JPH0466497B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an information recording device for recording image information on an information recording medium such as a microfilm.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, this type of information recording device includes the following. That is, as shown in FIG. 10, a microfilm with a negative image is
A negative image is recorded in each frame of the microfilm F, and the periphery of each frame a is transparent.
When this microfilm F is printed out using a negative/positive reversal information recording device, the transparent portion around frame a is developed. As a result, as shown in FIG. 11, a solid black frame G is printed around the image area A on the transfer material P, which not only spoils the beauty of the printed image but also increases toner consumption. There was a problem.

Therefore, in order to solve the above problem, the area of the image frame of the microfilm F is detected, and the area to be recorded on the transfer material P is controlled based on the area determined based on the image area. An information recording device has been proposed.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a conventional example, the recording area to be recorded on the transfer material P is the outermost area of the area on the microfilm F corresponding to the entire area of the transfer material P. Since I was trying to record the detected image area,
As shown in Fig. 10, if adjacent image frames b and c exist on the microfilm F around the target image frame a, unnecessary areas will be recorded as shown in Fig. 12. It turns out.
In addition, in a conventional device that detects an image area and controls the area to be recorded based on the detected image area, if there is dust, scratches, etc. around the target image frame a, The detection means detects dust, scratches, etc. as image areas, and the extra areas are also recorded. However, since the above conventional example records unnecessary areas, there are problems in that it increases toner consumption and significantly impairs the aesthetic appearance of the print.

Therefore, the present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional example, and its purpose is to be able to record only the target image area and to prevent malfunctions caused by dust, scratches, etc. An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording device that can reduce toner consumption and produce aesthetically pleasing prints.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention detects an image area of an information recording medium and controls the recording area based on the detected image area. The information recording apparatus includes a control means for controlling the recording area based on the size of the largest image area among the plurality of image areas when a plurality of the image areas are detected.

(Function) In the present invention having the above configuration, when a plurality of image areas are detected, the recording area is controlled by the control means based on the size of the largest image area among the plurality of image areas. Accordingly, only the target image area is recorded.

(Example) The present invention will be explained below based on the illustrated example.

FIG. 1 shows a microfilm printer as an embodiment of an information recording apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, F is a roll-shaped microfilm as an information recording medium, 1 is a projection lamp, 2,
3 is a scanning mirror arranged at 90 degrees to each other; 4 is a photosensitive drum as an image recording medium; 5 is a shutter base disposed above the photosensitive drum 4 and having a slit 6 along its axial direction; 7 is a primary charger, 8 is a developing device, 9 is a transfer charger, and 10 is a fixing device.

By moving the scanning mirrors 2 and 3 in the direction of the arrow, the image on the microfilm F can be changed from the image on the line segment a-a to the image on the line b-b, as shown in FIG. , c-c are sequentially scanned and exposed onto the photosensitive drum 4, and the images are recorded on the transfer material P by a well-known electrophotographic process.

The shutter base 5 is provided with a slit 6 along the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 4 as shown in FIG. A pair of shutter plates 11 and 12 are provided to control the exposure area. These shutter plates 11 and 12 are formed into opaque films and are connected to the pulse motor 1.
3 and 14 so as to be unwound, and is unwound by the rotation of the pulse motors 13 and 14, so that the opening width of the slit 6 can be changed from both ends. . Further, on the shutter base 5, optical sensors S ₁ to _{S o} made of amorphous silicon or the like are fixed at predetermined intervals.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the control system. In the figure, S ₁ to S _o are the above-mentioned optical sensors, and 17 is the A/D.
Converter, 18 is a microcomputer as a control means, 19 is a RAM, 21 is an image forming section that controls image forming conditions such as the developer 8 and the primary charger 7, and 22 is an exposure section that controls the opening length of the slit 6. be.

In the above configuration, the information recording apparatus according to this embodiment records image information as follows. That is, prior to exposing the image to the photosensitive drum 4, the scanning mirrors 2 and 3 are pre-scanned, and the image on the microfilm F is scanned and exposed to the photosensors _S1 to _S0 on the shutter base 5. At this time, the slit 6 of the shutter base 5 is inserted into the shutter plate 11,1.
Closed by 2. The image illuminance data detected by the optical sensors S ₁ to _{S o} during this pre-scanning is
After being digitized by the A/D converter 17, it is read into the microcomputer 18.
The microcomputer 18 binarizes this data using a predetermined threshold value (hereinafter referred to as slice level) and stores it in the RAM 19. That is, the illuminance distribution of the image is divided at predetermined time intervals in the microfilm feeding direction and according to the arrangement intervals of the optical sensors S ₁ to _{S o} in the direction perpendicular to the feeding direction, so that the image illuminance is lower than the slice level. Bright data is stored as 0, dark data as 1, and stored in the RAM 19 sequentially.
The contents of the RAM 19 at the time when this pre-scanning is completed are illustrated as image illuminance data (MAP) shown in FIG. Here, L _X , L _Y in the figure
correspond to the horizontal and vertical lengths of the transfer paper P, respectively.

In addition, in FIG. 5, _WOR is a register that performs the vertical OR of the image illuminance data.Hereinafter, areas B and C in FIG. As an image area
The procedure for replacing the portion captured in the RAM 19 with a non-image area by the program of the microcomputer 18 will be explained in accordance with the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6a and 6b. First, start with Step1, then Step2
The vertical logical sum of the RAM 19 is calculated by using the formula 1, and this is stored in the register _WOR as shown in FIG. Next, in Step 3, as shown in Figure 5, the length W of the longest continuous "1" in the register W _OR is determined.
Calculate. Then, in Steps 5 and 6, as shown in Figure 7, W _OR is shifted one bit to the right and W _OR
Let the logical product of this W _OR and W _OR be a new W _OR . This operation converts the left end of consecutive “1”s to “0”
. Here, Steps 4, 7 and 8 are counter processes for repeating the operations of Steps 5 and 6 above twice. In this way,
At the end of Steps 5 to 8, W _OR is a continuous “1” of length w/2 or less, as shown in Figure 7.
That is, all W's shown in FIG. 5 are replaced with "0".

Furthermore, since "1" which had a length of W has been shortened to w/2, the operation of returning to the original length, that is, W, is performed in the following Steps 9 to 13. In other words, in Step 10 and Step 11, as shown in Figure 7, W _OR is shifted to the left to become W _OR , and this
Let the logical sum of W _OR and W _OR be a new W _OR . If this operation is repeated w/2 times by the counter processing in Steps 9, 12 and 13, as shown in Figure 7,
Continuous "1" whose length was less than w/2 at the time of Step 1 is replaced with "0", and continuous "1" which is longer than w/2 remains unchanged _.
This means that it was applied to

Next, in Step 14, logical _OR is performed on the image illuminance data using WOR after the above processing. In other words, columns in the image illuminance data where the corresponding W _OR bit is "1" remain as is, and all columns where the corresponding W OR bit is "0" are set to "0".
The image illuminance data is replaced with . With the above processing, when the image illuminance data shown in Fig. 5 is viewed from below, the maximum continuous "1"
All "1"s having a length less than half the length of are replaced with "0", and the image area B in FIG. 5 is replaced with a non-image area. The results are shown in FIG.

Next, Step 15 to Step 27 will cause the above Step 2 to
Processing similar to Step 14 is executed for each row in the horizontal direction (image illuminance data) in the image illuminance data shown in FIG. That is, since the length H' of the logical sum in the horizontal direction corresponding to image area C in FIG. 8 is less than 1/2 of the length H corresponding to image area A, The image area C of is replaced with "0". Furthermore, in Step28, operations on the image illuminance data (MAP), that is, Step2~
In Step 27, it is determined whether or not there has been a change in the image illuminance data (MAP), and if there has been a change, the process returns to Step 1 again and Steps 2 to 27 are repeated.

As a result, the contents of the image illuminance data originally shown in FIG. 5 are such that an image area smaller than 1/2 of the maximum image area is erased both vertically and horizontally, as shown in FIG. 9.

In the above embodiment, the image area whose vertical and horizontal lengths are less than 1/2 of the vertical and horizontal lengths of the maximum image area is erased. However, if the value is greater than 0 and less than 1, it can be changed as appropriate. In this case, the comparison value with counter n in Steps 8, 13, 21, and 26 is w/2 or H/
2 can be changed by setting it to 1/3W, 1/3H, 2/3W, 2/3H, etc.

By referring to the image illuminance data shown in FIG. 9, the microcomputer 18 obtains data L _T , L _B , L _F , L _R of the image recording area in FIG.
Calculate the length of the microfilm feeding direction,
That is, the feeding direction of the photosensitive drum 4 is controlled by opening and closing the relay R shown in FIG.
It is controlled by turning ON/OFF to perform toner development. Further, in the direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the microfilm, that is, the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 4, the pulse motors 13 and 14 shown in FIG. control the aperture length. In this state, while scanning the scanning mirrors 2 and 3, the relay R
Turn ON/OFF as appropriate to record an image on the transfer material P. As a result, a print image as shown in FIG. 13 is obtained from the microfilm F as shown in FIG. 10 instead of a print image as shown in FIG. 12.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, it is determined whether or not to record other image areas based on the size of the largest image area as described above.
For example, as shown in FIG.
Even when trying to print a ₁ and a ₂ on a single sheet of transfer paper, there is a large difference in vertical and horizontal length between the largest image area and the image areas with the second and subsequent sizes (this example Unless there is a difference of 1/2 or more), this will not be erased, and the desired print will be obtained as shown in FIG.

In the above embodiment, the image recording area in the circumferential direction of the photosensitive drum 4 is recorded by turning ON/OFF the developing bias, but the invention is not limited to this. It may also be used to turn charging on and off, or to move the developing device toward and away from the photosensitive drum.
Further, although the case has been described in which the image recording area in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 4 is recorded by moving the shutter plate, it is of course possible to perform the recording using a liquid crystal shutter or the like.

Further, in the illustrated embodiment, the case where the microfilm has a negative image has been described, but the present invention is also applicable to the case where the microfilm has a positive image.

Further, in the illustrated embodiment, the case where an image is recorded by exposing the photosensitive drum to an image has been explained.
Read images from microfilm etc. with CCD etc.
It can also be applied to recording images on optical discs and the like.

(Effects of the Invention) The information recording device according to the present invention has the above-described configuration and operation, so that even if a part of the adjacent image area on the information recording medium exists within the area of the transfer material, the extra image It becomes possible to record only the target image area without recording the solid black area between the area or the extra image area and the target image area. Further, even if there is dust, scratches, etc. around the target image frame, these can be detected and malfunctions can be prevented without recording unnecessary areas. As a result, it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of toner consumed, and moreover, it is possible to obtain an aesthetically excellent printed image.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an information recording device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a scanning state of an optical sensor, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the main parts of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the control system, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing image illuminance data, FIGS. 6a and b are flowcharts showing the operation of the control system in FIG. 4, and FIG. Explanatory diagrams for determining the target image area in the flowchart of a, FIGS. 8 and 9
10 is an explanatory diagram showing image illuminance data for determining the same target image area, FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a microfilm image, FIGS. 11 to 13 are explanatory diagrams showing printed images, Figure 15 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a microfilm image.
The figure is an explanatory diagram showing an image printed from the microfilm of FIG. 14. Explanation of symbols, 4...Photosensitive drum, 6...Slit, 11, 12...Shutter plate, 18...Microcomputer (control means), 19...RAM,
F...Micro film.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an information recording device that detects an image area of an information recording medium and controls the recording area based on the detected image area, if a plurality of image areas are detected, the largest of the plurality of image areas An information recording device characterized by comprising a control means for controlling a recording area based on the size of an image area.