Method of shortening multiple-image scanning duration

1. An apparatus, comprising:

means for setting scanning properties of images to be scanned in a pre-scanning operation;

means for comparing the images including comparing at least a portion of one of the images with at least a portion of another one of the images to determine whether the images share a common scan line and, if so, classify the images into a same group;

means for assigning ones of the images that belong to the same group to a scanning region; and

means for initializing a scanning operation corresponding to the scanning region.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

means for driving movement of a scanner head during the scanning operation;

wherein during scanning of the scanning region the scanner head moves through the scanning region without backtracking over the common scan line.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

means for identifying a portion of the images that all share the common scan line; and

means for identifying a subsequent portion of the images, the subsequent portion including the images from the previous portion and remaining ones of the images that share a common scan line with at least one of the images from the previous portion.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising means for repeating identification of further subsequent portions until all subsequent portions are identified, and wherein the group includes all the identified portions.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

means for comparing resolutions of the images; and

means for classifying the images according to both the resolution comparison and the common scan line determination.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

means for determining a number of stops required to scan all the images classified into the same group; and

means for assigning all the images classified into the same group into the same scanning region if the determined number is within a defined range.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

means for comparing user-defined parameters of the images; and

means for classifying the images according to both the user-defined parameter comparison and the common scan line determination.

8. A method, comprising:

comparing scan lines of images to be scanned to identify common scan lines;

grouping the images according to the comparison so that any group formed includes at least two images sharing a common scan line with each other;

integrating ones of the images that belong to the same group into a scanning region; and

using a scanning device, illuminating the scanning region and converting light reflected from the scanning region into electrical signals representing the images of the scanning region.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising integrating the images based at least in part on user-defined parameters.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising integrating the images based at least in part on image resolution.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising integrating all the images from the group into the scanning region if the number of scanning stops required to scan all the images in the group is within a defined range.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

identifying a portion of the images that all share a common scan line; and

identifying a subsequent portion of the images, the subsequent portion including the images from the previous portion and remaining ones of the images that share a common scan line with at least one of the images from the previous portion.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising repeating identification of subsequent portions until all subsequent portions are identified, and wherein the group includes all the portions.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the group includes a portion of the images that all share the common scan line with each other and at least one other portion of the images, the other portion including at least one image that shares a common scan line with at least one image from the portion.

15. The method of claim 8 , wherein the scanning region is scanned with a single forward or backward movement without both forward and backward movements.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing component configured to identify a plurality of images to be scanned;

the processing component configured to group the images according to scanning line so that any group formed contains at least two images sharing a common scanning line; and

the processing component configured to form a scanning region using images from the group;

wherein the apparatus is configured to scan the formed scanning region.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:

a driving component in communication with the processing component, the driving component configured to control movement of a scanner head during the scanning;

wherein the scanning region and all the images included therein are scanned without requiring backtracking of the scanner head.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the identification, grouping, and forming of the scanning region allow a scanner head to scan the images included in the scanning region without crossing the common scanning line more than once.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising the processing component configured to set scanning parameters for the images.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:

the processing component configured to compare resolutions of the images in the group; and

the processing component configured to form the scanning region based at least in part on the comparison.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:

the processing component configured to determine the number of stops required to scan all the images classified into the group; and

the processing component configured to form the scanning region using all the images in the group if the determined number is within a defined range.

22. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:

the processing component configured to compare user-defined parameters of the images in the group; and

the processing component configured to form the scanning region based at least in part on the comparison.

23. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

identifying a portion of the images that all share a common scan line; and

identifying a subsequent portion of the images, the subsequent portion including the images from the previous portion and remaining ones of the images that share the common scan line with at least one of the images from the previous portion.

24. The method of claim 23 , further comprising repeating identification of further subsequent portions until all subsequent portions are identified, and wherein the group includes all the portions.

25. The method of claim 23 , wherein the group includes a portion of the images that all share the common scan line with each other and at least one other portion of the images, the other portion including at least one image that shares a common scan line with at least one image from the portion.