IPT AutoOptimizer

The IPT AutoOptimizer™ is a scanner peripheral used to improve the image quality of digital scanners and to restore original image quality when scanning deteriorated documents. It can be used with a variety of digital scanners and it operates transparently to the host application without affecting the scanner throughput.

The AutoOptimizer™ is particularly effective in pre-processing text for OCR. It works to cancel the effects of the following typical image problems seen when scanning documents or film:

Variable brightness levels within a document

Low contrast text

High contrast forms with dithered backgrounds

Speckled noise

Multilevel and multicolor text and backround

The AutoOptimizer™ uses several patented and patent pending Image Processing Algorithms including:

Smoothing Filters which remove speckles and background texture (for example, highlighted fields in printed forms)

A patented Two Dimensional Dynamic Thresholding Algorithm that automatically detects the local threshold value for each pixel in the image being scanned. This patented process uses information from a very large area surrounding each pixel (as opposed to other methods that examine a small window or a few lines) to separate the information from the background. The effect of this process is uniform brightness across the scanned document and suppression of even multilevel backgrounds.

A patented, powerful Edge Detection Algorithm that improves the shapes of scanned characters and graphics, and can restore faded and poor-quality originals. This algorithm can enhance very faint line strokes and generate well-shaped solid characters without introducing speckled noise, which is a common side effect of other algorithms that use local contrast enhancement.

Filters for straightening jagged edges and removing small holes and speckles. These filters can be used to improve the shape of characters in OCR applications, or to reduce the size of compressed images.

Roll your mouse over the keys alongside the image
below to see the clarity of AutoOptimized images!

The AutoOptimizer™ can operate in an Automatic mode, where the enhancement parameters are dynamically adapted for each image pixel or in a manual mode, where they are set by the user and remain constant. The user can customize the operation of the AutoOptimizer™ by specifying the operating mode of each parameter.

The AutoOptimizer™ is available in both internal and external versions. The internal version is installed inside the scanner and is powered on with the scanner. The external version is supplied in its own enclosure with a power supply and LED indicator. The enclosure is connected by an interface cable to an IPT adapter installed inside the scanner. Both versions are supplied with a hand-held controller for parameter setting. Host control of the AutoOptimizer™ is accessible as an option using PCControl for Windows.

The AutoOptimizer™ uses several patented and patent pending Image Processing Algorithms including:

Roll your mouse over the keys alongside the imagebelow to see the clarity of AutoOptimized images!

Roll your mouse over the keys alongside the image
below to see the clarity of AutoOptimized images!