JP3213206B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus having a function of transmitting data corresponding to a document image via a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a facsimile apparatus of this kind, a facsimile apparatus corresponding to a document image based on various parameters has been proposed.
Binary data creating means for creating value data, facsimile sending means for sending the created binary data via a communication line, and image forming for forming an image on recording paper based on the created binary data Means are provided. In this type of facsimile apparatus, a so-called facsimile transmission process of transmitting the binary data to another facsimile apparatus via a communication line, or driving an image forming means based on the binary data to copy an original image on a recording sheet. A so-called copying process can be executed.

[0003]

However, the image forming means includes a laser irradiating means for irradiating the photosensitive drum with a laser beam according to the binary data, and an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum by the laser beam. A so-called laser printer type having developing means for forming a toner image on recording paper in accordance with an image; a so-called thermal transfer type in which an ink ribbon is heated and pressed against recording paper in accordance with binary data; There are various types such as a so-called bubble jet type in which ink is ejected onto recording paper in accordance with the type. Even when the same binary data is input, the density of the image may change depending on the type of the image forming unit.

For example, a thermal transfer type image forming means tends to have a faint image compared to a laser printer type image forming means. For this reason, in a facsimile apparatus equipped with a laser printer type image forming means, when the same binary data as in the case of executing the above-described copying process is transmitted to another facsimile apparatus equipped with a thermal transfer type image forming means, The image reproduced by the thermal transfer type facsimile apparatus may be faint. In this case, it is effective to change the above parameters to the side where the image becomes darker at the time of fax transmission. Conversely, if a facsimile machine equipped with a laser printer type recording unit is the mainstream and the facsimile device is equipped with a thermal transfer type recording unit, the above parameter is changed to a side where the image becomes lighter at the time of fax transmission. It is effective to do.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus which can reproduce reproduced images at the same density.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

[0007]

[0008]

A first aspect of the present invention has been made to achieve the above object.
The described invention includes an irradiating unit that irradiates the original with light, a light receiving unit that receives reflected light or transmitted light from the original corresponding to the light irradiated by the irradiating unit, and a light receiving amount of the light receiving unit. A binarizing unit for generating binary data by comparing the binary data with a predetermined threshold value; a facsimile transmitting unit for transmitting the generated binary data via a communication line; A facsimile apparatus having an image forming means for forming an image on a recording sheet based on the facsimile apparatus. The facsimile apparatus further comprises a contrast changing unit that differs from the facsimile apparatus.

[0010]

[Action and effect of the invention]

[0011]

[0012]

[0013]

[0014]

[0015] In the first aspect of the present invention, light is irradiated to the original by irradiating means, receiving the reflected light or transmitted light from the original corresponding to the irradiated light by the light receiving unit, the received light amount Is compared with a predetermined threshold value by binarizing means to generate binary data. In this case, when the irradiation light amount of the irradiation unit is reduced, the light reception light amount is reduced as a whole, the portion determined to be black increases, and the reproduced image becomes darker. Conversely, when the irradiation light amount is increased, the reproduced image becomes faint.

Therefore, in the present invention, the contrast changing means determines the irradiation light amount of the irradiating means out of the parameters, in a case where a so-called facsimile transmitting process is performed on the binary data by the facsimile transmitting means, This is different from the case where so-called copying processing is performed on the data by the image forming means. Therefore, even when the format of the image forming means is different between the facsimile machine and the facsimile machine to which the binary data is to be transmitted, the original image reproduced by the facsimile transmission process and the original image reproduced by the copy process are compared. The shading can be matched. Therefore, the density of the image reproduced at the time of the fax transmission process and at the time of the copy process can be easily made the same.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a facsimile apparatus 2 according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an internal mechanism thereof.

Note that the facsimile apparatus 2 of the present embodiment
A facsimile transmission function for reading an image from a document 4 (see FIG. 2) and transmitting the image data to another facsimile apparatus via a telephone line, and a function for transmitting image data transmitted from another facsimile apparatus via a telephone line. It has a facsimile reception function of receiving and forming an image on recording paper, and a copying function of forming an image on recording paper based on image data read from the document 4.

As shown in FIG. 1, a handset 12 is attached to a side of a main body 10 of the facsimile apparatus 2, and an operation panel 14 is provided at a front portion of an upper surface. A recording paper cassette 16 (see FIG. 2) is provided at the rear of the upper surface of the main body 10.
A cassette mounting portion 18 for detachably mounting the cassette is formed, and a document table 20 is formed at the center of the upper surface.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the main body 10 has a scanner section 22 for reading an image from a document 4 placed on a document table 20 and an image on a recording paper 24 stored in a recording paper cassette 16. A recording unit 26 for forming the image forming apparatus, and a control unit 70 for controlling the driving of these units to realize the above functions are built in.

In the scanner section 22, the originals 4 placed on the original table 20 are taken in one by one by a paper feed mechanism including a paper feed roller 32 and a separation pad 31. Then, the document 4 is transported to the document support plate 34 by the transport rollers 33, and the image on the front surface (the lower surface in FIG. 2) is read by the image reading device 35 arranged below the document support plate 34. The document 4 after the image reading is discharged to a discharge tray 37 provided on the front surface of the main body 10 via a discharge roller 36.

The image reading device 35 irradiates the original 4 on the original supporting plate 34 with light from a light source 38, reflects light reflected from the original 4 by mirrors 39 and 40, and furthermore, a line image by a lens 41. It is well known that a document image is read line by line by condensing the light on the light receiving surface of the sensor 42. A document sensor 44 for optically detecting whether or not the document 4 is set on the document table 20 is provided on a path from the document table 20 to the paper feed roller 32. Is provided with a leading edge sensor 46 that optically detects the passage of the leading edge of the document 4 when the document 4 starts to be conveyed by the paper feed roller 32. Further, the feed roller 32, the transport roller 33, and the discharge roller 36 are connected to a pulse motor 48.
(See FIG. 3) through a gear mechanism (not shown).

On the other hand, in the recording section 26, the recording paper cassette 1
The recording paper 24 accommodated in the printer 6 is fed one by one by a paper feed mechanism including a paper feed roller 51 and a separation pad 52. Then, the recording paper 24 is sent to the image forming unit 55 via the transport roller 53, and the toner image is formed in the image forming unit 55. The recording paper 24 on which the image has been formed is sent to a fixing device 56, where the toner image is fixed by the fixing device 56, and then, via a discharge roller 57, a discharge tray provided on the front surface of the main body 10. It is discharged to 58. The fixing device 56 includes a heating roller and a pressing roller, and fixes the toner image on the recording paper 24 by heating and pressing the recording paper 24.

The image forming section 55 includes a photosensitive drum 61
A laser beam scanning device 62 for irradiating the photosensitive drum 61 with laser light to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface thereof; and a developing device 63 for attaching toner to the photosensitive drum 61 after the electrostatic latent image is formed.
And a transfer device 65 having a transfer roller 64 for applying a charge to the recording paper 24 and transferring the toner attached to the photosensitive drum 61 to the recording paper 24. The laser light scanning device 62 further includes: A laser emitting unit 67 that emits laser light in accordance with a command from the control unit 70, a lens 68 for condensing laser light, and a reflection mirror 69 that guides the laser light condensed by the lens 68 to the photosensitive drum 61 are provided. .

That is, the recording unit 26 is configured as a so-called laser printer, and forms an image on the recording paper 24 in accordance with a command from the control unit 70. Next, the control unit 70 for controlling the above-described units is configured as shown in FIG. The control unit 70 controls the scanner unit 22 in response to various commands such as a copy command of the document 4 and a facsimile transmission command input by the user operating the operation panel 14, and controls the scanner unit 22 or the scanner unit 22. The CPU 80, the ROM 82, and the RAM 84 control the recording unit 26 based on data transmitted from a telephone line described later.
As a well-known microcomputer.

The control unit 70 has a network control unit (NCU) for connecting an external telephone line to the apparatus and enabling communication and transmission / reception of image data with another telephone or facsimile apparatus. 86, and N
A modem 88 for transmitting and receiving image data to and from another facsimile machine via the CU 86;
The CPU 80 also executes communication control for transmitting image data to another facsimile device via a telephone line and receiving image data transmitted from another facsimile device via a telephone line.

The CPU 80, ROM 82, RAM 8
The NCU 86, the modem 88 and the modem 88 are connected to each other via a bus 89. The bus 89 allows input / output of data to / from the scanner unit 22, the operation panel 14, the recording unit 26, and the like. The input / output port 90 is also connected.
The above-mentioned receiver 12 and a speaker for calling are connected to the NCU 86, and calls with other telephones can be made via the receiver 12.

Next, the original image reading process in the scanner section 22 of the facsimile apparatus 2 of the present embodiment will be described in detail. When the facsimile transmission command or the copy command is input via the operation panel 14 after the document 4 is placed on the document table 20, the CPU 80 controls the scanner unit 22 as follows to read the image of the document 4. First, when the above command is input, the CPU 80 drives the pulse motor 48 to rotate the rollers 32 to 36 to convey the document 4 after the processing described later. When the leading edge sensor 46 detects the leading edge of the document 4, the CPU 80 further drives the pulse motor 48 by a predetermined pulse to dispose the leading edge of the document 4 at a position facing the light source 38 (hereinafter referred to as a reading position). The light source 38 emits light. Then, the reflected light from the document 4 at the reading position is input to the line image sensor 42.

After this, the CPU 80 continues to drive the pulse motor 48. Then, the reflected light from the surface of the document 4 is sequentially received by the line image sensor 42. The line image sensor 42 transmits to the CPU 80 a signal corresponding to the amount of received reflected light. The CPU 80 compares the amount of received light transmitted from the line image sensor 42 with a predetermined threshold and binarizes the received light data.

Here, prior to the description of the present embodiment,
A process of the reference example for understanding the description will be described. Ginseng
The considered example, at the time of input of the facsimile transmission command and the time of the copy command input, is made different the threshold. For this reason,
When a fax transmission command is input and a copy command is input,
The data after binarization changes as follows. For example, FIG.
When the signal M1 transmitted from the line image sensor 42 is binarized by using a low threshold value L1 for copying, as shown in FIG. When binarization is performed using a high threshold value L2 for fax transmission, the portion determined as black as shown in FIG. If the thresholds are changed in this way, the binary data transmitted to the other facsimile apparatus by the facsimile transmission command is stored in the recording unit 2
6 can correspond to a darker image than the binary data used when performing the copying process.

In order to realize this, the CPU 80 inputs the above-mentioned facsimile transmission command or copy command in FIG.
The processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. When the process is started, the CPU 80 first determines in S10 whether the input is a facsimile transmission command or a copy command. When a copy command is input, a copy parameter (threshold value L1) is set in S30, and when a fax transmission command is input, a send parameter (threshold value L2) is set in S50. After setting, the process proceeds to S70. In step S70, as described above, the pulse motor 48 and the light source 38 are driven, and the line image sensor 4
After executing the document image reading process for binarizing the signal transmitted from the second, the process is temporarily terminated.

As a result of this processing, as described above, the data is transmitted to another facsimile apparatus by the facsimile transmission command.
The value data can correspond to a darker image than the binary data used when the recording process is performed by the recording unit 26. Currently, the mainstream facsimile apparatus is provided with a thermal transfer type recording unit. For this reason,
In the facsimile apparatus 2 of this embodiment including the laser printer type recording unit 26, when the same binary data as in the case of executing the copying process is transmitted to another facsimile apparatus,
There is a high possibility that the image reproduced by the facsimile apparatus becomes faint.

[0033] In contrast, in the present embodiment, the binary data to be transmitted to another facsimile apparatus by facsimile transmission command, from the binary data used when performing copy processing by the recording unit 26, the dark image It is assumed that it corresponds. For this reason, even if the transmission destination of the fax transmission processing has a recording section of a thermal transfer type, the density of the reproduced image can be made the same as that of the image obtained by the copying processing.

In the above embodiment, the light source 38 serves as an irradiating means, the line image sensor 42 serves as a light receiving means, the control section 70 serves as a binarizing means and a contrast changing means, and
NCU86 to the FAX transmission unit, the recording unit 26 the image forming means, the laser beam scanning device 62 is a laser irradiation device, a developing device 63 and the transfer device 65 to the developing unit, it corresponds.

[0035] In the reference example are changing control the threshold in binarization as the parameters, in this embodiment
Changes control the irradiation light amount of the light source 38 as the parameters.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the signal M1 transmitted from the line image sensor 42 when the high irradiation light amount for copying is set is equal to the signal M1 when the low irradiation light amount for fax transmission is set. Takes a higher value than the signal M2 transmitted from Therefore, the signal M1
When the signal M2 is binarized using the threshold value L1 and the signal M2 is binarized using the threshold value L1, (B) ), The number of portions determined to be black becomes relatively large.

For this reason, in the present embodiment, in the flowchart of FIG.
In S50, a low irradiation light amount for fax transmission is set . Even in this case, substantially the same operation and effect as in the above-described reference example can be obtained. In this case, the processing of the CPU 80
Of these, the process of comparing the signal M1 with the threshold L1 is a binary data
The processing of S30 and S50 in FIG.
This is processing corresponding to the trust change means.
However, when the irradiation light amount is reduced at the time of facsimile transmission, power consumption can be saved, but on the other hand, there is a possibility that the sharpness of the reproduced image is reduced.

Further, in the above you施例, but by changing the above parameters during facsimile transmission to the side on which the image is darker, the control is provided with a recording unit 26 the facsimile apparatus 2 of the laser printer type Example This is particularly effective when a general facsimile apparatus having a thermal transfer type recording unit is mainly used. Therefore, conversely, if the facsimile apparatus provided with a laser printer type recording unit is the mainstream, and the facsimile apparatus of the embodiment is provided with a thermal transfer type recording unit, the above-described parameter is faded during fax transmission. It is effective to change it to

Further, if the format of the recording unit of the destination facsimile machine is known, the format is stored in the RAM 84 together with the speed dial, and the above parameters are set according to the destination facsimile machine. May be configured. In this case, be provided with a recording portion of which forms the destination of the facsimile apparatus, Ru can be played in the same shade as when copying the transmission image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an internal mechanism of the facsimile apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit configuration of the facsimile apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a change in binary data due to a change in a threshold value.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating processing by a CPU according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a change in binary data due to a change in irradiation light amount.

[Explanation of symbols]

2: Facsimile machine 4: Original
14 operation panel 16 recording paper cassette 20 document platen
22: Scanner unit 24: Recording paper 26: Recording unit
35 image reader 38 light source 42 line image sensor 44 document sensor 48 pulse motor 55 image forming unit
56: fixing device 61: photosensitive drum 62: laser beam scanning device
63: developing device 65: transfer device 70: control unit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-87316 (JP, A) JP-A-5-300335 (JP, A) JP-A-5-316350 (JP, A) JP-A-6-316 268865 (JP, A) JP-A-4-44464 (JP, A) JP-A-2-260972 (JP, A) JP-A-63-278467 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/40-1/409 H04N 1/04-1/195

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An irradiating means for irradiating the original with light; a light receiving means for receiving reflected light or transmitted light from the original corresponding to the light irradiated by the irradiating means; A binarizing means for generating binary data by comparing the binary data with a predetermined threshold value; and F for transmitting the generated binary data via a communication line
An facsimile apparatus comprising: an AX transmission unit; and an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording sheet based on the created binary data.
A facsimile apparatus comprising a contrast changing means for making a difference between a case where processing is performed by an X transmission means and a case where processing is performed by the image forming means.