Palm office assistants

Abstract

An apparatus capable of scanning in documents is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a linear scanner is integrated with a portable computing device and exposed to a scanning document. An image is generated when there is a relative motion between the linear scanner and the scanning document. Texts in the image are reproduced by an OCR engine in the apparatus and can be displayed on a display screen of the portable computing device. The reproduced texts can be then filled in appropriate fields on records maintained in the device or transported to another device.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A palm office assistant comprising: 
 a portable computing device;    a scanner integrated with the portable computing device, the scanner exposing to a scanning object and generating an image thereof when the portable computing device and the scanning object have a relative motion; and    wherein the portable computing device includes an optical recognition engine that receives the image and produces texts therefrom.    
     
     
         2 . The palm office assistant of  claim 1 , wherein the portable computing device includes a display screen for displaying the texts from the optical recognition engine.  
     
     
         3 . The palm office assistant of  claim 2 , wherein the optical recognition engine is a software module executing in the portable computing device.  
     
     
         4 . The palm office assistant of  claim 1 , wherein the scanner is operatively controllable through the portable computing device.  
     
     
         5 . The palm office assistant of  claim 4 , wherein an image resolution of the scanner is re-configurable through the portable computing device.  
     
     
         6 . The palm office assistant of  claim 1 , wherein the scanner includes an optical encoder that records the relative motion between the portable computing device and the scanning object.  
     
     
         7 . The palm office assistant of  claim 1 , wherein the scanner is a contact image sensor (CIS) including a linear sensor, an array of optical lenses, and an illumination source.  
     
     
         8 . A palm office assistant comprising: 
 a portable computing device including a display screen and an interface;    a pen-style scanner communicating with the portable computing device through the interface, the pen-style scanner scanning in an image of texts on a document and reproducing the texts through a build-in OCR engine; and    wherein the texts are displayed on the display screen of the portable computing device.    
     
     
         9 . A palm office assistant comprising: 
 a portable computing device including a display screen;    a linear scanner integrated with portable computing device and exposing to a scanning document, the linear scanner including a contact image sensor and generating an image when the linear scanner moves across an area of the scanning document, the area including texts, wherein the image is processed in the portable computing device executing an OCR engine to reproduce the texts; and    wherein the texts can be displayed on the display screen when requested.    
     
     
         10 . The palm office assistant of  claim 9 , wherein the linear scanner further includes an optical encoder to synchronize the image being generated in the linear scanner.  
     
     
         11 .The palm office assistant of  claim 9 , wherein the portable computing device executes one or more application to parse the texts and fill in appropriate fields of one or more records maintained therein.  
     
     
         12 . The palm office assistant of claim  11 , wherein the portable computing device is able to transport the one or more records to another device via a communication link.  
     
     
         13 . The palm office assistant of claim  12 , wherein the communication link is either a wired link or a wireless link.  
     
     
         14 . The palm office assistant of  claim 9  wherein the portable computing device includes telephonic functions.  
     
     
         15 . The palm office assistant of  claim 9 , wherein the area of the scanning document also includes a graphic representation.