JP2001063897A - Image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate takeout of printed paper after discharged, miniaturization of a device and securing an installation space. SOLUTION: A paper holding member 70 has a first holding member 71, a second holding member 73 provided to freely go in and out of the first holding member 71, and U-shaped grooves 72, 74 formed at a part slightly shifted in the origin direction of printed paper from a center part, parallel with the discharge direction of the printed paper. Accordingly, even in the case of printing an image on small paper such as a photo-card or a postcard, the printed paper after discharged is held to the paper holding member 70 in such a manner as to cover the U-shaped grooves 72, 74. The printed paper after discharged can thereby be easily taken out of the paper holding member 70 by inserting a user's finger or the like in the U-shaped grooves 72, 74. Furthermore, since the second holding member 73 is enclosed in a storage part 76 during storage, the device can be made small in constitution to easily secure an installation space.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an image reading section for converting an image of a document into an electric signal and reading the image, and a paper sheet or the like based on the image data read by the image reading section. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus including an image printing unit that prints an image on a print medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an image reading apparatus which moves a carriage equipped with a color image pickup means having a line sensor such as a CCD in parallel with a document surface and reads an image of the document.

[0003] For example, in the case of a flat bed type image reading apparatus, a platen made of a transparent plate such as glass for placing a document is provided on the upper surface of a box-shaped casing. A carriage that is moved by a driving device in parallel with the document table is provided. The carriage is provided with a light source and a color imaging unit. Irradiation light from the light source is reflected on the surface of the document on the document table, and is condensed on a color image pickup means by a condenser lens.

In the above-described image reading apparatus, it is necessary to finally print out the read image data. Therefore, an image is displayed on a monitor using a processing device such as a personal computer, and a desired image is selected. Printout by a printing device such as a printer.

[0005]

When performing an image printing process using a personal computer, a user performs a command input operation specified by an operation system, and a print processing application program and a printer driver are stored therein. For example, it is necessary to take the data from a storage device such as a magnetic disk into the internal memory of the personal computer and make it executable.

However, there is a problem that it takes a long time to input a command or to take in a print processing application program and a printer driver, and it takes a long time to start up. In addition, there are many problems to be solved in order to make full use of a personal computer. For example, there are a large number of users who cannot use the printer even if they have it, and in order to print out the image read by the image reading device, the user tries to install an image print processing application program or a printer driver on the personal computer. However, there is a possibility that the installation itself is difficult or that the user does not know how to input the command.

Therefore, an image reading unit that converts an image of a document into an electric signal and reads the image, and an image printing unit that prints the image on a print medium such as paper based on the image data read by the image reading unit are provided. An image processing apparatus that prints an image based on image data read without connecting to a personal computer can be considered. In such an image processing apparatus, it is a general configuration that the image reading unit and the image printing unit have a two-story structure, the image reading unit is arranged in the upper stage, and the image printing unit is arranged in the lower stage. Further, from the viewpoint of a mounting space, a paper discharge unit that discharges printed paper on which an image has been printed by the image printing unit to the outside of the apparatus is arranged at a lower stage together with the image printing unit.

In the image processing apparatus having the above-described structure, when the size of the apparatus is reduced, the sheet is placed at a position distant from a sheet discharge opening formed in a housing for accommodating an image reading section, an image printing section and a sheet discharge section. Discharge units tend to be located. For this reason, for example, when printing an image on a small sheet of paper such as a photo card or a postcard, the printed sheet is ejected to a place deep from the sheet ejection port, and it is difficult to remove the printed sheet after ejection from the sheet ejection port. There was a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and has as its object to provide an image processing apparatus that can easily take out a printed printing medium after discharge.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus which can easily reduce the size of the apparatus and secure an installation space.

[0010]

According to the image processing apparatus of the present invention, the print medium holding member for holding the printed print medium after the discharge is provided near the opening of the housing. The printed print medium is discharged from the opening of the housing onto the print medium holding member by the print medium discharge unit. Since the print medium holding member has a groove formed in parallel with the discharge direction of the printed print medium,
For example, even when an image is printed on a small print medium such as a photo card or a postcard, the printed print medium after being discharged is held by the print medium holding member so as to cover the above-described groove. Therefore, the user can easily take out the discharged printed print medium from the print medium holding member by inserting a finger or the like into the groove.

According to the image processing apparatus of the present invention, the printing medium holding member is a first holding member connected to the housing, and the second holding member is provided so as to be able to enter and leave the first holding member. With the holding member, the second holding member can be pulled out of the first holding member during use, and the second holding member can be stored in the first holding member during storage. Therefore, the size of the device can be reduced, and the installation space can be easily secured.

According to the image processing apparatus of the third aspect of the present invention, since the second holding member has an edge at a portion where the end on the side opposite to the first holding member and the groove intersect, The user can pull out the second holding member from the first holding member or store the second holding member in the first holding member by using the edge as a knob. Therefore, the print medium holding member can be used easily.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 6 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an image processing apparatus provided with a carriage moving type flat bed type image reading unit and an ink jet type dark and light color image printing unit.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image processing apparatus 100
Is composed of a scanner unit 20, a signal processing unit 10, a printer unit 50, an operation unit 30, and a power supply unit 40.
The carriage 3, the signal processing unit 10, the printer unit 50, and the power supply unit 40 of the scanner unit 20, which will be described later, are housed in the housing 2 as a housing. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, the housing 2 has a print medium discharge port 61 as an opening on the front surface, and a print medium holding member 70 for holding printed paper after discharge is used for printing. It is provided near the medium outlet 61. Scanner unit 20 and signal processing unit 1
The printer unit 50, the operation unit 30, and the power supply unit 40 are separated by a frame member 60 made of sheet metal.

The scanner unit 20 is provided with a document table 1 made of a transparent plate such as glass on the upper surface of a housing 2. A carriage 3 is provided inside the housing 2 as an image reading unit that can reciprocate in parallel to the document table 1 by a driving unit (not shown), and a light source 4 and a color imaging unit 5 are mounted on the carriage 3. ing. The light emitted from the light source 4 is reflected on the surface of the document 8 on the document table 1, reflected by a plurality of mirrors 6, and then condensed on the color imaging means 5 by the condensing lens 7. The color imaging means 5 is provided with a red (R:
Red), green (G: Green) and blue (B: Blu)
e) convert each light into an electric signal and output. The reflection from the plurality of mirrors 6 increases the optical path length from the document 8 to the condenser lens 7. At the end of the document table 1 in the direction of movement of the carriage 3, a white reference 9 having a highly reflective uniform reflection surface is provided. When reading a transparent original such as a photographic film, a second light source is provided above the original table 1 and moves with the movement of the carriage 3.

As shown in FIG. 5, the white reference 9 of the scanner unit 20 is provided at one end of the document table 1, and the white reference 9 is set before the image reading of the carriage 3, that is, when the power of the carriage 3 is turned off or when the white It is arranged to overlap the initial position at the time of reference reading. The carriage 3 is electrically connected to the signal processing unit 10 shown in FIG. 2 by a flexible flat cable 31 described later. On the upper surface of the housing 2, near the reading origin 1 a of the document table 1, an origin position display unit 2
1 is provided. That is, the origin position display unit 21
It is provided on one end side of the carriage 3 at the white reference 9 and the initial position.

On the upper side of the housing 2 and on the side opposite to the original table with respect to the white reference 9 and the initial position of the carriage 3, the maintenance door 2 is provided.
The maintenance door 22 is an opening / closing door that connects or disconnects communication between the inside and the outside of the scanner unit 20. The maintenance door 22 has a projection (not shown), and this projection can be fitted into a hole (not shown) when the maintenance door 22 shown in FIG. 5 is closed. A light-shielding sensor (not shown) as a sensor is provided in the hole, and this light-shielding sensor is electrically connected to the control means 14 shown in FIG. Therefore, when the power is turned on, the control means 14 can detect whether or not the protrusion is fitted into the hole, that is, the open / closed state of the maintenance door 22 by the light-shielding sensor. Therefore, the control means 1
4 controls the carriage 3 in accordance with the open / close state of the maintenance door 22, and can move the carriage 3 to a retracted position indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 5 or an initial position indicated by a solid line in FIG. In this embodiment, when the maintenance door 22 is in the open state, the user inserts his hand through the opening to clean the white reference 9 and the platen 1, or removes the detachable partition 32 described later to remove the printer unit 50. It is configured to be able to maintain paper jams and the like in the inside.

A frame member 33 is provided in an opening formed in the frame member 60 and communicating with the scanner section 20 and the printer section 50. The frame member 33 is made of a transparent material and is detachable from the frame member 33.
2 are provided. The removable partition wall 32 can move on a rail (not shown) of the frame member 33 in the same direction as the moving direction of the carriage 3. By moving the detachable partition 32 on the rail section, the detachable partition 32 can be removed from the frame member 33 or the detachable partition 32 can be attached to the frame member 33.

The flexible flat cable 31 has one end electrically connected to the carriage 3 and the other end electrically connected to the signal processing unit 10 shown in FIG. The flexible flat cable 31 has a plurality of conductive wires inside, and the conductive wires are covered with a coating for preventing a short circuit with another member. As the coating, a flexible film is used to secure the flexibility of the flexible flat cable 31. The flexible flat cable 31 is folded back at an intermediate part between the connection part of the carriage 3 and the connection part of the signal processing unit 10, the folded part 35 is sandwiched by the frame member 33, and is fixed to the frame member 60. The flexible flat cable 31 is provided with a sufficient bend between the connection portion of the carriage 3 and the folded portion 35. Further, the flexible flat cable 31 is provided with an L-shaped bent portion 36 between the folded portion 35 and the connection portion of the signal processing unit 10 to facilitate connection between the flexible flat cable 31 and the signal processing unit 10. I have.

As shown in FIG. 3, the signal processing unit 10 includes an amplifier 11, an A / D conversion unit 12, and a shading correction unit 1.
3, a gamma correction unit 16, other correction units 17, and a control unit 14. The control means 14 includes a CPU, R
It is composed of a microcomputer including an AM and a ROM.

The A / D converter 12 converts the data input from the color image pickup means 5 via the amplifier 11 into a digital signal and transfers the digital signal to the shading corrector 13. This digital signal is a signal indicating a numerical value from 0 to 1023 when, for example, the read gradation is 10 bits.
The shading correction unit 13 sets the white reference 9 before starting reading.
Using the data obtained by reading the data, the variation in the sensitivity of each element of the photoelectric conversion element array and the variation in the light amount of the light source 4 are corrected.
Then, the pixel data subjected to the shading correction is sent to the gamma correction unit 16. The gamma correction unit 16 performs gamma correction using a predetermined gamma function, and the A / D conversion unit 1
2 is converted into an image signal. The other correction unit 17 performs various conversions such as color correction, edge enhancement, and area enlargement / reduction.

The operation unit 30 has an operation panel (not shown) exposed from the housing 2 to the outside. The operation panel is provided with a print switch (not shown). By turning on the print switch, an image can be printed by the printer unit 50 connected to the scanner unit 20 via the signal processing unit 10. Further, when the image processing apparatus 100 is connected to a personal computer (not shown), the image data read by the scanner unit 20 is transferred to the personal computer by operating the operation unit 30, and a floppy disk, CD-ROM,
An image can be printed by the printer unit 50 based on image data stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk (MO).

The power supply section 40 has an A / C of 200 V or A / C
/ C 120V, the scanner unit 20, the signal processing unit 10, and the operation unit 30.
And power to the printer unit 50.

The printer section 50 includes a paper feeding means (not shown), a print head 51 as an image printing section, and a print medium discharge section 52. The print head 51 expands and contracts the volume of the ink chamber by applying a voltage to the pressure generating means in accordance with the drive signal from the control means 14 shown in FIG. 3, and the ink in the ink chamber is shown as ink droplets from the nozzles. It can be ejected on paper that does not. An ink tank (not shown) that stores six color inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), light cyan (c), light magenta (m), yellow (Y), and black (K). It includes six rows of nozzles (not shown) arranged perpendicularly to the direction in which the print head 51 moves. Extremely smooth gradation expression is possible by using six colors of ink, cyan (C), magenta (M), light cyan (c), light magenta (m), yellow (Y) and black (K). In particular, it is possible to make the dots of the ink droplets inconspicuous even in a high brightness portion such as a skin color. A color image can also be printed by combining four colors of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K). When printing black by superimposing the C, M, and Y inks, the K ink can be omitted.

The print medium discharge section 52 is for discharging printed paper to the outside of the housing 2 from the print medium discharge port 61 shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, and is driven by a drive motor (not shown). It has a discharge roller (not shown) and a spur roller (not shown) that contacts the discharge roller and discharges the printed paper by friction.

Next, the printing medium holding member 70 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a state when the image processing apparatus 100 is stored, and FIG. 6 shows a state when the image processing apparatus 100 is used.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, the printing medium holding member 70 includes a first holding portion 71 and a second holding portion 73.
It is composed of The first holding unit 71 is connected to the housing 2 and has a U-shaped groove 72 as a groove on the upper surface. The U-shaped groove 72 is formed in parallel with the arrow X direction shown in FIG. 1, that is, the direction in which the printed paper is discharged from the print medium discharge port 61 by the print medium discharge unit 52 shown in FIG. Further, the U-shaped groove 72 is located at a portion slightly shifted rightward in FIG. 1 from the central portion of the first holding portion 71. In the present embodiment, since the one end 71 a of the first holding unit 71 is located at the position corresponding to the reading origin 1 a of the document table 1, the U-shaped groove 72 is printed after being discharged from the central portion of the first holding unit 71. It is located in a portion slightly shifted in the direction of the origin of the used paper. Further, the first holding section 71 has a housing section 76 for housing the second holding section 73. At the time of storage shown in FIG. 1, the second holding portion 73 housed in the housing portion 76 of the first holding portion 71 is a plate-shaped member whose lateral length is smaller than that of the first holding portion 71. As shown in FIG. 6, the upper surface has a U-shaped groove 74 as a groove. The second holding unit 73 has an object of holding printed paper after ejection when an image is printed on a large paper such as A4. Since the U-shaped groove 74 is formed on the same straight line as the U-shaped groove 72 of the first holding portion 71, the second holding portion 73
Are smoothly accommodated in the accommodation section 76 of the first holding section 71. The second holding portion 73 has a U-shaped end on the side opposite to the first holding portion.
A knob 75 as an edge of the groove 74 is formed. When the user pulls the knob 75 in the arrow X direction shown in FIG. 1 from the storage state shown in FIG. 1, the second holding section 73 is pulled out of the storage section 76 of the first holding section 71. The state at the time of use shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the image processing apparatus 100 configured as described above will be described. (1) First, as shown in FIG. 6, the user holds the first holding portion 7
The second holding portion 73 is pulled out from the first storage portion 76 to prepare for use. Then, the user places the document 8 on the document table 1 of the scanner unit 20 and presses a print switch of the operation unit 30 to instruct the reading of the document 8. Step S shown in FIG.
1, when the execution of reading is instructed, the control means 1
Reference numeral 4 turns on the light source 4 or the second light source, and moves the carriage 3 at a constant speed in the sub-scanning direction. An image of one line is read by each photoelectric conversion element array of the color imaging unit 5 by a drive signal generated at a predetermined time interval, and pixel data is output to the signal processing unit 10 in step S2 shown in FIG.

(2) In step S3 shown in FIG. 4, the analog pixel data output to the signal processing unit 10 is A / A
It is converted into digital pixel data by the D conversion unit 12,
The shading is corrected by the shading correction unit 13 and sent to the gamma correction unit 16. Then, gamma correction is performed by a predetermined gamma function.

(3) In step S4 shown in FIG. 4, the other correction unit 17 performs a color correction process on the RGB data and converts it into CMYK gradation bit image data for printing. Then, the obtained CMYK gradation bit image data is distributed to each data of light and shade by a light and shade ink table, and further subjected to halftone processing such as dither method, error diffusion, etc., and distribution of dark and light colors on a bit map for each color or The arrangement is determined, and a binary bitmap is created for each. The bitmap data subjected to the halftone process is temporarily stored in a predetermined area of the RAM of the control unit 14.

(4) In step S5 shown in FIG. 4, the CPU of the control means 14 sends a print preparation end signal to the printer unit 50, and checks the printing operation state of the printer unit 50. The printer unit 50 sends a print data transfer request signal to the CPU of the control device 14 when the printing operation is possible.

(5) In step S6 shown in FIG. 4, the CPU of the control means 14 executes DMA (Direct Memory Access)
The print control data and the bitmap data for each color are sequentially transmitted to the printer unit 50 by the transfer. The printer unit 50 prints an image with the print head 51 based on the print data sequentially taken out of the RAM of the control unit 14. The printed paper on which an image has been printed by the print head 51 is printed by a print medium discharge unit
Is discharged onto the print medium holding member 70.

In the embodiment of the present invention described above, the printing medium holding member 70 is connected to the first housing connected to the housing 2.
Holding member 71, a second holding member 73 provided so as to be able to enter and exit from the first holding member 71, and a direction parallel to the discharge direction of the printed paper and slightly from the center toward the origin of the printed paper. U-shaped grooves 72 and 74 formed in shifted portions
Therefore, even when an image is printed on a small sheet of paper such as a photo card or a postcard, for example, the printed sheet after ejection is held by the print medium holding member 70 so as to cover the U-shaped grooves 72 and 74. Is done. Therefore, when the user inserts a finger or the like into the U-shaped grooves 72 and 74, the printed paper after ejection can be easily taken out from the print medium holding member 70. Further, at the time of use, the second holding member 73 is withdrawn from the housing portion 76 of the first holding member 71, and at the time of storage, the second holding member 73 is housed in the housing portion 76, thereby reducing the physique of the image processing apparatus 100. The size can be reduced and the installation space can be easily secured.

Further, in this embodiment, since the second holding member 73 is provided with the knob 75 at a portion where the end on the side opposite to the first holding member and the U-shaped groove 74 intersect, the user can use the knob 75. By pulling the knob 75, it is possible to draw out the second holding member from the housing portion 76 of the first holding member or to store the second holding member in the housing portion 76 of the first holding member. it can. Therefore, the print medium holding member 70 can be easily used.

In the embodiment of the present invention described above, the present invention is applied to the image processing apparatus 100 provided with the carriage moving type flat bed type scanner unit 20. It is possible to apply the present invention to an image processing apparatus having a mirror moving type flat bed type scanner unit for moving a reflection mirror group, and to have another scanner unit such as a sheet feed type for moving and reading an original. It is also possible to apply the present invention to an image processing apparatus that has been used.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is applied to the image processing apparatus 100 including the printer unit 50 using the print head 51 of the ink jet system. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Also, the present invention can be applied to an image processing apparatus provided with a printer unit using various print heads such as a dot impact method.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state when an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is stored.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an image processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image printing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a closed state of a maintenance door of the image processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state when the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Document stand 2 Housing (housing) 3 Carriage (image reading part) 4 Light source 5 Color imaging means 6 Mirror 7 Condensing lens 8 Document 10 Signal processing part 14 Control means 20 Scanner part 22 Maintenance door 30 Operation part 32 Removable type Partition wall 33 Frame member 40 Power supply unit 50 Printer unit 51 Print head (image printing unit) 52 Print medium discharge unit 60 Frame member 61 Print medium discharge port (opening) 70 Print medium holding member 71 First holding member 72, 74 U U-shaped groove (groove) 73 Second holding member 75 Knob (edge) 76 Housing 100 Image processing device

Claims (3)

[Claims] An image pickup means for converting light into an electric signal and outputting the electric signal, a light source for irradiating a document, a mirror radiated from the light source and reflecting light reflected on the document surface or transmitted through the document surface, and An image reading unit having a condensing lens that collects reflected light on the imaging unit; an image printing unit that prints an image on a print medium based on image data read by the image reading unit; A housing that houses the image printing unit and has an opening, and a printing medium ejection unit that is provided in the housing and that ejects a printed printing medium on which an image is printed by the image printing unit to the outside from the opening. A print medium holding member that is provided near the opening and that is formed in parallel with the discharge direction of the printed print medium and that holds the printed print medium after discharge. The image processing apparatus according to claim. 2. The printing medium holding member includes a first holding member connected to the housing, and a second holding member provided so as to be able to enter and leave the first holding member. The image processing device according to claim 1. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second holding member has an edge formed at a portion where an end on the side opposite to the first holding member and the groove intersect. apparatus.