Simulations of flatbed scanners can shorten the development cycle of new designs, estimate image quality, and lower manufacturing costs. In this paper, we present a flatbed scanner simulation a strobe RGB scanning method that investigates the effect of the sensor height on color artifacts. The image chain model from the remote sensing community was adapted and tailored to fit flatbed scanning applications. This model allows the user to study the relationship between various internal elements of the scanner and the final image quality. Modeled parameters include: sensor height, intensity and duration of illuminant, scanning rate, sensor aperture, detector modulation transfer function (MTF), and motion blur created by the movement of the sensor during the scanning process. These variables are also modeled mathematically by utilizing Fourier analysis, functions that model the physical components, convolutions, sampling theorems, and gamma corrections. Special targets were used to validate the simulation include single frequency pattern, a radial chirp-like pattern, or a high resolution scanned document. The simulation is demonstrated to model the scanning process effectively both on a theoretical and experimental level.

Date Published: 12 March 2015
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 9401, Computational Imaging XIII, 94010H (12 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2083028

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9401:
Computational Imaging XIII
Charles A. Bouman; Ken D. Sauer, Editor(s)