To facilitate the handling of conventional photographs, slides, nega- tives, films, and the like, systems have been developed, in which images are converted to electrical format by digitizing. After this, it is easier to handle the images converted to electrical format, and e. g. the transfer of the images by means of communication networks is fast.

Furthermore, it is thus possible to use electrical archiving in connection with the images, wherein even large quantities of images can be stored in a database, they can be indexed, for example, according to the subject matter, and the retrieval of the images is faster than from man- ual archives. Moreover, electrical archiving of images has the advan- tage that the images can be stored in several locations, wherein by backup copying, the images can be restored at a high probability even though one database used in the recording of the images were dam- aged.

To digitize images, a scanner is commonly used, comprising a scan- ning base, on which the image to be digitized is placed, and a large number of photoelectric transducer means. These photoelectric transducer means are used to generate an electrical charge or a volt- age which is proportional to the intensity of light to which the trans- ducer means is exposed. This electrical charge or voltage is further converted to digital format by an analog-to-digital conversion. This digital information can be stored in common memory means, such as a fixed disk, a CD-ROM, a digital versatile disk, or the like. The trans- ducer means can be arrayed in either a row or a matrix. When using transducer means arrayed in a row, the whole image area is read row by row, and this reading row by row is iterated, until the whole image area to be digitized has been scanned. When using transducer means

arrayed in a matrix, it is, in some applications, possible to convert even the whole image area at one conversion time.

The number of transducer means will determine the maximum resolu- tion for digitizing the image. Particularly in the conversion of photo- graphs and slides, a relatively high resolution should be used to achieve a conversion result of archiva quality. For the conversion of drawings and text documents, also a lower resolution will normally be sufficient. The conversion may be either monochrome (black and white) or coloured, in which case the number of the transducer means is normally triple compared with the resolution of the image. In view of the present invention, however, the resolution of the conversion and the number of colours to be converted are insignificant.

In a system of prior art, the conversion of the images to electrical for- mat is made by placing the object to be converted in a holder fabri- cated for this purpose. This holder is provided with one or more aper- tures at the point where the image area of the image to be converted is placed. The image to be converted is normally attached at two or more points with an adhesive tape. After all the images to be converted at one time have been attached to the holder, the holder with the images is placed in the scanner. In some applications, the holder can still be placed in an input device which, in turn, is placed in a location reserved for it in the scanner. After this, it is possible to start the conversion of the images to electrical format.

After the images placed in one holder have been converted, the holder and the possible input device are removed from the scanner and the images are detached from the holder. The detached images can now be returned to their storing location, such as image archives.

The above-described arrangement comprises a number of disadvan- tages. It is difficult to place the images precisely in the right location in the holder, and the image can still be displaced, particularly at the attachment stage. Because of this displacement, the image converted to electrical format may be distorted. The correction of such a distortion by image processing software may be possible to some extent, but

such correcting measures are often taken at the cost of the resolution of the image. Furthermore, the attachment of the image by various adhesive-based attaching means will damage both the image and the holder. For the same reason, the image is easily damaged when it is detached from the holder. The holders are opaque except for the image area, wherein at least a part of the edges of the image fails to be converted. Because it is laborious to attach and detach the images, the conversion of, for example, image archives to electrical format is slow and requires a lot of strenuous and precise manual work, which will also increase the costs of such archiving.

It is an aim of the present invention to provide an improved archiving holder, which can be used to reduce the number of work stages needed for converting images to electrical format and to reduce the damaging of the images. The invention is based on the idea that the archiving holder is provided with fastening means which can be used to place the image in the correct position and to fasten it without separate attaching means and attaching stages. To put it more precisely, the present invention is primarily characterized in that the archiving holder consists of at least a first part and a second part which are placed on top of each other, that at least one opening is formed substantially in the same location in the first and second parts, and that at least one opening is provided with at least one fastening means for fastening the image in a detachable manner in the archiving holder.

The present invention shows remarkable advantages over solutions of prior art. When using the archiving holder according to the invention, it is possible to significantly reduce the need to attach and detach images, which will also reduce the probability of damaging the images.

Furthermore, the images can be placed in the correct position more precisely than in solutions of prior art, wherein the quality of the electri- cal conversion is improved. When using the archiving holder according to the invention, the margin areas of the image are not covered, wherein the whole image area of the image can be converted to elec- trical format. The archiving holder according to the invention will also make it easier to archive the images, for example for the reason that

the images can also be filed in these archiving holders without remov- ing the images from them.

In the following, the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the appended drawings, in which Fig. 1 shows a top view of an archiving holder according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, Fig. 2 shows a top view of the first part of the archiving holder according to Fig. 1, Fig. 3 shows a top view of the second part of the archiving holder according to Fig. 1, Fig. 4 shows a cross-sectional view of the archiving holder of Fig. 1 along the line IV-IV, and Fig. 5 shows a detail of the archiving holder of Fig. 1 when the image to be converted is placed in its position.

In the following, the structure of the archiving holder 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to Figs. 1,2 and 3. The archiving holder 1 consists of at least a first part 2 and a second part 3. The first part 2 is provided with one or more openings 4, at which the image to be converted is arranged to be placed. In a corresponding manner, the second part 3 is provided with one or more openings 5 substantially at least partly at the openings 4 of the first part. In this first part, the width of the openings 4 is arranged to be larger at the end of the first edge 6 (upper edge in the disposition according to Figs. 1,2 and 3) than at the end of the second edge 7 (lower edge). The width of the openings 5 in the second part is pref- erably dimensioned so that the openings 5 are narrower than the openings 4 of the first part on the side of the first edge 6. In other respects, the width of the openings 4 of the first part and the open- ings 5 of the second part is substantially equal in the width direction.

When the first part 2 and the second part 3 are placed on top of each

other, the side edges of the openings 4 of the first part and those of the openings 5 of the second part constitute fastening means 8. An image 9 can be inserted to be supported by these fastening means 8 (Fig. 5). In the height direction, the openings 4 of the first part are wider than the openings 5 of the second part in their upper and lower edges, thereby forming brackets for the image.

The first part 2 and the second part 3 of the archiving holder 1 accord- ing to the invention are placed on top of each other, after which they are attached to each other, for example, by glueing or by hot pressing.

However, the adhesion is not extended all the way to the side edges of the openings 4,5 but in such a way that a non-adhered (unglued) area is left at the side edge at that point of the circumference of the opening, where the opening 4 in the first part 2 of the achiving holder is wider.

Thus, the image 9 to be placed at the opening 4,5 can be inserted between the first part 2 and the second part 3 through this non-adhered area. This non-adhered area is shown by a broken line 10 in Fig. 1. In this context, it should be noted that although Fig. 1, for clarity, shows only one such broken line 10, it will be obvious that also the other openings 4,5 are provided with a corresponding non-adhered area.

The image 9 to be converted can be pushed towards the second edge 7 (lower edge) of the openings 4,5, until the image touches the second edge 7 of the opening 4 in the first part 2. Consequently, the image 9 to be placed in the archiving holder does not need to be attached by means of adhesive tapes, glueing or in another corre- sponding manner, but the image 9 will remain in its position, supported by the fastening means 8.

The appended Fig. 4 further shows the structure of the archiving holder 1 according to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, as shown in Fig. 1. The figure shows the fastening means formed by the side edges of the openings 4,5 in the first part 2 and the second part 3 of the archiving holder. These side edges of the openings 4,5 are flexible to some extent when the image 9 is being placed in its position, to generate a slight compressive force on the image 9, keep- ing the image 9 in its position. The alignment of the image 9 in the cor- rect position is primarily made by means of the side edges of the

openings 4,5 and the lower edge 7 of the opening 4 in the first part 2, which facilitates the correct positioning of the image 9 to be placed in the archiving holder.

The archiving holder 1 can be provided with several openings 4,5 to place several images 9 in the same archiving holder 1. These openings 4,5 can be substantially equal in size in the same archiving holder, but they can also be different in size, if necessary. Furthermore, different archiving holders 1 may be provided with openings 4,5 of different sizes. The openings 4,5 in the archiving holder are preferably dimen- sioned for one or more images of standard size. Some standard sizes in general use include, for example, 36 x 24 mm, 60 x 45 mm, 60 x 60 mm, 60 x 70 mm, 60 x 80 mm, 60 x 90 mm, 90 x 120 mm and 4"x 5", but it will be obvious that the present invention is not limited solely on archiving holders 1 applying these image sizes. Furthermore, for example for an image size which is needed more seldom, it is pos- sible to provide an auxiliary fastening base (not shown) whose outer dimensions substantially comply with an image size intended to be inserted in the openings 4,5 of the archiving holder, and which auxil- iary fastening base is provided, for example by applying the present invention, with the openings 4 of the first part and the openings 5 of the second part, whose sizes are dimensioned to comply with the special size in question. The image is thus placed in the auxiliary fastening base, after which the auxiliary fastening base is inserted in the archiv- ing holder 1 according to the invention.

According to an advantageous embodiment, the first part 2 and the second part 3 of the archiving holder 1 are made of a transparent material, such as PVC plastic. Preferably, both parts are substantially of the same thickness, for example in the order of 0.25 mm or 0.15 mm. The archiving holder can also be made of a substantially opaque material, wherein, in some applications, the conversion result of the electrical conversion will be better, because the luminosity of the environment of the images is significantly lower than when using a transparent material.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the archiving holder 1 is also provided with fixing means 12 which can be used to place the archiving holder 1 with the image (s) 9 onto the scan- ning base of a scanner (not shown). The fixing means 12 can also be used for archiving purposes to place the image in archives, in a file or the like.

The archiving holder 1 according to the invention is used, for example, in such a way that images to be converted are placed in the archiving holder 1, after which the archiving holder 1 is placed either directly in the scanner or the archiving holder 1 is first placed in an input device which is placed in the scanner. After this, the image is converted to electrical format and stored in a way known as such. After the conver- sion step, the archiving holder 1 is removed from the scanner (and from the input device, if one was used). After this, the archiving holder can be placed in the archives without detaching the images or, if nec- essary, the images can be detached from the archiving holder. The above-presented steps are iterated until all the images have been con- verted to electrical format. When applying the archiving holder 1 according to the invention, the conversion of image archives to electri- cal format can be made significantly faster than when using solutions of prior art. Furthermore, the image archives are easier to use, because the images do not need to be detached and attached for the time of the electrical conversion. Furthermore, the images will not be damaged to a significant degree, even if the same images were often transferred from the archives to the scanner and back to the archives, as long as the images are stored in the archiving holder according to the inven- tion.

Although it has been presented above that the images 9 are inserted in the direction from the upper edge of the openings 4,5 towards the lower edge, the openings can also be arranged, for example, in such a way that the image is placed in its position in the direction from the side edge. In this case, the fastening means 8 are preferably formed in con- nection with the upper and lower edges of the openings 4,5, and the image is inserted against the side edge opposite to the insertion edge in the opening.

The present invention is not limited solely to the above-presented embodiments, but it can be modified within the scope of the appended claims.