JP2019198020A - Image reading device, image reading device control method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To reduce time from job start to job end thereby to reduce unnecessary waiting time for users, while enabling blank paper determination at a setting level desired by users.SOLUTION: A CPU 250 of a reader 200 sequentially reads image data from multiple originals to store in a RAM 251. The CPU 250 performs blank paper determination of image data stored in the RAM 251 by using a blank paper determination section 258, and restricts image data, blank paper determination results of which indicate a blank, not to be sent to a controller 400, the blank paper determination results corresponding to a user-set determination level acquired from the controller 400.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 9

Description

  The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus that reads image information recorded on a document, a control method for the image reading apparatus, and a program.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as an image reading apparatus applied to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile, an apparatus capable of reading images on both sides of a document at once has been developed. The purpose of this is to increase the document reading throughput and reduce the possibility of damage or breakage of the document being transported without complicating the transport path.

  Also, an increasing number of image reading apparatus hardware is equipped with an image memory that temporarily stores an image read from a document. As a result, the read image can be stored in the image memory, so that the original is read regardless of the state of the subsequent image processing apparatus, and the image stored in the image memory is transferred in response to a request from the image processing apparatus. Is possible.

In addition, image reading apparatuses are becoming more sophisticated.
In the copying machine described in Patent Document 1, a technique has been proposed in which it is determined whether or not a read original is a blank sheet, and contents other than the blank sheet are transferred to the subsequent stage.

  Also, in Patent Document 2, when there is a blank page in the scanned document, the scanned image and the blank page detection result are transmitted from the scanner to the main body of the image processing apparatus, and the main body side sets the blank page determination level of the user for the received image. Based on this, a technique for handling pages other than blank pages has been proposed. As a result, it is possible to perform user-desired blank page determination according to the original.

JP 2010-41541 A JP2015-56708A

  In the technique of Patent Document 1, by not transferring a blank image, it is possible to reduce the time for transferring the image to the subsequent stage (printer, controller, etc.) and to reduce the time from the start to the end of the job. . However, the technique of Patent Document 1 has a constant determination level of blank sheet detection, and cannot perform determination at a determination level desired by the user. For this reason, there is a possibility that the blank page determination of the content desired by the user is not performed. For example, even if dust or small dirt adhering to a document may be ignored and judged as blank paper, it may be judged as not blank paper. In this case, since these images are also transferred to the image processing apparatus body at the subsequent stage, waiting time unnecessary for the user increases. On the contrary, if it is determined that the page is blank even though a small character or the like is described, the corresponding image is not transferred to the image processing apparatus main body at the subsequent stage. For this reason, there is a possibility that page missing occurs and the reading result is not desired by the user.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, since the level of blank page determination can be set, blank page determination desired by the user can be performed. However, all of the read document images are transferred to the image processing apparatus main body at the subsequent stage regardless of whether or not they are blank. For this reason, the time from the start to the end of the job cannot be reduced, and the user's waiting time includes unnecessary time for transferring the blank image. In such a situation, the user not only feels that the waiting time from the start to the end of the job is long, but also feels the time lag from the end of the document reading to the end of the job, and the actual waiting time Sometimes it felt longer than time.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism capable of reducing the time from the start to the end of a job and reducing unnecessary waiting time of a user while enabling blank sheet determination at a setting level desired by the user. .

  The present invention provides reading means for reading image data from a document, storage means for storing image data read by the reading means, and processing means for processing image data stored in the storage means. A determination unit capable of executing determination at a plurality of determination levels whether or not the image data stored in the storage unit is image data of a blank document. Acquisition means for acquiring the set determination level, and image data indicating that the determination result of the determination means corresponding to the determination level acquired by the acquisition means indicates a blank document is transmitted to the processing means by the communication means. And control means for limiting the above.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the time from the start to the end of the job and reduce unnecessary waiting time for the user while enabling blank sheet determination at a setting level desired by the user.

Schematic sectional view of an image reading apparatus showing the present embodiment Control block diagram of an image processing apparatus provided with the image reading apparatus of the present embodiment A diagram for explaining a setting screen for selecting whether or not to perform blank page determination The figure explaining the blank page judgment level setting screen for setting the blank page judgment level The figure which shows an example of the blank sheet determination result by a blank sheet determination part The figure which shows an example of the original document which determines blank paper in this embodiment The figure which shows the blank page determination result of each original document shown in FIG. Timing chart showing the time relationship between document reading, image transfer, and blank page determination Flow chart explaining blank page determination and transmission information processing

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[Image reading device and automatic document feeder]
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of the configuration of an image reading apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a control block configuration of an image processing apparatus including the image reading apparatus according to the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, an image reading apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “reader”) 200 according to the present embodiment is provided with an automatic document feeder (hereinafter referred to as “ADF”) 100.
As shown in FIG. 2, the reader 200 includes a reader control unit 240 that is a control unit of the reader 200. The reader control unit 240 is communicably connected to the controller 400. The controller 400 corresponds to a control unit of an image processing apparatus (not shown) including the reader 200 (for example, an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile). The image processing apparatus is not limited to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a facsimile machine, and may be any apparatus as long as it can process image data read by the reader 200. It may be composed of

  In the reader controller 240, the CPU 250 performs various controls of the reader 200 and the ADF 100, and measures time by a timer (not shown). The ROM 252 stores programs executed by the CPU 250 and data. The RAM 251 stores input data and work data temporarily saved by a program executed by the CPU 250. The document front side reading unit 230, the document back side reading unit 255, the shading memory 253, the shading correction unit 254, the shading correction coefficient generation unit 257, and the blank page determination unit 258 will be described later.

  In the controller 400, the CPU 401 controls the above-described image processing apparatus (not shown), performs various controls of the reader 200 through data transmission / reception with the CPU 250, and measures time by a timer (not shown). Do. The ROM 402 stores programs executed by the CPU 401 and data. The RAM 403 stores input data and work data temporarily saved by a program executed by the CPU 401. The CPU 401 of the controller 400 and the CPU 250 of the reader control unit 240 are configured to be communicable via the data transmission unit 290. The CPU 250 of the reader 200 can sequentially transmit the image data sequentially read from the original and stored in the RAM 251 to the controller 400 via the data transmission unit 290.

  The operation accepting unit 404 is an operation panel provided in the above-described image processing apparatus, and the user inputs an image reading instruction and various settings at the time of image reading (including blank sheet determination level setting described later) Used to display information. The CPU 401 transmits various settings at the time of image reading, an instruction to start an image reading job, and the like to the reader 200 in accordance with user settings and instructions input from the operation receiving unit 404 or instructions from the reader 200.

[Reading process by scanner unit]
As shown in FIG. 1, for reading a document on the platen glass 202 of the reader 200, an optical scanner unit (also referred to as “front surface scanner unit”) 209 scans in the sub-scanning direction indicated by an arrow A in FIG. Then, the original image information is optically read. For the original on the ADF 100, the optical scanner unit 209 is moved to the original reading position in the vicinity of the ADF 100 original reading platen glass 201, and the original S on the original tray 30 is conveyed one by one. At the original reading position. The size of the document set on the document tray 30 is detected by size detection sensors 32 and 33, a guide plate (not shown), and the like.

The optical system for reading a document includes a document flow reading glass 201, a platen platen glass 202, a scanner unit 209, folding mirrors 205 and 206, a lens 207, and a CCD sensor unit 210. The scanner unit 209 is provided with a light source lamp 203 and a folding mirror 204. Note that a portion including the scanner unit 209, the folding mirrors 205 and 206, the lens 207, the CCD sensor unit 210, and the like is also referred to as a document surface reading unit 230. Image information read from the document by the document surface reading unit 230 is photoelectrically converted and input to the controller 400 as image data (details will be described later).
The back side of the original is read by the back side scanner unit (also referred to as “original back side reading unit”) 255 through the back side platen glass 220.

  The front reference white plate 219 is a white plate for creating white level reference data for the shading process for reading the front image. The reader 200 performs the shading correction by moving the front scanner unit 209 to a position immediately below the front reference white plate 219 and reading the front reference white plate 219 immediately after the start of the document image reading job. Here, shading correction for surface image reading will be described. Based on the color information (color image / black-and-white image) of the specified image reading, the CPU 250 reads the reference white plate 219 for the front surface with the setting suitable for the color information, and shades the read data. This is input to the correction coefficient generation unit 257. The shading correction coefficient generation unit 257 generates and outputs a shading correction coefficient for reading the surface image of the document based on the input read data. The CPU 250 stores the shading correction coefficient for surface image reading output from the shading correction coefficient generation unit 257 in the shading memory 253. The shading correction unit 254 performs a shading process on the surface image of the document S read by the document surface reading unit 230 using the shading correction coefficient for reading the surface image stored in the shading memory 253.

  For the back side, the back side platen glass 220 includes a back side reference white plate 221. The back side platen glass 220 is configured to be driven in the sub-scanning direction by a motor (not shown). The reader 200 moves the back side reference white plate 221 to the back side reading position immediately after the start of the document image reading job, and performs back side shading correction by reading the back side reference white plate 221. Here, shading correction for backside image reading will be described. As in the case of the front side, the CPU 250 reads the back side reference white plate 221 by the back side scanner unit 255 with settings suitable for the color information, and inputs the read data to the shading correction coefficient generation unit 257. The shading correction coefficient generation unit 257 generates and outputs a shading correction coefficient for reading the back side image of the document based on the input read data. The CPU 250 stores the shading correction coefficient for reading the back image output from the shading correction coefficient generation unit 257 in the shading memory 253. The shading correction unit 254 performs a shading process on the back side image of the document S read by the document back side reading unit 255 using the shading correction coefficient for reading the back image stored in the shading memory 253.

[Single-sided document image reading from ADF]
Hereinafter, single-sided document image reading processing using the ADF 100 will be described.
When a document image reading job is started for a single-sided document by the ADF 100, the front scanner unit 209 moves to a position directly below the front reference white plate 219, and shading is performed. After the shading is performed, the front scanner unit 209 moves to a position directly below the flow reading glass 201 and waits until the original reaches the reading position.

  When the conveyance of the document S is started, in the ADF 100, the sheet feed roller 1 falls on the document surface of the document S and starts rotating, and the sheet feed roller 1 reaches the uppermost document sheet surface. As a result, the uppermost document in the document bundle is fed. Note that when feeding the top document one by one from the document tray 30 on which the document S composed of one or more document sheets is loaded one by one, there is a double feeding phenomenon in which a plurality of documents are overlapped and fed. It may happen. In order to prevent this double feed phenomenon, the ADF 100 uses the separation roller 2 and the separation pad 8 to perform separation processing. The document fed and conveyed by the sheet feeding roller 1 is separated into one sheet by the action of the separation roller 2 and the separation pad 8. Since this separation processing operation is realized by a well-known separation processing technique, detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The original separated by the separation roller 2 and the separation pad 8 is conveyed to the registration roller 3 and abutted against the registration roller 3, and the original conveyance is temporarily stopped. When the document is temporarily stopped, the document is further conveyed in a state of being abutted against the registration roller 3, whereby a part of the document tip is raised upward to form a space (loop). In this way, a loop is formed on the leading end side of the document, and skew feeding during document conveyance is eliminated. On the downstream side of the registration roller 3, there is a pre-document reading roller 4, which conveys the document in a direction near the platen reading platen glass 201.

  The document conveyed downstream of the registration roller 3 is sent to the roller 4 before document reading. Further, it passes through the pre-document reading roller 4 and is sent to the document reading position of the document flow reading platen glass 201 in the vicinity of the document reading platen roller 5. Here, the leading edge of the document is detected by the lead sensor 14 in order to detect the position of the leading edge of the document reading when it is transported to the document reading position of the document flow reading platen glass 201. The distance between the ON timing of the read sensor 14 and the original reading position of the original flow reading platen glass 201 is counted by a clock of a conveyance motor (not shown) which is a driving source of the original document reading roller 4 and the original reading platen roller 5. As a result, the document reading position on the document flow reading platen glass 201 is accurately measured, and the timing of passing the measured document reading position is determined as the document image leading edge reference position on the document surface. Based on the determined document image leading edge reference, the scanner unit 209 captures an image on the document surface and reads it. The captured image is temporarily stored in the RAM 251 of the reader control unit 240 until it is transferred to the controller 400.

  When the trailing edge of the original is detected by the post-separation sensor 12, the presence / absence detection sensor 16 of the original on the original tray 30 is detected. Presence / absence information of the next document detected by the document presence / absence detection sensor 16 is notified to the controller 400. As the document is conveyed, the trailing edge of the document passes through the separation roller 2, registration roller 3, pre-document scanning roller 4, document scanning platen roller 5, and document scanning roller 6 in this order, and the document sensor 15 detects the trailing edge of the document. Is detected. With this timing as a trigger, the paper discharge sensor 15 discharges from the paper discharge roller 7 to the document discharge tray 31 after a predetermined time when the trailing edge of the post-document image is detected. End.

  Note that, except for reading only the set number of sheets in the job settings, basically, document feeding, document image capture, and document ejection are repeated as described above until there are no more documents on the document tray 30. When the reader 200 detects the no-document state when the trailing edge of the document is detected by the post-separation sensor 12, the reader 200 determines that the document being conveyed is the final document, and the final document is discharged to the document discharge tray 31. Wait for When the final document is discharged, the reader 200 stops the transport motor that is a driving source of each roller, returns the paper feed roller 1 to the original position, and ends the document reading job.

[Double-sided document scanning]
Next, the double-sided reading process of the document will be described.
Similar to single-sided document processing, the document is fed in order of document feed start, separation processing, skew correction processing, and paper discharge processing. In order to perform the double-sided simultaneous reading process, it is necessary to prepare for the front side image reading including the shading process by the original surface reading unit 230 and the back side image reading preparation including the shading process by the original back side reading unit 255 before reading the original. The back platen glass 220 is driven in the sub-scanning direction by a motor (not shown), the back reference white plate 221 is stopped at the back reading position, and shading reference data is created. Thereafter, the back plantain glass 220 is returned to the original position, and then reading of the original image on the back side is started.

  The timing for starting reading is the distance between the ON timing of the read sensor 14 and the distance between the document reading position of the back platen glass 220, and the clock of a transport motor (not shown) serving as a drive source for the document reading roller 4 and the document reading platen roller 5. Count by. As a result, the document reading position on the back platen glass 220 is accurately measured, and the timing of passing the measured document reading position is determined as the document image leading edge reference position on the document back surface. Based on the determined document image leading end reference, the document back side scanning unit 255 performs the back side scanning image capture of the document. The captured image is temporarily stored in the RAM 251 of the reader control unit 240 until it is transferred to the controller 400.

[Blank Judgment Processing]
The reader 200 uses the blank page determination unit 258 to perform blank page determination of an image read from the document. Blank sheet determination is performed mainly using a histogram of input image data and edge detection. In the histogram generation, a histogram is generated for each divided region according to a predetermined sampling pitch. With edge detection, it is possible to determine content with light colors that are difficult to distinguish with a histogram alone. Edge detection of input image data is performed for each divided area in accordance with a predetermined sampling pitch, and pixels detected as edges are detected for each divided area. To count. The blank page determination unit 258 performs blank page determination based on the threshold values of the histogram and edge detection, and performs final blank page determination from the histogram determination and the blank detection result of edge detection. In the present embodiment, the determination is performed by integrating the number of detections per predetermined unit of main scanning.

  For this blank page determination, whether or not blank page determination is performed and the level of blank page determination can be set from the operation reception unit 404. The setting information is transmitted from the controller 400 to the reader 200 via the data transmission unit 290, and can be used by the reader 200. Specifically, the CPU 401 of the controller 400 receives settings for whether or not blank page determination is performed, a blank page determination level, and the like by the operation reception unit 404 and stores them in the RAM 403. Thereafter, if necessary, the CPU 250 of the reader control unit 240 receives setting information from the CPU 401 of the controller 400 through the data transmission unit 290 and stores the setting information in the RAM 251 so that the reader 200 can use it. In the present embodiment, the blank page determination unit 258 can execute blank page determination processing on image data at a plurality of determination levels (for example, levels 1 to 5).

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a setting screen 700 for selecting whether or not blank sheet determination is performed in the present embodiment. Note that the setting screen 700 is displayed on the operation screen of the operation receiving unit 404 under the control of the CPU 401 in response to a user operation or placing a document on the document tray 30.

  When the user selects the OFF button 701 on the setting screen 700, the CPU 401 sets a mode in which the reader 200 does not perform blank page determination at all. When the user selects the ON button 702, the CPU 401 sets a mode in which the reader 200 performs blank sheet determination according to blank sheet determination level setting described later. When the user selects the detection level adjustment button 705, the CPU 401 changes the screen to a blank page determination level setting screen 500 shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a blank page determination level setting screen 500 for setting a blank page determination level in the present embodiment.
In the blank page determination level setting screen 500, a blank page determination level is set such that the lower the level adjustment button 501 is pressed (for example, “1” is set), the thinner the content or dirt is, the more difficult it is to determine that the page is blank. Conversely, as the level adjustment button 502 is pressed higher (for example, set to “5”), a blank page determination level is set that is more likely to be determined to be a blank page even if it has thin content or dirt. The level adjustment in this embodiment has five steps as an example, but is not limited to this.

Hereinafter, the relationship between the level setting and blank page determination will be described.
In the blank page determination unit 258, when performing blank page determination, the histogram and the threshold for edge detection are respectively defined according to the set level, and it is possible to determine whether or not the page is blank for each level. Regarding the blank page determination level, each level of 1 to 5 set by the level adjustment buttons 501 and 502 is set, and indicates which level of blank page determination result should be used. As an example, the blank page determination unit 258 performs this blank page determination at all five levels. An example of the determination result will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the blank page determination result by the blank page determination unit 258, and shows the relationship between the blank page determination level and the blank page determination result.
When the determination result is “00111”, it corresponds to the determination results 1 to 5 of the blank sheet determination level setting from the left in FIG. That is, the determination result of the blank page determination level “1” corresponds to the first “0” from the left of the determination result “00111”, and the determination result of the blank page determination level “2” corresponds to the second “0” from the left. Also, the judgment result of the blank page judgment level “3” is the third “1” from the left, the judgment result of the blank page judgment level “4” is the fourth “1” from the left, and the judgment result of the blank page judgment level “5” is This is the fifth “1” from the left. If the blank page determination result is “0”, it indicates “not blank”, and if the blank page determination result is “1”, it indicates “blank”. For example, when the blank page determination level “3” is set, the reader 200 uses the third “1” from the left of the determination result “00111” as the blank page determination result. In the present embodiment, the level of blank sheet determination results is described as five levels, but is not limited to five levels. Note that the blank sheet determination in the blank sheet determination unit 258 may be performed by performing the determination in all five stages, and then the CPU 250 may extract the determination result by collating with the set level. Alternatively, the blank sheet determination unit 258 may acquire one predetermined determination level and perform blank sheet determination only at the determination level.

Hereinafter, the blank sheet determination will be described using a specific example.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document that is determined to be blank in the present embodiment.
The manuscript (A) is an example of a complete blank manuscript with no content.
The document (B) is an example having content with a light color.
The document (C) is an example having dark content.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing blank sheet determination results in the main scanning direction on a certain sub-scanning line of the document (A), the document (B), and the document (C) shown in FIG. The horizontal axis represents the main scanning block (n), and the vertical axis represents the integrated value of the number of detections described above.

In the blank page determination of the present embodiment, the level is determined according to the integrated value of the detected number described above.
For example, at level “5”, it is determined that “blank paper” is determined when the detected number is less than a fifth threshold (for example, 9), and “non-blank” is determined when the detected number is equal to or greater than the fifth threshold. At level “4”, it is determined that “blank” is determined when the detected number is less than the fourth threshold (<5th threshold), and “non-blank” is determined when the detected number is the fifth threshold or more. At level “3”, it is determined that “blank paper” is determined when the detected number is less than the third threshold (<4th threshold), and “non-blank” is determined when it is equal to or greater than the third threshold. At level “2”, it is determined that “blank paper” is determined when the detected number is less than the second threshold (<third threshold), and “non-blank” is determined when the detected number is equal to or greater than the second threshold. At level “1”, it is determined that “blank” is determined when the detected number is less than the first threshold (<second threshold), and “non-blank” is determined when the detected number is equal to or greater than the first threshold.

  Since the document (A) is a complete blank sheet, the detection result in FIG. 7 shows a low value for the number of detections in any block. For this reason, it is determined that the sheet is “blank” at any level setting. Since the document (B) has thin content, in the detection result shown in FIG. 7, the value of the detected number is high in the block having the content. When this is compared with the level, in the case of level 3, since the detected number exceeds the threshold, it is determined that “content is present”, that is, “non-blank”. However, in the case of level 4 and level 5, since the detected number is less than the threshold value, it is determined that “no content”, that is, “blank”. Since the document (C) has a dark content, the detection result shown in FIG. 7 shows that the value of the detected number is very high in the block having the content. If it is compared with the level, the value exceeds the threshold value at any level, so it is determined as “content present”, that is, “non-blank”.

[Timing for blank page judgment and image transfer]
Hereinafter, the blank sheet determination timing will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing the time relationship between document reading, image transfer, and blank page determination.
FIG. 8 shows a case where the fourth original is read simultaneously on both sides.
The numbers described in the timing chart of FIG. 8 represent the number of reading surfaces. For example, if it is the first sheet, the front surface is the first surface, the back surface is the second surface, the second surface is the third surface, the back surface is the fourth surface, ..., the fourth surface is the seventh surface, the back surface is 8th face. That is, in the example of FIG. 8, the reader 200 reads four originals (a total of eight pages).

  As an example of a document to be read, numbers (third to fifth surfaces) surrounded by a circle “◯” correspond to a “completely blank document” such as the document (A) in FIG. 6 described above. In addition, the numbers (sixth to eighth surfaces) surrounded by a square “□” correspond to “originals having light-colored contents” such as the original (B) in FIG. 6 described above. In addition, the numbers (first and second surfaces) not surrounded by symbols correspond to “originals having dark color content” such as the original (C) of FIG. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that a completely blank document such as the document (A) is determined to be “blank” at any blank sheet determination level. In addition, in a document having a light color content such as document (B), it is determined as “non-blank” at the blank page determination level “3” and “blank” at the blank page determination level “5”. . Further, it is assumed that an original having a dark color content such as the original (C) is determined as “non-blank” at any blank page determination level.

  FIG. 8A shows only the document reading timing. In the front scanner unit 209 and the back scanner unit 255, the “read” state is set while the document passes through the reading position, and the “non-read” state is set in the other sections. Due to the configuration of the apparatus, first, the leading edge of the first document reaches the front scanner unit 209, and thus reading of the front surface (first surface) is started. In the middle of the process, the leading edge of the first document reaches the scanner unit for back surface 255, so that reading of the back surface (second surface) is also started. Thereafter, when the trailing edge of the document passes through the front scanner unit 209, the reading of the first side is terminated. Further, when the trailing edge of the document passes through the back side scanner unit 255, reading of the second side is terminated. If there is a next document after that, operate both scanner units again and scan the second page (3rd and 4th pages).

  Next, read image processing when the blank page determination is set to “OFF” by the OFF button 701 on the setting screen 700 will be described with reference to FIG. In this case, when the reading job is started, the reader 200 reads the document placed on the document tray 30 and accumulates the read image in the RAM 251. This reading and storing process can be performed up to the upper limit of the capacity of the RAM 251 even without an image reading request from the controller 400. When an image reading request is received from the controller 400, the reader 200 sequentially transfers document images stored in the RAM 251 to the controller 400 through the data transmission unit 290. When carrying out the transfer, information on whether or not to perform blank page determination set on the setting screen 700 is acquired in the RAM 251 as described above, and the process proceeds based on the information. When blank page determination is OFF, the blank page determination unit 258 does not need to perform blank page determination on the original image stored in the RAM 251.

  In the case of FIG. 8B, the reader 200 starts image transfer of the first page at a timing during the reading of the second document (third and fourth page). When the transfer of the first page is completed and the next image read request is received, the reader 200 starts transferring the second page stored in the RAM 251. When the original reading, storage, and image transfer are sequentially repeated and all the originals loaded on the original tray 30 are read and transferred, the job ends.

  FIG. 8C corresponds to the processing timing when blank page determination is set to ON in the setting screen 700 and the determination level is set to “3” on the blank page determination level setting screen 500. FIG. 8D corresponds to the processing timing when blank page determination is set to ON and the determination level is set to “5” on the setting screen 700, which will be described later.

The blank page determination and transmission information processing will be described below with reference to FIG.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining blank page determination and transmission information processing. The processing in this flowchart is realized by reading and executing a program stored in the ROM 252 or the like by the CPU 250 in the reader control unit 240.

  When a job including reading an original with the reader 200 is started, the CPU 250 starts the processing of this flowchart. In S1100, the CPU 250 determines whether to execute blank page determination (blank page determination execution information) set on the setting screen in FIG. 3 and the blank page determination level set on the setting screen in FIG. And stored in the RAM 251.

  In step S1101, the CPU 250 determines whether reading of the target document has been started. If it is determined that reading of the target document has not yet started (No in S1101), the CPU 250 waits until it has started.

On the other hand, when it is determined that reading of the target document has already started or has been started (Yes in S1101), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1102.
In S1102, the CPU 250 refers to the blank page determination execution presence / absence information stored in the RAM 251 to determine whether or not “perform blank page determination”. If it is determined that the blank page determination information is not “perform blank page determination” (No in S1102), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1120.

  In S1120, the CPU 250 determines whether an image transfer request signal from the controller 400 has been received. If it is determined that the image transfer request signal has not yet been received (No in S1120), CPU 250 waits until an image transfer request signal from controller 400 is received. If it is determined that the image transfer request signal has been received (Yes in S1120), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1121.

In S1121, the CPU 250 determines whether the image transfer is possible. If it is determined that the image transfer is not yet possible (No in S1121), the CPU 250 waits until the image transfer is possible. If it is determined that the image transfer is possible (Yes in S1121), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1122.
In S1122, the CPU 250 transmits the image data of the target document stored in the RAM 251 to the controller 400, and the process proceeds to S1109. The processing after S1109 will be described later.

  In S1102, if the CPU 250 determines that the blank page determination execution information stored in the RAM 251 is “perform blank page determination” (Yes in S1102), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1103.

  In S1103, the CPU 250 determines whether or not the target image is in a blank sheet determination start enabled state. It should be noted that the blank sheet determination start possible state indicates a state in which the timing reached by subtracting the blank sheet determination time for the size from the reading time calculated from the current reading speed and the read original size at the earliest. Note that this timing is not necessarily limited to this. What is necessary is that blank page determination is completed before image transfer. For example, blank page determination may be performed after document reading is completed. In the present embodiment, the latter will be described. An example of the relationship is shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, the timing at the dotted line 801 drawn from FIG. 8 (A) to FIG. 8 (C) after the completion of reading of the first side of the document is determined as a state in which the blank page determination of the read image of the first side can be started. Yes. Similarly, the timing of the dotted line 802 drawn from FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C after the completion of reading of the second side of the document is defined as a state in which blank sheet determination of the second side read image can be started. In the “blank page determination” described in FIGS. 8C and 8D, the timing in the “determination” state indicates the state in which the blank page determination is performed, and the “non-determination” state. Is a state where blank sheet determination is not performed.

If it is determined in S1103 that the target image is not ready to start blank page determination (No in S1103), the CPU 250 waits until the target image is ready to start blank page determination.
If it is determined that the blank sheet determination can be started (Yes in S1103), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1104.
In S1104, the CPU 250 performs blank page determination of the target image.
When the blank sheet determination in S1104 is completed, in S1105, the CPU 250 compares the blank sheet determination result with the blank sheet determination level acquired in S1100, and derives a final blank sheet determination result (blank sheet or non-blank sheet).

  In step S1106, the CPU 250 determines whether an image transfer request signal from the controller 400 has been received. If it is determined that the image transfer request signal has not been received yet (No in S1106), the CPU 250 waits until the image transfer request signal is received. If it is determined that the image transfer request signal has been received (Yes in S1106), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1107.

In S1107, the CPU 250 determines whether or not the result of S1105 is “blank paper”. If it is determined that the sheet is “blank” (Yes in S1107), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1108.
In S1108, the CPU 250 transmits information indicating that the corresponding document is a blank page, which is a blank page determination result, to the controller 400. At this time, the CPU 250 does not transmit the image data stored in the RAM 251. After transmitting the determination result, the CPU 250 advances the process to S1109.

On the other hand, when it is determined in S1107 that the result of S1105 is not “blank” (No in S1107), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1110.
In S1110, the CPU 250 determines whether or not the image transfer enabled state has been reached. It should be noted that the image transfer enabled state indicates a state in which the timing reached by subtracting the image transfer time corresponding to the size from the reading time calculated from the current reading speed and the read document size at the earliest.
If it is determined that the image transfer is not possible (No in S1110), the CPU 250 waits until the image transfer is possible. If it is determined that the image transfer is possible (Yes in S1110), the CPU 250 advances the process to S1111.
In S1111, the CPU 250 transmits the image data of the target document stored in the RAM 251 to the controller 400, and advances the process to S1109.

In S1109, the CPU 250 determines whether there is data to be transmitted next. This determination is made, for example, when there is a next original or whether the next image data is already stored in the RAM 251 or the like. If it is determined that there is the next object (Yes in S1109), the CPU 250 returns the process to S1101.
On the other hand, when it is determined in S1109 that there is no next object (No in S1109), the CPU 250 ends the process of this flowchart.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 8C, when the blank page determination is set to “ON” and the blank page determination level is set to “3”, as described above in S1105 in FIG. The read image of the face is determined as “non-white paper”. On the other hand, the read images on the third to fifth sides of the document are determined to be “blank paper”. In this case, the reader 200 transfers the read image for the first and second surfaces. In addition, regarding the third to fifth surfaces, the reader 200 does not transfer the read image, and transfers information indicating “blank” to the controller 400. In this way, by not transferring the read image determined to be “blank”, the transfer time corresponding to that can be omitted. Further, since the reader 200 is “non-blank” with respect to the sixth to eighth sides, the read image is transferred.

  By such control, FIG. 8C can shorten the transmission completion time (job end time) of data (image, information, etc.) to be transmitted, as compared with the case of FIG. 8B. . Although it depends on the state of the original to be read, in the case of FIG. 8C, as shown by 803 in FIG. 8, the image transfer for one original image + one half of the original image is performed as compared with the case of FIG. 8B. It is possible to shorten the time and the image request waiting time between the seventh and eighth surfaces.

Next, read image processing when blank page determination is turned on on the setting screen 700 and the determination level is set to “5” on the blank page determination level setting screen 500 will be described with reference to FIG.
When the determination level is set to “5”, the scanned images on the first and second sides of the document are determined as “non-blank” in S1105 of FIG. 9 as described above, and the third to fifth and sixth to eighth sides of the document are scanned. The image is determined to be “blank”. In this case, the reader 200 transfers the read image to the controller 400 for the first and second surfaces. However, with respect to the third to eighth surfaces, information indicating “blank” is transmitted to the controller 400 without transferring the read image to the controller 400. In this way, by not transferring the read image of the blank original, the transfer time corresponding to that can be omitted. With such a configuration, in FIG. 8D, it is possible to further shorten the transmission completion time of data (images, information, and the like) to be transmitted compared to FIG. In this example, as shown by reference numeral 804 in FIG. 8, compared to the case of FIG. 8B in which blank page determination is OFF, in this example, image transfer is performed for two original images and half of the original image. It is possible to shorten the time and the image request waiting time (2 sheets) between the 6th and 8th screens.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the blank page determination process is performed according to the blank page determination level setting, and when the read document is a blank page, the corresponding document image is transferred to the controller 400. Is omitted. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the time from the start to the end of the job and reduce unnecessary waiting time for the user while enabling blank sheet determination at a setting level desired by the user.

Even when an error or the like occurs on the reader 200 side, notification of the error or the like can be transmitted from the reader 200 side to the controller 400 side without unnecessary waiting time.
For example, the first sheet is “Non-Blank” on both sides, the second and third and fourth sheets are all “Blank”, and a paper jam (also called “jam”) occurs in the middle of the fourth sheet (7th and 8th pages). ) Occurs. In this case, in the case of the conventional configuration in which the image data of the blank original is transmitted to the controller 400, the jam notification is transmitted to the controller 400 after all the image data on the first to sixth sides are transmitted to the controller 400. For this reason, the time lag from when the paper jam occurs until the jam notification is displayed on the display screen of the operation reception unit 404 is increased.

  On the other hand, in the configuration of the present embodiment, transmission of the image data on the 3rd to 6th pages is skipped because it is a blank document, and instead, the controller 400 is notified of the blank page determination result on the 3rd to 6th pages, and then the jam notification is sent to the controller 400. Will be sent to. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the time lag from when a paper jam occurs until the jam notification is displayed on the display screen of the operation reception unit 404 as compared with the conventional case.

  As described above, the CPU 250 of the reader 200 sequentially reads image data from a plurality of documents and stores the image data in the RAM 251 sequentially. Further, the CPU 250 performs blank page determination of the image data stored in the RAM 251 using the blank page determination unit 258. Then, the CPU 250 restricts the image data indicating that the blank page determination result corresponding to the user-set determination level acquired from the controller 400 indicates a blank document from being transmitted to the controller 400. With this configuration, it is possible to perform blank page determination and blank page handling in consideration of the blank page determination level set by the user in the image reading apparatus, and until the user completes desired blank page determination and transfer of the read image to the subsequent stage. It is possible to reduce the time required for both.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above. In addition, the effects described in the embodiments of the present invention only list the most preferable effects resulting from the present invention, and the effects of the present invention are not limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention.

In addition, the structure of the various data mentioned above and its content are not limited to this, You may be comprised with various structures and content according to a use and the objective.
Although one embodiment has been described above, the present invention can take an embodiment as, for example, a system, apparatus, method, program, or storage medium. Specifically, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus composed of a single device.
Moreover, all the structures which combined said each embodiment are also contained in this invention.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or apparatus read and execute the program This process can be realized. It can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.
Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications (including organic combinations of the embodiments) are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are excluded from the scope of the present invention. is not. That is, all the configurations in which the above-described embodiments and modifications thereof are combined are also included in the present invention.

200 readers
250 CPU
258 Blank paper judgment section
400 controller
404 Operation reception

Claims (7)

A reading unit that reads image data from a document, a storage unit that stores image data read by the reading unit, and image data stored in the storage unit can be sequentially transmitted to a processing unit that processes the image data. An image reading apparatus having communication means,
Determination means capable of determining whether or not the image data stored in the storage means is image data of a blank document at a plurality of determination levels;
Obtaining means for obtaining a set judgment level;
Control means for restricting transmission to the processing means by the communication means for image data in which the determination result of the determination means corresponding to the determination level acquired by the acquisition means indicates a blank document;
An image reading apparatus comprising:   When the determination result of the determination unit corresponding to the determination level acquired by the acquisition unit indicates a blank document, the control unit transmits the determination result to the processing unit by the communication unit. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the acquisition unit acquires the determination level via the communication unit. The determination means determines each of the plurality of determination levels for one image data,
The said control means acquires the determination result corresponding to the determination level acquired by the said acquisition means from the determination result each determined by the said determination means, The any one of Claims 1-3 characterized by the above-mentioned. Image reading apparatus.   The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit performs determination based on the determination level acquired by the acquisition unit. A reading unit that reads image data from a document, a storage unit that stores image data read by the reading unit, and image data stored in the storage unit can be sequentially transmitted to a processing unit that processes the image data. A method for controlling the image reading apparatus having communication means,
A determination step capable of determining whether or not the image data stored in the storage means is image data of a blank document at a plurality of determination levels;
An obtaining step for obtaining a set judgment level;
A step of restricting transmission to the processing means by the communication means for image data in which the determination result in the determination step corresponding to the determination level acquired in the acquisition step indicates a blank document;
An image reading apparatus control method comprising:   A program for causing a computer to execute the control method according to claim 6.