JP2010220108A - Image reader and method of reading images - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform intermittent reading operation while stopping a reading carriage temporarily in reading manuscript images, in an image reader that makes motor drive control while precluding intervention of the CPU as much as possible, based on preset motor drive patterns. <P>SOLUTION: An image reader has: image reading means that reads manuscripts; a motor that drives the image reader in a sub scanning direction; and motor controller that generates motor drive pulses for driving the motor, and writes image data obtained by the image reader into the memory. The motor controller determines whether a first reading distance in the preset sub scanning direction based on the memory capacity is read by the image reader. When it is determined that the first reading distance is read, the operation of the image reader is controlled to be stopped temporarily. The problems are solved thereby. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus such as a copying apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, and an image reading apparatus having a scanner processing unit having a stepping motor.

  Conventionally, in an image reading apparatus, a stepping motor is used as a drive source such as a reading carriage for reading an original. The stepping motor can accurately control the moving speed and moving amount of the reading carriage, and can freely change the moving direction of the optical system constituting the reading carriage. Therefore, the stepping motor is used for scanning a light source constituting a reading carriage, an optical system such as a mirror, and moving a lens.

  The driving of the stepping motor described above is always controlled by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that controls the apparatus or the entire system. Therefore, the conventional stepping motor control method has a problem that the load of software processing by the CPU is large. Therefore, as a method of not directly controlling by the CPU, a stepping motor drive pattern is set in advance, and the motor control unit or the like controls the motor according to the drive pattern, thereby reducing the load of software processing by the CPU. There is a known technique (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Here, the CPU load reduction method in Patent Document 1 will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of a conventional image reading apparatus. An image reading apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 reads a document, reads a carriage 200, a stepping motor 300 that drives the reading carriage 200, a motor drive circuit 400 that drives the stepping motor 300, and a motor drive circuit 400. The motor control unit 500 outputs necessary motor control signals, the CPU 600 controls the motor control unit 500, and the RAM 700 stores pulse data necessary for motor acceleration / deceleration.

  After the CPU 600 outputs a reading start command, the motor control unit 500 refers to the RAM 520 storing the reference table corresponding to the drive pattern of the stepping motor 300 by the motor pulse generation unit 510 and sends it to the motor drive circuit 400. In response to this, a motor control signal is output.

  However, in Patent Document 1 described above, for example, in order to reduce costs, a memory overflow occurs by temporarily stopping an image reading operation of a document in an apparatus that does not have an image memory capacity corresponding to the maximum reading size of one page. The intermittent reading operation for preventing the above was not taken into consideration. Therefore, it has been impossible to perform intermittent stop control in which the reading carriage during document reading is temporarily stopped according to the free space of the memory in which the read image data is written.

  In the intermittent reading operation described above, the CPU controls the driving of the motor while checking the free space of the memory, and controls the image reading operation of the document. Therefore, in the above-described method for controlling the motor by a motor control unit or the like based on a preset driving pattern in the prior art and minimizing the CPU processing and reducing the software processing load by the CPU, the intermittent reading operation is performed. Could not be realized.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points. In an image reading apparatus that performs motor drive control by eliminating the intervention of a CPU as much as possible based on a preset motor drive pattern, during document image reading, An object of the present invention is to provide an image reading apparatus and an image reading method that perform an intermittent reading operation by temporarily stopping a reading carriage.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image reading means for reading an original, a motor for driving the image reading means in a sub-scanning direction, and a motor control means for generating a motor drive pulse for driving the motor. An image reading apparatus for writing image data obtained from the image reading means into a memory, wherein the motor control means performs a first reading in a sub-scanning direction set in advance based on a capacity of the memory. It is determined whether or not a distance has been read by the image reading unit, and when it is determined that the first reading distance has been read, control is performed to temporarily stop the operation of the image reading unit. .

  The present invention can also be configured as an image reading method.

  According to the present invention, in an image reading apparatus that performs motor drive control by eliminating the intervention of the CPU as much as possible based on a preset motor drive pattern, the reading carriage is temporarily stopped during the original image reading to perform intermittent reading operation. It can be performed.

It is a figure which shows an example of the functional block of the conventional image reading apparatus. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the image reading apparatus according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the motion of the conventional reading carriage. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of movement of a reading carriage in the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the drive pattern of the motor in a reading carriage. It is a figure which shows an example of the functional block of the image reading apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the image reading apparatus according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the image reading apparatus 10 is configured to include a motor 30 that moves the reading carriage 20, a motor driving circuit 40, a motor control unit 50, a CPU 60, and a RAM 70.

  A reading carriage 20 as an image reading unit includes a reading sensor such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and a CIS (Contact Image Sensor), a light source such as an illumination lamp that illuminates the document, and a mirror that guides reflected light from the document. And an optical system such as a lens that collects the reflected light guided to the reading sensor, and scans the entire original by moving at least one of the original and the reading carriage relatively in the sub-scanning direction. Read as image information.

  The motor 30 is configured by a stepping motor or the like, and drives and moves the reading carriage 20 that reads the document in the sub-scanning direction with respect to the document.

  The motor drive circuit 40 is a circuit that outputs a drive current for driving the motor 30.

  The motor control unit 50 controls driving of the motor 30 by sending a motor driving pulse necessary for driving the motor 30 to the motor driving circuit 40. The motor control unit 50 is configured to include a motor pulse generation unit 51, a RAM 52, a motor drive pulse counter 53, an intermittent transition setting register 54, and a reading distance determination unit 55.

  The motor pulse generator 51 generates a motor drive pulse while referring to the drive pattern data stored in the RAM 52 in accordance with a reading start command or reading restart command from the CPU 60 or an intermittent transition command from the reading distance determination means 55. The generated pulse is sent to the motor drive circuit 40.

  A motor drive pulse number counter 53 as a pulse number measuring unit counts the number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction that the reading carriage 20 has completed reading when reading a document. Further, the motor drive pulse number counter 53 resets the counted value every time the reading carriage 20 is intermittently stopped temporarily, and starts again from “0” when the reading carriage 20 resumes reading when the reading of the document is resumed. .

  Note that the motor drive pulse number counter 53 may use, for example, a reading width designation signal (FGATE signal) in the sub-scanning direction as a count start reference for the number of motor drive pulses at the start of document reading. As a result, it is possible to accurately count the number of motor drive pulses until the transition to intermittent stop is made.

  The intermittent transition setting register 54 stores an intermittent transition pulse setting value that is a first motor drive pulse setting value. The intermittent transition pulse setting value is from when reading is started when the reading carriage 20 starts reading a document, or when reading is resumed after reading is resumed after a temporary stop, until shifting to intermittent stop where reading of the document is temporarily stopped. This is the number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction read by the reading carriage 20.

  As a specific operation, the reading carriage 20 performs an intermittent stop that temporarily stops when the reading from the leading edge of the document to the set intermittent transition pulse set value is completed. In addition, when the CPU 60 or the like receives a reading resumption command, the reading is resumed, and when the reading is completed again to the intermittent transition pulse set value, the intermittent stop is temporarily stopped.

  The intermittent transition pulse set value is set based on the converted reading distance by converting the amount of image data that can be accumulated into the reading distance in the memory capacity for writing the image data of the read original. Specifically, the intermittent transition pulse setting value is set by setting a readable reading distance (first reading distance) according to the amount of image data writable in the memory capacity mounted in the image reading device 10. The read distance is a value converted into the number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction read by the reading carriage 20.

  In other words, the first reading distance is set in advance according to the amount of data not exceeding the memory capacity, based on the memory capacity mounted in the image reading apparatus 10 and the data amount of the image data to be written.

  Note that the first reading distance is changed by changing the reading distance and changing the intermittent transition pulse setting value in accordance with the amount of read data changed depending on the resolution at the time of reading the document, the color, monochrome, and image quality of the document. Can do. The intermittent transition pulse set value can be changed by multiplying the reference intermittent transition pulse set value by a preset numerical value N.

  For example, when the resolution varies depending on the apparatus, the intermittent transition pulse setting value is changed for each apparatus by multiplying the reference intermittent transition pulse setting value by a numerical value N preset by the resolution. Further, the intermittent transition pulse setting value is changed by multiplying the reference intermittent transition pulse setting value by a preset numerical value N, for example, according to user settings such as original color, monochrome reading setting, and reading resolution setting. . With this configuration, it is possible to easily change the intermittent transition pulse set value from the reading of a document set in advance to the transition to intermittent stop.

  The reading distance determination unit 55 includes a motor driving pulse number comparison unit 551. The reading distance determination unit 55 stores in advance the motor driving pulse number measured by the motor driving pulse number counter 53 and the intermittent transition setting register 54 during document reading of the reading carriage 20. Compare with the set intermittent transition pulse set value. The motor drive pulse number comparison means 551 determines that the first reading distance has been read when the measured motor drive pulse number matches the intermittent transition pulse set value, and intermittently pauses the reading carriage 20. An intermittent transition command for shifting to a stop is output to the motor pulse generator 51.

  The CPU 60 performs control of the motor control unit 50, control of a system in a scanner, a copying machine, and the like, image processing, and the like. The CPU 60 transfers the drive pattern data of the motor 30 to the motor pulse generation unit 51 of the motor control unit 50 at the initial setting stage such as when the apparatus is started up or when returning from energy saving, and the intermittent transition setting register of the motor control unit 50 54, the intermittent transition pulse set value is transmitted. Further, the CPU 60 sends a reading start command for causing the reading carriage 20 to start reading a document to the motor pulse generation unit 51.

  Further, the CPU 60 confirms the free space of the memory in which the image data of the read original is written, and when the predetermined free capacity is confirmed, the CPU 60 issues a read resume instruction of the original to restart the reading carriage 20 once stopped. It is sent to the motor pulse generator 51.

  The RAM 70 stores pulse data necessary for acceleration / deceleration in driving the motor 30.

  It should be noted that instead of the motor drive pulse number counter 53 described above, the reading line number counter 22 mounted on the reading carriage 20 may be used to count the number of reading lines on which the reading carriage 20 has finished reading the document. good. In this case, the intermittent transition setting register 54 described above stores the first reading distance described above instead of the intermittent transition pulse setting value as the intermittent transition reading line setting value in terms of the number of reading lines.

  In addition, the reading distance determination unit 55 uses the reading line number comparison unit 552 instead of the motor drive pulse number comparison unit 551 to read the number of reading lines measured by the reading line number counter 22 and the intermittent transition setting register 54. The set intermittent transition reading line setting value is compared, and when the measured number of reading lines matches the intermittent transition reading line setting value, an intermittent transition command may be output to the motor pulse generation unit 51. .

<Overview of operation>
The motor pulse generation unit 51 of the motor control unit 50 first stores the motor drive pattern data sent from the CPU 60 in the RAM 52 built in the motor control unit 50 at the initial setting stage such as when the apparatus is activated.

  Next, the motor pulse generation unit 51 refers to the data stored in the RAM 52 in accordance with a reading start command or reading restart command from the CPU 60 or an intermittent transition command from the reading distance determination means 55 after the initial setting is completed. The motor drive pulse is generated while the drive pulse is sent to the motor drive circuit 40 to control the drive of the motor 30.

  The motor drive pulse number counter 53 counts the number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction that has already been read when the reading carriage 20 reads the document.

  The motor drive pulse number comparison means 551 of the reading distance determination means 55 compares the value counted by the motor drive pulse number counter 53 with the intermittent transition pulse setting value set in the intermittent transition setting register 54. When the counted number of motor drive pulses matches the intermittent transition pulse set value, the reading distance determination unit 55 issues an intermittent transition command for shifting to an intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the reading operation in the reading carriage 20. It is sent to the pulse generator 51.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, the reading distance determination unit 55 compares the number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction that the reading carriage 20 has already read with the preset intermittent transition pulse setting value, If the two match, an intermittent transition command is output to the motor pulse generator 51.

  When the motor pulse generation unit 51 receives an intermittent transition command from the reading distance determination unit 55, the motor pulse generation unit 51 shifts to an intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the reading carriage 20 with respect to the motor drive circuit 40 while referring to the drive pattern stored in the RAM 52. To generate a motor drive pulse for transmitting the generated motor drive pulse.

  As a result, in order to perform an intermittent reading operation according to the capacity of the mounted memory, it is possible to implement a function of shifting to the intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the reading operation of the reading carriage 20 by hardware instead of the CPU 60.

  As described above, the reading carriage 20 may be provided with the reading line number counter 22 serving as the reading line number measuring unit, and the reading distance determining unit 55 may include the reading line number comparing unit 552. In this case, the reading distance determination unit 55 outputs an intermittent transition command to the motor pulse generation unit 51 when the measured number of reading lines matches a preset intermittent transition reading line setting value. Functions can also be realized.

<Example of Movement of Conventional Reading Carriage>
Here, in order to compare with the movement of the reading carriage in the present embodiment, an example of the movement of the conventional reading carriage will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of movement of a conventional reading carriage.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a thick arrow represents a movement of the reading carriage that performs a reading operation from the leading end of the document toward the trailing end of the document.

  3 and FIG. 4 to be described later, the horizontal axis indicating the movement of the reading carriage indicates the reading direction. This horizontal axis shows the movement of the reading operation actually performed on the same line, but in order to clearly explain the operation of the present embodiment, the position will be shifted up and down.

  Further, there are a switchback method and a non-switchback method in the intermittent stop operation in which the reading carriage stops once during document reading, and the operation shown in FIG. 3 is an example of the switchback method.

  Here, the switchback method is to stop the reading carriage once after returning it in the direction opposite to the reading direction before the intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the reading carriage, and to accelerate again in the reading direction when reading the document again. This is a method for returning to reading. In addition, the non-switchback method is a method in which the reading carriage is simply paused, and when the reading of the document is resumed, the reading carriage is accelerated again from the stopped position.

  In the conventional example shown in FIG. 3, the CPU outputs a document reading start command to the motor controller and the like, and after the reading carriage starts reading the document, the CPU constantly monitors the free space of the memory. That is, in the conventional example, when the CPU executes software processing and determines that the read data is written in the memory and the memory free space has reached a predetermined free space, a stop command for shifting to intermittent stop is issued to the motor. The data is output to the control unit and the reading carriage is temporarily stopped.

  Further, after the reading carriage is temporarily stopped, the CPU executes software processing, monitors the memory capacity, and determines whether or not a predetermined free capacity has been created in the memory. When the CPU determines that a predetermined free space has been secured, the CPU outputs a reading resume command to the motor control unit or the like, and resumes reading of the document by the reading carriage.

  As described above, conventionally, the CPU constantly monitors the free space of the memory and controls the driving of the stepping motor to temporarily stop the reading carriage according to the free space of the memory. The processing load was heavy.

<Example of Movement of Reading Carriage in First Embodiment>
Next, an example of the movement of the reading carriage in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of movement of the reading carriage in the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a driving pattern of a motor in the reading carriage.
The movement of the reading carriage indicated from point A to point H in FIG. 4 is associated with the motor drive pattern from point A to point H in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when a document reading start command is output from the CPU 60, the reading carriage 20 moves from point A to point B in FIG. As shown from point A to point B in FIG. 5, the moving speed of the reading carriage 20 is a period during which acceleration is continued to a predetermined speed.

  From point B to point C shown in FIG. 4, the reading carriage 20 is moved from the leading end of the document in the document reading direction. As shown from point B to point C in FIG. 5, the moving speed of the reading carriage 20 is a period during which the reading carriage 20 is at a constant speed, and the reading carriage 20 reads a document during this constant speed period. In the first embodiment, an intermittent transition pulse set value corresponding to the capacity of the mounted memory is set in advance during this document (image) reading period.

  When the count of the motor driving pulse number in the sub-scanning direction in which the reading carriage 20 has completed reading of the document coincides with the intermittent transition pulse set value during the document reading period, the reading distance determination unit 55 causes the motor pulse generation unit 51 to In response, an intermittent transition command is output.

  4 is a period during which the reading carriage 20 moves while decelerating from a constant speed, as indicated by points C to D in FIG. The motor pulse generation unit 51 generates a motor drive pulse for temporarily stopping the reading carriage 20 while referring to the drive pattern stored in the RAM 52 according to the intermittent transition command, and sends the generated motor drive pulse to the motor drive circuit 40. Output. Thereby, the reading carriage 20 is decelerated from a constant speed as described above.

  The points D to E shown in FIG. 4 are periods in which the reading carriage 20 is temporarily stopped, as shown from points D to E in FIG. Further, points E to F shown in FIG. 4 are periods in which the reading carriage 20 accelerates in the direction opposite to the reading direction of the document as shown from points E to F in FIG. Further, points F to G shown in FIG. 4 are periods in which the reading carriage 20 is temporarily stopped as shown from points F to G in FIG.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, an intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the reading carriage 20 is executed, and an intermittent reading operation for temporarily stopping the image reading operation is realized. The CPU 60 confirms the free space of the memory and, when determining that a predetermined free space has been secured, sends a read restart command to the motor pulse generation unit 51.

  The motor pulse generator 51 generates a motor drive pulse for causing the reading carriage 20 to restart reading while referring to the drive pattern stored in the RAM 52 in accordance with the read restart command, and the generated motor drive pulse is output to the motor drive circuit. Output to 40. Thereby, the reading carriage 20 resumes the reading operation. 4 is a period during which the reading carriage 20 moves while accelerating in the document reading direction to resume reading, as indicated by points G to H in FIG.

  In the case of the switchback method described above, the area from point G to point H that has already been read at the time of the first reading is not actually counted as the number of motor drive pulses when the second reading is resumed. The reading carriage 20 may count from the H point at which reading starts, or the number of pulses counted from the G point to the H point may be subtracted at the H point.

  Thereafter, the above processing is repeated until the end of the document.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, after the CPU 60 outputs the reading start command, the intermittent distance command is output by the reading distance determination means 55 of the motor control unit 50, so the CPU 60 always stores the memory. There is no need to monitor, and the burden on the CPU 60 is reduced.

<Second Embodiment>
Next, functional blocks of the image reading apparatus according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the image reading apparatus according to the second embodiment. In the image reading apparatus 11 shown in FIG. 6, the same parts as those of the image reading apparatus 10 in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 6, in the image reading apparatus 11, the motor control unit 50 is provided with a motor drive pulse total number counter 53 </ b> B and a reading end setting register 54 </ b> B, and the motor driving pulse total number comparison unit is included in the reading distance determination unit 55. 551B is newly provided.

  A motor drive pulse total number counter 53B serving as a pulse number measuring unit provided in the motor control unit 50 counts the total number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction that have been read when the reading carriage 20 reads a document. Further, the motor drive pulse total number counter 53B resets the counted value every time the reading carriage 20 completes reading of the document and returns to the initial standby position, and the reading carriage 20 reads the document. The count starts again from “0” at the start of reading.

  The reading end setting register 54B stores a reading end pulse setting value that is a second motor drive pulse setting value. The reading end pulse setting value is the total number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction read by the reading carriage 20 from the start of reading when the reading carriage 20 starts reading the document to the end of reading when the reading of the document ends.

  Note that the reading end pulse setting value is set in advance based on the reading distance (second reading distance) set according to the size of the original, the original reading range designated by the user, and the like. Specifically, the second reading distance is a reading distance from a reading start position read by the reading carriage 20 to a reading end position, for example, a distance from the document leading edge to the document trailing edge shown in FIG.

  The motor drive pulse total number comparison means 551B provided in the reading distance determination means 55 calculates the value between the value counted by the motor drive pulse total number counter 53B and the read end pulse set value set in the read end setting register 54B. Compare.

  The motor drive pulse total number comparison means 551B reads the second reading distance in the reading carriage 20, that is, reads the original when the total motor driving pulse count and the reading end pulse set value match. Judge that it is finished.

  When the motor drive pulse total number comparison means 551B determines that the reading of the document has been completed, the motor drive pulse total number comparison means 551B sends a reading end command for shifting the reading carriage 20 from the reading operation to the carriage return operation to the motor pulse generator 51. To do.

  The motor pulse generator 51 sends a drive pulse for causing the reading carriage 20 to perform a carriage return operation to the motor drive circuit 40 in accordance with a read end command from the motor drive total pulse number comparison means 551B to drive the motor.

  The reading carriage 20 is provided with a reading line total number counter 22B, the reading distance determining means 55 of the motor control unit 50 is provided with a reading line total number comparing means 552B, and the reading end setting register 54B is set with the document size, resolution, and the like. It is also possible to store a reading end line setting value which is the total number of reading lines determined accordingly.

  In this case, the total reading line counter 22B of the reading carriage 20 counts the total number of reading lines that have been read since the reading carriage 20 started reading the document.

  The reading line total number comparing means 552B provided in the reading distance determining means 55 compares the value counted by the reading line total number counter 22B with the reading end line setting value set in the reading end setting register 54B, and both If they match, it is determined that the reading of the document has been completed. When the reading line total number comparing unit 552B determines that the reading of the document has been completed, the reading line total number comparing unit 552B sends a reading end command for shifting the reading carriage 20 from the reading operation to the carriage return operation to the motor pulse generation unit 51.

  The motor pulse generator 51 sends a drive pulse for causing the reading carriage 20 to perform a carriage return operation to the motor drive circuit 40 in accordance with a read end command from the motor drive total pulse number comparison means 551B to drive the motor.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, the reading distance determination unit 55 compares the total number of motor drive pulses in the sub-scanning direction that the reading carriage 20 has already completed reading with a preset reading end pulse setting value. When the two coincide, a reading end command is output to the motor pulse generator 51. As a result, the function of causing the reading carriage 20 to perform a carriage return operation is realized by hardware instead of processing by the CPU.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in the image reading apparatus that performs motor drive control by eliminating the intervention of the CPU as much as possible based on a preset motor drive pattern, the reading carriage is temporarily stopped during document image reading. Thus, intermittent reading operation is realized.

The invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the preferred embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to that described in the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Is possible.

10, 11, 100 Image reading device 20, 200 Reading carriage 22, 22A Reading line number counter 22B Reading line total number counter 30, 300 Stepping motor 40, 400 Motor drive circuit 50, 500 Motor control unit 51 Motor pulse generation unit 52, 70,700 RAM
53, 53A Motor drive pulse number counter 53B Motor drive pulse total number counter 54, 54A Intermittent transition setting register 54B Reading end setting register 55 Reading distance determination means 60, 600 CPU
551, 551A Motor drive pulse number comparison means 551B Motor drive pulse total number comparison means 552, 552A Read line number comparison means 552B Read line total number comparison means

JP 2002-272185 A

Claims (11)

An image reading unit that reads a document, a motor that drives the image reading unit in a sub-scanning direction, and a motor control unit that generates a motor drive pulse for driving the motor, and are obtained from the image reading unit. An image reading device for writing the image data to a memory,
The motor control means includes
When it is determined whether the first reading distance in the sub-scanning direction set in advance based on the capacity of the memory is read by the image reading unit, and when it is determined that the first reading distance is read, An image reading apparatus which controls to temporarily stop the operation of the image reading means.   The motor control means determines whether or not a second reading distance in the sub-scanning direction set in advance according to a reading range including the size of the document has been read by the image reading means, and the second reading distance The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when it is determined that the reading distance has been read, the operation of the image reading unit is controlled to end.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first or second reading distance is set based on a number of motor driving pulses generated by the motor control unit. The motor control means includes
The number of pulses measured from the reading start time of the document by the pulse number measuring means for measuring the motor driving pulse and the interval from the preset document reading start time to the intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the reading of the document. The first motor driving pulse setting value is compared, and when the number of pulses measured from the original reading start time coincides with the first motor driving pulse setting value, the operation of the image reading means is temporarily performed. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image reading apparatus is controlled to stop. The motor control means means
The total number of pulses measured from the reading start time of the document by the pulse number measuring means for measuring the motor driving pulse and a second motor drive from the preset document reading start time to the end of reading the document. The pulse setting value is compared, and when the total number of pulses measured from the original reading start time coincides with the second motor drive pulse setting value, the operation of the image reading unit is terminated. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image reading apparatus is controlled.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first or second reading distance is set based on the number of reading lines read by the image reading unit. An image reading unit that reads a document, a motor that drives the image reading unit in a sub-scanning direction, and a motor control unit that generates a motor drive pulse for driving the motor, and are obtained from the image reading unit. An image reading method in an image reading apparatus that writes image data to a memory,
It is determined whether the first reading distance in the sub-scanning direction preset by the motor control means based on the capacity of the memory is read by the image reading means, and the first reading distance is read. An image reading method comprising: a control procedure for controlling to temporarily stop the operation of the image reading means when it is determined.   The control procedure determines whether or not a second reading distance in the sub-scanning direction set in advance according to a reading range including the size of the document has been read by the image reading unit, and the second reading The image reading method according to claim 7, wherein when it is determined that the distance has been read, the operation of the image reading unit is controlled to end. The control procedure is:
The number of pulses measured from the document reading start time by the pulse number measurement procedure for measuring the motor drive pulse and the preset time from the document reading start time to the intermittent stop for temporarily stopping the document reading. 1 is compared with the motor driving pulse setting value, and when the number of pulses measured from the original reading start time coincides with the first motor driving pulse setting value, the operation of the image reading means is temporarily stopped. The image reading method according to claim 7, wherein the image reading method is controlled. The control procedure is:
The total number of pulses measured from the document reading start time measured by the pulse number measuring procedure for measuring the motor drive pulse, and a second motor from the document reading start time to the document reading end set in advance. The drive pulse set value is compared, and when the total number of pulses measured from the start of reading the document matches the second motor drive pulse set value, the operation of the image reading unit is terminated. The image reading method according to claim 8, wherein the image reading method is controlled.   9. The image reading method according to claim 8, wherein the first or second reading distance is set based on the number of reading lines read by the image reading unit.

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