A method and apparatus for defect detection through color-filter channels is
provided.
The present invention includes an electronic scanner or similar device having a
multilinear imager, a computer, and software that implements all the color channels
of the multilinear imager to collect IR information in order to detect defects
on a physical medium. The present invention implements methods to increase IR gathering
speed and/or increase the clarity of captured images on multilinear-imager devices.
These improvements are accomplished by capturing infrared (IR) light through each
color-filter channel such that image defects such as dust and scratches are removed.
In one embodiment of the present invention, IR information is collected from each
color channel at different scan positions in either a one-pass or a two-pass scanning
system. In another embodiment of the present invention, each RGB color channel
is used to collect both image and detect information at every scan line, again,
either a one-pass or a two-pass scanning system.
