JPH0637469Y2 - Digitizer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to a digitizer for converting position information of an image of a document projected on a digitizer tablet into an electric signal.

[Prior Art] A plate-making system has been developed in which a computer is used to automatically lay out an image such as a photograph or a headline to be printed when a printed matter is produced. In this case,
It is necessary to input information about the contour of the image of the document or its position into the computer, and a digitizer is used as this input device.

The digitizer used for the above plate making or the like is generally provided with a digitizer tablet for detecting the position of the image of the original, and it is known that it has a magnifying projection function of enlarging and projecting the original on the digitizer tablet in order to improve its accuracy. ing. The digitizer with this magnifying projection function magnifies and projects the entire document placed on the document rack onto the digitizer tablet. The document rack itself is formed in a fixed type, or the angle and position of the document are finely adjusted. Some can move as much as possible.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When a very large printed matter such as a life-sized poster or calendar is produced using such a conventional digitizer, a very large manuscript is required. When the size of the document is, for example, JIS standard A-row 2 size or B-row 3 size, it is necessary to enlarge the magnifying projection device and the digitizer tablet accordingly. In this case, the entire structure of the digitizer becomes extremely large, resulting in an increase in cost and, conversely, a decrease in accuracy.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a digitizer capable of accurately detecting the position coordinates of the image of a document with a small digitizer tablet even for a large document.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A digitizer of the present invention for solving the above problems is a digitizer tablet in which an image of a document is enlarged and projected, and position information of the enlarged and projected image is converted into an electric signal, and the digitizer tablet. Of the original placed on the axis perpendicular to the image projection plane of the document, a document frame on which the document is placed, a moving frame for movably supporting the document frame within a predetermined plane, and the moving frame for the moving direction of the document frame. A machine frame that is movably supported in a direction intersecting with and a movement amount-electric signal conversion unit that detects the movement amount of each of the document rack and the movement frame and converts the movement amount into an electric signal. The position information and the amount of movement of the document rack with respect to the machine frame can be detected.

[Operation] According to this digitizer, the manuscript is placed on the manuscript rack, and by moving the manuscript rack with respect to the machine frame,
The desired image is partially magnified and projected onto the digitizer tablet. The movement amount of the document rack is output individually or together with the position information of the enlarged and projected image.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the whole digitizer according to the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows the positional relationship between the document rack and the magnifying projection device. FIG. 3 shows an affixed film used in the plate making process as an example of a manuscript used in this digitizer.

The digitizer 1 according to this embodiment includes a work table 3 which is supported by two support members 2 horizontally or slightly inclined, and a digitizer tablet 4 is provided on the work table 3. The digitizer tablet 4 detects the position coordinates of the cursor 4a and converts it into an electric signal. The digitizer tablet 4 and the cursor 4a, which are the positional information-electrical signal converting means, have wires in a grid pattern in the X and Y axis directions, and the positional coordinates of the cursor 4a are converted by using electromagnetic induction or electrostatic induction. An electromagnetic induction method for detection or an electrostatic induction method can be used. In addition, this digitizer tablet uses CCD or ultrasound,
Alternatively, various methods can be used depending on the application, such as making the cursor 4a movable along the guide rails along the X and Y axes and detecting the amount of movement.

A machine frame 5 fixed to the support member 2 is formed in a rectangular shape above the work table 3. The machine frame 5 is arranged parallel to the work table 3, guide rails are provided on inner side portions facing each other, and a rectangular moving frame 6 is slidably mounted along the guide rails. Guide rails orthogonal to the guide rails of the machine frame 5 are also provided inside the moving frame 6 facing each other, and a transparent plate-shaped document rack 7 is mounted so as to be freely movable along the guide rails. ing. The manuscript rack 7 is provided with a handle 8, and the manuscript rack 7 can be freely moved within the plane of the machine frame 5 by this handle.

The moving amount of the moving frame 6 with respect to the machine frame 5 is detected by the moving amount-electrical signal converting means, that is, the rotary encoder 15 provided in the machine frame 5, and the moving amount of the document rack with respect to the moving frame is provided in the moving frame 6. It is detected by a similar rotary encoder 16. These rotary encoders 15 and 16 can detect the amount of movement of the moving frame 6 and the document rack 7 via an appropriate means such as a pinion, a rack, a friction wheel, or a rope. Further, an appropriate linear encoder can be used instead of the rotary encoder. The outputs of these encoders may be output as the amount of movement of the document rack, that is, a value obtained by integrating this amount of movement with the projection enlargement ratio, but it is added to the position information of the image on the digitizer tablet 4 to obtain the image position information on the document. Is preferably output as.

The original rack 7 and the moving frame 6 are fixed at required positions so that necessary work can be performed. Therefore, the movable frame 6 and the machine frame 5 are provided with brakes for fixing the document rack 7 and the movable frame 6, respectively. For this brake, an appropriate means such as an electromagnet or a friction pad can be used.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a light source device 9 is provided on the upper side of the document frame 7, and a lens frame 10 arranged coaxially with the light source device is provided on the lower side of the document frame 7. ing. The light source 9 and the lens frame 10 are arranged by a pillar 11 so that the optical axis of the light source 9 and the lens of the lens frame 10 are arranged on a vertical line of the digitizer tablet 4 with a predetermined gap from the original rack 7. It is fixed to.

When a large transparent original 12 on which a plurality of images are drawn as shown in FIG. 3 is placed on the original rack 7, one of the images of the original is digitized by the light from the light source 9 through the lens frame 10 and the digitizer tablet. 4 is projected onto the surface. When the original 12 is placed on the original rack 7, it is preferable that the original 12 be pressed from above by a transparent sheet such as an overlay film or a glass plate or a plate-like original pressing tool. When the original 12 is a non-transparent reflective original, the light source is arranged so that the image surface of the original is exposed to light.

Although the original image is projected from the upper side of the digitizer tablet 4 in the above embodiment, the digitizer tablet 4 is transparently formed, and the original image is projected from the lower side of the digitizer tablet 4, and the upper surface of the digitizer tablet 4 is projected. You may make it form a projected image.

To read the coordinates of an image of an original document in which small-sized images 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d are scattered on a large-sized mount such as a pasted film used in the plate making process by the digitizer 1 as follows. To do.

The original 12 is set on the original rack 7 by an appropriate original holder. Next, the light source unit 9 and the lens frame 10 are activated to operate the original document.
Twelve images are projected on the digitizer tablet 4.

The handle 8 of the document rack 7 is manually moved to project the zero point or the reference point 13 of the document 12 onto the digitizer tablet 4, and the document rack 7 and the moving frame 6 are fixed. Then, the rotary encoders 15 and 16 are reset to zero, and the cursor 4a is placed on the reference point 13 projected on the digitizer tablet 4,
Reset the coordinate values of the digitizer tablet 4 to zero.

After that, the manuscript rack 7 is moved in the X and Y axis directions by the handle 8,
A portion or an image whose coordinates are to be read is projected on the digitizer tablet 4, and the coordinates of a desired position are read by the cursor 4a. Thereby, for example, the position coordinates X1, X2 on the X axis from the reference point 13 of the image 12b and the image 12d shown in FIG.
Can be read. The coordinate values X1 and X2 output from the digitizer 1 in this case are obtained as a value obtained by adding the value obtained by multiplying the movement amount of the document rack 7 by the enlargement ratio and the coordinate with respect to the reference point 13 on the digitizer tablet 4.
The same applies to the position coordinates on the Y axis. The coordinate value obtained from the digitizer 1 is appropriately processed by the processing device. Furthermore, by obtaining the coordinates from the zero reset point, it becomes easy to transfer data to each device in the plate making process using a computer such as a layout scanner. Note that the output of the digitizer tablet 4 and the outputs of the rotary encoders 15 and 16 may be individually output and appropriately processed by a computer.

This digitizer 1 is useful as a coordinate input unit of a device for making a cut-out mask from a film for which patterns have been collected in the plate making process, and is also very useful when making a block.

[Effects of the Invention] As is apparent from the above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain highly accurate position information with a small digitizer tablet by partially enlarging and projecting an image of a large document on the digitizer tablet. It is economical.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a digitizer according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is an explanatory view schematically showing a part thereof, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing an example of an original. 1 ... Digitizer, 2 ... Support member, 3 ... Work table,
4 ... Digitizer tablet, 5 ... Machine frame, 6 ... Moving frame,
7 ... Original rack, 9 ... Light source, 10 ... Lens frame, 12 ... Original, 13 ...
Reference point.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A digitizer tablet for magnifying and projecting an image of a manuscript, and converting position information of the magnified and projected image into an electric signal, and a digitizer tablet arranged on an axis line perpendicular to an image projection surface of the digitizer tablet. A document rack on which the document rack is placed, a moving frame that supports the document rack so as to be movable within a predetermined plane, a machine frame that movably supports the moving frame in a direction intersecting the moving direction of the document rack, and A moving amount-electric signal converting means for detecting the moving amount of each of the document rack and the moving frame and converting the moving amount into an electric signal is provided, and the positional information of the image of the document and the moving amount of the document frame with respect to the machine frame are provided. A digitizer characterized by being detectable.