JP7428212B2 - printing device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a printing device.

2. Description of the Related Art Printing devices that print desired designs on fingernails and the like are conventionally known (for example, see Patent Document 1).
In this type of printing device, a print target such as a nail inserted into a housing is photographed while being illuminated, and an area to be printed (for example, the range of the nail) is recognized based on the obtained image.

Special table 2017-521225 publication

However, if the illumination light is simply applied directly to the printing object, high-intensity light reflected from the surface of the printing object and surrounding members will enter the photographing camera. As a result, overexposure may occur, and the range to be printed may not be accurately recognized.

The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and an object of the present invention is to improve the recognition accuracy of an object to be photographed.

The printing device of the present invention includes:
printing means,
a photographing means for photographing the printing target of the printing means;
Illumination means that includes a light source and a diffusion section that diffuses the light from the light source, and illuminates the object to be photographed by the photographing means;
a locking part that locks the printing target;
Equipped with
The illumination means illuminates the object to be photographed with light diffused by the diffusion section,
At least a portion of the locking portion is subjected to a surface treatment that diffuses light.
It is characterized by

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the recognition accuracy of an object to be photographed.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external configuration of main parts of a printing device according to an embodiment. It is a figure showing the finger fixation part concerning an embodiment, and (a) is a perspective view of the finger fixation part periphery, and (b) is a side view of the finger fixation part in the state where a finger is arranged. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment in a plane perpendicular to the front-rear direction. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the support member according to the embodiment viewed from below. 4 is an enlarged view of the vicinity of the lighting unit in FIG. 3. FIG. 1 is a control block diagram showing a schematic control configuration of a printing device and a terminal device according to an embodiment. FIG. It is a figure showing the modification of the lighting unit concerning an embodiment.

An embodiment of a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7.
Note that, although various technically preferable limitations for carrying out the present invention are attached to the embodiments described below, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments and illustrated examples.
Furthermore, in the following embodiments, a case will be explained in which the printing device is a nail printing device that prints on the fingernails of the hand as an example, but the printing device in the present invention prints on the fingernails of the hand. The printing target is not limited to nails, for example, toenails may be printed. Furthermore, objects other than nails may be printed, such as nail tips and the surfaces of various accessories.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the main parts of the printing apparatus 1, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a finger fixing section 6, which will be described later.
In the following embodiments, up and down, left and right, and front and rear refer to the directions shown in FIG. 1. Further, the X direction refers to the left-right direction, and the Y direction refers to the front-rear direction.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing device 1 has a housing 2 formed in a substantially box shape.
The housing 2 has an opening 21 formed on the lower part of the front side (the front side of the printing device 1) over almost the entire surface in the left-right direction (the lateral direction of the printing device 1, the X direction). There is. Further, a notch portion 22 is formed in a substantially central portion of the casing 2 in the left-right direction so as to be continuous above the opening portion 21 . The cutout portion 22 functions as an entrance/exit when a print head 41, which will be described later, is attached to and detached from the apparatus.
Further, an operation section 13 is provided on the upper surface (top plate) of the housing 2. The operation unit 13 is, for example, an operation button (power switch button) for turning on/off the power of the printing apparatus 1.

A device main body 10 is housed inside the casing 2 .
The device main body 10 includes a base 11, a finger fixing section 6 attached to the base 11, a printing section 40, a photographing section 50, and the like.

The printing unit 40 is a printing unit that prints on the nail that is the printing target.
The printing unit 40 includes a print head 41 that performs a printing operation, and an X-direction movement motor 46 and a Y-direction movement motor 48 (see FIG. 6) for moving the print head 41.

The print head 41 of this embodiment has an ink ejection surface (none of which is shown) equipped with a plurality of nozzle orifices for ejecting ink on the lower surface facing the nail surface, which atomizes the ink into fine droplets. This is an inkjet head that prints by spraying ink directly onto the nail surface from the ejection surface. Although the configuration of the print head 41 is not particularly limited, in this embodiment, it is a cartridge-integrated head in which an ejection mechanism such as an ink ejection surface and an ink cartridge are integrated.
The print head 41 is capable of ejecting, for example, cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) ink.

The X-direction movement motor 46 moves the print head 41 in the left-right direction (X direction) of the apparatus, and the Y-direction movement motor 48 moves the print head 41 in the front-rear direction (Y direction) of the apparatus. be.

The finger fixing unit 6 is disposed approximately at the center of the base 11 in the left-right direction (X direction) on the front side of the device, and is used to place a finger with a nail to be printed (printing finger) within an area suitable for printing. Fix it.
The finger fixing part 6 has an opening 61 on the front side of the device. Further, a finger fixing member 62 is provided inside the finger fixing section 6. The finger fixing member 62 pushes up and supports the finger inserted from the opening 61 from below, and is made of, for example, flexible resin.
A window 63 is formed on the upper surface of the finger fixing part 6 to expose the nail portion of the finger inserted through the opening 61 and held by the finger fixing member 62.

As shown in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), a claw locking portion 65 is provided at the rear part of the finger fixing portion 6, on which the tip of the printed finger U is butted and the center of the tip of the nail T is hooked. It is being The upper surface of the claw locking portion 65 becomes substantially flush with the claw T when the claw T of the printing finger U is locked.
The surface of the claw locking portion 65 is textured to diffuse light from the lighting unit 52, which will be described later. Note that this processing is not limited to texturing, but may be any surface processing that diffuses light. Further, this surface treatment may be applied to at least a portion of the finger fixing portion 6 that comes into contact with the printing finger U. More specifically, as will be described later, this surface treatment is intended to suppress overexposure when photographing with the photographing camera 511, so the surface treatment is applied to the portion that comes into contact at the same height as the printing finger to be photographed. It is good to have it applied to

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of the printing apparatus 1 in a plane perpendicular to the front-rear direction, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a support member 12, which will be described later, viewed from below, and FIG. It is an enlarged view of the periphery of a lighting unit 52, which will be described later.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the photographing section 50 is arranged above the window section 63 of the finger fixing section 6, and photographs the printed finger exposed through the window section 63 to obtain an image thereof.
The photographing section 50 includes a photographing unit 51 and two illumination units 52.
The photographing unit 51 is attached to a support member 12 erected on the base 11. The support member 12 has a top plate 121 and leg portions 122 at both left and right ends thereof, and the leg portions 122 are erected at both left and right ends of the base 11 . A space is provided between the top plate 121 of the support member 12 and the base 11 in which the print head 41 moves. The photographing unit 51 is arranged at the center of the top plate 121 of the support member 12 in the left-right direction.
The photographing unit 51 includes a downward photographing camera 511 arranged above the window 63 of the finger fixing section 6. The photographing camera 511 is a small camera that includes a solid-state photographing element such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) type or a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) type having 2 million or more pixels, a lens, etc., for example.

The two illumination units 52 are disposed on the left and right sides of the photographing unit 51 on the top plate 121 of the support member 12, and illuminate the object to be photographed (the printing finger to be printed) of the photographing unit 51 (photographing camera 511).
As shown in FIG. 5, each lighting unit 52 includes an LED 53, a reflective case 54, and a transparent plate 55.
The LED 53 is a white LED that is a light source of the illumination unit 52, and is arranged upwardly at the center of the upper surface of the light-transmitting plate 55. However, the light source of the lighting unit 52 is not limited to an LED as long as it can illuminate the object to be photographed by the photographing camera 511.

The reflective case 54 is an example of a reflective part according to the present invention, and is a case that reflects light from the LED 53. The reflective case 54 is formed in a rectangular box shape that opens downward, and is arranged to cover the upper side of the LED 53 located at the center of the reflective case 54 in a plan view.
The inner surface of the reflective case 54 (that is, the top surface 54a and the front, rear, left, and right inner surfaces 54b) is a surface (in this embodiment, a white surface) that reflects the light from the LED 53. Furthermore, the inner surface of the reflective case 54 is textured so as to diffuse the light from the LED 53. However, this processing is not limited to texturing, and any surface processing that diffuses light may be used.
Note that the inner surface of the reflective case 54 may have a mirror surface, for example, as long as at least the top surface 54a facing the LED 53 is configured to reflect the light from the LED 53.

The light-transmitting plate 55 is an example of a diffusion section according to the present invention, and diffuses the light reflected by the reflection case 54. The transparent plate 55 is formed in a flat plate shape, and supports the LED 53 on the upper surface while closing the opening of the reflection case 54.
In this embodiment, the light-transmitting plate 55 is a milky white semi-transparent plate, and transmits the light reflected by the reflection case 54 while diffusing it. Further, the light-transmitting plate 55 may have a surface treatment that diffuses light on at least one of the upper surface and the lower surface.

In the illumination unit 52 having the above configuration, the light emitted upward from the LED 53 is diffused and reflected (diffuse reflection) on the top surface 54a of the reflection case 54. This light passes through the transparent plate 55 while being diffused, and is irradiated downward.
At this time, the irradiation range of light on the transparent plate 55 (for example, the irradiation range of light with a certain luminous intensity or more from the LED 53) is directly transmitted through the LED 53 provided on the top surface 54a, as shown by the broken line arrow in the figure. Compared to the case where it is directed toward the light plate 55, it spreads approximately four times (approximately twice in the X direction and approximately twice in the Y direction). Further, when the light is reflected on the inner surface of the reflective case 54 or transmitted through the transparent plate 55, the light is diffused.
Thereby, compared to the case where the light from the LED 53 is simply irradiated directly, the illumination unit 52 irradiates a wide and uniform light.
Note that the lighting unit 52 only needs to include at least the LED 53 and the transparent plate 55.

FIG. 6 is a control block diagram showing a schematic control configuration of the printing device 1 and a terminal device 9, which will be described later.
As shown in this figure, the printing device 1 includes a communication section 14 and a control device 80 in addition to the printing section 40 and photographing section 50 described above.

The communication unit 14 is configured to be able to send and receive information to and from a terminal device 9, which will be described later, and which operates in cooperation with the printing device 1.
Communication between the printing device 1 and the terminal device 9 is performed using, for example, a wireless LAN. Note that communication between the printing device 1 and the terminal device 9 is not limited to this, and may be performed by any method. For example, it may use a network line such as the Internet, or it may perform wireless communication based on a short-range wireless communication standard such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) or Wi-Fi. Further, this communication is not limited to wireless, and a configuration may be adopted in which various data can be transmitted and received between the two through a wired connection. The communication unit 14 includes an antenna chip and the like compatible with the communication method of the terminal device 9.

The control device 80 includes a control unit 81 configured by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) not shown, and a storage unit 82 configured by having a ROM (Read Only Memory) 821, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 822, etc. It is a computer equipped with

The storage unit 82 stores various programs, various data, etc. for operating the printing apparatus 1.
Specifically, the ROM 821 of the storage unit 82 stores various programs such as a printing program for performing print processing, and when these programs are executed by the control device 80, the printing device 1 is controlled. Each part is centrally controlled.

The control unit 81 includes functional units such as a shooting control unit 811, a printing control unit 813, and a communication control unit 814. The functions of each of these functional units are realized by cooperation between the CPU of the control unit 81 and the program stored in the ROM 821 of the storage unit 82.

The photographing control section 811 controls the photographing camera 511 and the LED 53 of the photographing section 50, and causes the photographing camera 511 to photograph a finger image (nail image) including an image of the printed fingernail fixed to the finger fixing section 6. .
The image data of the nail image acquired by the photographing section 50 is transmitted to the terminal device 9, which will be described later, via the communication section 14. Note that the image data may be stored in the storage unit 82.

The print control unit 813 outputs a control signal to the printing unit 40 based on printing data transmitted from the terminal device 9, which will be described later, and causes the printing unit 40 to print on the nail according to the printing data. The X-direction movement motor 46, the Y-direction movement motor 48, the print head 41, etc. are controlled.

The communication control unit 814 controls the operation of the communication unit 14. In this embodiment, the communication control unit 814 controls communication with a terminal device 9, which will be described later, and receives printing data and the like when transmitted from the terminal device 9.

Further, the printing device 1 of this embodiment is configured to be able to communicate with a terminal device 9, and executes printing operations and the like based on operation commands from the terminal device 9.

The terminal device 9 is, for example, a mobile terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet. However, the terminal device 9 is not particularly limited as long as it can communicate with the printing device 1, and may be, for example, a notebook or stationary personal computer, a game terminal, or the like.
Specifically, the terminal device 9 includes an operation section 91, a display section 92, a communication section 94, a control device 95, and the like.

The operation unit 91 performs various inputs, settings, etc. in response to user operations. When the operation unit 91 is operated, an input signal corresponding to the operation is transmitted to the control device 95. Note that in this embodiment, a touch panel is integrally provided on the surface of the display unit 92, and the user can also perform various input/setting operations by touching the touch panel. In this embodiment, by operating the operation unit 91, the user can select a nail design to be printed on the nail.

A touch panel included in the display section 92 displays various display screens under the control of a control section 96, which will be described later. In this embodiment, the display unit 92 displays a nail design input and selected by the user from the operation unit 91, an image transmitted from the printing device 1, and the like.

The communication unit 94 includes a wireless communication module and the like that can communicate with the communication unit 14 of the printing device 1, and transmits and receives various data such as nail images and printing data to and from the printing device 1.
Note that the communication section 94 may be any device as long as it can communicate with the printing device 1, and a device that conforms to the communication standard of the communication section 14 of the printing device 1 is applied.

The control device 95 is a computer that includes a control unit 96 configured with a CPU (Central Processing Unit), etc., not shown, and a storage unit 97 configured with a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), etc., not shown. It is.

The storage unit 97 stores various programs, various data, etc. for operating each part of the terminal device 9.
Specifically, the ROM etc. of this embodiment includes various programs such as an operation program for controlling each part of the terminal device 9 as well as a nail print application program for performing nail printing using the printing device 1. are stored therein, and the terminal device 9 is controlled by the control device 95 developing these programs in, for example, a RAM work area and executing them.
Furthermore, the storage unit 97 of this embodiment stores nail design data, nail images, nail shape information, and the like.

The control section 96 integrally controls the operations of each section of the terminal device 9. The control unit 96 implements various functions for printing on nails in cooperation with programs stored in the storage unit 97.

Next, the operation of the printing apparatus 1 when executing printing processing will be described.
When the user places a printing finger coated with white base paint in advance on the finger fixing section 6 and performs a predetermined operation on the operation section 91 of the terminal device 9, the printing finger on the finger fixing section 6 is captured by the photographing section 50. Being photographed.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, first, the photographing control section 811 of the control section 81 turns on the LEDs 53 of the two lighting units 52 to illuminate the printed finger exposed through the window section 63 of the finger fixing section 6. . Then, the photographing control unit 811 photographs the illuminated printed finger using the photographing camera 511, and obtains a nail image thereof.
At this time, as described above, each illumination unit 52 illuminates the print finger to be photographed with widely uniform light by emitting light obtained by reflecting and diffusing the light from the LED 53. Therefore, compared to the case where the printing finger is directly illuminated with light from the LED 53, the occurrence of overexposure is suppressed.
Further, at this time, since the nail locking portion 65 that is substantially flush with the nail to be printed is textured, the light that illuminates the nail locking portion 65 is diffused. Therefore, overexposure that occurs between the claw and the claw locking portion 65 is suppressed.
Thereby, the range of the nails (nail area) of the printed finger can be recognized with higher precision.

Next, the print control unit 312 of the control unit 81 acquires the nail area based on the data of the nail image and generates printing data. Then, the printing control section 312 controls the printing section 40 to eject ink while moving the print head 41 to print the print fingernail of the finger fixing section 6 .
In this way, printing on the printing finger is completed.

Note that when a nail region is acquired from a nail image, it may be determined whether or not this nail region is correct based on data of the nail image.
For example, with respect to the nail locking part 65 that is easily misidentified as a part of the nail area, the luminance value of the nail locking part 65 when illuminated by the lighting unit 52 is obtained in advance, and the brightness value of the nail locking part 65 and the printed finger is obtained in advance. The brightness value near the boundary is set as a threshold value. Then, when acquiring the nail area, the control unit 81 may determine whether the acquired nail area includes the nail locking part 65 based on the threshold value of the luminance value.
If it is determined that the claw area is correct (the claw area does not include the claw locking portion 65), printing may be performed as is. If it is determined that the nail area is incorrect (the nail locking part 65 is included in the nail area), the user may adjust the brightness etc. with the LED 53 or the camera 511 and take the image again, or the user may It may also be possible to manually adjust the claw area.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the lighting unit 52 that illuminates the object to be photographed by the photographing camera 511 includes the LED 53 and the light-transmitting plate 55 that diffuses the light from the LED 53. Illuminating the subject with diffused light.
As a result, the illumination unit 52 emits a widely uniform light compared to the case where the light from the LED 53 is simply irradiated directly, so that it is possible to suppress the occurrence of overexposure.
Therefore, the recognition accuracy of the object to be photographed can be improved.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the illumination unit 52 includes the reflection case 54 that reflects the light from the LED 53, and the light-transmitting plate 55 diffuses the light reflected by the reflection case 54.
As a result, the illumination unit 52 irradiates a wider and more uniform light, which makes it possible to more reliably suppress the occurrence of overexposure and further improve the recognition accuracy of the object to be photographed.
Moreover, by utilizing reflected light in this way, even when a light source with a narrow light distribution angle is used as the LED 53, a wide range can be illuminated. Since a light source with a narrow light distribution angle is generally small and inexpensive, the lighting unit 52 can be made smaller and lower in cost.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the reflective case 54 has a surface treated to diffuse light, and diffuses the light from the LED 53 while reflecting it.
As a result, more uniform light is emitted from the illumination unit 52, so that the occurrence of overexposure can be suppressed more reliably, and the recognition accuracy of the object to be photographed can be further improved.

Further, according to the present embodiment, of the finger fixing section 6 that fixes the printing finger, the claw locking section 65 that comes into contact with the printing finger is subjected to a surface treatment that diffuses light.
As a result, the light illuminating the claw locking portion 65 is diffused, so that overexposure occurring between the claw and the claw locking portion 65 can be suppressed.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and can be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit thereof.

For example, the lighting unit 52 is not limited to the configuration of this embodiment, and may be of an edge light type as shown in FIG. 7, for example.
The illumination unit 52A in this case includes a light guide plate 56 with one main surface 56a facing downward (towards the photographic subject). The LED 53A is arranged to face the side surface 56c of the light guide plate 56. In the light guide plate 56, both main surfaces 56a and 56b internally reflect (total reflection) the light entering the light guide plate 56 from the side surface 56c, and the lower main surface 56a reflects the light from inside the light guide plate 56. emit it while diffusing it. Further, a diffusion material may be attached to the lower main surface 56a, or a reflective sheet may be attached to the upper main surface 56b. Such an illumination unit 52A can also illuminate the object to be photographed in the same way as the illumination unit 52 of this embodiment. Moreover, since a light source with a relatively narrow light distribution angle can be used as the LED 53A, it is possible to reduce the size and cost of the lighting unit 52A.

Further, the position, quantity, etc. of the lighting unit 52 (including 52A) are not particularly limited.
However, it is more preferable for the lighting unit 52 to be located closer to the photographing camera 511 (closer to the center in the left-right direction) in that it is easier to ensure the amount of light to the photographing camera 511.
Furthermore, in order to improve the illuminance of the object to be photographed, the direction of the illumination unit 52 is such that the lower surface of the transparent plate 55 faces straight toward the object to be photographed (that is, the perpendicular line of the lower surface faces the object to be photographed). More preferred.

Further, in this embodiment, the print head 41 is of an inkjet type, but the configuration (printing type) of the print head 41 is not limited to this, and may be of a configuration other than the inkjet type, such as a pen plotter type, for example. There may be.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes the scope of the invention described in the claims and equivalent ranges thereof. .
Below, the invention described in the claims first attached to the application of this application will be added. The claim numbers listed in the supplementary notes are as in the claims originally attached to the request for this application.
[Additional notes]
<Claim 1>
printing means,
a photographing means for photographing the printing target of the printing means;
and illumination means for illuminating the object to be photographed by the photographing means,
The lighting means includes:
a light source and
comprising a diffusion part that diffuses the light from the light source,
illuminating the object to be photographed with light diffused by the diffusion section;
A printing device characterized by:
<Claim 2>
The illumination means has a reflection part that reflects light from the light source,
The diffusion section diffuses the light reflected by the reflection section.
The printing device according to claim 1, characterized in that:
<Claim 3>
The reflecting portion has a surface treated to diffuse light, and reflects and diffuses the light from the light source.
The printing device according to claim 2, characterized in that:
<Claim 4>
The light source is arranged facing opposite to the photographing target side,
The reflecting section is provided so as to cover the opposite side of the light source and open to the photographing target side,
The diffusion section is disposed on the object side of the light source while closing the opening of the reflection section.
The printing apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that:
<Claim 5>
The illumination means includes a light guide plate with one main surface facing the photographing target side,
The light source is arranged to face a side surface of the light guide plate,
The light guide plate is
Both principal surfaces serve as the reflecting portions to internally reflect light that has entered the light guide plate from the side surfaces,
The one principal surface serves as the diffusion portion and diffuses the light from within the light guide plate while emitting it.
The printing device according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that:
<Claim 6>
The diffusion section is a light-transmitting member that has a surface treated to diffuse light.
The printing device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that:
<Claim 7>
comprising a fixing part for fixing the photographic subject,
At least a portion of the fixed portion that comes into contact with the object to be photographed is subjected to a surface treatment that diffuses light.
The printing device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that:

1 Printing device 6 Finger fixing part (fixing part)
63 Window portion 65 Claw locking portion 12 Support member 41 Print head (printing means)
50 Photographing section 51 Photographing unit 511 Photographing camera (photographing means)
52, 52A Lighting unit (lighting means)
53 LED (light source)
54 Reflection case (reflection part)
54a Top surface 54b Inner surface 55 Transparent plate (diffusion part)
56 Light guide plates 56a, 56b Main surface 56c Side surface 81 Control section 811 Photographing control section T Claw U Printing finger (photographing target)

Claims (7)

printing means,
a photographing means for photographing the printing target of the printing means;
Illumination means that includes a light source and a diffusion section that diffuses the light from the light source, and illuminates the object to be photographed by the photographing means;
a locking part that locks the printing target;
Equipped with
The illumination means illuminates the object to be photographed with light diffused by the diffusion section,
At least a portion of the locking portion is subjected to a surface treatment that diffuses light.
A printing device characterized by: The surface processing is grain processing,
The printing device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The illumination means further includes a reflection part that reflects light from the light source,
The diffusion section diffuses the light reflected by the reflection section.
The printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The reflecting portion is subjected to the surface treatment, and reflects and diffuses the light from the light source.
The printing device according to claim 3, characterized in that: The reflecting portion is provided to cover the light source from a direction facing the light source and to be open to the printing target side,
The diffusion section is provided to close an opening of the reflection section.
The printing device according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The illumination means further includes a light guide plate with one main surface facing the printing target side,
The light source is arranged to face a side surface of the light guide plate,
The light guide plate is
Both principal surfaces serve as the reflecting portions to internally reflect light entering the light guide plate from the side surfaces,
The one principal surface serves as the diffusion portion to diffuse and emit light from within the light guide plate;
The printing device according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The diffusion section is a light-transmitting member that has been subjected to the surface treatment,
The printing device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that:

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