JP2001226014A - Document sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sort documents into monochromatic documents and colored documents for recycling the documents in consideration of the quality of recycled paper. SOLUTION: An image forming device for a color copying machine reads information for the images of the documents automatically carried to a reading position by an automatic document feeder (DADF) 14, using an image reader 12, and identifies that the documents are monochromatic documents or colored documents in accordance with the reading information. The target position (a monochromatic document storage device 15/a color document storage device 16) of the documents fed from the DADF 14 in accordance with the identification result is switched by a carrying passage switching part 18 for sorting the documents into the monochromatic documents and the colored documents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document separating apparatus for separating documents according to types.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the importance of recycling, such as reusing a previously discarded original or processing it into recycled paper, has become widespread. At that time, what is important is separation according to the type of the original. If the accuracy of separation is poor, it is difficult to recycle the original.

[0003] Conventionally, the separation of originals for the purpose of recycling has been performed manually by visual inspection, and the operation has been very troublesome. Therefore, various proposals have been made for using an image reading device that reads image information of a document and separating the document based on the read result, thereby improving the accuracy of document separation and improving workability. .

As one of the methods, while the paper quality information is recorded for each original, the paper quality information recorded on the original is read when the original is separated, and a plurality of types of paper quality are determined based on the read result (paper quality). There is an apparatus that reliably sorts paper of the same quality among mixed papers (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-20750). As another example, there is a device that reads both sides of an original by a sensor and conveys the original to a paper feeding device when the paper is blank (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-293503).

[0005]

However, the above prior arts have the following problems. That is, in the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-20750, a device for recording paper quality information on a document is required. It leads to up. On the other hand, JP-A-10-293
The apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 503-503 employs a configuration in which a document having a blank page is reused, but since the quality of recycled paper is greatly affected, a monochrome document and a color document which are the most important in recycling are used. Separation from the manuscript is impossible.

[0006] From the viewpoint of identifying the original,
There is also known an image reading apparatus configured to read a specific region at the leading end of a document by a color sensor, identify the color of the read specific region, and sort the document based on the color information of the identified specific region ( JP-A-10-2827
No. 37).

However, this image reading apparatus employs a configuration for filing, in which the document is classified by identifying the color of the designated area of the document, and therefore, which color is formed in which area. It cannot respond to manuscripts to be recycled that cannot be predicted in advance. That is,
The image reading apparatus cannot be used for sorting originals for recycling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to separate black-and-white originals and color originals with high precision, and to use originals for the purpose of recycling. An object of the present invention is to provide an optimal document sorting apparatus.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided an original separating apparatus which reads image information of an original and identifies whether the original to be read is a color original or a monochrome original based on the image information read by the reading means. And a sorting unit that sorts the original to be read into a color original and a black and white original based on the identification result of the identifying unit.

In the document separating apparatus having the above configuration, first,
The identification unit identifies whether the original is a color original or a monochrome original from the image information read from the original by the reading unit. The identification result is given to the sorting means. Then, the sorting unit sorts the read original into a black-and-white original and a color original based on the identification result,
The original is classified according to the presence or absence of color.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus such as a color copying machine provided with a document separating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus includes an image reading device 12 disposed on an upper portion of an apparatus body 11 and an automatic document feeder (DADF) for automatically feeding a document set on a document tray 13 before reading. 14), a black-and-white document storage device 15 and a color document storage device 16 arranged adjacent to the device body 11 in order, and a conveyance path 17 for conveying a document sent from the automatic document conveyance device 14. A transport path switching unit 18 for distributing the original flowing through the transport path 17 to the monochrome original storage device 15 and the color original storage device 16 is provided.

When the image forming apparatus is, for example, a color copying machine, an image output section (not shown) for outputting image information read by the image reading apparatus 12 to a recording medium such as paper is provided inside the apparatus main body 11. ) Is built-in.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of an internal mechanism of the image reading device 12. In FIG. 2, a document 21 to be read is moved from a document tray 13 to an automatic document feeder 14.
And set at a reading position on the platen glass 22. The document 21 is irradiated with light emitted from the illumination unit 23. The reflected light from the document 21 based on the irradiation light passes through the first mirror 24, the second mirror 25, and the third mirror 26, and is then imaged on the imaging surface of the photoelectric conversion element 28 by the imaging lens 27.

Here, the illumination unit 23 and the first mirror 24
Is mounted on the full-rate carriage 29 and is movable in the left-right direction of the drawing, that is, in the sub-scanning direction, and moves in the sub-scanning direction while irradiating the document surface with light emitted from the illumination unit 23. Thereby, the image information on the document surface can be read. On the other hand, the optical system including the second and third mirrors 25 and 26 is mounted on the half-rate carriage 30 and is movable in substantially half the stroke of the full-rate carriage 29.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the entire system of the document sorting apparatus according to the present embodiment. In the drawing, the same parts as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In FIG. 3, the image reading control unit 31
The components of the image reading device 12 are controlled according to a predetermined program written in the OM 32 in advance. DAD
The F control unit 33 controls each function of the automatic document feeder 14. The lighting control unit 34 turns on / off the lighting unit 23 such as a lamp in accordance with a command from the image reading control unit 31.
Control the operation.

The scanning control unit 35 is controlled by the full-rate carriage 2 described above in accordance with a command from the image reading control unit 31.
The driving of a stepping motor 36 which is a driving source of a scanning system including the half-rate carriage 9 and the half-rate carriage 30 is controlled. That is, a drive signal is transmitted from the scanning control unit 35 to the stepping motor 36, and the carriage 36 starts to rotate, thereby moving the carriages 29 and 30 in the sub-scanning direction.

The photoelectric conversion element 28 is a color CCD (Charg
e Coupled Device) An image sensor and the like, and the incident image information is represented by R (red) G (green) B (blue)
The signal is converted into an electrical signal of the same type and transmitted to the analog correction & shading correction unit 37. The analog correction and shading correction unit 37 performs A / D conversion after performing signal processing such as AGC (automatic gain control) and AOC (automatic offset control) on the three types of electrical signals of RGB.
As a result, the three types of electrical signals of RGB are converted from analog values to multi-value information. Thereafter, shading correction is performed.

The RGB multi-value information corrected in this way is
The signal is sent from the analog correction & shading correction unit 37 to the image processing unit 38. The image processing unit 38 converts the RGB signals into L ^* a ^* b ^* signals. as a result,
The image information is multi-value information of lightness and chromaticity. This L ^* a ^* b
^{* The} signal is sent to the ACS (automatic color sorting) unit 39.

The ACS unit 39 determines whether the original to be read is a monochrome original or a color original based on the L ^* a ^* b ^* signal. The determination result of the ACS unit 39 is sent to the image reading control unit 31. The image reading control unit 31 controls the transport path switching control unit 40 based on the determination result of the ACS unit.

The transport path switching control section 40 controls the drive of the transport path switching section 18 including a clutch or the like in response to a switching control signal given from the image reading control section 31. The document storage device control unit 41 includes the monochrome document storage device 15 described above.
Further, it controls each function of the color document storage device 16.
The image reading control section 31 is also provided with detection signals of various sensors 42.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of the ACS unit 39. As is clear from the figure, the ACS unit 39 according to this example has a configuration including a pixel determination unit 391, a block determination unit 392, and a document determination unit 393.

Here, the circuit operation of the ACS unit 39 having the above configuration will be described. First, the image processing unit 39 sends the ACS
The L ^* a ^* b ^* multi-value information is input to the pixel determination unit 391 in the unit 39. Then, the pixel determination unit 391 determines whether the target pixel is a monochrome pixel or a color pixel by comparing each pixel information with a preset pixel determination threshold. The result of the determination is sent to the block determination unit 392 as a pixel determination flag.

In the block determining section 392, the pixel determining section 3
N × M based on the pixel determination flag given from
The number of color pixels included in the window (block) of the pixel area is counted and compared with a preset block determination threshold to determine whether the window block is a monochrome block or a color block. The determination result is used as a block determination flag as the document determination unit 393.
Sent to

In the original determination section 393, the block determination section 3
Based on the block determination flag given from 92, the number of color blocks included in the detection area of the document is counted,
By comparing with a preset document determination threshold,
It is determined whether the original is a monochrome original or a color original.
Then, the determination result is sent to the image reading control unit 31.

Next, a series of operations of document separation in an image forming apparatus such as a color copying machine having the document separation apparatus according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. It is assumed that the automatic document feeder (DADF) 14 used in this example has a front / back reversing function of automatically reversing the front / back of a document.

First, the user places the document on the document tray 13 of the automatic document feeder 14, and then presses a start button on an operation panel (not shown). When the image reading control unit 31 recognizes that the start button has been pressed (step S11), the image reading control unit 31 transmits a document transport command to the DADF control unit 33. Upon receiving this command, the DADF control unit 33 controls the driving of the automatic document feeder 14 so as to transfer the document placed on the document tray 13 to the reading position on the platen glass 22 (step S12).

When the document is conveyed to the reading position, the image reading control unit 31 transmits a lamp ON signal to the illumination control unit 34. The illumination control unit 34 turns on the lamp 23 in response to the lamp ON signal. At the same time, the image reading control unit 31 transmits a motor ON signal to the scanning control unit 35. The scanning controller 35 drives the carriage motor 36 in response to the motor ON signal. This allows
In FIG. 2, the carriages 29 and 30 move in the sub-scanning direction, and scanning of the document surface in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction by the irradiation light from the lamp 23, that is, the document reading operation is performed (step S13).

In this document reading operation, the reflected light from the document surface is reflected by the first, second and third mirrors 2 in FIG.
After passing through 4, 25 and 26, the light enters a photoelectric conversion element 28 such as a color CCD image sensor by an imaging lens 27, and is converted into an RGB electric signal by the photoelectric conversion element 28. The RGB signals are subjected to analog correction, shading correction, and the like by an analog correction and shading correction unit 37, and then sent to an image processing unit 38. In the image processing unit 38, the RGB signals are converted into L ^* a ^* b ^* signals. This L ^* a ^* b ^* signal is sent to the ACS unit 39.

The ACS section 39 determines whether the read original is a monochrome original or a color original (step S1).
4). The determination at this time is performed by the above-described determination operation in the ACS unit 39. Then, the determination result is sent to the image reading control unit 31. At this time, the image reading control unit 31 determines whether or not the determination has been made for both the front and back sides of the document (step S15).

At this time, if the determination is only for one side, the image reading control section 31 sends a document reversal control signal for reversing the front and back of the document to the DADF control section 33. Then, the DADF control unit 33 receives the document inversion control signal and reverses the front and back of the document (step S1).
6). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S12, and a series of processes for image reading and document determination described above are repeated.

If it is determined in step S15 that the determination has been made on both sides of the document, the image reading control unit 31
Receives a determination result transmitted from the ACS unit 39, and sends a switching control signal to the transport path switching control unit 40 so as to select a predetermined document transport path in accordance with the determination result. Specifically, the image reading control unit 31 first
Upon receiving the determination result from the CS unit 39, it is determined whether both sides of the document are black and white determination (step S17).

At this time, if both sides of the document are determined to be black and white, a switching control signal for guiding the document sent from the image reading device 12 to the black and white document storage device 15 is sent to the transport path switching control section 40. Upon receiving the switching control signal, the transport path switching control unit 40 operates the transport path switching unit 1 such as a clutch.
Then, the document conveying path 17 is switched to the conveying path for the black-and-white document (step S18). As a result, the document sent from the automatic document feeder 14 is transferred to the transfer path switching unit 1.
The document is stored in the black-and-white document storage device 15 by sorting by step 8 (step S19).

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step S17 is that both sides of the document are not black and white, that is, if at least one side (one side or both sides) is a color document, the image reading control unit 31 Automatic document feeder 1
A switching control signal for guiding the original sent from the printer 4 to the color original storage device 16 is sent.

In response to the switching control signal, the transport path switching control section 40 drives the transport path switching section 18 such as a clutch to switch the original transport path 17 to the color original transport path (step S20). As a result, the documents sent from the automatic document feeder 14 are stored in the color document storage device 16 by sorting by the transfer path switching unit 18 (step S21).

In this processing example, it is determined whether the original is a black-and-white original or a color original for both sides of the original, and if at least one side is a color original, the original is stored in the color original storage device 16. However, a determination may be made as to whether a document is a monochrome document or a color document on only one side of the document, and the document may be sorted based on the determination result. As a result, the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus such as a color copier equipped with an automatic document feeder having no reversing function.

As described above, in an image forming apparatus such as a color copier, whether a document is a color document or a monochrome document is determined based on image information read from the document, and a color document and a monochrome document are determined based on the identification result. Equipped with a document separation device that sorts documents, color documents and black-and-white documents can be automatically separated, which can significantly reduce the man-hours required for the conventional manual separation process. Since the separation can be performed with high accuracy, the quality of the recycled paper can be significantly improved.

In particular, since the image reading apparatus 12 and the automatic document feeder (DADF) 14 which are originally provided in the image forming apparatus are used, a slight change is made or some functions are added. Thus, an original forming apparatus can be configured by simply performing the above operation, so that an image forming apparatus such as a color copier including a book original separating apparatus can be realized at low cost.

In the above embodiment, the case where the image forming apparatus such as a color copying machine is provided with the document separating apparatus has been described as an example. However, it is also possible to configure the document separating apparatus itself. In this case, as an example, a configuration in which the document storage device is disposed below the image reading device can be considered.

As shown in FIG. 6, an automatic document feeder (DADF) 14 is disposed above an image reading device 12 for reading image information of a document, and a black and white document storage device 15 and Arrange the color document storage device 16,
A black-and-white document and a color document are separated in the automatic document feeder 14 in accordance with the identification result based on the read information from the document, and the separated document is sent out from the right and left sides of the drawing of the device 14 respectively. The document is stored in the document storage device 15 and the color document storage device 16.

The other is, as shown in FIG. 7, an automatic document feeder 14 disposed above the image reading device 12,
A black-and-white document storage device 15 and a color document storage device 16 are arranged below the device, and a document sent from the automatic document feeder 14, for example, from the right side of the drawing is placed between the image reading device 12 and the document storage devices 15 and 16. The black-and-white document is separated from the color document by the black-and-white document storage device 15 while being guided to the formed conveyance path 17 and appropriately driving the conveyance path switching unit 18 in accordance with the identification result based on the read information from the document. The document is stored in the document storage device 16.

As described above, even in the case where the document separating apparatus is used alone, the color document and the black and white document can be automatically separated in the same manner as when the image forming apparatus is mounted on a color copying machine or the like. Therefore, the man-hour required for the sorting process, which has conventionally been a manual operation, can be greatly reduced, and the sorting can be realized with high accuracy, so that the quality of the recycled paper can be significantly improved.

In this embodiment, the image reading device 1
2, the black and white document storage device 15 and the color document storage device 16 are arranged. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. The storage device 15 and the color document storage device 16 may be arranged adjacent to the image reading device 12 in order.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Based on the image information read from the original, the original is identified as a color original or a black-and-white original, and the color original and the black-and-white original are sorted based on the identification result. Can be performed automatically, so that the man-hour required for the separation process, which has conventionally been a manual operation, can be greatly reduced, and the separation can be realized with high accuracy, so that the quality of the recycled paper can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus such as a color copier including a document sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an example of an internal mechanism of the image reading apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an entire system of the document sorting apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a specific configuration example of an ACS unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a series of operations for document separation.

FIG. 6 is an external view illustrating a configuration example of a document sorting apparatus.

FIG. 7 is an external view illustrating another configuration example of the document sorting apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 image reading device, 14 automatic document feeder (DAD)
F), 15: monochrome document storage device, 16: color document storage device, 18: transport path switching unit, 28: photoelectric conversion element, 3
1: image reading control unit, 38: image processing unit, 39: ACS
Department

Claims (3)

[Claims] A reading unit that reads image information of the document; an identification unit that identifies whether the document is a color document or a black and white document based on the image information read by the reading unit; A document separation apparatus, comprising: a sorting unit that sorts the document into a color document and a black and white document. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reading unit reads image information on both sides of the document, and the identifying unit identifies the document as a color document when the determination based on the image information on at least one side is a color determination. Item 4. The document sorting apparatus according to Item 1. 3. The document sorting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sorting unit switches the destination of the document after being read by the reading unit based on the identification result of the identification unit.