JP2001111824A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recorder that can easily read an image with high accuracy and high quality. SOLUTION: An image read means 300 removably mounted onto a recorder body similarly to the case with a recording head 201 has a plurality of read resolution modes, has binary means by each resolution and the binary means has at least two kinds of binary thresholds or over.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus having a scanner function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a threshold value for binarization in a conventional recording apparatus of this type, one value is given as a default.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, 90 dpi, 180 dpi, and 36 dpi are required.
In the binarization processing of a scanner that can read from a low resolution such as 0 dpi or 760 dpi to a high resolution, the OTF processing performance of an optical system such as a lens has a characteristic that the higher the resolution, the lower the OTF processing performance. There is a problem that the user needs to perform a complicated selection operation of the threshold value in the processing.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology described above, and an object of the present invention is to perform a complicated selection operation of a threshold value in a binarization process for each resolution. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus which can easily perform high-precision and high-quality reading without having to perform the reading.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording apparatus including threshold setting means for changing the setting of a binarization threshold depending on resolution.

[0006] In order to achieve the above object, a second aspect is provided.
The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image reading unit detachably mounted on the recording apparatus main body, like the recording head, wherein the recording head is detachably mounted on the recording apparatus main body. The means has a plurality of reading resolution modes, and has two modes for binarization at each resolution.
It has a binarization unit, and the binarization unit has at least two types of thresholds for binarization.

[0007] In order to achieve the above object, a third aspect is provided.
The recording device according to claim 2, wherein the recording device according to claim 2,
The binarizing means has different thresholds for high resolution and other resolutions.

[0008] In order to achieve the above object, a fourth aspect of the present invention is provided.
The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
The threshold value is characterized in that the value of the high resolution is shifted to the black side more than the other resolutions.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method according to claim 5.
The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the recording apparatus is an ink jet recording apparatus.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present embodiment. In the figure, 100 is a recording apparatus main body, 200 is a recording unit, 30
0 is an image reading means, and 400 is a host computer.

The recording apparatus main body 100 includes a head connection section 10.
1, controller 102, arithmetic control unit 103, A (analog) / D (digital) converter 104, I / F (interface) 105, motor driver 106, LF motor 107, sensor 108, motor driver control unit 10
9, CR motor 110, encoder 111 and memory 1
12. The head connection unit 101 is connected to the controller 102 via a head connection line 113.

The recording means 200 has a recording head 201 for printing on recording paper, and is detachably attached to the head connecting portion 101.

The image reading means 300 reads a document image or the like, and includes a light source 301, a sensor 302, and an amplifier 30.
3. It has an A (analog) / D (digital) converter 304 and an image processing IC (integrated circuit) 305, and is detachably attached to the head connection unit 101.

The host computer 400 connects to the I / F 105 of the recording apparatus main body 100 via a connection cable 400a.
It is connected to the.

The recording of characters or images (hereinafter referred to as "characters")
Data (recorded data described as printing or recording) is transmitted from the host computer 400 to the arithmetic control unit 103 via the I / F 105 from the host computer 400.
Is transferred under the control of
Receives the recording data and processes it as data to be recorded on recording paper (not shown) by the recording head 201 of the recording means 200. Further, the controller 102 includes the arithmetic control unit 10
Under the control of 3, the recording data is sent to the recording head 201 via the head connection line 113 and the head connection unit 101, and characters or images are recorded on the recording paper.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a main structure of a mechanism of the printing apparatus. In FIG.
Reference numeral 107 denotes an LF motor, 110 denotes a CR motor, and 114 denotes a platen made of a cylindrical body. This platen 114 is
An arithmetic control unit 10 shown in FIG.
3. The recording sheet is rotated and driven by an LF motor 107 controlled by the controller 102 and the motor driver 106, and serves as a recording table for feeding the recording sheet and supporting the recording sheet.

A carriage 115 having a trapezoidal shape is arranged close to the circumferential surface of the platen 114 and movably along the axial direction of the platen 114. This carriage 115
Is a device in which the recording means 200 is mounted at the time of recording, and the image reading means 200 is mounted at the time of image reading, and these are conveyed along the surface of recording paper or a document for image reading. The carriage 115 is moved by a CR motor 110 that is driven to rotate under the control of the arithmetic control unit 103, the controller 102, and the motor driver 106 in FIG.

The sensor 108 shown in FIG. 1 determines whether a recording sheet or a document for reading an image is set on a document table (not shown), and whether the carriage 115 is located at a start position. Is detected.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 111 denotes an encoder for measuring the moving position of the carriage 115.

The recording data is recorded on the recording paper by using the mechanism shown in FIG. 2 as described above.

Next, a case where the present recording apparatus operates as an image reading apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

When the present recording apparatus operates as an image reading apparatus, the image reading means (scanner unit) 300 scans a document (not shown) by moving in the same manner as the recording head 201 operates at the time of recording. Reading). A light source 301 inside the image reading means 300 illuminates the original, and a sensor 302 having photoelectric conversion characteristics detects reflected light such as characters or images. The signal detected by the sensor 302 is converted by an amplifier 303 into an A / D converter 30.
After amplifying to the optimal level handled in step 4, the A / D converter 3
Enter in 04. The data converted into digital data by the A / D converter 304 is subjected to shading correction, binarization correction, or image processing by the image processing IC 305, and is transferred to the recording apparatus main body 100 as image data.

This transfer is sent to the host computer 400 through a path reverse to the flow of the recording data at the time of recording. That is, from the image processing IC 305 to the head connection unit 101, the head connection line 113, the controller 10
2 and the host computer 40 via the I / F 105
The image data is sent to 0. At this time, the controller 102 transfers the image data received from the image processing IC 305 in a form that is easy to send by the I / F 105 or a form that is easy for the host computer 400 to handle, under the control of the arithmetic control unit 103. .

The operation of the mechanism at this time will be described with reference to FIG.

The operation of the mechanism when reading an image is as follows.
The operation is almost the same as the operation of the mechanism during recording.

That is, an original for image reading is attached to the platen 114, and the platen 11
Reference numeral 4 is rotated by an LF motor 107 controlled by the arithmetic control unit 103, the controller 102, and the motor driver 106, and serves as a document table for feeding the document and supporting the document.

Further, the carriage 115 has an image reading means 300 mounted thereon, and is conveyed along the surface of the image reading document to read the image. Carriage 11
The movement of No. 5 is performed by the CR motor 110 that is controlled and rotated by the arithmetic and control unit 103, the controller 102, and the motor driver 106 as in the recording.

The sensor 108 operates in the same manner as the operation described above.

As described above, also in the image reading operation, the mechanism section performs the same movement as that in the recording operation.

Next, the threshold value in the case of binarization which is a feature of the present invention will be described.

As described above, the sensor 302 that has read the original image outputs the waveform of the sensor output signal 30 shown in FIG. This sensor output signal 30 is
FIG. 6B is a waveform output when an image such as the document pattern 31 shown in FIG. When a threshold value 32 as shown in FIG. 4 is set for this signal waveform, if the level is higher than the threshold value 32, “white” is expressed.
If the level is lower than "black", it is binarized.

Electrically, as described above, the sensor output signal 30 is amplified by the amplifier 303 to an optimal level handled by the A / D converter 304, and then amplified by the A / D converter 304.
To enter. The data converted into digital data by the A / D converter 304 is input to the image processing IC 305, the threshold value 32 is set by the image processing IC 305 to determine black and white, and then a binary signal is used as information in this apparatus. To send to.

Here, the black and white interval of the original pattern 31 in the present embodiment is set to 90 dpi, 180 dpi, 36 dpi.
0 dpi, 720 dpi "
The characteristic (MTF characteristic) obtained by plotting the level at which "white" is read and the level at which "black" is read is as shown in Fig. 4. In other words, when the resolution exceeds 360 dpi, "white""The level of expressing begins to fall gradually,"
The gray level is approaching the level that expresses “gray.” However, the level that expresses “gray” from “white” has a characteristic that shows a sharp change approaching the curve expressing “gray”.

Therefore, the threshold value 32 for binarization is 90 dp
In the case of i, 180 dpi and 360 dpi, the optimum value is set at the center of the characteristic. However, at a high resolution of 720 dpi, the threshold value 33 is set to a low level 33 slightly deviated to the “black” side from the threshold value 32 described above. , And the binarization is optimized. That is, by separately setting the threshold for binarization at 720 dpi and the threshold (default value) for binarization at 90 dpi, 180 dpi, and 360 dpi, high-precision and high-quality image reading can be performed.

However, these two thresholds are set by default to the image processing IC 305 from the host computer 400 via the arithmetic control unit 103 of the recording apparatus main body 100 when each resolution is selected by a scanner driver or the like. Keep it. By doing so, the user can perform high-precision and high-quality image reading optimized for each resolution without performing complicated operations. This figure shows the threshold value for binarization on the screen of the scanner driver (the part that can be operated by the user). The threshold value indicates the central part. However, actually, only at the time of high resolution, the threshold value in the present apparatus is set to a threshold value (threshold value 33 in FIG. 4) which is deviated to the black side from the threshold values of other resolutions.

Further, it is needless to say that the threshold value may be set for each resolution on the scanner driver as described above, but the threshold value may be changed according to the user's preference.

[0038]

As described in detail above, according to the recording apparatus of the present invention, optimal image processing is performed by changing the setting of the binarization threshold depending on the resolution, and high-precision, high-quality image reading is performed. Can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a main configuration of a mechanical unit in the recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of binarization in the recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a signal output level depending on a resolution in the recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 recording apparatus main body 101 head connection unit 102 controller 103 arithmetic control unit 104 A (analog) / D (digital) converter 105 I / F (interface) 106 motor driver 107 LF motor 108 sensor 109 motor driver control unit 110 CR motor 111 Encoder 112 Memory 113 Head connection line 114 Platen 115 Carriage 200 Recording means 201 Recording head 300 Image reading means 301 Light source 302 Sensor 303 Amplifier 304 A (analog) / D (digital) converter 305 Image processing IC (integrated circuit) 400 Host computer 400a connection cable

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tadashi Yamamoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2C055 EE00 EE02 2C056 EA00 FA02 FA10 HA58 KD10 5C074 BB16 CC21 CC25 CC26 DD04 FF13 GG19 5C077 LL19 MM21 MP06 RR16 TT05

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus comprising: threshold setting means for changing the setting of a threshold for binarization according to resolution. 2. A recording apparatus in which a recording head is removably mounted on a recording apparatus main body, the apparatus comprising image reading means removably mounted on the recording apparatus main body in the same manner as the recording head. Has a plurality of reading resolution modes and has binarization means for binarization at each resolution, and the binarization means has at least two types of thresholds for binarization. A recording device, characterized in that: 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the binarizing means has different thresholds for high resolution and other resolutions. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the threshold value is a value deviated to the black side in the case of high resolution more than in the case of other resolutions. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recording apparatus is an ink jet recording apparatus.