JPH06169378A - Digital copying machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent copy picture quality from deteriorating and to inhibit a confidential document from being copied by adding a frequency of copying from the original to a document and inhibiting a copy image from being formed when the frequency of copying is larger than a specific value. CONSTITUTION:A scanner part 1 photodetects original reflected light and detects image data on respective colors. Detected values of the original reflected light of the respective colors are processed by an image processing part 2 and converted into digital image data, which are stored in a memory 5. Image data showing the frequency of copying is extracted from the digital image data and the frequency of copying is discriminated. Then the discriminated frequency of copying is compared with the previously set inhibition frequency of copying and when the inhibition frequency is exceeded, a copy image is prevented from being formed. A numeric pattern generation part 4 generates the numeric pattern of the frequency of copying to be added to the copied image and the numeric pattern and the pattern of original image data are put together by a laser driving part 3 and outputted from a laser oscillator 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is to perform copy prohibition processing in a digital copying machine which reads an original image with a scanner including a CCD and processes it as digital image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, copying machines have become widespread and occupy an important position in document preparation. According to the copying machine, it is possible to easily make a large number of copies, and it is possible to further make a copy from a copy image even if the original or the original for making a copy (even if it is a copy).

[0003]

However, in general, as the number of repeated copies increases, that is, the number of copies from the original increases as child copies, grandchild copies, etc., the copy image quality tends to decrease. , Small characters may be crushed and cannot be identified. For confidential documents, you may want to prohibit the creation of grandchild copies by copying only multiple copies (taking multiple child copies) from the original, but it is up to the conscience of the operator to create grandchild copies. There wasn't.

An object of the present invention is to prevent copying a predetermined number of times or more, to prevent the copy image quality from being significantly deteriorated due to repeated copying, and to prohibit copying of confidential documents etc. To provide a digital copying machine.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, image reading means for reading image data of an original and data indicating the number of copies made from the original of the previous original are added to the image data of the original read by the image reading means. Means for generating print image data, and a copy image forming means for forming a copy image on a sheet by the print image data,
When the image data is read by the document reading unit using the sheet on which the copy image is formed as a document,
Identify the number of copies added to the image data,
Means for prohibiting the copy image forming means from forming a copy image when the number of times of copying is a predetermined number or more.

[0006]

In the present invention, the print image data is data obtained by adding the data indicating the number of copies from the original to the read original image data. For example, the data of the first time, the second time ... Has been added. Therefore, data indicating the number of times of copying (first time, second time ...) Is printed on the copy image,
When copying the copy again, the image data (first time, second time ...) Is read. In this way, the number of times copying is performed is recognized, and the copying process a predetermined number of times or more is prohibited. As a result, for example, recopying is prohibited to the extent that image recognition cannot be performed.

[0007]

FIG. 5 is a schematic front view of a digital color copying machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A document table 11 made of hard transparent glass is arranged on the upper surface of the main body of the copying machine. A scanner is arranged below the document table 11. The scanner includes a lamp unit 12, mirrors 13, 14, 15, a lens 16 and a CC.
The light from the lamp unit 12, including D17, is applied to the document on the document table 11, and the reflected light is made incident on the CCD 17 through the mirrors 13 to 15 and the lens 16. The light received by the CCD 17 is sent to the image processing unit where it is processed and converted into digital image data. Reference numeral 21 is a photoconductor having photoconductivity. A charger 29, developing units 22 to 25, and the like are arranged around the photoconductor 21. Toners of different colors are stored in the developing units 22 to 25, and the colors are black, yellow, magenta, and cyan. On the other hand, the image data read by the CCD 17 is processed through an image processing unit and the like and sent to the laser oscillator 18 as image data for printing. Then, it is output as laser light and forms an image on the photoconductor 21 via the lenses 19 and 20. The surface of the photoconductor 21 is uniformly charged by the charger 29 before this, and an electrostatic latent image is formed by irradiation with laser light. Then, the developing devices 22 to 25 are applied to the electrostatic latent image.
Toner is attached by any of the above (formation of toner image).

The toner image thus formed is transferred to the transfer belt 26. On the photoconductor 21, toner images of black, yellow, magenta, and cyan are separately formed, and the transfer belt 26 is formed for each toner image formation of each color.
Will be transferred to. The toner images of the respective colors are superposed on the transfer belt 26, and finally the toner images in which the respective colors are superposed are transferred onto the paper fed from the paper feeding cassette 27. After the transfer of the toner image, the paper is carried to the fixing unit 28 and subjected to a fixing process, and then discharged to the outside of the copying machine main body. In this way, a color copy image is formed on the paper.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of essential parts of the digital color copying machine.

The scanner unit 1 includes a CCD 17 (see FIG. 5) and is a portion for receiving the reflected light of the document. CCD17
Is equipped with a color separation filter and has three primary colors (red, green, blue)
The reflected light of the original that has been decomposed into is received, and the image data of each color is detected. The detection value of the reflected light of the original of each color is processed by the image processing unit 2, converted into digital image data, and stored in the memory 5. Image data relating to the number of copies is extracted from the digital image data to identify the number of copies. The numerical pattern generation unit 4 is a unit that generates a numerical pattern of the number of copies to be added to the image to be copied, and the numerical pattern and the original image data pattern are combined by the laser driving unit 3 and output from the laser oscillator 18. To be done.

FIG. 2 shows an example of printing data indicating the number of copies. Although examples such as (a) to (c) have been shown as print examples, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, symbols or the like may be printed.

(A) is an example in which the number of copies is printed at the corner of the copy image, and (b) is an example in which the number of copies is printed over the entire surface of the copy image by halftone dots. In the cases of (a) and (b), the number of times the copy process is prohibited is fixedly set, and when the number of times the copy is printed reaches that value, the copy process is automatically prohibited. Further, in (c), the number of times the copy process is prohibited is arbitrarily set.
The number of times of prohibition is set by a ten-key or the like when copying the original, and when the number of times of copy reaches that value, copying is prohibited. In this case, for example, data is added in the state of "copy count / copy prohibition count". It should be noted that if these copy count data are printed with toner of a less noticeable color such as yellow toner, the user will not feel uncomfortable. The data indicating the number of times of copying as described above is generated by the numerical pattern generating unit 4 shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the copy processing procedure.

When a document is set on the document table and the print switch is operated, document scanning is executed (n1 → n).
2). When the document scanning is completed, the image data is analyzed and it is determined whether or not the number of copies is printed (n3 →
n4). If the number of copies is not printed,
It is determined that the original is the original, and the number of copies N is set to 0 (n5). On the other hand, when the copy count is printed, the copy count N is read (n6), and the copy count N is compared with the copy prohibition count (n7). As a result,
If the copy count N exceeds the copy prohibition count (a preset value, for example, 5 times), prohibition processing is performed (n
8). For example, "the number of copies has exceeded" is displayed on the display of the copying machine. On the other hand, if the read copy count does not exceed the copy prohibit count, the copy count N is incremented, and the copy count data portion of the read image data is replaced to perform copy processing (n9 → n10 → n11).

By the way, in the above embodiment, the number of copy inhibitions is set in advance, and is stored as a predetermined value in the memory of the copying machine main body, for example. However, this value may be set arbitrarily. For example, the number of copy inhibitions is arbitrarily set by the processing procedure as shown in FIG. When the copy count N is 0, the original is an original, and therefore, a display for setting the prohibited copy count is displayed at this time (n11). For example, "How many times do you allow copying?" Is displayed. In response to this, if the number M of copy inhibitions is input, that value is set (n
12 → n14 → n15), if the number M of copy prohibitions within a predetermined time is not input, the number of times is set in advance (the number of times set in the copying machine in advance) (n1).
3). Then, as shown in FIG. 2C, the copy count is printed with the copy prohibition count as the denominator.

The number of copy inhibition times that can be set may be limited to a predetermined number or less. The predetermined number of times is a number at which the copy image quality is not significantly deteriorated, and by doing so, it is possible to prevent the copy image quality from being deteriorated.

By the control as described above, for example, when copying a confidential document by a specific number of copies and distributing it to a specific person, the distributed copy document cannot be copied again, that is, can be copied only from the original. By doing so, confidential documents can be held. In this case, the copy prohibition number M is set to 1, and "1/1" is printed on the child copy, making it impossible to form a grandchild copy.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the number of times of copying is printed on a copy image, the number of times of copying is read, and copying more than necessary is prohibited. For example, copying of a confidential document is prohibited, or copying is prohibited repeatedly, which prevents the confidentiality from being kept and the image quality of the copy from being significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of essential parts of a digital color copying machine that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a print example of a copy count.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a copy processing procedure.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for setting the number of copy inhibitions.

FIG. 5 is a schematic front view of a digital color copying machine.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location // G06F 3/06 304 M 7165-5B H04N 1/44 2109-5C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image reading unit for reading image data of an original document, and data indicating the number of copies of a previous original document from the original document are added to the image data of the original document read by the image reading unit to generate image data for printing. Means, a copy image forming means for forming a copy image on a sheet by the image data for printing, and the image data is read by the original reading means using the sheet on which the copy image is formed as an original,
Identify the number of copies added to the image data,
A digital copying machine comprising: a means for inhibiting the copy image forming means from forming a copy image when the number of times of copying is a predetermined number or more.