Mobile Device Holder with Foldable Side Panels for Document Scanning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for capturing images of documents using mobile devices often result in misalignment, blurriness, and inconsistent quality due to manual operation, which hinders accurate processing of retail, market, and consumer data.
Innovation Solution
A mobile device holder with foldable and pivotable side panels that maintain a fixed distance from the document, incorporating reference markers to stabilize the camera orientation and improve image stitching accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual operation is used to capture images of documents, then ease of operation is improved, but image quality consistency and alignment precision deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
A physical guide structure with walls and reference markers is introduced as an intermediary between the manual operation and the image capture process. This guide structure standardizes the camera's position and orientation relative to the document, ensuring consistent image quality while maintaining ease of operation through simple placement of the guide structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces reliance on manual mechanical skill and stability with a structured guide system that provides mechanical constraints for camera positioning. The guide structure with its walls and reference markers creates a standardized mechanical framework that ensures consistent imaging without requiring operator skill.
2Ease of operation
If manual operation is used to capture images of documents, then ease of operation is improved, but alignment precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Reference markers positioned at specific locations on the guide structure serve as intermediaries that enable precise alignment measurement. These markers provide known reference points that allow the system to accurately determine the camera's position and orientation relative to the document, improving alignment precision while keeping operation simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The reference markers are designed with distinct visual characteristics (such as contrasting colors or patterns) that make them easily detectable by the image processing system. This visual differentiation enables precise alignment detection through image analysis of the marker positions and orientations.
3Manufacturing precision
If a fixed distance is maintained between the camera and document, then image quality consistency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide structure with its walls and reference markers serves as a simple intermediary that defines a fixed camera-to-document distance. Instead of using complex active control systems, sensors, or actuators to maintain distance, the passive geometric structure of the guide provides the fixed distance constraint, achieving image consistency without increasing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide structure is designed as a simple, lightweight, and inexpensive component that can be easily manufactured and discarded or replaced. This approach avoids the need for expensive, complex, and durable active control systems while achieving the same image quality consistency through passive geometric constraints.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for document scanning are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a base structured to position a mobile device, the base including an opening corresponding to a camera of the mobile device, and at least two side panels couplable to and foldable toward the base, the side panels to maintain a first distance between the base and a target document, the side panels slidable along the target document.