JPH0461551A - Original reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize an original reader in which the entire reader is made compact, an obstacle is surely detected and image pickup is not failed by employing a prism having plural reflecting faces make an original read path coincident with an obstacle sensing path. CONSTITUTION:A light 34 from a framing light source 29 passes through a dichroic prism 26 and is shut by controlling a liquid crystal panel, the light radiates an image pickup area on an original to inform the area to the operator. A light 31 made incident in an image pickup lens 24 resulting from a reflected light from an original by the dichroic prism 26 is separated into two components, a visual light 32 directed to an original image pickup line sensor 25 and an infrared ray 33 to an original sensing area sensor 28. Since an optical path for sensing an obstacle and for original read and a framing light indicating the image pickup area are made identical, number of lenses and mirrors is decreased, the entire reader is made light and compact.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a document reading device that reads a document as image information.

[Prior Art] Conventional document reading devices read a document once, display it on a display, and indicate an area on the display, and as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-23568, there are devices that read and scan the document. Among them, there is one in which the user performs a scanning operation so as to read only the necessary area while monitoring the reading position of the original using a light beam or spot light.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Incidentally, in the above-mentioned document reading devices, the structure of the device is large-scale, and it is difficult to make the overall shape compact. Even if there is an obstacle in between, it may not be able to be detected reliably, and in such a case, the photographing will fail.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and by making the original reading optical path and the obstacle detection optical path the same using a prism having a plurality of reflective surfaces, it is possible to make the overall shape of the device compact, and to prevent obstructions. It is an object of the present invention to provide a document reading device that can reliably detect objects and prevent failure in photographing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a document reading means that is arranged at a predetermined interval with respect to the document and reads reflected light from the JJX8, and a document reading device that specifies a photographing area. a framing light means, a means for detecting light for indicating a photographing area by the framing light means and an obstacle within the photographing area, and a first reflecting surface that reflects visible light on the front surface and transmits light from the rear surface. and a second reflective surface that reflects infrared light on the front surface and transmits light from the back surface,
A position where the prism means is used so that the optical paths of the document reading means, the framing light means, and the detection means are the same, and where visible light reflected by the first reflective surface of the prism means can be received. The document reading means is disposed on the second side, the detecting means is disposed at a position where it can receive the infrared light reflected by the second reflecting surface, and the framing light means is disposed on the back side.

[Function] According to the above configuration, the light from the framing light means passes through the back surface of the prism means and is irradiated onto the yX8 surface, and the reflected light from the original enters from the front surface of the prism means,
The visible light component of the original reflected by the first reflecting surface, that is, the original image, is read by an original reading means,
The infrared component light from the original reflected by the second reflective surface is detected by the detection means, and the photographing area and the presence or absence of obstacles are detected.

Here, the original reading optical path between the original and the prism means, the obstacle detection optical path, and the framing optical path are the same.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the document reading device of the present invention suitable for a copying machine will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a document reading device according to the present embodiment.A main body 1 of the document reading device has a disk shape;
On the workbench, there is provided a document mounting table 3 having a figure-7 groove shape so as to be able to hold a document 2 such as a book in an upwardly opened state at a certain angle. Above this mounting table 3, the illumination light that illuminates the original 2 and the photographing light that is its reflected light pass through, and there is also a space for the operator to check, read, and turn the pages of the original 2. A head portion 5, which includes a mirror 4 that reflects photographing light and an illumination lamp 35 (FIG. 4) that is a light source that emits illumination light, is supported by a support member 6 via a predetermined space.

Further, at the back of the workbench, there are two document reading units 7 (left and right) (Fig. 2) internally located at approximately the same height as the workbench 3, each for reading the photographic light reflected by the mirror 4. A right page photographing window 8a and a left page photographing window 8b are provided.

There is an operation panel in the center of the back of the workbench, which is equipped with a message display 9a, operation keys 9b, and an IC card driver 10.A print switch 11 is provided adjacent to the mounting table 3. A foot step 12 is provided below the stand.

These are the parts that provide an interface between the operator and the copying machine. The print switch 11 is provided on both sides of the front side of the 7-shaped groove so that it can be easily operated while holding the book manuscript. The foot step 12 is provided to enable printing operations to be performed without using hands, and the print switch 11 and foot step 12 can be selected using operation keys. The message display 9a displays information regarding copying functions such as the number of copies, magnification, density, etc., and user information of the operator read by the IC card driver 10. Also, operation-
1? -9b allows you to change general information such as the number of sheets, magnification, density, etc., as well as change the photographic page, photographing position, AP, etc. according to the type of document, and switch between single-sided and double-sided copying.

Near the main body 1 of the device are printers 1 to 1 of the photographed original images.
A printer device 14 capable of printing on one or both sides is installed, and is equipped with a tray 13 for checking the finish of output. This printer device 14 includes a laser beam printer 15, a single-sided print I/ray 16, a paper cassette 17 loaded with paper of various sizes, a double-sided print tray 18, a frame memory 19, a host CPU 20,
An image processing CPU 21 and a power supply 22 are provided.

FIG. 2 shows an original reading section 7 that reads reflected light from an original 2.
The configuration is shown below. The document reading section 7 mainly includes a photographing section for reading a reflected document image from the original vJ2, a document detecting section for detecting the document size and the degree of curvature of the surface, and a framing light emitting section for indicating the photographing area. The constituent elements of each of these parts will be explained below with reference to FIG. 3, which explains the function of the dichroic prism 26 provided in the reading section 7.

The lens cover 23 serves to block lamp light illuminating the original 2 and other disturbance light from entering the lens.

The photographing lens 24 is a lens that projects the reflected light from the original 2 onto the photographing sensor 25, and has a zoom mechanism for changing the magnification and an autofocus Il! It has a barrel.

The dichroic prism 26 converts the light 31 incident on the photographic lens 24 into visible light 32 directed toward the photographic sensor 25;
It has two types of functional surfaces that separate the infrared light 33 directed toward the document detection sensor 28 into two components, and at the same time transmit the light 34 from the framing light source 29 and direct it toward the document 2. That is, the dichroic prism 26 includes a first reflecting surface 26a that reflects visible light on the front surface and transmits light from the back surface;
It has a second reflective surface 26b that reflects infrared light on the front surface and transmits light from the back surface.

The photographing sensor 25 is a sensor in which a plurality of line sensors are arranged in parallel, and performs photographing by scanning in a direction perpendicular to the line direction. The scanning operation is performed by providing a position sensor or by driving at a constant speed over a necessary distance using a near motor.

The condenser lens 27 is a dichroic prism 26
This lens is used to form an image of the infrared light component reflected by the sensor 28 on the document detection sensor 28, which is smaller than the photographing sensor 25.

The document detection sensor 28 uses a small area sensor,
Detects the size of the original and the curvature of the original surface.

Document size detection and bend detection will be described later.

The framing light source 29 and the liquid crystal panel 30 are the liquid crystal panel 3
By controlling 0, the light from the framing light source 29 is blocked, and the photographing area on the document 2 is irradiated with light to inform the operator. The size of this photographic area depends on the zoom function of the photographic lens 24 and its magnification.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the head section 5. The head unit 5 includes a mirror 4 that bends the photographing optical path, a lamp 35 that is a light source for illuminating the original, a monitoring light source 36 that detects bending of the original 2, and a rod lens 37.

The illumination lamp 35 includes a reflective shade for concentrating the luminous flux, and efficiently illuminates the original 2. When viewed from the front, the light from the left lamp 35 illuminates the right page, and the light from the right lamp 35 illuminates the left page, so that specular reflection components on the surface of the document 2 enter the photographing sensor 25. prevent. Further, a cover is provided at the rear of the lamp 35 to prevent the light from the lamp 35 from directly entering the photographing sensor 25.

The mirror 4 reflects and projects the light reflected from the document 2 onto the photographing sensor 25 . In the figure, two mirrors 4 are provided exclusively for the left and right pages of the original 2, but by adjusting the position of the photographing sensor 25, it is also possible to use one mirror.

It also includes an adjustment screw (not shown) for finely adjusting the photographing position.

The curvature detection light source 36 and the rod lens 37 obliquely project infrared narrow slit light onto the surface of the original 2 in order to detect the degree of curvature of the surface of the original 2. Since the height of the surface of the original 82 differs depending on the bend, the position where the slit light is projected is displaced in the front-rear direction of the original 2. This position is detected by the original document detection sensor 28 described above, the degree of curvature is determined and the image data is corrected, and then printing is performed. The rod lens 37 is a lens extending in the longitudinal direction of the light source 36, and
The lens has different shapes at the center and at the ends so that the light is focused onto the letter-shaped original table 3.

FIG. 5 shows the structure of the document table 3 on which the document to be copied is placed. The copying machine of this embodiment has the primary goal of copying books efficiently, but it has also been devised so that it can work efficiently when copying paper originals, which make up the majority of copies. It is being said.

The document placement table 3 has a V-shaped groove for placing books, etc., approximately in the center of the worktable. The size of the paper is slightly larger than the maximum expected manuscript size. The depth of the opening (the angle of V) is: ■ The operator can easily handle the book, ■ The book can sit in the center position, and ■
It is necessary to determine this based on conditions such as the photographic windows 8a and 8b of the left and right pages being at an appropriate interval, and (2) the size of the mirror 4 of the head section 5 being small. Here, the angle of ■ is 160°~12
Approximately 0° is suitable.6 The mounting table 3 uses the desktop collection surface as the reference alignment position for the original, and an indicator line 41 indicating typical document sizes such as A5, B5, A4, etc. is drawn on the top surface of the table. ing. Further, the center position of the book is naturally determined by the figure-7 groove, but in order to perform delicate alignment, a center line 42 is drawn on the back vertical plane of the figure-7 groove to indicate the center position.

Next, we will explain some ideas for preparing single-sheet originals. Copying of cut-sheet originals is performed on the right lPI slope of the figure-7 groove. After the operator selects the cut sheet mode using the operation key 9b,
The central regulating plate 43 located at the center of the letter-shaped groove is raised up. The original to be copied is placed on the right side of this regulation plate 43, and the original after copying is placed face down on the left side.

In addition, in the cut sheet mode, air is removed using a suction fan (not shown) through a small hole (not shown) provided on the V-shaped side surface to prevent the sheet document from lifting off the table. In addition, on the right side of the ■-shaped side, the white board itself is made of a light-transmitting material with a diffused surface in order to eliminate shadows that occur around the document, and the light source ( (not shown) is configured to emit light. The infrared light component of this light source is used to detect the document size.

The auto sheet feeder 44 is set on the right side of the 7-shaped groove when continuous copying of cut originals, and continuously feeds the cut originals to the photographing position. The auto sheet feeder 44 has a set tray 45 for sheet originals, and this set tray 45
The original placed on the
The sheets are conveyed one by one into the feeder, and the conveyor belt (not shown)
to a predetermined position under the glass 46. When the scanning of the photographing sensor 25 is completed, the original is ejected onto the left slope of the figure-7 groove by a paper ejection roller (not shown). When the zero-sheet feeder 44 is used, the original setting position changes. Therefore, when selecting auto feeder mode,
Correspondingly, the position of the photographing lens 24 is moved by a certain amount.

FIG. 6 shows the configuration of the output section of the laser beam printer device 14, and FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) are diagrams for explaining operations during single-sided printing and double-sided printing. This device 14 has a laser beam printer 15 that uses an electrophotographic method as its core, and as shown in FIG. is provided. The finish confirmation function is performed using the turning claws 51, 52, 53 and the switchback roller 54.
, a paper ejection roller 55, and a double-sided conveyance path 56 are used to switch the paper path so that the copied paper is ejected to the paper ejection tray 13 each time, and the operator can confirm this. It is.

Inside the laser beam printer device 14, sheets are fed in the order of arrow numbers. That is, when printing on one side, the situation is as shown in FIG. 7(a), where ``■'' indicates paper feeding, ``■■'' conveys, ``■'' indicates paper ejection, ``■■'' confirms switchback, and ``■'' indicates paper ejection. During double-sided printing, the situation will be as shown in Figure 7 (b), where ■ is paper feeding, ■■■ is transport, ■■ is paper ejection, and ■■oO
indicates switchback confirmation, and ■ indicates paper refeeding.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of the control section of this device. This device includes a CPU 60 that controls the input section, a CPU 61 that controls the output section (printer), and a CPU 62 that controls the operation section.
It is controlled by four microcomputers consisting of a CPU 63 that controls the image processing section and a host CPU 64 that supervises the above.

The input unit CPU 60 performs lighting, scanning, zooming,
Performs controls necessary for reading image data such as AF and AE. The captured image data is sent to an image processing section, where necessary processing such as correction and curvature correction is performed. The image data for which this processing has been completed is stored in the frame memory 65.
After being stored in the CPU 61 of the output unit (printer). Image data is sent to the host CP in addition to the printer.
It is also possible to send the data to other information devices (including external memories such as IC cards and optical disks) via the U64.

Next, the operation when copying a book manuscript using this apparatus will be explained. The worker places the book, which is a manuscript, on a V-shaped mounting table 3.
in the specified position, then press operation 4 on the operation panel.
- Select the book mode with 9b, then select the number of copies to be made,
Enter conditions such as magnification, density, output size, single-sided or double-sided. When the input setting is completed, framing light is projected onto the document from the 7-framing light source 29 from the main body of the apparatus.

After confirming that this framing light correctly covers the area to be copied, the operator turns print switch 1.
Press 1.

When the photographing is completed, the copied paper is temporarily discharged from the finish confirmation tray 13 of the printer device 14. After checking this paper, the operator makes the next copy.

Although it does not appear in the series of operations, in reality, before photographing, a detection light is emitted from the device main body from the bend detection light source 36 to detect the degree of curvature of the document, and the photographic sensor 25 detects the degree of bending of the document. Curvature correction is performed by applying correction to the captured image data.

Next, the operation when copying a cut-sheet original will be explained. The operator places the original to be copied onto the right slope of the 7-shaped mounting table 3. The document is attracted onto the stand by the suction of the fan described above, and the document size is detected by receiving light from the lower side of the slope at the document detection sensor 28. Next, enter the copy conditions on the operation panel,
When the print switch 11 is pressed, copying starts. When copying is completed, the operator moves the copied original to the left slope, sets the next original to be copied on the right slope, and performs the same operation thereafter.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which an optical disk recording device 71 for storing electronic files or the like is arranged in place of the printer device in the document reading device. The configuration of the control section at this time is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 10, the same parts as mentioned above are given the same numbers, and the host CPU 64 is connected to the CPU of the optical disk recording device 71.
U72 is connected.

FIG. 11 shows still another embodiment of the present invention, and is a block diagram in which there is only one document reading section.

Figures 12 and 13 show the single sheet (seal l-) in this example.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the document reading operation when a document is a document and when a book document is read. Only points different from the previous embodiment will be described below. In the apparatus main body 81 of this example, the photographing table 82 is designed so that it can handle both sheet originals and book originals.
The upper document mounting table 83 is rotatable and has two types: flat and 7-shaped.
It has a configuration that allows it to be switched to different shapes. A photographing window 8 is provided with a reading section 7 for reading one original at a position substantially the same height as the original placing table 83 and at a position where the respective centers thereof substantially coincide with each other. The head unit 4 also has a function of rotating left and right by a motor or the like around a rotating shaft 84 so that the reflected light from the original is directed toward the reading unit 7 for both sheet originals and book originals. A mirror 85 is provided. Further, the photographing sensor 25 of the reading section 7 has a scanning mechanism that can change the scanning distance according to the size of the document when it is a sheet document.

With the above configuration, it is possible to input both sheet originals and book originals more easily and beautifully. In addition, by changing the scanning distance of the sensor 25, it is possible to input originals (sheets) twice the size of the previous embodiment. This makes it possible to handle up to the original manuscript.

Furthermore, since there is only one document reading section,
The configuration of both hardware and software is simplified, resulting in advantages such as cost reduction.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the optical paths of the original vIJ reading means, the means for detecting obstacles, etc., and the framing light means for indicating the photographing area are made the same, so that the number of lenses and mirrors can be reduced. This makes it possible to reduce the weight and size of the entire device. Furthermore, since the optical path for detecting obstacles within the photographing area of the document can be made spatially the same as the document reading optical path, the obstacles can be detected accurately and there will be no failure in photographing.

Furthermore, since the optical path of the framing light can be made spatially the same as the optical path for detecting obstacles, ``vignetting'' of the light can be prevented, and it is no longer necessary to take a picture with the framing light blocked. This eliminates the possibility of photographing people against their will.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing the overall configuration of a document reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a document reading section of the device, and FIG. 3 is a function of a dichroic prism in the document reading section. Figure 4 is a perspective view of the head section of the device, Figure 5 is a configuration diagram of the document mounting table, and Figure 6 is a diagram for explaining the device.
The figure is a block diagram of the output section of the laser beam printer, FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) are explanatory diagrams showing the effects during single-sided printing and double-sided printing, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the control unit of the device. FIG. 9 is an external view showing the overall configuration of a document reading device according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 10 is a block configuration diagram of a control section of the same device, and FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a document reading device according to another embodiment of the present invention. 12 and 13, which are external views of the document reading device, are diagrams for explaining the document reading operation for a sheet document and a book document, respectively, in the embodiment of FIG. 10. 1.81... Original reading device body, 2...- Original, 7
・・Document reading unit, 25 ・Photographing sensor, 26 ・・
- Dichroic prism, 26a... First reflective surface, 26b... Second reflective surface, 28... Document detection sensor, 29... Framing light source, 30... Liquid crystal panel, 31...・Light from the original, 33...Infrared light, 3
4...Framing light. Applicant Minolta Camera Co., Ltd. Agent
Patent Attorney Yasushi Itadani 2nd RJL Figure Figure Scroll (a) Figure (b) ■、■7O disaster■Nufu2+Ba11. GufiiF: ■ Re-feeding happy picture 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 12 Figure 12

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) a document reading means arranged at a predetermined interval with respect to the document and reading reflected light from the document; a framing light means for indicating a photographing area; a light beam for indicating the photographing area by the framing light means; means for detecting obstacles within the photographing area; a first reflective surface that reflects visible light on its surface and transmits light from the rear surface; and a second reflective surface that reflects infrared light on its surface and transmits light from the rear surface. a first reflective surface of the prism means, the prism means is used to configure the optical path of the document reading means, the framing light means, and the detection means to be the same; The document reading means is located at a position where it can receive visible light reflected by the reflective surface, the detecting means is located at a position where it can receive infrared light reflected at the second reflective surface, and the framing light means is located on the back side. A document reading device characterized in that: