JPH0359621B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a digital copying apparatus that converts image information of a book or a similar document into a digital signal, reads the image information, and copies the image onto copy paper.

Conventionally, when copying books, etc. with an optical scanning slit exposure copying machine, a book 1 is used as shown in FIGS.
Open the page, take out the nth page and the n+1th page, align the edge 2 of the nth page with the document reference 3, and scan in the direction of the arrow to copy using the optical scanning slit exposure optical system as the reading optical system 8 . ing.

Next, the document cover 4 is opened, the book 1 is shifted or rotated, and the (n+1)th page is copied in accordance with the document standard 3. Therefore, the operator must open the document cover 4 after each page and
I had to move or rotate it, which was very annoying.

Alternatively, it is also possible to read and copy the n-th and n+1 pages of book 1 with one scan of the reading optical system, and then cut the copied copy paper in half, but this copying process This imposes extra effort and burden on the operator.

In contrast, in recent years, solid-state imaging devices using charge-coupled devices (hereinafter referred to as CCDs) have been used to detect image information as electrical signals, which are then converted into digital signals to obtain read signals. 2. Description of the Related Art Digital copying devices that obtain copied images using a digital printer such as a printer or a laser beam printer are known. If this copying apparatus is used, for example, two pages, page n and page n+1, of a book 1 can be read in one scan by the reading optical system 8 using a solid-state image sensor, and the two pages can be read.
It is possible to convert electrical signals as image information for pages into digital signals, store them in a memory, divide them page by page, and record and output each page on a predetermined copy paper.

That is, the operator's effort in the copying process is halved because the operations of opening and closing the document cover 4 and aligning the document cover 4 are performed only when turning the page to take out the page containing the image desired to be copied next. However, Figure 1a
As shown in and b, _l1 is the width of each page to be copied in the scanning direction of a book with a predetermined width. The binding margin 6 has the disadvantage that the original is raised and becomes smaller than the predetermined paper size. For example, place the edge of the nth page of a book 1 whose page is A5 size according to the manuscript standard 3, read the A4 size (width 2l ₁ ) through the nth and n+1 pages, and read the image in Figure 1 c. If the scanned images of pages n and n+1 are divided and printed on a designated copy paper using a printer, as shown in the right side of Figure 1c, n+
The copy image 7 of the first page is shifted to one side, resulting in a situation where there is no binding margin on the left side when filing.

Also, the n-th and n+1 pages are scanned at once to read the entire original image, and then the n-th and n+1 pages of the original are scanned at the first and second sides of the copy paper.
If recording is performed on each side, there are problems in that a large amount of time is lost, and a memory for two pages is required, which is expensive.

The present invention is intended to solve the latter problem, and includes a reading means for moving and scanning an original placed on an original platen and exchanging the obtained image light into an electric signal to read the original image. The above document is divided into images of a first area and a second area in the scanning direction of movement of the reading means, and each image is placed on different first and second copy surfaces based on the image information from the reading means. A digital copying apparatus that performs recording has a storage means for storing image information from the reading means, and the image of the first area is stored in the first area in parallel with the reading operation without storing the image information in the storage means. The image information of the second area is temporarily stored in the storage means, and then the image information is retrieved from the storage means, and after the image of the first area is copied, the image information of the second area is recorded. Recording is performed on the second copy surface, and by scanning the original on the document table continuously in one direction once by the reading means, the images of the first area and the second area are divided into two parts and copied. It is characterized by:

A specific embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are a sectional view and a perspective view of a reading section of an embodiment of a digital copying apparatus according to the present invention. Reference numeral 8 denotes a reading optical system, which includes a fluorescent lamp 9 as an exposure light source for illuminating the book 1 as an original placed on the document platen glass 5, and a reading optical system for illuminating the book 1 as an original placed on the document platen glass 5. The image of the book 1 is displayed on mirrors 10 and 11 for guiding the reflected light to the imaging lens 12 and a solid-state image sensor 13 using a CCD or the like arranged in a line or matrix in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A). An imaging lens 12 that reads one line L in a perpendicular direction and forms a linear image, and a solid-state image retrieval element 13 that photoelectrically converts the optical image formed by the imaging lens 12 and outputs the signal. It consists of Reference numeral 31 denotes a movable body, on which an optical system 8 is provided; the longitudinal direction of this movable body 31 is parallel to the scanning direction (direction of arrow A); book guide rod 1
5, 15'. 20
16 and 17 are pulleys arranged horizontally at one end of the device main body 14;
18 is a pulley arranged at the other end of the device main body 14. Reference numeral 19 denotes a wire for pulling and moving the movable body 31, one end of which is locked to the movable body 31, and then applied to the pulleys 16, 32, 17, and 18 in this order, and the other end is also locked to the movable body 31. It is strung up. The wire 19 stretched between the moving body 31 and pulleys 16 and 18 and the wire 19 stretched between the pulleys 17 and 18 are stretched in a direction parallel to the scanning direction (direction of arrow A). . As a result, as the motor 20 rotates, one of the wires 19 moves in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A), and the moving body 31 and takeover optical system 8 also move in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A). do,
The image of the book 1 placed on the document platen glass 5 is scanned, and the entire image is read by the reading optical system 8 . 24 is a printer, 25 is a memory, and the image information of the book 1 sequentially read by reading scanning by the reading optical system 8 is sequentially photoelectrically converted by the solid-state image sensor 13 into an electrical signal, and this electrical signal is
The information is supplied to the printer 24 and recorded on copy paper P and output, or is temporarily stored in the memory 25 and then copied. Book 1 by reading optical system 8
When reading an image of
Since it can be read with a resolution of one bit, if the memory 25 has a storage capacity of approximately 16 Mbit, it is possible to digitally store image information for one A4 size sheet with the vertical and horizontal dimensions of 210 and 297 mm. can. Here, the memory 25 may be an external memory, such as an optical disk memory, a magnetic disk memory, or a magnetic tape memory. 28 is a conveying device, which picks up the cassette 26 by a pick-up roller 27;
Copy paper P fed one by one from inside tray 3
This is for conveying to 0. 29 is an inject array, which is provided above the transport device 28;
It constitutes the head portion of an inject type printer 24. Reference numeral 21 denotes a document device reference designation member, which is provided at the central end of the document table glass 5 and is slidable in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A) or in the opposite direction (direction of arrow B). A wire 35 is fixed to the document placement reference designating member 21 and stretched by pulleys 33 and 34. 2
Reference numeral 2 designates a potentiometer whose shaft 22a is shared with the shaft of the pulley 33, and is used to detect and output the position of the document placement reference specifying member 21. Further, 23 is a potentiometer, which is connected to the axis of the pulley 16 and the axis of the potentiometer 23 in order to similarly detect the position of the reading optical system 8 , that is, the position of the reading line L of the reading optical system 8. There is.

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram of a copy sheet on which the nth page and n+1 page of a book as a manuscript are copied in one scan by the digital copying device of the present invention, 7 is the copied image, and l ₀ is the binding. This is the length of the seam after removing the white margin.

Next, the operation of one embodiment of the digital copying apparatus of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

First, the document placement standard specifying member 21 is moved in the scanning direction (arrow A direction) or in the opposite direction (arrow B) depending on the dimensions of the book 1 as the document to be copied.
direction) and position it appropriately. Next, when the reading optical system 8 is scanned, the center position of the binding margin 6 of the book 1 is set as the document placement reference so that the nth page of the book 1 is read first, and then the n+1 page is read. The book 1 is placed on the original glass stand 5 while aligning with the member 21. As a result, when the document placement reference designating member 21 is moved to the appropriate position as described above,
The wire 35 moves, the pulleys 33 and 34 also rotate, and as the pulley 33 rotates, the potentiometer 2
Since the potentiometer 22 detects the position of the document placement reference specifying member 21 by the rotation of the shaft 22a of the book 1, the position of the central portion of the book 1 can be detected by the output of the potentiometer 22. Further, when the motor 20 rotates, the pulley 32 provided on the shaft of the motor 20 also rotates, and the wire 1
Since the wire 9 moves in one direction, the tension of the wire 19 causes the movable body 31 to slide along the guide rods 15, 15' together with the reading optical system 8 . At this time, the pulley 16 is rotating, so
Along with this rotation, the axis of the potentiometer 23 also rotates, and the position of the reading optical system 8 can be detected.
Now, at the start of scanning, the reading optical system 8 starts moving in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A) from near one end of the document table glass 5. As the reading optical system 8 moves, the potentiometer 23 sequentially outputs its position. The difference between the outputs of these two potentiometers 22 and 23 represents the distance between the document placement reference designating member 21 and the reading optical system 8 , that is, the reading line L of the reading optical system 8 . This output difference and Figure 1 a,
A comparison circuit (not shown) performs a comparison with a reference voltage (not shown) corresponding to the length _l1 of the indicated copy size in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A), and when both inputs of the comparison circuit (not shown) match. That is, when the distance between the document placement reference designating member 21 and the reading line L of the reading optical system 8 becomes equal to the length l ₁ in the scanning direction for copying (direction of arrow A), a comparison circuit (not shown) is activated. The reading optical system 8 starts reading scanning _in response to a signal from
Output from 3. As a result, images each having a length l ₁ of the book 1 are read in the scanning direction (direction of arrow A) before and after the document placement reference specifying member 21. Now, when the reading optical system 8 is reading the nth page of the book 1, the electric signal from the solid-state image sensor 13 is given to the printer 24, and the paper in the cassette 26 fed to the transport device 28 by the pick-up roller 27 is The copy paper P is recorded by the inject array of the printer 24 according to the electric signal given from the solid-state image sensor 13, and is copied like the copy image of page n shown on the left side of FIG. 4, and is ejected to the tray 30. Ru. both potentiometers 22,
23 becomes 0, the reading line L of the reading optical system 8 is at the position of the document placement reference designating member 21, so the reading optical system 8 reads the next page, that is, page n+1 of the book 1. Start reading. Thereafter, the electrical signal from the solid-state image pickup device 13 that the reading optical system 8 scans to read the (n+1)th page of the book 1 is not applied to the printer 24, but is applied to the memory 25 and stored therein. That is, the image information of the (n+1)th page of the book 1 is read by the reading optical system 8 and stored in the memory 25. When the image information stored in the memory 25 is directly converted into an image on the copy paper P via the printer 24, the binding margin l ₀ as shown on the right side of FIG. 4 (for example, about 10 mm for binder holes)
In addition, the image information in the memory 25 may be copied after the binding margin _l0 is secured by a detection means (not shown). For example, in this latter operation, after the image information of page n+1 of book 1 is stored in the memory 25, the pick-up roller 27
rotates to take out one sheet of copy paper P from the cassette and place it on the conveying device 28. The copy paper P whose end portion is transported by the transport device 28 to a position shifted from directly below the inkjet array 29 to the tray 30 side by a length l ₀ is detected by a detection means (not shown), such as a light source and a light receiving element. , the position of the copy paper is detected by a known detection means that detects the position of the copy paper based on a change in the amount of reflected light. When the position of the copy paper P is detected by the detection means (not shown) in this way, the signal of the image information stored in the memory 25 is taken out and applied to the printer 24, and the image information is copied by the inject array 29. They are recorded one after another on paper P. Note that the image information stored in the memory 25 is only the image 7. If you do not do this, when the image information stored in the memory 25 is recorded on the copy paper P, a blank area will be created between the binding margin length l ₀ and the image 7, and that amount will be recorded. This is because the edge of the image 7 may not be recorded on the copy paper P if the length l ₀ of the binding margin and the width of the blank paper portion are large.

In addition to this, the present invention also provides distributed pages n and n+1.
It is also possible to copy the image information of each page onto copy paper P of different dimensions. It goes without saying that the information to be stored in the memory 25 may be stored on either the front side or the rear side of the document placement reference specifying member 21. Furthermore, if a plurality of detection means for detecting the position of the copy paper P as described above are provided, and the operator can freely set the length l ₀ of the binding margin by selecting the detection means, It's even easier to use. Note that switching between the normal copy mode and the above-mentioned book copy mode is performed using a button on an operation panel (not shown). Further, the printer 24 may be a laser beam printer, a thermal printer, or various other dot printers.

By configuring and operating the present invention as described above, when two pages of a book, etc. are continuously read in one scan, one page is also recorded during this reading, thereby increasing the copying speed. This has the effect that it can be constructed at a low cost because it can speed up the process, and requires only one page of memory.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1a is an explanatory diagram of a book when it is copied by a conventional analog copying machine, Fig. 1b is a cross-sectional view of a book when it is copied by a conventional analog copying machine or a digital copying machine, and Fig. 1c is an explanatory diagram of a book when it is copied by a conventional analog copying machine or a digital copying machine. 2 is a cross-sectional view in the scanning direction of the digital copying device according to the present invention; FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the reading optical system etc. of the digital copying device according to the present invention; FIG. 4 is a drawing of a copy image of a book according to the present invention. 1: Book, 5: Original table glass, 8 : Reading optical system, 13: Solid-state image sensor, 21: Original placement reference designation member, 22, 23: Potentiometer, 22
a: potentiometer shaft, 24: printer,
25: Memory.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A reading device for reading a document image by moving and scanning a document placed on a document table and converting the obtained image light into an electrical signal, A digital copying apparatus that divides images into first and second areas in a moving scanning direction and records each image on different first and second copy surfaces based on image information from the reading means, It has a storage means for storing image information from the reading means, and the image of the first area is recorded on the first copy surface in parallel with the reading operation without storing the image information in the storage means. and the image information of the second area is temporarily stored in the storage means, and then the image information is extracted from the storage means, and after the image of the first area is copied, the image information is recorded on the second copy surface. Digital copying characterized in that images of the first area and the second area are divided into two parts and copied by scanning the original on the original platen once continuously in one direction by the reading means. Device.