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Mobile Phone Patent Abstract
A mobile phone system with a card character recognition function
includes a mobile phone, an image-capturing module for capturing
a card image, and a character recognition module for transferring
the card image captured by the image-capturing module into character
data and for transmitting the character data to the mobile phone.
Mobile Phone Patent Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A mobile phone system with a card character recognition function
comprising: a mobile phone; an image-capturing module for capturing
a card image; a character recognition module for transferring the
card image captured by the image-capturing module into character
data and transmitting the character data to the mobile phone; and
a capturing jig for installation below a lens of the image-capturing
module when capturing the card image, the capturing jig comprising:
a collapsible ray shade made of opaque material; a close-shooting
lens installed inside the collapsible ray shade for providing close-shooting
focus; and a light source installed inside the collapsible ray shade
for providing light when capturing the card image.
2. The mobile phone system of claim 1 wherein the image-capturing
module is a phone camera installed on a housing of the mobile phone.
3. The mobile phone system of claim 1 wherein the light source
of the capturing jig contains a white light emitting diode (LED).
4. The mobile phone system of claim 1 wherein the image-capturing
module is an external phone camera connected to the character recognition
module outside the mobile phone.
5. The mobile phone system of claim 4 wherein the character recognition
module is installed outside the mobile phone and connected to the
mobile phone and the image-capturing module.
6. The mobile phone system of claim 1 wherein the character recognition
module is installed inside a housing of the mobile phone.
7. The mobile phone system of claim 1 wherein the character recognition
module is an optical character recognition system (OCR system).
8. The mobile phone system of claim 1 wherein the mobile phone
comprises: a housing; a control module installed inside the housing
for controlling the mobile phone; a display module installed inside
the housing and electrically connected to the control module for
displaying character data recognized by the character recognition
module; and a memory installed inside the housing and electrically
connected to the control module for storing character data recognized
by the character recognition module.
9. A capturing jig for installation below a lens on an image-capturing
module of a mobile phone when the mobile phone is capturing an image,
the capturing jig comprising: a collapsible ray shade made of opaque
material; a close-shooting lens installed inside the collapsible
ray shade for providing close-shooting focus; and a light source
installed inside the collapsible ray shade for providing light when
capturing the image.
10. The capturing jig of claim 9 wherein the light source contains
a white light emitting diode (LED).
Mobile Phone Patent Description
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile phone system, and more
specifically, to a mobile phone system with a card character recognition
function.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the modern information society, wireless communication development
lets people communicate with each other more easily. For example,
people can communicate with other people by using mobile phones
to exchange their information.
Nowadays mobile phones have become very popular because of the
decreasing price and the improvement of technology, such as faster
processing speed, larger memory, and more functions. So more and
more mobile phones enter the market. Manufacturers also add more
additional features and personal managing functions in their mobile
phones to satisfy all kinds of consumers. Such features include
a calendar, a note pad, a reminder, sending email function, and
so on.
Due to rapid development of business, most business people use
business cards to introduce themselves. But business card management
is a trivial thing. There are some card recognition devices on the
market, which can scan cards one by one and transmit the corresponding
files to an address book of a computer or a PDA. However the card
image scanned by the conventional card recognition device will be
recognized into characters in a computer device, and then the character
file can be transmitted to other communication facilities such as
mobile phones. Therefore it is inconvenient to transfer the recognition
file. Besides, conventional card recognition devices always scan
cards in a line-scanning manner, so it takes a long time due to
slower scanning speed.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to
provide a mobile phone system with a card character recognition
function to solve the problems mentioned above.
Briefly summarized, a mobile phone system with a card character
recognition function comprises a mobile phone, an image-capturing
module for capturing a card image, and a character recognition module
for transferring the card image captured by the image-capturing
module into character data and transmitting the character data to
the mobile phone.
Briefly summarized, a capturing jig for installation below a lens
on an image-capturing module of a mobile phone when the mobile phone
is capturing an image is proposed. The capturing jig comprises a
collapsible ray shade made of opaque material, a close-shooting
lens installed inside the collapsible ray shade for providing close-shooting
focus, and a light source installed inside the collapsible ray shade
for providing light when capturing the image.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt
become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading
the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that
is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile phone system according to
a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a mobile phone.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of a capturing jig.
FIG. 4 is a sectional diagram of the capturing jig taken along
axis 4-4 in FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the mobile phone system capturing
an image of a card in the first embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a mobile phone system according to
a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the mobile phone system capturing
an image of the card in the second embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile phone
system 10 with a card character recognition function according to
a first embodiment of the present invention. The mobile phone system
10 includes a mobile phone 12, and an image-capturing module 14
including a lens 15 for capturing an image of a card 16. The image-capturing
module 14 can be an external phone camera installed outside the
mobile phone 12. The mobile phone system 10 further includes a character
recognition module 18 installed outside the mobile phone 12 and
connected to the mobile phone 12 and the image-capturing module
14 for transferring the image of the card 16 captured by the image-capturing
module 14 into character data and transmitting the character data
to the mobile phone 12. The character recognition module 18 can
be an optical character recognition system (OCR system), which can
extract characters from the image of the card 16 captured by the
image-capturing module 14, compare the characteristic of the characters
with ones in the characteristic database, and at last transmit the
corresponding characters to the mobile phone 12. The character recognition
technology is in common use, so the detailed description is not
mentioned anymore.
Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the mobile
phone 12. The mobile phone 12 includes a housing 20, a control module
installed inside the housing 20 for controlling the mobile phone
12, a receiving module 24 installed inside the housing 20 and electrically
connected to the control module 22 for receiving character data
from the character recognition module 18. The mobile phone 12 further
includes a display module 26 installed inside the housing 20 and
electrically connected to the control module 22 for displaying character
data recognized by the character recognition module 18 and received
by the receiving module 24. The display module 26 can be an LCD
and display information of the operation of the control module 22
to users. The mobile phone 12 further includes a memory 28 installed
inside the housing 20 and electrically connected to the control
module 22 for storing character data recognized by the character
recognition module 18 or operating data of the mobile phone 12.
The memory 28 can be any kind of storage media, such as a CF, SD,
or MMC card.
The mobile phone system 10 further includes a capturing jig 30
for installation below the lens 15 of the image-capturing module
14. Please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. FIG. 3 is a diagram of the
capturing jig 30, and FIG. 4 is a sectional diagram of the capturing
jig 30 taken along axis 4-4' in FIG. 3. The capturing jig 30 includes
a collapsible ray shade 32, which is made of opaque material and
is a hollow ray shade. It is convenient to users that the collapsible
ray shade 32 can be expanded completely when the image-capturing
module 14 is capturing the card image and be folded when not being
used. The capturing jig 30 further includes a close-shooting lens
installed inside the collapsible ray shade 32 for providing close-shooting
focus, and a light source 36 installed inside the collapsible ray
shade 32 for providing light when capturing an image of the card
16. The light source 36 can contain a white light emitting diode
(LED). The route of light emitted by the light source 36 can be
designed for covering the bottom of the collapsible ray shade to
fill light uniformly, and illumination of the light source 36 can
be 25 LUX.
Please refer to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the mobile
phone system 10 capturing an image of the card 16 in the first embodiment.
First users can install the capturing jig 30 below the lens 15 of
the image-capturing module 14 and expand the collapsible ray shade
32 completely. The area of the bottom of the collapsible ray shade
32 is about an area of a business card, about 90 mm*55 mm. That
is, the capturing jig 30 can cover the card 16 completely so as
to make the lens 15 aim at the card 16 for improving quality of
the capturing image. The lens 15 of the image-capturing module 14
captures the image of the card 16 in a manner of scanning an entire
area instead of scanning lines one by one, so the scanning speed
in the present invention is faster than that of the prior art. After
the image-capturing module 14 captures the image of the card 16,
the image of the card 16 will be transmitted to the character recognition
module 18. The character recognition module 18 can transfer the
image data of the card 16 into character data, and users can edit
and modify the character data by the character recognition module
18 and then transmit the character data to the mobile phone 12.
Users can store the character data received by the receiving module
26 into the memory 28, transmit them to the display module 26 for
displaying the character data, or send the character data to other
people.
The image-capturing module 14 also can be installed on the housing
20 of the mobile phone 12, and the character recognition module
18 also can be installed inside the housing 20 of the mobile phone
12. Please refer to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a mobile
phone system 38 according to a second embodiment of the present
invention. For simplicity, elements that have the same functions
as that illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are provided with the same
item numbers used in FIG. 6. The mobile phone system 38 includes
a mobile phone 39 including the housing 20, and the control module
22 installed inside the housing 20 for controlling the mobile phone
39. The mobile phone 38 further includes an image-capturing module
40, which is installed inside the housing 20 of the mobile phone
39 and is electrically connected to the control module 22 and includes
a lens 42 for capturing an image of the card 16, and a character
recognition module 44 installed inside the housing 20 of the mobile
phone 39 and electrically connected to the control module 22 for
transferring the image of the card 16 captured by the image-capturing
module 40 into character data. The mobile phone 39 further includes
the display module 26 installed inside the housing 20 and electrically
connected to the control module 22 for displaying character data
recognized by the character recognition module 40. The display module
26 can be an LCD and display information of the operation of the
control module 22 to users. The mobile phone 39 further includes
the memory 28 installed inside the housing 20 and electrically connected
to the control module 22 for storing character data recognized by
the character recognition module 44 or operating data of the mobile
phone 39. The memory 28 can be any kind of storage media, such as
a CF, SD, or MMC card. The mobile phone 39 further includes an inputting
module 46 including a plurality of control buttons for inputting
a control signal to the control module 22 to control the mobile
phone 39.
Similarly with the first embodiment, the mobile phone system 38
also includes the capturing jig 30 for installation below the lens
42 of the image-capturing module 40. For simplicity, elements of
the capturing jig 30 in the second embodiment that have the same
functions as that illustrated in FIG. 3 are provided they same item
numbers.
Please refer to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the mobile
phone system 38 capturing an image of the card 16 in the second
embodiment. First users can install the capturing jig 30 below the
lens 42 of the image-capturing module 40 and expand the collapsible
ray shade 32 completely. The area of the bottom of the collapsible
ray shade 32 is about an area of a business card, about 90 mm*55
mm. That is, the capturing jig 30 can cover the card 16 completely
so as to make the lens 42 aim at the card 16 for improving quality
of the capturing image. The lens 42 of the image-capturing module
40 captures the image of the card 16 in a manner of scanning an
entire area instead of scanning lines one by one, so the scanning
speed in the present invention is faster than the prior art.
Please refer to FIG. 6. Users can use the control buttons 48 of
the inputting module 46 to control the image-capturing module 40
to capture the image of the card 16 and to transfer the image into
character data. After the image-capturing module 40 captures the
image of the card 16, the character recognition module 44 can transfer
the image of the card 16 captured by the image-capturing module
40 into character data. Users can use the inputting module 46 to
edit and modify the character data, and then the control module
22 can store the editing character data in the memory 28 or transmit
the editing character data to the display module 26 for displaying
them.
In contrast to the prior art, the present invention provides the
mobile phone system with a card image-capturing and character recognition
function. The card file is scanned and recognized by the image-capturing
module and the character recognition module and stored in the mobile
phone directly. There is no need for users to have to scan images
with a scanner connected to a computer, and images are recognized
into character data by recognition software in the computer. Besides,
conventional card recognition devices always scan cards in line-scanning
manner, so it takes a long time due to slower scanning speed. The
lens 42 of the image-capturing module 40 in the present invention
captures the image of the card 16 in a manner of scanning an entire
area instead of scanning lines one by one, so the scanning speed
in the present invention is faster than the prior art. The mobile
phone system in the present invention makes the card management
more convenient.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications
and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings
of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed
as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims. |