation.” Omni-directional
scanners almost all use a laser.
Unlike the simpler single-line laser scanners, they produce
a pattern of beams in varying orientations allowing them
to read barcodes presented to it at different angles. Most
of them use a single rotating polygonal mirror and an
arrangement of several fixed mirrors to generate their
complex scan patterns. Omni-directional scanners are most
familiar through the horizontal scanners in supermarkets,
where packages are slid across a glass or sapphire window.
There are a range of different omni-directional units available
which can be used for differing scanning applications,
ranging from retail type applications with the barcodes read

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only a few centimetres away from the scanner to industrial

conveyor scanning where the unit can be a couple of metres
away or more from the code. Omni-directional scanners are
also better at reading poorly printed, wrinkled, or even torn
barcodes.

Cell Phone Cameras

While cell phone cameras without auto-focus are not ideal
for reading some common barcode formats, there are 2D
barcodes (such as Semacode) which are optimized for cell
phones, as well as QR Codes and Data Matrix codes which
can be read quickly and accurately with or without auto-
focus. These open up a number of applications for consumers:
• Movies: DVD/VHS movie catalogs
• Music: CD catalogs, play MP3 when scanned
• Book catalogs
• Groceries, nutrition information, making shopping
lists when the last of an item is used, etc.
• Personal Property inventory (for insurance and other
purposes)
• Calling cards: 2D barcodes can store contact
information for importing.
• Brick and mortar shopping: Portable scanners can
be used to record items of interest for looking up
online at home.
• Coupon management: weeding expired coupons.
• Personal finance. Receipts can be tagged with a
barcode label and the barcode scanned into personal

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finance software when entering. Later, scanned receipt

images can then be automatically associated with
the appropriate entries. Later, the bar codes can
be used to rapidly weed out paper copies not
required to be retained for tax or asset inventory
purposes.
• If retailers put barcodes on receipts that allowed
downloading an electronic copy or encoded the entire
receipt in a 2D barcode, consumers could easily
import data into personal finance, property inventory,
and grocery management software. Receipts scanned
on a scanner could be automatically identified and
associated with the appropriate entries in finance
and property inventory software.

A number of enterprise applications using cell phones

are appearing:
• Access control (ex. ticket validation at venues),
inventory reporting (ex. tracking deliveries), asset
tracking (ex. anti-counterfeiting).

ZXing Barcode Scanner, an Android platform application,

is one example of a barcode reader that has been optimized
to work with a cellphone camera. Big in Japan’s ShopSavvy
and Occipital’s RedLaser, among others, are examples of
barcode reader apps for the iPhone optimized to work with
a cellphone camera. There are also a few other iPhone apps,
which integrates barcode scanner into Google shopping web
site.

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Housing types
The reader packaging can be distinguished as follows :
Handheld scanner with a handle and typically a trigger
button for switching on the light source.
Pen scanner (or wand scanner) a pen-shaped scanner
that is swiped.
Stationary scanner; wall- or table-mounted scanners that
the barcode is passed under or beside. These are commonly
found at the checkout counters of supermarkets and other
retailers.
Fixed-position scanner: an industrial barcode reader used
to identify products during manufacture or logistics. Often
used on conveyor tracks to identify cartons or pallets
which need to be routed to another process or shipping
location.
Another application joins holographic scanners with a
checkweigher to read bar codes of any orientation or
placement, and weighs the package. Systems like this are
used in factory and farm automation for quality management
and shipping.
PDA scanner (or Auto-ID PDA) a PDA with a built-in
barcode reader or attached barcode scanner.
Automatic reader a back office equipment to read barcoded
documents at high speed (50,000/hour).
Cordless scanner (or Wireless scanner) a cordless barcode
scanner is operated by a battery fitted inside it and is not
connected to the electricity mains

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Methods of Connection
Early Serial Interfaces
Early barcode scanners, of all formats, almost universally
used the then-common RS-232 serial interface. This was
an electrically simple means of connection and the software
to access it is also relatively simple, although needing to
be written for specific computers and their serial ports with
abdelilah.

Proprietary Interfaces
There are a few other less common interfaces. These
were used in large EPOS systems with dedicated hardware,
rather than attaching to existing commodity computers. In
some of these interfaces, the scanning device returned a
“raw” signal proportional to the intensities seen while
scanning the barcode.
This was then decoded by the host device. In some cases
the scanning device would convert the symbology of the
barcode to one that could be recognized by the host device,
such as Code 39.
Keyboard Wedges
With the popularity of the PC and its standard keyboard
interface, it became ever easier to connect physical hardware
to a PC and so there was commercial demand similarly to
reduce the complexity of the associated software.
“Keyboard wedge” hardware plugged between the PC and
its normal keyboard, with characters from the barcode
scanner appearing exactly as if they had been typed at the

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keyboard. This made the addition of simple barcode reading

abilities to existing programmes very easy, without any
need to change them, although it did require some care by
the user and could be restrictive in the content of the
barcodes that could be handled.
USB
Later barcode readers began to use USB connectors
rather than the keyboard port, as this became a more
convenient hardware option. To retain the easy integration
with existing programmes, a device driver called a “software
wedge” could be used, to emulate the keyboard-
impersonating behaviour of the old “keyboard wedge”
hardware.
In many cases a choice of USB interface types (HID,
CDC) are provided. Some have Powered USB.
Wireless Networking
Modern handheld barcode readers are operated in wireless
networks according to IEEE 802.11g (WLAN) or IEEE
802.15.1 (Bluetooth). However, such configuration limits
the time of operation from battery or rechargeable battery
and required recharging at least after a shift of operation.

Resolution
The scanner resolution is measured by the size of the
dot of light emitted by the reader. If this dot of light is wider
than any bar or space in the bar code, then it will overlap
two elements (two spaces or two bars) and it may produce
wrong output. On the other hand, if a too small dot of light

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is used, then it can misinterpret any spot on the bar code

making the final output wrong.
The most commonly used dimension is 13 mils (0.33 mm),
although some scanners can read codes with dimensions
as small as 3 mils. Smaller bar codes must be printed at
high resolution to be read accurately.

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5
Desktop Digital Camera Scanner

One printer manufacturer (Lexmark) has introduced all-

in-one printer which is provided with a desktop digital
camera scanner that has 10 megapixel image sensors. For
scanning a business card or a full 8.5x11 inch image, it
takes not more than 3 seconds including the processing
time.

Smartphone Scanner Apps

Cameras in smartphones have reached a resolution and
quality that reasonable quality scans can be achieved by
taking a photo with the phone and using a scanning app
for post-processing (such as whitening the background of
a page, correcting perspective distortion so that a document
is output as a correct rectangle, conversion to black-and-
white, etc.) Most smartphone platforms now have a range
of scanner apps available (the largest range being for Apple

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iPhone). These apps can typically scan multiple page

documents through the use of multiple camera exposures,
and output them to a PDF document or as separate JPEG
images.
Some smartphone scanning apps can also save
documents directly to online storage locations such as
Dropbox, Evernote, send via email or fax documents via
email-to-fax gateways.

Quality
Scanners typically read red-green-blue color (RGB) data
from the array. This data is then processed with some
proprietary algorithm to correct for different exposure
conditions, and sent to the computer via the device’s input/
output interface (usually USB, previous to which was SCSI
or bidirectional parallel port in older units). Color depth
varies depending on the scanning array characteristics, but
is usually at least 24 bits.
High quality models have 48 bits or more color depth.
Another qualifying parameter for a scanner is its resolution,
measured in pixels per inch (ppi), sometimes more accurately
referred to as Samples per inch (spi). Instead of using the
scanner’s true optical resolution, the only meaningful
parameter, manufacturers like to refer to the interpolated
resolution, which is much higher thanks to software
interpolation. As of 2009, a high-end flatbed scanner can
scan up to 5400 ppi and a good drum scanner has an
optical resolution of 12,000 ppi.

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Manufacturers often claim interpolated resolutions as

high as 19,200 ppi; but such numbers carry little meaningful
value, because the number of possible interpolated pixels
is unlimited and doing so does not increase the level of
captured detail.
The size of the file created increases with the square
of the resolution; doubling the resolution quadruples the
file size. A resolution must be chosen that is within the
capabilities of the equipment, preserves sufficient detail,
and does not produce a file of excessive size. The file size
can be reduced for a given resolution by using “lossy”
compression methods such as JPEG, at some cost in
quality.
If the best possible quality is required lossless compression
should be used; reduced-quality files of smaller size can be
produced from such an image when required (e.g., image
designed to be printed on a full page, and a much smaller
file to be displayed as part of a fast-loading web page).
Purity can be diminished be scanner noise, optical flare,
poor analog to digital conversion, color interpolation (from
scanners that use CCD chips with bayer grids) and poor
software. Drum scanners are said to produce the purist
digital representations of the film, followed by high end film
scanners that use the larger Kodak Tri-Linear sensors. The
third important parameter for a scanner is its density range.
A high-density range means that the scanner is able to
reproduce shadow details and brightness details in one
scan. By combining full-color imagery with 3D models,

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modern hand-held scanners are able to completely reproduce

objects electronically. The addition of 3D color printers
enables accurate miniaturization of these objects, with
applications across many industries and professions.

Computer Connection
Scanning the document is only one part of the process.
For the scanned image to be useful, it must be transferred
from the scanner to an application running on the computer.
There are two basic issues: (1) how the scanner is physically
connected to the computer and (2) how the application
retrieves the information from the scanner.

Direct Physical Connection to a Computer

The amount of data generated by a scanner can be very
large: a 600 DPI 23 x 28 cm (9"x11") (slightly larger than
A4 paper) uncompressed 24-bit image is about 100
megabytes of data which must be transferred and stored.
Recent scanners can generate this volume of data in a
matter of seconds, making a fast connection desirable.
Scanners communicate to their host computer using one
of the following physical interfaces, listing from slow to fast:
• Parallel port - Connecting through a parallel port is
the slowest common transfer method. Early scanners
had parallel port connections that could not transfer
data faster than 70 kilobytes/second. The primary
advantage of the parallel port connection was
economic and user skill level: it avoided adding an
interface card to the computer.

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• GPIB - General Purpose Interface Bus. Certain

drumscanners like the Howtek D4000 featured both
a SCSI and GPIB interface. The latter conforms to
the IEEE-488 standard, introduced in the mid ’70’s.
The GPIB-interface has only been used by a few
scanner manufactures, mostly serving the DOS/
Windows environment. For Apple Macintosh systems,
National Instruments provided a NuBus GPIB
interface card.
• Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), which is
supported by most computers only via an additional
SCSI interface card. Some SCSI scanners are
supplied together with a dedicated SCSI card for a
PC, although any SCSI controller can be used. During
the evolution of the SCSI standard speeds increased,
with backwards compatibility; a SCSI connection
can transfer data at the highest speed which both
the controller and the device support. SCSI has
been largely replaced by USB and Firewire, one or
both of which are directly supported by most
computers, and which are easier to set up than
SCSI.
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) scanners can transfer
data quickly, and they are easier to use and cheaper
than SCSI devices. The early USB 1.1 standard could
transfer data at only 1.5 megabytes per second (slower
than SCSI), but the later USB 2.0 standard can
theoretically transfer up to 60 megabytes per second

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(although everyday rates are much lower), resulting

in faster operation.
• FireWire is an interface that is much faster than USB
1.1 and comparable to USB 2.0. FireWire speeds are
25, 50, and 100, 400 and 800 megabits per second
(but a device may not support all speeds). Also known
as: IEEE-1394.
• Proprietary interfaces were used on some early
scanners that used a proprietary interface card rather
than a standard interface.
Indirect (Network) Connection to a Computer
During the early nineties, professional flatbed scanners
were targeted to professional users. Some vendors (like
Umax) allowed a single scanner connected to a host computer
to function as a scanner accessible by all users within a
local computer network.
This proved to be very handy to e.g. publishers, print
shops, etc. This functionality gradually disappeared after
the mid-’90’s as flatbed scanners became more affordable
each year. However, as of 2000 and later, all-in-one multi-
purpose devices targeted to serve both (small) offices and
consumers usually combine a printer, scanner, copier and
fax into a single apparatus available to a whole workgroup,
providing each individual fax, scan, copy and print
functionality.

Applications Programming Interface

A paint application such as GIMP or Adobe Photoshop
must communicate with the scanner. There are many
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different scanners, and many of those scanners use different

protocols. In order to simplify applications programming,
some Applications Programming Interfaces (“API”) were
developed. The API presents a uniform interface to the
scanner.
This means that the application does not need to know
the specific details of the scanner in order to access it
directly. For example, Adobe Photoshop supports the TWAIN
standard; therefore in theory Photoshop can acquire an
image from any scanner that also supports TWAIN. In
practice, there are often problems with an application
communicating with a scanner. Either the application or
the scanner manufacturer (or both) may have faults in their
implementation of the API. Typically, the API is implemented
as a dynamically linked library. Each scanner manufacturer
provides software that translates the API procedure calls
into primitive commands that are issued to a hardware
controller (such as the SCSI, USB, or FireWire controller).
The manufacturer’s part of the API is commonly called a
device driver, but that designation is not strictly accurate:
the API does not run in kernel mode and does not directly
access the device. Rather the scanner API library translates
application requests into hardware requests.

Common Scanner Software API Interfaces

SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) is a free/open source
API for accessing scanners. Originally developed for Unix
and Linux operating systems, it has been ported to OS/2,
Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Unlike TWAIN, SANE

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does not handle the user interface. This allows batch scans
and transparent network access without any special support
from the device driver.
TWAIN is used by most scanners. Originally used for low-
end and home-use equipment, it is now widely used for
large-volume scanning.
ISIS (Image and Scanner Interface Specification) created
by Pixel Translations, which still uses SCSI-II for performance
reasons, is used by large, departmental-scale, machines.
WIA (Windows Image Acquisition) is an API provided by
Microsoft.
Bundled Applications
Although no software beyond a scanning utility is a
feature of any scanner, many scanners come bundled with
software. Typically, in addition to the scanning utility, some
type of image-editing application (such as Photoshop), and
optical character recognition (OCR) software are supplied.
OCR software converts graphical images of text into standard
text that can be edited using common word-processing and
text-editing software; accuracy is rarely perfect.

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6
Charge-Coupled Device

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the

movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device
to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example
conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by “shifting”
the signals between stages within the device one at a time.
CCDs move charge between capacitive bins in the device,
with the shift allowing for the transfer of charge between
bins.
Often the device is integrated with an image sensor, such
as a photoelectric device to produce the charge that is being
read, thus making the CCD a major technology for digital
imaging. Although CCDs are not the only technology to
allow for light detection, CCDs are widely used in professional,
medical, and scientific applications where high-quality image
data is required.

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History
The charge-coupled device was invented in 1969 at AT&T
Bell Labs by Willard Boyle and George E. Smith. The lab
was working on semiconductor bubble memory when Boyle
and Smith conceived of the design of what they termed, in
their notebook, “Charge ‘Bubble’ Devices”.
A description of how the device could be used as a shift
register and as a linear and area imaging devices was
described in this first entry. The essence of the design was
the ability to transfer charge along the surface of a
semiconductor from one storage capacitor to the next. The
concept was similar in principle to the bucket-brigade device
(BBD), which was developed at Philips Research Labs during
the late 1960’s.
The initial paper describing the concept listed possible
uses as a memory, a delay line, and an imaging device. The
first experimental device demonstrating the principle was
a row of closely spaced metal squares on an oxidized silicon
surface electrically accessed by wire bonds.
The first working CCD made with integrated circuit
technology was a simple 8-bit shift register. This device
had input and output circuits and was used to
demonstrate its use as a shift register and as a crude
eight pixel linear imaging device. Development of the
device progressed at a rapid rate. By 1971, Bell researchers
Michael F. Tompsett et al. were able to capture images
with simple linear devices.

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Several companies, including Fairchild Semiconductor,

RCA and Texas Instruments, picked up on the invention
and began development programmes. Fairchild’s effort, led
by ex-Bell researcher Gil Amelio, was the first with
commercial devices, and by 1974 had a linear 500-element
device and a 2-D 100 x 100 pixel device.
The first KH-11 KENNAN reconnaissance satellite
equipped with charge-coupled device array technology for
imaging was launched in December 1976. Under the
leadership of Kazuo Iwama, Sony also started a big
development effort on CCDs involving a significant
investment. Eventually, Sony managed to mass produce
CCDs for their camcorders. Before this happened, Iwama
died in August 1982; subsequently, a CCD chip was placed
on his tombstone to acknowledge his contribution.
In January 2006, Boyle and Smith were awarded the
National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper
Prize, and in 2009 they were awarded the Nobel Prize for
Physics, for their work on the CCD.

Basics of Operation
In a CCD for capturing images, there is a photoactive
region (an epitaxial layer of silicon), and a transmission
region made out of a shift register (the CCD, properly
speaking).
An image is projected through a lens onto the capacitor
array (the photoactive region), causing each capacitor to
accumulate an electric charge proportional to the light

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intensity at that location. A one-dimensional array, used in

line-scan cameras, captures a single slice of the image,
while a two-dimensional array, used in video and still
cameras, captures a two-dimensional picture corresponding
to the scene projected onto the focal plane of the sensor.
Once the array has been exposed to the image, a control
circuit causes each capacitor to transfer its contents to its
neighbor (operating as a shift register).
The last capacitor in the array dumps its charge into a
charge amplifier, which converts the charge into a voltage.
By repeating this process, the controlling circuit converts
the entire contents of the array in the semiconductor to a
sequence of voltages.
In a digital device, these voltages are then sampled,
digitized, and usually stored in memory; in an analog device
(such as an analog video camera), they are processed into
a continuous analog signal (e.g. by feeding the output of
the charge amplifier into a low-pass filter) which is then
processed and fed out to other circuits for transmission,
recording, or other processing.

Detailed Physics of Operation

The photoactive region of the CCD is, generally, an
epitaxial layer of silicon. It has a doping of p+ (Boron) and
is grown upon a substrate material, often p++. In buried
channel devices, the type of design utilized in most modern
CCDs, certain areas of the surface of the silicon are ion
implanted with phosphorus, giving them an n-doped
designation. This region defines the channel in which the
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photogenerated charge packets will travel. The gate oxide,

i.e. the capacitor dielectric, is grown on top of the epitaxial
layer and substrate.
Later on in the process polysilicon gates are deposited
by chemical vapor deposition, patterned with
photolithography, and etched in such a way that the
separately phased gates lie perpendicular to the channels.
The channels are further defined by utilization of the LOCOS
process to produce the channel stop region. Channel stops
are thermally grown oxides that serve to isolate the charge
packets in one column from those in another.
These channel stops are produced before the polysilicon
gates are, as the LOCOS process utilizes a high temperature
step that would destroy the gate material. The channels
stops are parallel to, and exclusive of, the channel, or
“charge carrying”, regions. Channel stops often have a p+
doped region underlying them, providing a further barrier
to the electrons in the charge packets (this discussion of
the physics of CCD devices assumes an electron transfer
device, though hole transfer is possible). The clocking of the
gates, alternately high and low, will forward and reverse
bias to the diode that is provided by the buried channel (n-
doped) and the epitaxial layer (p-doped).
This will cause the CCD to deplete, near the p-n junction
and will collect and move the charge packets beneath the
gates—and within the channels—of the device. CCD
manufacturing and operation can be optimized for different
uses. The above process describes a frame transfer CCD.

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While CCDs may be manufactured on a heavily doped p++

wafer it is also possible to manufacture a device inside p-
wells that have been placed on an n-wafer.
This second method, reportedly, reduces smear, dark
current, and infrared and red response. This method of
manufacture is used in the construction of interline transfer
devices. Another version of CCD is called a peristaltic CCD.
In a peristaltic charge-coupled device, the charge packet
transfer operation is analogous to the peristaltic contraction
and dilation of the digestive system.
The peristaltic CCD has an additional implant that keeps
the charge away from the silicon/silicon dioxide interface
and generates a large lateral electric field from one gate to
the next. This provides an additional driving force to aid in
transfer of the charge packets.

Architecture
The CCD image sensors can be implemented in several
different architectures. The most common are full-frame,
frame-transfer, and interline. The distinguishing
characteristic of each of these architectures is their
approach to the problem of shuttering. In a full-frame
device, all of the image area is active, and there is no
electronic shutter.
A mechanical shutter must be added to this type of
sensor or the image smears as the device is clocked or read
out. With a frame-transfer CCD, half of the silicon area is
covered by an opaque mask (typically aluminum). The image

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can be quickly transferred from the image area to the

opaque area or storage region with acceptable smear of a
few percent.
That image can then be read out slowly from the storage
region while a new image is integrating or exposing in the
active area. Frame-transfer devices typically do not require
a mechanical shutter and were a common architecture for
early solid-state broadcast cameras. The downside to the
frame-transfer architecture is that it requires twice the
silicon real estate of an equivalent full-frame device; hence,
it costs roughly twice as much. The interline architecture
extends this concept one step further and masks every
other column of the image sensor for storage.
In this device, only one pixel shift has to occur to transfer
from image area to storage area; thus, shutter times can
be less than a microsecond and smear is essentially
eliminated. The advantage is not free, however, as the imaging
area is now covered by opaque strips dropping the fill factor
to approximately 50 percent and the effective quantum
efficiency by an equivalent amount.
Modern designs have addressed this deleterious
characteristic by adding microlenses on the surface of the
device to direct light away from the opaque regions and on
the active area. Microlenses can bring the fill factor back
up to 90 percent or more depending on pixel size and the
overall system’s optical design. The choice of architecture
comes down to one of utility. If the application cannot
tolerate an expensive, failure-prone, power-intensive

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mechanical shutter, an interline device is the right choice.

Consumer snap-shot cameras have used interline devices.
On the other hand, for those applications that require the
best possible light collection and issues of money, power
and time are less important, the full-frame device is the
right choice.
Astronomers tend to prefer full-frame devices. The frame-
transfer falls in between and was a common choice before
the fill-factor issue of interline devices was addressed. Today,
frame-transfer is usually chosen when an interline
architecture is not available, such as in a back-illuminated
device. CCDs containing grids of pixels are used in digital
cameras, optical scanners, and video cameras as light-
sensing devices.
They commonly respond to 70 percent of the incident
light (meaning a quantum efficiency of about 70 percent)
making them far more efficient than photographic film,
which captures only about 2 percent of the incident light.
Most common types of CCDs are sensitive to near-infrared
light, which allows infrared photography, night-vision
devices, and zero lux (or near zero lux) video-recording/
photography.
For normal silicon-based detectors, the sensitivity is
limited to 1.1 ìm. One other consequence of their sensitivity
to infrared is that infrared from remote controls often appears
on CCD-based digital cameras or camcorders if they do not
have infrared blockers. Cooling reduces the array’s dark
current, improving the sensitivity of the CCD to low light

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intensities, even for ultraviolet and visible wavelengths.

Professional observatories often cool their detectors with
liquid nitrogen to reduce the dark current, and therefore
the thermal noise, to negligible levels.

Use in Astronomy
Due to the high quantum efficiencies of CCDs, linearity
of their outputs (one count for one photon of light), ease
of use compared to photographic plates, and a variety of
other reasons, CCDs were very rapidly adopted by
astronomers for nearly all UV-to-infrared applications.
Thermal noise and cosmic rays may alter the pixels in the
CCD array.
To counter such effects, astronomers take several
exposures with the CCD shutter closed and opened. The
average of images taken with the shutter closed is necessary
to lower the random noise.
Once developed, the dark frame average image is then
subtracted from the open-shutter image to remove the dark
current and other systematic defects (dead pixels, hot pixels,
etc.) in the CCD. The Hubble Space Telescope, in particular,
has a highly developed series of steps (“data reduction
pipeline”) to convert the raw CCD data to useful images. See
the references for a more in-depth description of the steps
in astronomical CCD image-data correction and processing.
CCD cameras used in astrophotography often require sturdy
mounts to cope with vibrations from wind and other sources,
along with the tremendous weight of most imaging platforms.

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To take long exposures of galaxies and nebulae, many

astronomers use a technique known as auto-guiding. Most
autoguiders use a second CCD chip to monitor deviations
during imaging.
This chip can rapidly detect errors in tracking and
command the mount motors to correct for them. An
interesting unusual astronomical application of CCDs, called
drift-scanning, uses a CCD to make a fixed telescope behave
like a tracking telescope and follow the motion of the sky.
The charges in the CCD are transferred and read in a
direction parallel to the motion of the sky, and at the same
speed. In this way, the telescope can image a larger region
of the sky than its normal field of view.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the most famous example
of this, using the technique to produce the largest uniform
survey of the sky yet accomplished. In addition to astronomy,
CCDs are also used in laboratory analytical instrumentation
such as monochromators, spectrometers, and N-slit laser
interferometers.

Color Cameras
Digital color cameras generally use a Bayer mask over
the CCD. Each square of four pixels has one filtered red,
one blue, and two green (the human eye is more sensitive
to green than either red or blue). The result of this is
that luminance information is collected at every pixel,
but the color resolution is lower than the luminance
resolution.

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Better color separation can be reached by three-CCD

devices (3CCD) and a dichroic beam splitter prism, that
splits the image into red, green and blue components. Each
of the three CCDs is arranged to respond to a particular
color. Most professional video camcorders, and some semi-
professional camcorders, use this technique. Another
advantage of 3CCD over a Bayer mask device is higher
quantum efficiency (and therefore higher light sensitivity for
a given aperture size). This is because in a 3CCD device
most of the light entering the aperture is captured by a
sensor, while a Bayer mask absorbs a high proportion
(about 2/3) of the light falling on each CCD pixel.
For still scenes, for instance in microscopy, the resolution
of a Bayer mask device can be enhanced by Microscanning
technology. During the process of color co-site sampling,
several frames of the scene are produced. Between
acquisitions, the sensor is moved in pixel dimensions, so
that each point in the visual field is acquired consecutively
by elements of the mask that are sensitive to the red, green
and blue components of its color. Eventually every pixel in
the image has been scanned at least once in each color and
the resolution of the three channels become equivalent (the
resolutions of red and blue channels are quadrupled while
the green channel is doubled).

Sensor Sizes
Sensors (CCD / CMOS) are often referred to with an inch
fraction designation such as 1/1.8" or 2/3" called the optical
format. This measurement actually originates back in the

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1950s and the time of Vidicon tubes. Compact digital cameras

and Digicams typically have much smaller sensors than a
digital SLR and are thus less sensitive to light and inherently
more prone to noise.

Frame Transfer CCD

A frame transfer CCD is a specialized CCD, often used
in astronomy and some professional video cameras, designed
for high exposure efficiency and correctness.
The normal functioning of a CCD, astronomical or
otherwise, can be divided into two phases: exposure and
readout. During the first phase, the CCD passively collects
incoming photons, storing electrons in its cells. After the
exposure time is passed, the cells are read out one line at
a time. During the readout phase, cells are shifted down
the entire area of the CCD. While they are shifted, they
continue to collect light.
Thus, if the shifting is not fast enough, errors can result
from light that falls on a cell holding charge during the
transfer. These errors are referred to as “vertical smear” and
cause a strong light source to create a vertical line above
and below its exact location. In addition, the CCD cannot
be used to collect light while it is being read out.
Unfortunately, a faster shifting requires a faster readout,
and a faster readout can introduce errors in the cell charge
measurement, leading to a higher noise level. A frame transfer
CCD solves both problems: it has a hidden, not normally
used, area containing as many cells as the area exposed

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to light. Typically, this area is covered by a reflective material

such as aluminium. When the exposure time is up, the cells
are transferred very rapidly to the hidden area. Here, safe
from any incoming light, cells can be read out at any speed
one deems necessary to correctly measure the cells’ charge.
At the same time, the exposed part of the CCD is collecting
light again, so no delay occurs between successive exposures.
The disadvantage of such a CCD is the higher cost: the
cell area is basically doubled, and more complex control
electronics are needed.

Intensified Charge-coupled Device

An intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) is a CCD
that is optically connected to an image intensifier that is
mounted in front of the CCD.
An image intensifier includes three functional elements:
a photocathode, a micro-channel plate (MCP) and a phosphor
screen. These three elements are mounted one close behind
the other in the mentioned sequence.
The photons which are coming from the light source fall
onto the photocathode, thereby generating photoelectrons.
The photoelectrons are accelerated towards the MCP by an
electrical control voltage, applied between photocathode
and MCP. The electrons are multiplied inside of the MCP
and thereafter accelerated towards the phosphor screen.
The phosphor screen finally converts the multiplied electrons
back to photons which are guided to the CCD by a fiber
optic or a lens. An image intensifier inherently includes a

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shutter functionality: If the control voltage between the

photocathode and the MCP is reversed, the emitted
photoelectrons are not accelerated towards the MCP but
return to the photocathode. Thus, no electrons are multiplied
and emitted by the MCP, no electrons are going to the
phosphor screen and no light is emitted from the image
intensifier. In this case no light falls onto the CCD, which
means that the shutter is closed. The process of reversing
the control voltage at the photocathode is called gating and
therefore ICCDs are also called gateable CCD cameras.
Beside of the extremely high sensitivity of ICCD cameras,
which enable single photon detection, the gateability is one
of the major advantages of the ICCD over the EMCCD
cameras. The highest performing ICCD cameras enable
shutter times as short as 200 picoseconds. ICCD cameras
are in general somewhat higher in price than EMCCD
cameras because they need the expensive image intensifier.
On the other hand EMCCD cameras need a cooling system
to cool the EMCCD chip down to temperatures around 170
K. This cooling system adds additional costs to the EMCCD
camera and often yields heavy condensation problems in
the application. ICCDs are used in night vision devices and
in a large variety of scientific applications.

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7
Digital Image

A digital image is a representation of a two-dimensional

image using ones and zeros (binary). Depending on whether
or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or
raster type. Without qualifications, the term “digital image”
usually refers to raster images also called bitmap images.

Raster
Raster images have a finite set of digital values, called
picture elements or pixels. The digital image contains a fixed
number of rows and columns of pixels. Pixels are the smallest
individual element in an image, holding quantized values
that represent the brightness of a given color at any specific
point.
Typically, the pixels are stored in computer memory as
a raster image or raster map, a two-dimensional array of
small integers. These values are often transmitted or stored
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in a compressed form. Raster images can be created by a

variety of input devices and techniques, such as digital
cameras, scanners, coordinate-measuring machines,
seismographic profiling, airborne radar, and more.
They can also be synthesized from arbitrary non-
image data, such as mathematical functions or three-
dimensional geometric models; the latter being a major
sub-area of computer graphics. The field of digital image
processing is the study of algorithms for their
transformation.
Raster Image Types
Each pixel of a raster image is typically associated to a
specific ‘position’ in some 2D region, and has a value
consisting of one or more quantities (samples) related to
that position. Digital images can be classified according to
the number and nature of those samples:
• binary
• grayscale
• color
• false-color
• multi-spectral
• thematic
• picture function

The term digital image is also applied to data associated

to points scattered over a three-dimensional region, such
as produced by tomographic equipment. In that case, each
datum is called a voxel.

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Raster File Formats

Most users come into contact with raster images through
digital cameras. Some digital cameras give access to almost
all the data captured by the camera, using a raw image
format. The Universal Photographic Imaging Guidelines
(UPDIG) suggests this format be used when possible since
raw files produce the best quality images.
These file formats allow the photographer and the
processing agent the greatest level of control and accuracy
for output. Unfortunately, there is an issue of proprietary
information [trade secrets] for some camera makers, but
organizations are attempting to influence the manufacturers
of them to avail these records publicly. An alternative may
be a Digital Negative (DNG) a proprietary Adobe product
described as “the public, archival format for digital camera
raw data”. Although this format is not yet universally
accepted, support for the product is growing and archival
confidence is building.

Vector
Vector images resulted from mathematical geometry
(vector). In mathematical term, a vector consist of point that
have direction and length. Often, both raster and vector
elements will be combined in one image, for example, in the
case of a billboard with text (vector) and photographs (raster).

Image Viewing
The user can utilize different programme to see the
image. The GIF, JPEG, and PNG images can be seen simply

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using a web browser because they are the standard internet

image formats. The SVG format is more and more used in
the web and is a standard W3C format. Some viewers offer
a slideshow utility, to see the images in a certain folder one
after the other automatically.

History
The first picture to be scanned, stored, and recreated in
digital pixels was displayed on the Standards Eastern
Automatic Computer at NIST. The advancement of digital
imagery continued in the early 1960s, alongside development
of the space programme and in medical research. Projects
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MIT, Bell Labs and the
University of Maryland, among others, used digital images
to advance satellite imagery, wirephoto standards conversion,
medical imaging, videophone technology, character
recognition, and photo enhancement.
Rapid advances in digital imaging began with the
introduction of microprocessors in the early 1970s, alongside
progress in related storage and display technologies. The
invention of computerised axial tomography (CAT scanning),
using x-rays to produce a digital image of a “slice” through
a three-dimensional object, was of great importance to
medical diagnostics.
As well as origination of digital images, digitization of
analog images allowed the enhancement and restoration of
archaeolgical artefacts and began to be used in fields as
diverse as nuclear medicine, astronomy, law enforcement,

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defence and industry. Advances in microprocessor technology

paved the way for the development and marketing of charge-
coupled devices (CCDs) for use in a wide range of image
capture devices and gradually displaced the use of analog
film and tape in photography and videography towards the
end of the 20th century. The computing power necessary
to process digital image capture also allowed computer-
generated digital images to achieve a level of refinement
close to photorealism.

Computer Animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating
animated images by using computer graphics. The more
general term computer generated imagery encompasses both
static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation
only refers to moving images produced by exploiting the
persistence of vision to make a series of images look
animated.
Given that images last for about one twenty-fifth of a
second on the retina fast image replacement creates the
illusion of movement. Modern computer animation usually
uses 3D computer graphics, although 2D computer graphics
are still used for stylistic, low bandwidth, and faster real-
time renderings. Sometimes the target of the animation is
the computer itself, but sometimes the target is another
medium, such as film. Computer animation is essentially
a digital successor to the stop motion techniques used in
traditional animation with 3D models and frame-by-frame
animation of 2D illustrations. Computer generated

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animations are more controllable than other more physically

based processes, such as constructing miniatures for effects
shots or hiring extras for crowd scenes, and because it
allows the creation of images that would not be feasible
using any other technology. It can also allow a single graphic
artist to produce such content without the use of actors,
expensive set pieces, or props.
To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed
on the computer screen and repeatedly replaced by a new
image that is similar to the previous image, but advanced
slightly in the time domain (usually at a rate of 24 or 30
frames/second). This technique is identical to how the
illusion of movement is achieved with television and motion
pictures. For 3D animations, objects (models) are built on
the computer monitor (modeled) and 3D figures are rigged
with a virtual skeleton.
For 2D figure animations, separate objects (illustrations)
and separate transparent layers are used, with or without
a virtual skeleton. Then the limbs, eyes, mouth, clothes,
etc. of the figure are moved by the animator on key frames.
The differences in appearance between key frames are
automatically calculated by the computer in a process known
as tweening or morphing. Finally, the animation is rendered.
For 3D animations, all frames must be rendered after
modeling is complete. For 2D vector animations, the
rendering process is the key frame illustration process,
while tweened frames are rendered as needed. For pre-
recorded presentations, the rendered frames are transferred

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to a different format or medium such as film or digital video.

The frames may also be rendered in real time as they are
presented to the end-user audience. Low bandwidth
animations transmitted via the internet (e.g. 2D Flash,
X3D) often use software on the end-users computer to
render in real time as an alternative to streaming or pre-
loaded high bandwidth animations.

A Simple Example
The screen is blanked to a background color, such as
black. Then, a goat is drawn on the right of the screen. Next,
the screen is blanked, but the goat is re-drawn or duplicated
slightly to the left of its original position. This process is
repeated, each time moving the goat a bit to the left. If this
process is repeated fast enough, the goat will appear to
move smoothly to the left.
This basic procedure is used for all moving pictures in
films and television. The moving goat is an example of
shifting the location of an object. More complex
transformations of object properties such as size, shape,
lighting effects often require calculations and computer
rendering instead of simple re-drawing or duplication.

Explanation
To trick the eye and brain into thinking they are seeing
a smoothly moving object, the pictures should be drawn at
around 12 frames per second (frame/s) or faster (a frame
is one complete image). With rates above 70 frames/s no
improvement in realism or smoothness is perceivable due

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to the way the eye and brain process images. At rates below
12 frame/s most people can detect jerkiness associated
with the drawing of new images which detracts from the
illusion of realistic movement.
Conventional hand-drawn cartoon animation often uses
15 frames/s in order to save on the number of drawings
needed, but this is usually accepted because of the stylized
nature of cartoons. Because it produces more realistic
imagery computer animation demands higher frame rates
to reinforce this realism.
The reason no jerkiness is seen at higher speeds is due
to “persistence of vision.” From moment to moment, the eye
and brain working together actually store whatever one
looks at for a fraction of a second, and automatically “smooth
out” minor jumps. Movie film seen in theaters in the United
States runs at 24 frames per second, which is sufficient to
create this illusion of continuous movement.
One of the earliest steps in the history of computer
animation was the 1973 movie Westworld, a science-fiction
film about a society in which robots live and work among
humans, though the first use of 3D Wireframe imagery was
in its sequel, Futureworld (1976), which featured a computer-
generated hand and face created by then University of Utah
graduate students Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke.
Developments in CGI technologies are reported each year
at SIGGRAPH, an annual conference on computer graphics
and interactive techniques, attended each year by tens of
thousands of computer professionals. Developers of computer

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games and 3D video cards strive to achieve the same visual

quality on personal computers in real-time as is possible
for CGI films and animation. With the rapid advancement
of real-time rendering quality, artists began to use game
engines to render non-interactive movies. This art form is
called machinima.

Methods of Animating Virtual Characters

In most 3D computer animation systems, an animator
creates a simplified representation of a character’s anatomy,
analogous to a skeleton or stick figure. The position of each
segment of the skeletal model is defined by animation
variables, or Avars. In human and animal characters, many
parts of the skeletal model correspond to actual bones, but
skeletal animation is also used to animate other things,
such as facial features (though other methods for facial
animation exist).
The character “Woody” in Toy Story, for example, uses
700 Avars, including 100 Avars in the face. The computer
does not usually render the skeletal model directly (it is
invisible), but uses the skeletal model to compute the exact
position and orientation of the character, which is eventually
rendered into an image. Thus by changing the values of
Avars over time, the animator creates motion by making the
character move from frame to frame. There are several
methods for generating the Avar values to obtain realistic
motion. Traditionally, animators manipulate the Avars
directly. Rather than set Avars for every frame, they usually
set Avars at strategic points (frames) in time and let the

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computer interpolate or ‘tween’ between them, a process

called keyframing. Keyframing puts control in the hands of
the animator, and has roots in hand-drawn traditional
animation.
In contrast, a newer method called motion capture makes
use of live action. When computer animation is driven by
motion capture, a real performer acts out the scene as if
they were the character to be animated. His or her motion
is recorded to a computer using video cameras and markers,
and that performance is then applied to the animated
character. Each method has its advantages, and as of 2007,
games and films are using either or both of these methods
in productions.
Keyframe animation can produce motions that would be
difficult or impossible to act out, while motion capture can
reproduce the subtleties of a particular actor. For example,
in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s
Chest, actor Bill Nighy provided the performance for the
character Davy Jones. Even though Nighy himself doesn’t
appear in the film, the movie benefited from his performance
by recording the nuances of his body language, posture,
facial expressions, etc. Thus motion capture is appropriate
in situations where believable, realistic behaviour and action
is required, but the types of characters required exceed
what can be done through conventional costuming.

Creating Characters and Objects on a Computer

3D computer animation combines 3D models of objects
and programmed or hand “keyframed” movement. Models
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are constructed out of geometrical vertices, faces, and edges

in a 3D coordinate system. Objects are sculpted much like
real clay or plaster, working from general forms to specific
details with various sculpting tools. A bone/joint animation
system is set up to deform the CGI model (e.g., to make
a humanoid model walk). In a process called rigging, the
virtual marionette is given various controllers and handles
for controlling movement. Animation data can be created
using motion capture, or keyframing by a human animator,
or a combination of the two. 3D models rigged for animation
may contain thousands of control points - for example, the
character “Woody” in Pixar’s movie Toy Story, uses 700
specialized animation controllers. Rhythm and Hues Studios
labored for two years to create Aslan in the movie The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
which had about 1851 controllers, 742 in just the face
alone. In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, designers
had to design forces of extreme weather with the help of
video references and accurate meteorological facts. For the
2005 remake of King Kong, actor Andy Serkis was used to
help designers pinpoint the gorilla’s prime location in the
shots and used his expressions to model “human”
characteristics onto the creature. Serkis had earlier provided
the voice and performance for Gollum in J. R. R. Tolkien’s
The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Computer Animation Development Equipment

Computer animation can be created with a computer
and animation software. Some impressive animation can be

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achieved even with basic programmes; however, the rendering

can take a lot of time on an ordinary home computer.
Because of this, video game animators tend to use low
resolution, low polygon count renders, such that the graphics
can be rendered in real time on a home computer.
Photorealistic animation would be impractical in this context.
Professional animators of movies, television, and video
sequences on computer games make photorealistic animation
with high detail.
This level of quality for movie animation would take tens
to hundreds of years to create on a home computer. Many
powerful workstation computers are used instead. Graphics
workstation computers use two to four processors, and
thus are a lot more powerful than a home computer, and
are specialized for rendering. A large number of workstations
(known as a render farm) are networked together to effectively
act as a giant computer.
The result is a computer-animated movie that can be
completed in about one to five years (this process is not
comprised solely of rendering, however). A workstation
typically costs $2,000 to $16,000, with the more expensive
stations being able to render much faster, due to the more
technologically advanced hardware that they contain. Pixar’s
Renderman is rendering software which is widely used as
the movie animation industry standard, in competition with
Mental Ray. It can be bought at the official Pixar website
for about $3,500. It will work on Linux, Mac OS X, and
Microsoft Windows based graphics workstations along with

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an animation programme such as Maya and Softimage XSI.

Professionals also use digital movie cameras, motion capture
or performance capture, bluescreens, film editing software,
props, and other tools for movie animation.

Modeling Human Faces

The modeling of human facial features is both one of the
most challenging and sought after elements in computer-
generated imagery. Computer facial animation is a highly
complex field where models typically include a very large
number of animation variables.
Historically speaking, the first SIGGRAPH tutorials on
State of the art in Facial Animation in 1989 and 1990 proved
to be a turning point in the field by bringing together and
consolidating multiple research elements, and sparked
interest among a number of researchers. The Facial Action
Coding System (with 46 action units such as “lip bite” or
“squint”) which had been developed in 1976 became a
popular basis for many systems.
As early as 2001 MPEG-4 included 68 facial animation
parameters for lips, jaws, etc., and the field has made
significant progress since then and the use of facial
microexpression has increased. In some cases, an affective
space such as the PAD emotional state model can be used
to assign specific emotions to the faces of avatars. In this
approach the PAD model is used as a high level emotional
space, and the lower level space is the MPEG-4 Facial
Animation Parameters (FAP). A mid-level Partial Expression

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Parameters (PEP) space is then used to in a two level

structure: the PAD-PEP mapping and the PEP-FAP
translation model.

The Future
One open challenge in computer animation is a
photorealistic animation of humans. Currently, most
computer-animated movies show animal characters (A Bug’s
Life, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Ice Age, Over the Hedge),
fantasy characters (Monsters Inc., Shrek, Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles 4, Monsters vs. Aliens), anthropomorphic
machines (Cars, WALL-E, Robots) or cartoon-like humans
(The Incredibles, Despicable Me, Up).
The movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is often cited
as the first computer-generated movie to attempt to show
realistic-looking humans. However, due to the enormous
complexity of the human body, human motion, and human
biomechanics, realistic simulation of humans remains largely
an open problem. Another problem is the distasteful
psychological response to viewing nearly perfect animation
of humans, known as “the uncanny valley.” It is one of the
“holy grails” of computer animation.
Eventually, the goal is to create software where the
animator can generate a movie sequence showing a
photorealistic human character, undergoing physically-
plausible motion, together with clothes, photorealistic hair,
a complicated natural background, and possibly interacting
with other simulated human characters. This could be done

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in a way that the viewer is no longer able to tell if a

particular movie sequence is computer-generated, or created
using real actors in front of movie cameras.
Complete human realism is not likely to happen very
soon, but when it does it may have major repercussions for
the film industry. For the moment it looks like three
dimensional computer animation can be divided into two
main directions; photorealistic and non-photorealistic
rendering. Photorealistic computer animation can itself be
divided into two subcategories; real photorealism (where
performance capture is used in the creation of the virtual
human characters) and stylized photorealism.
Real photorealism is what Final Fantasy tried to achieve
and will in the future most likely have the ability to give
us live action fantasy features as The Dark Crystal without
having to use advanced puppetry and animatronics, while
Antz is an example on stylistic photorealism (in the future
stylized photorealism will be able to replace traditional stop
motion animation as in Corpse Bride). None of these
mentioned are perfected as of yet, but the progress continues.
The non-photorealistic/cartoonish direction is more like an
extension of traditional animation, an attempt to make the
animation look like a three dimensional version of a cartoon,
still using and perfecting the main principles of animation
articulated by the Nine Old Men, such as squash and
stretch. While a single frame from a photorealistic computer-
animated feature will look like a photo if done right, a single
frame vector from a cartoonish computer-animated feature

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will look like a painting (not to be confused with cel shading,

which produces an even simpler look).

Detailed Examples and Pseudocode

In 2D computer animation, moving objects are often
referred to as “sprites.” A sprite is an image that has a
location associated with it. The location of the sprite is
changed slightly, between each displayed frame, to make
the sprite appear to move. The following pseudocode makes
a sprite move from left to right:
var int x := 0, y := screenHeight / 2;
while x < screenWidth
drawBackground()
drawSpriteAtXY (x, y) // draw on top of the background
x := x + 5 // move to the right
Computer animation uses different techniques to produce
animations. Most frequently, sophisticated mathematics is
used to manipulate complex three dimensional polygons,
apply “textures”, lighting and other effects to the polygons
and finally rendering the complete image. A sophisticated
graphical user interface may be used to create the animation
and arrange its choreography.
Another technique called constructive solid geometry
defines objects by conducting boolean operations on regular
shapes, and has the advantage that animations may be
accurately produced at any resolution. Let’s step through
the rendering of a simple image of a room with flat wood
walls with a grey pyramid in the center of the room. The

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pyramid will have a spotlight shining on it. Each wall, the

floor and the ceiling is a simple polygon, in this case, a
rectangle. Each corner of the rectangles is defined by three
values referred to as X, Y and Z. X is how far left and right
the point is. Y is how far up and down the point is, and
Z is far in and out of the screen the point is. The wall
nearest us would be defined by four points: (in the order
x, y, z). Below is a representation of how the wall is defined
(0, 10, 0) (10, 10, 0)
(0,0,0) (10, 0, 0)
The far wall would be:
(0, 10, 20) (10, 10, 20)
(0, 0, 20) (10, 0, 20)
The pyramid is made up of five polygons: the rectangular
base, and four triangular sides. To draw this image the
computer uses math to calculate how to project this image,
defined by three dimensional data, onto a two dimensional
computer screen. First we must also define where our view
point is, that is, from what vantage point will the scene be
drawn. Our view point is inside the room a bit above the
floor, directly in front of the pyramid.
First the computer will calculate which polygons are
visible. The near wall will not be displayed at all, as it is
behind our view point. The far side of the pyramid will also
not be drawn as it is hidden by the front of the pyramid.
Next each point is perspective projected onto the screen.
The portions of the walls ‘furthest’ from the view point will

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appear to be shorter than the nearer areas due to perspective.

To make the walls look like wood, a wood pattern, called
a texture, will be drawn on them. To accomplish this, a
technique called “texture mapping” is often used. A small
drawing of wood that can be repeatedly drawn in a matching
tiled pattern (like wallpaper) is stretched and drawn onto
the walls’ final shape.
The pyramid is solid grey so its surfaces can just be
rendered as grey. But we also have a spotlight. Where its
light falls we lighten colors, where objects blocks the light
we darken colors. Next we render the complete scene on
the computer screen. If the numbers describing the position
of the pyramid were changed and this process repeated, the
pyramid would appear to move.

Movies
CGI short films have been produced as independent
animation since 1976, though the popularity of computer
animation (especially in the field of special effects)
skyrocketed during the modern era of U.S. animation. The
first completely computer-generated television series was
ReBoot, in 1994, and the first completely computer-generated
animated movie was Toy Story (1995). See List of computer-
animated films for more.

Amateur Animation
The popularity of websites which allows members to
upload their own movies for others to view has created a
growing community of amateur computer animators. With

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utilities and programmes often included free with modern

operating systems, many users can make their own animated
movies and shorts. Several free and open source animation
software applications exist as well. A popular amateur
approach to animation is via the animated GIF format,
which can be uploaded and seen on the web easily.

Computer-Generated Imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the application of
the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D
computer graphics to special effects in art, films, television
programmes, commercials, simulators and simulation
generally, and printed media. The visual scenes may be
either dynamic or static.
The term computer animation refers to dynamic CGI
rendered as a movie. The term virtual world refers to agent-
based, interactive environments. 3D computer graphics
software is used to make computer-generated imagery for
movies, etc. Recent availability of CGI software and increased
computer speeds have allowed individual artists and small
companies to produce professional grade films, games, and
fine art from their home computers. This has brought about
an Internet subculture with its own set of global celebrities,
clichés, and technical vocabulary.

Static Images and Landscapes

Not only do animated images form part of computer-
generated imagery, natural looking landscapes, such as
fractal landscapes are also generated via computer

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algorithms. A simple way to generate fractal surfaces is to

use an extension of the triangular mesh method, relying on
the construction of some special case of a de Rham curve,
e.g. midpoint displacement. For instance, the algorithm
may start with a large triangle, then recursively zoom in by
dividing it into 4 smaller Sierpinski triangles, then interpolate
the height of each point from its nearest neighbors. The
creation of a Brownian surface may be achieved not only
by adding noise as new nodes are created, but by adding
additional noise at multiple levels of the mesh.
Thus a topographical map with varying levels of height
can be created using relatively straightforward fractal
algorithms. Some typical, and easy to programme fractals
used in CGI are the plasma fractal and the more dramatic
fault fractal. A large number of specific techniques have
been researched and developed to produce highly focused
computer-generated effects, e.g. the use of specific models
to represent the chemical weathering of stones to model
erosion and produce an “aged appearance” for a given
stone-based surface.

Architectural Scenes
Modern architects use services from computer graphic
firms to create 3-dimensional models for both customers
and builders. These computer generated models can be
more accurate than traditional drawings. Architectural
animation (which provides animated movies of buildings,
rather than interactive images) can also be used to see the
possible relationship a building will have in relation to the

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environment and its surrounding buildings. The rendering

of architectural spaces without the use of paper and pencil
tools is now a widely accepted practice with a number of
computer -assisted architectural design systems.
Architectural modeling tools allow an architect to visualize
a space and perform “walk throughs” in an interactive
manner, thus providing “interactive environments” both at
the urban and building levels.
Specific applications in architecture not only include the
specification of building structures such as walls and
windows, and walk-throughs, but the effects of light and
how sunlight will affect a specific design at different times
of the day. Architectural modeling tools have now become
increasingly internet-based. However, the quality of internet-
based systems still lags those of sophisticated inhouse
modeling systems. In some applications, computer-generated
images are used to “reverse engineer” historical buildings.
For instance, a computer-generated reconstruction of the
monastery at Georgenthal in Germany was derived from the
ruins of the monastery, yet provides the viewer with a “look
and feel” of what the building would have looked like in its
day.

Anatomical Models
Computer generated models used in skeletal animation
are not always anatomically correct, however, organizations
such as the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute
have developed anatomically correct computer-based models.
Computer generated anatomical models can be used both

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for instructional and operational purposes. To date, a large

body of artist produced medical images continue to be used
by medical students, such as images by Frank Netter, e.g.
Cardiac images. However, a number of online anatomical
models are becoming available. A single patient X-ray is not
a computer generated image, even in the case of digitized
x-rays. However, in applications which involve CT scans a
three dimensional model is automatically produced from a
large number of single slice x-rays, producing “computer
generated image”.
Applications involving magnetic resonance imaging also
bring together a number of “snapshots” (in this case via
magnetic pulses) to produce a composite, internal image.
In modern medical applications, patient specific models are
constructed in “computer assisted surgery”. For instance,
in total knee replacement, the construction of a detailed
patient specific model can be used to carefully plan the
surgery.
These three dimensional models are usually extracted
from multiple CT scans of the appropriate parts of the
patient’s own anatomy. Such models can also be used for
planning aortic valve implantations, one of the common
procedures for treating heart disease.
Given that the shape, diameter and position of the
coronary openings can vary greatly from patient to patient,
the extraction (from CT scans) of a model that closely
resembles a patient’s valve anatomy can be highly beneficial
in planning the procedure.

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Generating Cloth and Skin Images

Models of cloth generally fall into three groups: the
geometric-mechanical structure at yarn crossings, secondly
the mechanics of continuous elastic sheets and thirdly the
geometric macroscopic features of cloth. To date, making
the clothing of a digital character automatically fold in a
natural way remains a challenge for many animators.
In addition to their use in film, advertising and other
modes of public display, computer generated images of
clothing are now routinely used by top fashion design firms.
The challenge in rendering human skin images involves
three levels of realism: photo realism in that it should look
like real skin at the static level; physical realism in that it
should closely simulate real skin’s movements and functional
realism in that it should act like real skin in response to
actions.

Interactive Simulation and Visualization

Interactive visualization is a general term that applies to
the rendering of data that may vary dynamically and allowing
a user to view the data from multiple perspectives. The
applications areas may vary significantly, ranging from the
visualization of the flow patterns in fluid dynamics to specific
computer aided design applications.
The data rendered may correspond to specific visual
scenes that change as the user interacts with the system,
e.g. simulators such as flight simulators make extensive
use of CGI techniques for representing the world. At the

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abstract level an interactive visualization process involves

a ‘data pipeline in which the raw data is managed and
filtered to a form that makes it suitable for rendering. This
is often called the “visualization data”.
The visualization data is then mapped to a “visualization
representation” that can be fed to a rendering system.
This is usually called a “renderable representation”. This
representation is then rendered as a displayable image.
As the user interacts with the system, e.g. by using
joystick controls to change their position within the virtual
world, the raw data is fed through the pipeline to create
a new render ed image, often making real-time
computational efficiency a key consideration in such
applications.

Computer Animation
While computer generated images of landscapes may be
static, the term computer animation only applies to dynamic
images that resemble a movie. However, in general the term
computer animation refers to dynamic images that do not
allow user interaction, and the term virtual world is used
for the interactive animated environments. Computer
animation is essentially a digital successor to the art of stop
motion animation of 3D models and frame-by-frame
animation of 2D illustrations.
Computer generated animations are more controllable
than other more physically based processes, such as
constructing miniatures for effects shots or hiring extras for

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crowd scenes, and because it allows the creation of images

that would not be feasible using any other technology. It
can also allow a single graphic artist to produce such
content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or
props.
To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed
on the computer screen and repeatedly replaced by a new
image that is similar to the previous image, but advanced
slightly in the time domain (usually at a rate of 24 or 30
frames/second).
This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement
is achieved with television and motion pictures.

Virtual Worlds
A virtual world is a simulated environment, which allows
user to interact with animated characters, or interact with
other users through the use of animated characters known
as avatars.
Virtual worlds are intended for its users to inhabit and
interact, and the term today has become largely synonymous
with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users
take the form of avatars visible to others graphically.
These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-
dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations,
although other forms are possible (auditory and touch
sensations for example).
Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.

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3D Modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling (also known as
meshing) is the process of developing a mathematical
representation of any three-dimensional surface of object
(either inanimate or living) via specialized software. The
product is called a 3D model.
It can be displayed as a two-dimensional image through
a process called 3D rendering or used in a computer
simulation of physical phenomena. The model can also be
physically created using 3D Printing devices. Models may
be created automatically or manually. The manual modeling
process of preparing geometric data for 3D computer graphics
is similar to plastic arts such as sculpting.

Models
3D models represent a 3D object using a collection of
points in 3D space, connected by various geometric entities
such as triangles, lines, curved surfaces, etc. Being a
collection of data (points and other information), 3D models
can be created by hand, algorithmically (procedural
modeling), or scanned. 3D models are widely used anywhere
in 3D graphics.
Actually, their use predates the widespread use of 3D
graphics on personal computers. Many computer games
used pre-rendered images of 3D models as sprites before
computers could render them in real-time. Today, 3D models
are used in a wide variety of fields. The medical industry
uses detailed models of organs. The movie industry uses

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them as characters and objects for animated and real-life

motion pictures. The video game industry uses them as
assets for computer and video games.
The science sector uses them as highly detailed models
of chemical compounds. The architecture industry uses
them to demonstrate proposed buildings and landscapes
through Software Architectural Models. The engineering
community uses them as designs of new devices, vehicles
and structures as well as a host of other uses. In recent
decades the earth science community has started to
construct 3D geological models as a standard practice.
Representation
Almost all 3D models can be divided into two categories.
• Solid - These models define the volume of the object
they represent (like a rock). These are more realistic,
but more difficult to build. Solid models are mostly
used for nonvisual simulations such as medical and
engineering simulations, for CAD and specialized
visual applications such as ray tracing and
constructive solid geometry
• Shell/boundary - these models represent the surface,
e.g. the boundary of the object, not its volume (like
an infinitesimally thin eggshell). These are easier to
work with than solid models. Almost all visual models
used in games and film are shell models.

Because the appearance of an object depends largely on

the exterior of the object, boundary representations are

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common in computer graphics. Two dimensional surfaces

are a good analogy for the objects used in graphics, though
quite often these objects are non-manifold. Since surfaces
are not finite, a discrete digital approximation is required:
polygonal meshes (and to a lesser extent subdivision surfaces)
are by far the most common representation, although point-
based representations have been gaining some popularity
in recent years.
Level sets are a useful representation for deforming
surfaces which undergo many topological changes such as
fluids. The process of transforming representations of objects,
such as the middle point coordinate of a sphere and a point
on its circumference into a polygon representation of a
sphere, is called tessellation.
This step is used in polygon-based rendering, where
objects are broken down from abstract representations
(“primitives”) such as spheres, cones etc., to so-called meshes,
which are nets of interconnected triangles. Meshes of
triangles (instead of e.g. squares) are popular as they have
proven to be easy to render using scanline rendering. Polygon
representations are not used in all rendering techniques,
and in these cases the tessellation step is not included in
the transition from abstract representation to rendered
scene.

Modeling Processes
There are five popular ways to represent a model:
• Polygonal modeling - Points in 3D space, called
vertices, are connected by line segments to form a
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polygonal mesh. Used, for example, by Blender. The

vast majority of 3D models today are built as textured
polygonal models, because they are flexible and
because computers can render them so quickly.
However, polygons are planar and can only
approximate curved surfaces using many polygons.
• NURBS modeling - NURBS Surfaces are defined by
spline curves, which are influenced by weighted
control points. The curve follows (but does not
necessarily interpolate) the points. Increasing the
weight for a point will pull the curve closer to that
point. NURBS are truly smooth surfaces, not
approximations using small flat surfaces, and so are
particularly suitable for organic modeling. Maya,
Rhino 3d and solidThinking are the most well-known
commercial programmes which use NURBS natively.
• Splines & Patches modeling - Like NURBS, Splines
and Patches depend on curved lines to define the
visible surface. Patches fall somewhere between
NURBS and polygons in terms of flexibility and ease
of use.
• Primitives modeling - This procedure takes geometric
primitives like balls, cylinders, cones or cubes as
building blocks for more complex models. Benefits
are quick and easy construction and that the forms
are mathematically defined and thus absolutely
precise, also the definition language can be much
simpler. Primitives modeling is well suited for technical

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applications and less for organic shapes. Some 3D

software can directly render from primitives (like
POV-Ray), others use primitives only for modeling
and convert them to meshes for further operations
and rendering.
• Sculpt modeling - Still fairly new method of modeling
3D sculpting has become very popular in the few
short years it has been around. There are 2 types
of this currently, Displacement which is the most
widely used among applications at this moment, and
volumetric. Displacement uses a dense model (often
generated by Subdivision surfaces of a polygon control
mesh) and stores new locations for the vertex positions
through use of a 32bit image map that stores the
adjusted locations. Volumetric which is based loosely
on Voxels has similar capabilities as displacement
but does not suffer from polygon stretching when
there are not enough polygons in a region to achieve
a deformation. Both of these methods allow for very
artistic exploration as the model will have a new
topology created over it once the models form and
possibly details have been sculpted. The new mesh
will usually have the original high resolution mesh
information transferred into displacement data or
normal map data if for a game engine.

The modeling stage consists of shaping individual objects

that are later used in the scene. There are a number of
modeling techniques, including:

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• constructive solid geometry

• implicit surfaces
• subdivision surfaces

Modeling can be performed by means of a dedicated

programme (e.g., form•Z, Maya, 3DS Max, Blender,
Lightwave, Modo, solidThinking) or an application component
(Shaper, Lofter in 3DS Max) or some scene description
language (as in POV-Ray). In some cases, there is no strict
distinction between these phases; in such cases modeling
is just part of the scene creation process (this is the case,
for example, with Caligari trueSpace and Realsoft 3D).
Complex materials such as blowing sand, clouds, and
liquid sprays are modeled with particle systems, and are
a mass of 3D coordinates which have either points, polygons,
texture splats, or sprites assigned to them. Sculpt

Scene Setup
Scene setup involves arranging virtual objects, lights,
cameras and other entities on a scene which will later be
used to produce a still image or an animation. Lighting is
an important aspect of scene setup. As is the case in real-
world scene arrangement, lighting is a significant
contributing factor to the resulting aesthetic and visual
quality of the finished work.
As such, it can be a difficult art to master. Lighting
effects can contribute greatly to the mood and emotional
response effected by a scene, a fact which is well-known
to photographers and theatrical lighting technicians. It is

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usually desirable to add color to a model’s surface in a user

controlled way prior to rendering. Most 3D modeling software
allows the user to color the model’s vertices, and that color
is then interpolated across the model’s surface during
rendering. This is often how models are colored by the
modeling software while the model is being created.
The most common method of adding color information
to a 3D model is by applying a 2D texture image to the
model’s surface through a process called texture mapping.
Texture images are no different than any other digital image,
but during the texture mapping process, special pieces of
information (called texture coordinates or UV coordinates)
are added to the model that indicate which parts of the
texture image map to which parts of the 3D model’s surface.
Textures allow 3D models to look significantly more detailed
and realistic than they would otherwise.
Other effects, beyond texturing and lighting, can be done
to 3D models to add to their realism. For example, the
surface normals can be tweaked to affect how they are lit,
certain surfaces can have bump mapping applied and any
other number of 3D rendering tricks can be applied. 3D
models are often animated for some uses. They can
sometimes be animated from within the 3D modeler that
created them or else exported to another programme.
If used for animation, this phase usually makes use of
a technique called “keyframing”, which facilitates creation
of complicated movement in the scene. With the aid of
keyframing, one needs only to choose where an object stops

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or changes its direction of movement, rotation, or scale,

between which states in every frame are interpolated. These
moments of change are known as keyframes. Often extra
data is added to the model to make it easier to animate.
For example, some 3D models of humans and animals have
entire bone systems so they will look realistic when they
move and can be manipulated via joints and bones, in a
process known as skeletal animation.

Compared to 2D Methods
3D photorealistic effects are often achieved without
wireframe modeling and are sometimes indistinguishable in
the final form. Some graphic art software includes filters
that can be applied to 2D vector graphics or 2D raster
graphics on transparent layers. Advantages of wireframe 3D
modeling over exclusively 2D methods include:
• Flexibility, ability to change angles or animate images
with quicker rendering of the changes;
• Ease of rendering, automatic calculation and rendering
photorealistic effects rather than mentally visualizing
or estimating;
• Accurate photorealism, less chance of human error in
misplacing, overdoing, or forgetting to include a visual
effect.

Disadvantages compare to 2D photorealistic rendering

may include a software learning curve and difficulty achieving
certain photorealistic effects. Some photorealistic effects
may be achieved with special rendering filters included in

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the 3D modeling software. For the best of both worlds, some

artists use a combination of 3D modeling followed by editing
the 2D computer-rendered images from the 3D model.

3D Model Market
3CT (3D Catalog Technology) has revolutionized the 3D
model market by offering quality 3D model libraries free of
charge for professionals using various CAD programmes.
Some believe that this uprising technology is gradually
eroding the traditional “buy and sell” or “object for object
exchange” markets although the quality of the products do
not match those sold on specialized 3d marketplaces. A
large market for 3D models (as well as 3D-related content,
such as textures, scripts, etc.) still exists - either for individual
models or large collections. Online marketplaces for 3D
content allow individual artists to sell content that they
have created. Often, the artists’ goal is to get additional
value out of assets they have previously created for projects.
By doing so, artists can earn more money out of their old
content, and companies can save money by buying pre-
made models instead of paying an employee to create one
from scratch. These marketplaces typically split the sale
between themselves and the artist that created the asset,
often in a roughly 50-50 split. In most cases, the artist
retains ownership of the 3d model; the customer only buys
the right to use and present the model.

Human Models
The first widely available commercial application of human
Virtual Models appeared in 1998 on the Lands’ End web
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site. The human Virtual Models were created by the company

My Virtual Model Inc. and enabled users to create a model
of themselves and try on 3D clothing. There are several
modern programmes that allow for the creation of virtual
human models (Poser being one example).

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8
Computer Scanography

Scanography, also spelled scannography more commonly

referred to as scanner photography, is the process of
capturing digitized images of objects for the purpose of
creating printable art using a flatbed “photo” scanner with
a CCD (charge-coupled device) array capturing device. The
term scanography formerly referred to medical scanning,
but is unrelated in either purpose or technique. Fine art
scanography differs from traditional document scanning by
using atypical objects, often three dimensional, as well as
from photography, due to the nature of the scanner’s
operation.
Image Scanner
In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to
just scanner— is a device that optically scans images,
printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to

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a digital image. Common examples found in offices are

variations of the desktop (or flatbed) scanner where the
document is placed on a glass window for scanning. Hand-
held scanners, where the device is moved by hand, have
evolved from text scanning “wands” to 3D scanners used
for industrial design, reverse engineering, test and
measurement, orthotics, gaming and other applications.
Mechanically driven scanners that move the document are
typically used for large-format documents, where a flatbed
design would be impractical.
Modern scanners typically use a charge-coupled device
(CCD) or a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) as the image sensor,
whereas older drum scanners use a photomultiplier tube as
the image sensor. A rotary scanner, used for high-speed
document scanning, is another type of drum scanner, using
a CCD array instead of a photomultiplier. Other types of
scanners are planetary scanners, which take photographs
of books and documents, and 3D scanners, for producing
three-dimensional models of objects.
Another category of scanner is digital camera scanners,
which are based on the concept of reprographic cameras.
Due to increasing resolution and new features such as anti-
shake, digital cameras have become an attractive alternative
to regular scanners. While still having disadvantages
compared to traditional scanners (such as distortion,
reflections, shadows, low contrast), digital cameras offer
advantages such as speed, portability and gentle digitizing
of thick documents without damaging the book spine. New

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scanning technologies are combining 3D scanners with

digital cameras to create full-color, photo-realistic 3D models
of objects.
In the biomedical research area, detection devices for
DNA microarrays are called scanners as well. These scanners
are high-resolution systems (up to 1 μm/ pixel), similar to
microscopes. The detection is done via CCD or a
photomultiplier tube (PMT).

Historical Precedent
Modern scanners may be considered the successors of
early telephotography and fax input devices, consisting of
a rotating drum with a single photodetector at a standard
speed of 60 or 120 rpm (later models up to 240 rpm). They
send a linear analog AM signal through standard telephone
voice lines to receptors, which synchronously print the
proportional intensity on special paper. This system was in
use in press from the 1920s to the mid-1990s. Color photos
were sent as three separated RGB filtered images
consecutively, but only for special events due to transmission
costs.

Types
Drum
Drum scanners capture image information with
photomultiplier tubes (PMT), rather than the charge-coupled
device (CCD) arrays found in flatbed scanners and
inexpensive film scanners. Reflective and transmissive
originals are mounted on an acrylic cylinder, the scanner

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drum, which rotates at high speed while it passes the object

being scanned in front of precision optics that deliver image
information to the PMTs. Most modern color drum scanners
use three matched PMTs, which read red, blue, and green
light, respectively. Light from the original artwork is split
into separate red, blue, and green beams in the optical
bench of the scanner.
The drum scanner gets its name from the clear acrylic
cylinder, the drum, on which the original artwork is mounted
for scanning. Depending on size, it is possible to mount
originals up to 11"x17", but maximum size varies by
manufacturer. One of the unique features of drum scanners
is the ability to control sample area and aperture size
independently. The sample size is the area that the scanner
encoder reads to create an individual pixel. The aperture
is the actual opening that allows light into the optical bench
of the scanner. The ability to control aperture and sample
size separately is particularly useful for smoothing film
grain when scanning black-and white and color negative
originals.
While drum scanners are capable of scanning both
reflective and transmissive artwork, a good-quality flatbed
scanner can produce good scans from reflective artwork. As
a result, drum scanners are rarely used to scan prints now
that high-quality, inexpensive flatbed scanners are readily
available. Film, however, is where drum scanners continue
to be the tool of choice for high-end applications. Because
film can be wet-mounted to the scanner drum and because

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of the exceptional sensitivity of the PMTs, drum scanners

are capable of capturing very subtle details in film originals.
Only a few companies continue to manufacture drum
scanners. While prices of both new and used units have
come down over the last decade, they still require a
considerable monetary investment when compared to CCD
flatbed and film scanners. However, drum scanners remain
in demand due to their capacity to produce scans that are
superior in resolution, color gradation, and value structure.
Also, because drum scanners are capable of resolutions up
to 12,000 PPI, their use is generally recommended when a
scanned image is going to be enlarged.
In most graphic-arts operations, very-high-quality flatbed
scanners have replaced drum scanners, being both less
expensive and faster. However, drum scanners continue to
be used in high-end applications, such as museum-quality
archiving of photographs and print production of high-
quality books and magazine advertisements. In addition,
due to the greater availability of pre-owned units, many
fine-art photographers are acquiring drum scanners, which
has created a new niche market for the machines.
The first image scanner developed for use with a computer,
was a drum scanner. It was built in 1957 at the US National
Bureau of Standards by a team led by Russell A. Kirsch.
The first image ever scanned on this machine was a 5 cm
square photograph of Kirsch’s then-three-month-old son,
Walden. The black and white image had a resolution of 176
pixels on a side.

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Flatbed
CCD Scanner
A flatbed scanner is usually composed of a glass pane
(or platen), under which there is a bright light (often xenon
or cold cathode fluorescent) which illuminates the pane,
and a moving optical array in CCD scanning. CCD-type
scanners typically contain three rows (arrays) of sensors
with red, green, and blue filters.

CIS Scanner
CIS scanning consists of a moving set of red, green and
blue LEDs strobed for illumination and a connected
monochromatic photodiode array for light collection. Images
to be scanned are placed face down on the glass, an opaque
cover is lowered over it to exclude ambient light, and the
sensor array and light source move across the pane, reading
the entire area. An image is therefore visible to the detector
only because of the light it reflects. Transparent images do
not work in this way, and require special accessories that
illuminate them from the upper side. Many scanners offer
this as an option.
Film
Slide” (positive) or negative film can be scanned in
equipment specially manufactured for this purpose. Usually,
uncut film strips of up to six frames, or four mounted slides,
are inserted in a carrier, which is moved by a stepper motor
across a lens and CCD sensor inside the scanner. Some
models mainly used for same-size scans. Film scanners

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vary a great deal in price and quality. Consumer scanners

are relatively inexpensive while the most expensive
professional CCD based film scanning system was around
120,000 USD. More expensive solutions are said to produce
better results.
Hand
Hand scanners come in two forms: document and 3D
scanners. Hand held document scanners are manual devices
that are dragged across the surface of the image to be
scanned. Scanning documents in this manner requires a
steady hand, as an uneven scanning rate would produce
distorted images - a little light on the scanner would indicate
if the motion was too fast. They typically have a “start”
button, which is held by the user for the duration of the
scan; some switches to set the optical resolution; and a
roller, which generates a clock pulse for synchronization
with the computer. Most hand scanners were monochrome,
and produced light from an array of green LEDs to illuminate
the image. A typical hand scanner also had a small window
through which the document being scanned could be viewed.
They were popular during the early 1990s and usually had
a proprietary interface module specific to a particular type
of computer, usually an Atari ST or Commodore Amiga.
While popularity for document scanning has waned, use
of hand held 3D scanners remains popular for many
applications, including industrial design, reverse engineering,
inspection & analysis, digital manufacturing and medical
applications. To compensate for the uneven motion of the

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human hand, most 3D scanning systems rely on the

placement of reference markers – typically adhesive reflective
tabs that the scanner uses to align elements and mark
positions in space.
Desktop Digital Camera Scanner
One printer manufacturer (Lexmark) has introduced all-
in-one printer which is provided with a desktop digital
camera scanner that has 10 megapixel image sensors. For
scanning a business card or a full 8.5x11 inch image, it
takes not more than 3 seconds including the processing
time.
Smartphone Scanner Apps
Cameras in smartphones have reached a resolution and
quality that reasonable quality scans can be achieved by
taking a photo with the phone and using a scanning app
for post-processing (such as whitening the background of
a page, correcting perspective distortion so that a document
is output as a correct rectangle, conversion to black-and-
white, etc.) Most smartphone platforms now have a range
of scanner apps available (the largest range being for Apple
iPhone). These apps can typically scan multiple page
documents through the use of multiple camera exposures,
and output them to a PDF document or as separate JPEG
images. Some smartphone scanning apps can also save
documents directly to online storage locations such as
Dropbox, Evernote, send via email or fax documents via
email-to-fax gateways.

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Quality
Scanners typically read red-green-blue color (RGB) data
from the array. This data is then processed with some
proprietary algorithm to correct for different exposure
conditions, and sent to the computer via the device’s input/
output interface (usually USB, previous to which was SCSI
or bidirectional parallel port in older units). Color depth
varies depending on the scanning array characteristics, but
is usually at least 24 bits. High quality models have 48 bits
or more color depth. Another qualifying parameter for a
scanner is its resolution, measured in pixels per inch (ppi),
sometimes more accurately referred to as Samples per inch
(spi). Instead of using the scanner’s true optical resolution,
the only meaningful parameter, manufacturers like to refer
to the interpolated resolution, which is much higher thanks
to software interpolation. As of 2009, a high-end flatbed
scanner can scan up to 5400 ppi and a good drum scanner
has an optical resolution of 12,000 ppi.
Manufacturers often claim interpolated resolutions as
high as 19,200 ppi; but such numbers carry little meaningful
value, because the number of possible interpolated pixels
is unlimited and doing so does not increase the level of
captured detail.
The size of the file created increases with the square of
the resolution; doubling the resolution quadruples the file
size. A resolution must be chosen that is within the
capabilities of the equipment, preserves sufficient detail,
and does not produce a file of excessive size. The file size

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can be reduced for a given resolution by using “lossy”

compression methods such as JPEG, at some cost in quality.
If the best possible quality is required lossless compression
should be used; reduced-quality files of smaller size can be
produced from such an image when required (e.g., image
designed to be printed on a full page, and a much smaller
file to be displayed as part of a fast-loading web page).
Purity can be diminished be scanner noise, optical flare,
poor analog to digital conversion, color interpolation (from
scanners that use CCD chips with bayer grids) and poor
software. Drum scanners are said to produce the purist
digital representations of the film, followed by high end film
scanners that use the larger Kodak Tri-Linear sensors. The
third important parameter for a scanner is its density range.
A high-density range means that the scanner is able to
reproduce shadow details and brightness details in one
scan. By combining full-color imagery with 3D models,
modern hand-held scanners are able to completely reproduce
objects electronically. The addition of 3D color printers
enables accurate miniaturization of these objects, with
applications across many industries and professions.

Computer Connection
Scanning the document is only one part of the process.
For the scanned image to be useful, it must be transferred
from the scanner to an application running on the computer.
There are two basic issues: (1) how the scanner is physically
connected to the computer and (2) how the application
retrieves the information from the scanner.

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Direct Physical Connection to a Computer

The amount of data generated by a scanner can be very
large: a 600 DPI 23 x 28 cm (9"x11") (slightly larger than
A4 paper) uncompressed 24-bit image is about 100
megabytes of data which must be transferred and stored.
Recent scanners can generate this volume of data in a
matter of seconds, making a fast connection desirable.
Scanners communicate to their host computer using one
of the following physical interfaces, listing from slow to fast:
• Parallel port - Connecting through a parallel port is
the slowest common transfer method. Early scanners
had parallel port connections that could not transfer
data faster than 70 kilobytes/second. The primary
advantage of the parallel port connection was
economic and user skill level: it avoided adding an
interface card to the computer.
• GPIB - General Purpose Interface Bus. Certain
drumscanners like the Howtek D4000 featured both
a SCSI and GPIB interface. The latter conforms to
the IEEE-488 standard, introduced in the mid ’70’s.
The GPIB-interface has only been used by a few
scanner manufactures, mostly serving the DOS/
Windows environment. For Apple Macintosh systems,
National Instruments provided a NuBus GPIB
interface card.
• Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), which is
supported by most computers only via an additional
SCSI interface card. Some SCSI scanners are supplied

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together with a dedicated SCSI card for a PC, although

any SCSI controller can be used. During the evolution
of the SCSI standard speeds increased, with
backwards compatibility; a SCSI connection can
transfer data at the highest speed which both the
controller and the device support. SCSI has been
largely replaced by USB and Firewire, one or both of
which are directly supported by most computers,
and which are easier to set up than SCSI.
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) scanners can transfer
data quickly, and they are easier to use and cheaper
than SCSI devices. The early USB 1.1 standard could
transfer data at only 1.5 megabytes per second (slower
than SCSI), but the later USB 2.0 standard can
theoretically transfer up to 60 megabytes per second
(although everyday rates are much lower), resulting
in faster operation.
• FireWire is an interface that is much faster than USB
1.1 and comparable to USB 2.0. FireWire speeds are
25, 50, and 100, 400 and 800 megabits per second
(but a device may not support all speeds). Also known
as: IEEE-1394.
• Proprietary interfaces were used on some early
scanners that used a proprietary interface card rather
than a standard interface.
Indirect (Network) Connection to a Computer
During the early nineties, professional flatbed scanners
were targeted to professional users. Some vendors (like

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Umax) allowed a single scanner connected to a host computer

to function as a scanner accessible by all users within a
local computer network. This proved to be very handy to
e.g. publishers, print shops, etc. This functionality gradually
disappeared after the mid-’90’s as flatbed scanners became
more affordable each year. However, as of 2000 and later,
all-in-one multi-purpose devices targeted to serve both (small)
offices and consumers usually combine a printer, scanner,
copier and fax into a single apparatus available to a whole
workgroup, providing each individual fax, scan, copy and
print functionality.
Applications Programming Interface
A paint application such as GIMP or Adobe Photoshop
must communicate with the scanner. There are many
different scanners, and many of those scanners use different
protocols. In order to simplify applications programming,
some Applications Programming Interfaces (“API”) were
developed. The API presents a uniform interface to the
scanner. This means that the application does not need to
know the specific details of the scanner in order to access
it directly. For example, Adobe Photoshop supports the
TWAIN standard; therefore in theory Photoshop can acquire
an image from any scanner that also supports TWAIN. In
practice, there are often problems with an application
communicating with a scanner. Either the application or
the scanner manufacturer (or both) may have faults in their
implementation of the API. Typically, the API is implemented
as a dynamically linked library. Each scanner manufacturer

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provides software that translates the API procedure calls

into primitive commands that are issued to a hardware
controller (such as the SCSI, USB, or FireWire controller).
The manufacturer’s part of the API is commonly called a
device driver, but that designation is not strictly accurate:
the API does not run in kernel mode and does not directly
access the device. Rather the scanner API library translates
application requests into hardware requests.

Common Scanner Software API Interfaces

SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) is a free/open source
API for accessing scanners. Originally developed for Unix
and Linux operating systems, it has been ported to OS/2,
Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Unlike TWAIN, SANE
does not handle the user interface. This allows batch scans
and transparent network access without any special support
from the device driver.
TWAIN is used by most scanners. Originally used for low-
end and home-use equipment, it is now widely used for
large-volume scanning.
ISIS (Image and Scanner Interface Specification) created
by Pixel Translations, which still uses SCSI-II for performance
reasons, is used by large, departmental-scale, machines.
WIA (Windows Image Acquisition) is an API provided by
Microsoft.

Bundled Applications
Although no software beyond a scanning utility is a
feature of any scanner, many scanners come bundled with

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software. Typically, in addition to the scanning utility, some

type of image-editing application (such as Photoshop), and
optical character recognition (OCR) software are supplied.
OCR software converts graphical images of text into standard
text that can be edited using common word-processing and
text-editing software; accuracy is rarely perfect.

Output Data
The scanned result is a non-compressed RGB image,
which can be transferred to a computer’s memory. Some
scanners compress and clean up the image using embedded
firmware. Once on the computer, the image can be processed
with a raster graphics programme (such as Photoshop or
the GIMP) and saved on a storage device (such as a hard
disk). Images are usually stored on a hard disk. Pictures
are normally stored in image formats such as uncompressed
Bitmap, “non-lossy” (lossless) compressed TIFF and PNG,
and “lossy” compressed JPEG. Documents are best stored
in TIFF or PDF format; JPEG is particularly unsuitable for
text. Optical character recognition (OCR) software allows a
scanned image of text to be converted into editable text with
reasonable accuracy, so long as the text is cleanly printed
and in a typeface and size that can be read by the software.
OCR capability may be integrated into the scanning software,
or the scanned image file can be processed with a separate
OCR programme.

Document Processing
The scanning or digitization of paper documents for
storage makes different requirements of the scanning
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equipment used than scanning of pictures for reproduction.

While documents can be scanned on general-purpose
scanners, it is more efficiently performed on dedicated
document scanners. When scanning large quantities of
documents, speed and paper-handling is very important,
but the resolution of the scan will normally be much lower
than for good reproduction of pictures. Document scanners
have document feeders, usually larger than those sometimes
found on copiers or all-purpose scanners. Scans are made
at high speed, perhaps 20 to 150 pages per minute, often
in grayscale, although many scanners support color. Many
scanners can scan both sides of double-sided originals
(duplex operation). Sophisticated document scanners have
firmware or software that cleans up scans of text as they
are produced, eliminating accidental marks and sharpening
type; this would be unacceptable for photographic work,
where marks cannot reliably be distinguished from desired
fine detail. Files created are compressed as they are made.
The resolution used is usually from 150 to 300 dpi,
although the hardware may be capable of somewhat higher
resolution; this produces images of text good enough to
read and for optical character recognition (OCR), without
the higher demands on storage space required by higher-
resolution images.
Document scans are often processed using OCR
technology to create editable and searchable files. Most
scanners use ISIS or TWAIN device drivers to scan documents
into TIFF format so that the scanned pages can be fed into

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a document management system that will handle the

archiving and retrieval of the scanned pages. Lossy JPEG
compression, which is very efficient for pictures, is
undesirable for text documents, as slanted straight edges
take on a jagged appearance, and solid black (or other color)
text on a light background compresses well with lossless
compression formats.
While paper feeding and scanning can be done
automatically and quickly, preparation and indexing are
necessary and require much work by humans. Preparation
involves manually inspecting the papers to be scanned and
making sure that they are in order, unfolded, without staples
or anything else that might jam the scanner. Additionally,
some industries such as legal and medical may require
documents to have Bates Numbering or some other mark
giving a document identification number and date/time of
the document scan.
Indexing involves associating relevant keywords to files
so that they can be retrieved by content. This process can
sometimes be automated to some extent, but it often requires
manual labour performed by data-entry clerks. One common
practice is the use of barcode-recognition technology: during
preparation, barcode sheets with folder names or index
information are inserted into the document files, folders,
and document groups. Using automatic batch scanning,
the documents are saved into appropriate folders, and an
index is created for integration into document-management
systems.

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A specialized form of document scanning is book scanning.

Technical difficulties arise from the books usually being
bound and sometimes fragile and irreplaceable, but some
manufacturers have developed specialized machinery to
deal with this. For instance, Atiz DIY scanner uses a V-
shaped cradle and a V-shaped transparent platen to handle
brittle books. Often special robotic mechanisms are used
to automate the page turning and scanning process.

Infrared Cleaning
Infrared cleaning is a technique used to remove dust and
scratches from film, and most modern scanners incorporate
this feature. It works by scanning the film with infrared
light. From this, it is possible to detect dust and scratches
that cut off the infrared light; and they can then be
automatically removed, by considering their position, size,
shape, and surroundings. Scanner manufacturers usually
have their own name attached to this technique. For example,
Epson, Nikon, Microtek, and others use Digital ICE, while
Canon uses its own system FARE (Film Automatic
Retouching and Enhancement system). Some independent
software developers are designing their own infrared cleaning
tools.

Trivia
Scanner Music
Flatbed scanners are capable of synthesising simple
musical scores, due to the variable speed (and tone) of their
stepper motors. This property can be applied for hardware

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diagnostics: for example the HP Scanjet 5 plays Ode to Joy

if powered on with the Scan button held down and the SCSI
ID set to zero. Windows- and Linux-based software is
available for several brands and types of flatbed scanners
to play MIDI files for fun purposes.
Scanner Art
Scanner art is art made by placing objects on a flatbed
scanner and scanning them. There has been some debate
as to whether scanner art is a form of digital photography.
Images made with a scanner differ from those made with
a camera, as the scanner has very little depth of field and
a constant light all over the surface.
Planetary Scanner
A planetary scanner (also called an orbital scanner) is
a type of image scanner for making scans of rare books and
other easily damaged documents. In essence, such a scanner
is a mounted camera taking photos of a well-lit environment.
Originally, such scanners were expensive and could only be
found in archives and museums, but with the availability
of cheap, high-resolution digital cameras, DIY planetary
scanners have become affordable, and for instance are
being used by volunteer scan providers for Project Gutenberg.
Flatbed scanners often come in contact with at least part
of the object to be scanned. They also require books to be
fully opened most of the time (there are some exceptions
where the scanning surface ends at the edge of the flatbed
scanner, so that a book can be opened partially). Both
practices can damage rare books; For example, opening a
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book 180 degrees can be damaging to its spine. These

scanners are also implemented to scan other fragile
documents such as old maps.
Planetary scanners tend to touch fewer parts of a book,
and provide an option of only opening a book partially.
Film Scanner
A film scanner is a device made for scanning photographic
film directly into a computer without the use of any
intermediate printmaking. It provides several benefits over
using a flatbed scanner to scan in a print of any size: the
photographer has direct control over cropping and aspect
ratio from the original, unmolested image on film; and many
film scanners have special software or hardware that removes
scratches and film grain and improves color reproduction
from film. Film scanners can accept either strips of 35 mm
or 120 film, or individual slides. Low-end scanners typically
only take 35mm film strips, while medium- and high-end
film scanners often have interchangeable film loaders. This
allows the one scanning platform to be used for different
sizes and packaging. For example, some allow microscope
slides to be loaded for scanning, while mechanised slide
loaders allow many individual slides to be batch scanned
unattended.

Dust and Scratches

Dust and scratches on the film can be a big problem for
scanning. Because of their reduced size (compared to prints)
the scanners are capable of resolutions much higher than

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a regular flatbed scanner; typically at least 2000 samples

per inch (spi), up to 4000 spi or more. At these resolutions
dust and scratches take on gigantic proportions. Even small
specks of dust, invisible to the naked eye, can obscure a
cluster of several pixels. For this reason, techniques have
been developed to remove their appearance from a scan, see
film restoration.
The simplest is the median filter, often called despeckle
in many graphic manipulation programmes, e.g. in Adobe
Photoshop and the GIMP. It works by examining a pixel in
relation to the pixels surrounding it; if it is too different from
the surrounding pixels then it is replaced with one set to
their median value. This and other methods can be quite
effective, but have the disadvantage that the filter cannot
know what actually is dust or noise. It will also obliterate
fine detail in the scan.
Infrared Cleaning
Infrared cleaning works by collecting an infrared channel
from the scan at the same time as the visible colour channels
(red, green, and blue). This is done by using a light source
that also produces infrared radiation, and having a fourth
row of sensors on the linear CCD sensor. Photographic film
is mostly transparent to infrared radiation (no matter what
the visible image contains) but dust and scratches aren’t,
so they show up in the IR channel. This information can
then be used to automatically remove the appearance of
dust and scratches in the visible channels and replace them
with something similar to their surroundings. A major

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limitation of this technique is that it can only be used on

dye-based (color and chromogenic black-and-white) films;
the image-forming silver particles in most black-and-white
film stocks are opaque to infrared radiation.
Scanner manufacturers usually have their own name
attached to this technique. Kodak developed Digital ICE at
their Austin development centre, and is licensed by Epson,
Nikon, Microtek and some others. Canon developed its own
FARE (Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement)
system. LaserSoft Imaging is developing the iSRD Dust and
Scratch Removal, on which among others Plustek is relying.
Book Scanning
Book scanning is the process of converting physical
books into digital media such as images, electronic text, or
electronic books (e-books) by using an image scanner. Digital
books can be easily distributed, reproduced, and read on-
screen. Common file formats are DjVu, Portable Document
Format (PDF), and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). To
convert the raw images Optical character recognition (OCR)
is used to turn book pages into a digital text format like
ASCII or other similar format, which reduces the file size
and allows the text to be reformatted, searched, or processed
by other applications.
Image scanners may be manual or automated. In an
ordinary commercial image scanner, the book is placed on
a flat glass plate (or platen), and a light and optical array
moves across the book underneath the glass. In manual

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book scanners, the glass plate extends to the edge of the

scanner, making it easier to line up the book’s spine. Other
book scanners place the book face up in a v-shaped frame,
and photograph the pages from above. Pages may be turned
by hand or by automated paper transport devices. Glass or
plastic sheets are usually pressed against the page to flatten
it. After scanning, software adjusts the document images
by lining it up, cropping it, picture-editing it, and converting
it to text and final e-book form. Human proofreaders usually
check the output for errors.
Scanning at 118 dots/centimeter (300 dpi) is adequate
for conversion to digital text output, but for archival
reproduction of rare, elaborate or illustrated books, much
higher resolution is used. High-end scanners capable of
thousands of pages per hour can cost thousands of dollars,
but do-it-yourself manual book scanners capable of 1200
pages per hour have been built for 300 USD.

Commercial Book Scanners

Commercial book scanners are not like normal scanners;
these book scanners are usually a high quality digital camera
with light sources on either side of the camera mounted on
some sort of frame to provide easy access for a person or
machine to flip the pages of the book. Some models involve
V-shaped book cradles, which provide support for book
spines and also center book position automatically. The
advantage of this type of scanner is that it is very fast,
compared to the productivity of overhead scanners.
Compared with traditional overhead scanners whose prices

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normally start from 10 000 USD upwards, this type of

digital camera-based book scanner is much more cost-
effective.

Book Scanning by Organizations on a Large Scale

One of the main challenges to this is the sheer volume
of books that must be scanned, expected to be in the tens
of millions.
All of these must be scanned and then made searchable
online for the public to use as a universal library. Currently,
there are 3 main ways that large organizations are relying
on: outsourcing, scanning in-house using commercial book
scanners, and scanning in-house using robotic scanning
solutions.
As for outsourcing, books are often shipped to be scanned
by low-cost sources such as India or China. Alternatively,
due to convenience, safety and technology improvement,
many organizations choose to scan in-house by using either
overhead scanners which are time-consuming, or digital
camera-based scanning solutions which are substantially
faster, and is a method employed by Internet Archive as well
as Google.
Traditional methods have included cutting off the book’s
spine and scanning the pages in a scanner with automatic
page-feeding capability, with rebinding of the loose pages
occurring afterwards. Once the page is scanned, the data
is either entered manually or via OCR, another major cost
of the book scanning projects. Due to copyright issues,

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most scanned books are those that are out of copyright;

however, Google Book Search is known to scan books still
protected under copyright unless the publisher specifically
excludes them.

Destructive Scanning
For book scanning on a low budget, the least expensive
method to scan a book or magazine is to cut off the binding.
This converts the book or magazine into a sheaf of looseleaf
papers, which can then be loaded into a standard automatic
document feeder and scanned using inexpensive and
common scanning technology. While this is definitely not
a desirable solution for very old and uncommon books, it
is a useful tool for book and magazine scanning where the
book is not an expensive collector’s item and replacement
of the scanned content is easy.
There are two technical difficulties with this process,
first with the cutting and second with the scanning.

Cutting
One method of cutting a stack of 500 to 1000 pages in
one pass is accomplished with a guillotine paper cutter.
This is a large steel table with a paper vise that screws down
onto the stack and firmly secures it before cutting. The cut
is accomplished with a large sharpened steel blade which
moves straight down and cuts the entire length of each
sheet all at once.
A lever on the blade permits several hundred pounds of
force to be applied to the blade for a quick one-pass cut.

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A clean cut through a thick stack of paper cannot be made

with a traditional inexpensive sickle-shaped hinged paper
cutter.
These cutters are only intended for a few sheets, with
up to ten sheets being the practical cutting limit. A large
stack of paper applies torsional forces on the hinge, pulling
the blade away from the cutting edge on the table. The cut
becomes more inaccurate as the cut moves away from the
hinge, and the force required to hold the blade against the
cutting edge increases as the cut moves away from the
hinge.
The guillotine cutting process dulls the blade over time,
requiring that it be resharpened. Coated paper such as slick
magazine paper dulls the blade more quickly than plain
book paper, due to the kaolinite clay coating. Additionally,
removing the binding of an entire hardcover book causes
excessive wear due to cutting through the cover’s stiff backing
material. Instead the outer cover can be removed and only
interior pages need be cut.

Scanning
Once the paper is liberated from the spine, it can be
scanned one sheet at a time using a traditional flatbed
scanner or automatic document feeder (ADF). Pages with
a decorative riffled edging or curving in an arc due to a non-
flat binding can be difficult to scan using an ADF. An ADF
is designed to scan pages of uniform shape and size, and
variably sized or shaped pages can lead to improper scanning.

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The riffled edges or curved edge can be guillotined off to

render the outer edges flat and smooth before the binding
is cut.
The coated paper of magazines and bound textbooks can
make them difficult for the rollers in an ADF to pick up and
guide along the paper path. An ADF which uses a series
of rollers and channels to flip sheets over may jam or
misfeed when fed coated paper.
Generally there are fewer problems by using as straight
of a paper path as is possible, with few bends and curves.
The clay can also rub off the paper over time and coat sticky
pickup rollers, causing them to loosely grip the paper. The
ADF rollers may need periodic cleaning to prevent this
slipping.
Magazines can pose a bulk-scanning challenge due to
small nonuniform sheets of paper in the stack, such as
magazine subscription cards and fold out pages. These need
to be removed before the bulk scan begins, and are either
scanned separately if they include worthwhile content, or
are simply left out of the scan process.

Non-destructive Scanning
In recent years, software driven machines and robots
have been developed to scan books without the need of
disbinding them in order to preserve both the contents of
the document and create a digital image archive of its
current state. This recent trend has been due in part to ever
improving imaging technologies that allow a high quality

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digital archive image to be captured with little or no damage

to a rare or fragile book in a reasonably short period of time.
Some high-end scanning systems employ vacuum and air
and static charges to turn pages while imaging is performed
automatically, usually from a high resolution camera located
over an adjustable v-shaped cradle. Images are then shuttled
from the imaging device into various editing suites which
can further process the images for either an archival-quality
file such as TIFF or JPEG 2000, or a web-friendly output
such as JPEG or PDF.

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