JPH0662242A - Copying machine provided with special original discriminating function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress the reduction of copy efficiency at a minimum and to surely prevent illegal copy by exactly discriminating special originals by controlling the discrimination of the special original only at the time of first forming images after the exchange of the original. CONSTITUTION:As processing on copy standby, a main control part 106 judges whether an ADF 107 is set in a lift-up state or not by using a lift-up sensor. In the case of lift-up, an original presence decision flag is reset without any condition. Afterwards, when a start key is turned on, it is judged whether the original presence decision flag is turned on or not. When that flag is not turned on, it is judged again whether the ADF 107 is set in the lift-up state or not and when the ADF is not set in the lift-up state, the flag is turned on. Then, discrimination processing is executed by a special original discrimination unit 105. When the discriminated result shows that an object is suspicious of the special original, an alarm indication is outputted through an operation display part 104 and a copy sequence is not executed but returned to the standby state. When the discriminated result shows that the object is not the special original, the normal copy sequence is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a copying machine with a special document discriminating function having a function of discriminating whether or not the contents of input image data are special documents such as banknotes and securities.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to improvements in image processing technology and image forming technology, it has become possible to carry out delicate copying such that copy bills copied by a color copying machine and actual bills cannot be easily distinguished. For this reason, a device has been developed that discriminates special manuscripts such as banknotes and securities and prohibits illegal copying in the case of special manuscripts. Special manuscript discrimination equipped with a device for discriminating special manuscripts in a copying machine. Copiers with functions are also provided.

As a device for discriminating a special document, for example, a method using a pattern matching method is generally used as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-83571 "Image recording device". In this apparatus, it is determined whether or not the original is a specific copy-inhibited original based on the input image data and the pattern data registered in advance.

There is also an image processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2105101/1990. This device detects the empty position of the bill by detecting the empty position of the bill, and further detects the four corners of the bill to calculate the exact position and angle of the bill, After that, pattern matching is performed based on the image data and the pattern data registered in advance to obtain the degree of similarity, and it is determined whether or not the original is a specific copy-inhibited original.

[0005]

However, in the conventional copying machine with the special original discriminating function, the higher the original discriminating accuracy level is, the longer the discrimination processing takes. There was a problem that the original copy efficiency of the machine decreased.

On the other hand, if the discrimination accuracy level is set by giving priority to the copying efficiency, there is a problem that the discrimination of the special original cannot be accurately performed and illegal copying cannot be prevented.

Further, depending on the copying mode, even if there is a low possibility of illegal copying, or even if illegal copying is performed and the bills to be copied and the actual bills can be easily distinguished, it is more than necessary. Since the discrimination processing is performed at a high discrimination accuracy level, there is a problem that the original copying efficiency of the copying machine is unnecessarily reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to minimize a decrease in copy efficiency and to accurately prevent a special document from being illegally copied. And

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a special manuscript having a function of discriminating whether or not the contents of input image data are special manuscripts such as bills and securities. In a copying machine with a discriminating function, a document replacement detection means for detecting whether or not a document has been replaced,
When a document replacement is detected through the document replacement detection unit and the document replacement detection unit that determines whether the document is a special document such as securities, the special document is only displayed when the first image is formed after document replacement. The present invention provides a copier with a special document discriminating function, which is provided with a control unit that executes the discriminating control of the discriminating unit.

[0010]

The copying machine with the special original discriminating function of the present invention causes the special original discriminating means to perform the discriminating control only when the first image is formed after the originals are exchanged.

[0011]

[Embodiment] The following is a description of a copier with a special original discriminating function of the present invention, [Embodiment 1], [Embodiment 2], [Embodiment 3].
Will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a copying machine with a special original discriminating function according to the first embodiment.
An image processing unit 102 that inputs the image data read in 01 and performs shading correction processing, γ correction processing, gradation processing, and the like, and a printer unit 103 that outputs the image data subjected to image processing in the image processing unit 102.
Then, image data is input from the operation display unit 104 for setting the number of copies and various modes, and the scanner unit 101, and it is determined whether the original is a special original such as banknotes or securities. Special document discrimination unit 10
5, a main control unit 106 that controls the above-described units, and an ADF (automatic document feeder) 107 that automatically conveys a document to a predetermined position of the scanner unit 101.

FIG. 2 shows an ADF 107 mounted on a copying machine.
It is explanatory drawing which shows the structure of. A document (not shown) placed on the document table 201 is read by the ADF document sensor 202.
The presence of the document is detected by, the sheet is called by the calling roller 203, and is transported to a predetermined exposure position on the contact glass by the transport belt 204. Also, A
A magnet 205 is provided on the ADF side and a lift-up sensor 206 is provided on the copying machine main body side to detect opening / closing of the DF 107. With this configuration, it can be determined whether the ADF 107 has been opened. Although details will be described later, in the first embodiment, if the ADF 107 is closed at the start of copying by the open / close detection of the lift-up sensor 206, it is determined that the document is present and the document presence determination flag is set to 1. In other cases, the presence / absence of a document is set to be indeterminate, and 0 is set in the document presence confirmation flag.

Next, the structure and operation of the special document discrimination unit 105 will be described. Special document discrimination unit 10
A publicly known technique can be applied to the configuration and operation of No. 5 and is not particularly limited. The special document discrimination unit 105 of the first embodiment performs various processes such as color filter process, pictogram separation process, and edge emphasis process on the image data of the document read by the scanner unit 101,
Cut out the red stamp in the image data. Since it is possible that the manuscript is not a Bank of Japan note, an image featuring a circle with a red color of 14 mm and a red color will be cut out. After that, the characters inside the circle are further cut out and the characteristics of the characters are read. At this time, since the manuscript may be placed in various directions, the characters cut out depending on the direction of the manuscript are 0 degrees,
There is a possibility that it is rotating at various angles such as 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees. Therefore, in order to recognize such a rotated character, the feature of the input character image is extracted while rotating it at various angles, and the feature is compared with the dictionary corresponding to the regular angle. To do.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the special document discriminating unit 105. The input unit 301 for inputting binary image data from the scanner unit 101 and the character image cut out from the input binary image data of the document are used for noise reduction. A preprocessing unit 302 for performing normalization such as removal, a feature extraction unit 303 for extracting features of a character image from the normalized image data,
A histogram generation unit 304 that generates a histogram of the extracted features, and a rotation information register 3 that stores a rotation angle.
05 and the generated histogram to the rotation information register 30
5, a rotation histogram generation unit 306 that rearranges according to the rotation angle to generate a rotation histogram, a dictionary matching unit 307 that performs dictionary matching on the generated rotation histogram to determine candidate characters, and a result output unit 308 that outputs a determination result. And a dictionary 309 storing a standard histogram for each character without rotation. The rotation histogram generation unit 306 includes a conversion unit 306a and a calculation unit 306b.

The operation of the above-mentioned structure will be described with reference to the special document discrimination processing flowchart of FIG. First, binary image data is input from the scanner unit 101 to the input unit 301, a character image is cut out from the image data input by the preprocessing unit 302, and normalization such as noise removal is performed (S401).

Next, the feature extraction unit 303 extracts the feature of the character image from the normalized image data (S402). Here, the feature extraction is performed by extracting the contour of the character image and adding the direction code shown in FIG. 5A to the contour. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the outline of the character image “station” is extracted and a direction code is added.

Next, with respect to the direction code added to the contour portion of the character image by the histogram generation unit 304, FIG.
As shown in (b), a histogram for each character code is generated (S403). This histogram for each character code represents the characteristic amount H of the character image itself.

After that, the generated histograms are rearranged according to the rotation angle of the rotation information register 305, and a histogram corresponding to the rotation of the character image (this is called a rotation histogram) is generated (S404). Subsequently, the dictionary collation unit 307 performs dictionary collation on the generated rotation histogram (S405, S406), and when the character image and the dictionary match, the dictionary is determined to be a special document and the determination result is output. If they do not match in S406, the value of the rotation information register is changed (S407), the histogram of the cut-out character is rotated 90 degrees, the rotation histogram is generated again, and the recognition dictionary collation is executed (S404, S405).

Here, with reference to FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9, the character “bureau” of the Bank of Japan bill will be specifically described as an example. 6-9, a part of the characters is coded. When the character image is read in the direction of the rotation angle of 90 degrees as shown in FIG. 7, the feature extraction unit 303 encodes the direction as shown in FIG. Then, the direction code is converted into a histogram by the histogram generation unit 304. In this state, the rotation information register 305 contains 0-degree information, and the output information of the histogram generation unit 304 and the rotation histogram generation unit 306 match. This data is compared with the information in the dictionary 309 that stores the standard histogram. However, since the character "station" is read by being rotated by 90 degrees, the judgment result of the dictionary collation unit 307 cannot be judged. In this case, the value of the rotation information register 305 is rewritten, the data of the histogram generation unit 304 is again converted into the rotation histogram data with the value of the rotation information register 305, and compared with the information of the dictionary 309. Such an operation is performed until the dictionary collation unit 307 determines a match. However, if there is no coincidence even if the document is rotated by 270 degrees, it cannot be determined and the manuscript is determined not to be a Japanese bank note.

Next, a method of generating the rotation histogram data from the data of the histogram generation unit 304 based on the value of the rotation information register 305 will be described. For example, comparing the case where the rotation angle is 0 degrees in FIG. 6 and the case where the rotation angle is 90 degrees in FIG. 7, the direction code 1 at 90 degrees is the direction code 7, and the direction code 2 is the direction code 8. ，
By rewriting the direction code obtained by adding 6 to the direction code at 90 degrees, the direction code can be converted to the same direction code as when the rotation angle is 0 degree. However, if the result of adding 6 exceeds 8, the direction code obtained by subtracting 8 from the result is rewritten. This conversion is represented by the following calculation formula.

D = MOD (d + c-1) +1 where d: direction code before conversion c: constant depending on rotation angle (0 at 0 degree, 6 at 90 degree)
180 degree is 4,270 degree is 2) D: Direction code after conversion

In the above example, 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees,
Although four kinds of angles of 90 steps such as 270 degrees are used, it is possible to increase the recognition level by decreasing the step angle in order to further improve the discrimination accuracy level.
However, the smaller the step angle, the longer it takes to determine, and it takes longer from the time the operator presses the start key to the time when a copy is output, which of course reduces the efficiency of the copying operation. Also, the finer the pixels that make up one character, the higher the recognition level and the less erroneous detection occurs, but in this case as well, the determination takes time.

The execution control of the special document discriminating unit 105 in the copying machine with the special document discriminating function of the first embodiment having the above-described structure and operation will be described. FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of the copy sequence. The main control unit 106 processes the execution control of the special document discrimination unit 105 as one step of the copy sequence.

First, the main control unit 106 uses the lift-up sensor 206 to perform AD processing as a process in a standby state for copying.
It is determined whether F107 is in the lift-up state (S1001). In the case of lift-up, the document presence confirmation flag is unconditionally reset (S1002). This document existence confirmation flag is a flag that the set state (that is, 1) is continued when it is confirmed that the same document is copied, and it is determined that the document exists if the ADF 107 is closed at the start of copying. In other states, it is indefinite (that is, 0).

When the start key is turned on (S1003) after the above standby processing, it is determined whether or not the original existence confirmation flag is ON (that is, 1) (S100).
4). If the document presence confirmation flag is not ON, it is again determined whether the ADF 107 is in the lift-up state. If not in the lift-up state, the document presence confirmation flag is turned on (S1005, S1006), and the state shown in FIG. The special document discrimination process shown is executed (S1007).

When the determination result of the special document determination process indicates that there is a suspicion of a special document, a warning display is output via the operation display unit 104 and the standby state is returned without executing the copy sequence (S1008, S1011). If the determination result of the special document determination process is not a special document, the normal copy sequence is executed (S1009), and steps S1004 and S100 are performed until the repeat ends.
1009 is repeated (S1010).

On the other hand, in S1004, if the document existence confirmation flag is ON, it is determined again whether the ADF 107 is in the lift-up state. If not in the lift-up state, the process proceeds to the normal copy sequence of S1009. In the case of the lift-up state, the document existence confirmation flag is reset, and the process proceeds to the normal copy sequence of S1009 (S1009).
1012, S1013).

As described above, in the first embodiment, since the discrimination control of the special document discriminating unit 105 is executed only at the first image formation after the document exchange, the reduction of the original copying efficiency of the copying machine can be minimized and the special document can be suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to accurately prevent the illegal copying.

In the first embodiment described above, the opening / closing of the ADF 107 is detected by using the lift-up sensor 206 to determine whether or not the original has been replaced. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a simple pressure plate is used. The same processing and effects can be obtained even if a sensor is attached to the sensor and the opening / closing of the pressure plate is detected.

[Embodiment 2] Embodiment 2 is an example in which, in addition to the configuration and operation of Embodiment 1, execution control of the special document discriminating unit 105 when a document is exchanged by automatic document conveyance by the ADF 107 is added. Since the basic configuration and operation are common to those of the first embodiment, only different parts will be described.

FIG. 11 shows a flow chart of the copy sequence. The inside of the dotted frame indicated by 1100 in the flowchart is the additional step of the second embodiment, and the other steps are common to the first embodiment.

First, the main control unit 106 uses the lift-up sensor 206 to perform AD processing as a process in the standby state for copying.
It is determined whether F107 is in the lift-up state (S1001). In the case of lift-up, the document presence confirmation flag is unconditionally reset (S1002).

When the start key is turned on (S1003) after the above standby processing, the ADF document sensor 20
It is determined whether 2 is ON (S1101). AD
If the F document sensor 202 is not ON (that is, ADF1
If there is no document in 07), it is regarded as a normal pressure plate copy as in the first embodiment, the process proceeds to S1004, and the processes of the subsequent steps are performed.

On the other hand, if the ADF document sensor 202 is ON, it is determined whether or not it is the first copy (S110).
2) If it is the first sheet, the feed-in process is executed to send out one original placed on the original table 201,
It is conveyed to a predetermined exposure position on the contact glass (S11
03). Next, since it is the first copy of the fed original, the special original discrimination processing shown in FIG. 4 is executed (S1104).

If the determination result of the special document determination process indicates that there is a suspicion of a special document, a warning display is output via the operation display unit 104 and the standby state is returned without executing the copy sequence (S1105, S1109). When the determination result of the special document determination process is not a special document, the normal copy sequence is executed (S1106) and S1101 to S110 until the end of the repeat.
1106 is repeated (S1107). When the number of repeat sheets is completed, it is determined whether the ADF document sensor 202 is ON (S1108). If it is ON, the process proceeds to S1102, the next document is fed in, and if it is not ON, the process returns to the standby state.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the discrimination control of the special document discriminating unit 105 is executed only at the first image formation after the document exchange, so that the reduction of the copy efficiency inherent in the copying machine can be minimized and the special document can be suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to accurately prevent the illegal copying.

[Third Embodiment] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a copying machine with a special original discriminating function according to the third embodiment, which shows a scanner unit 101, an image processing unit 102, a printer unit 103, an operation display unit 104, and a special display unit. In addition to the document discriminating unit 105, the main control unit 106 and the ADF 107, the image data input from the image processing unit 102 is stored and compared with the previous image data to determine whether or not the images coincide with each other. The unit 108 is provided. Note that the same reference numerals as those of the first embodiment indicate the same configurations, and thus the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the image matching determination unit 108, in which the memory unit 10 for storing the latest image data is stored.
9a and the memory unit 109b that stores the immediately preceding image data
And a bit map memory 109 having a memory unit 10
An image comparison circuit 110 for comparing the contents of 9a and the contents of the memory unit 109b. The image processing unit 102 transfers all or part of the image on the video bus or only the characteristic part of the image to the bitmap memory 109. Further, the bitmap memory 109 DMAs the contents of the memory unit 109a to the memory unit 109b every scan.
Forward.

The image comparison circuit 110 also accesses the bit map memory 109, compares the contents of the memory unit 109a with the contents of the memory unit 109b, determines whether the image information matches, and If they match, the image match signal is turned on. If they do not match, the image match signal is turned off.
Is output to the main control unit 106.

The execution control of the special document discriminating unit in the copying machine with the special document discriminating function of the third embodiment having the above-mentioned configuration and operation will be described. FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of the copy sequence. Main control unit 106
Processes the execution control of the special document discrimination unit as one step of the copy sequence.

First, when the start key is turned on (S1
401), the latest image data is input to the bitmap memory 109 via the scanner unit 101 and the image processing unit 102 (S1402). Then, the image matching determination unit 108 is operated to determine whether or not the previous image data and the latest image data match, and outputs an image matching signal (S1403).

It is determined whether or not the image coincidence signal is ON (S1404). If it is not ON, the copy is the first copy after the original is exchanged, so the special original discrimination processing shown in FIG. 4 is executed (S1405). . If the determination result of the special document determination process indicates that there is a suspicion of a special document, a warning display is output via the operation display unit 104 and the standby state is returned without executing the copy sequence (S1406, S1409). If the determination result of the special document determination process is not a special document, the normal copy sequence is executed until the end of repeat (S1406, S1).
407, S1408).

On the other hand, if it is ON, the normal copy sequence is executed without executing the special document discrimination processing (S14).
04, S1407).

As described above, in the third embodiment, the image matching determination unit 108 is also used to determine whether the latest image data matches the previous image data, and if they do not match, the first copy operation after the document replacement is performed. Judgment is made, and the discrimination control of the special document discrimination unit 105 is executed only for the first copy operation. Therefore, the reduction of the copying efficiency inherent in the copying machine is minimized, and the special document is accurately discriminated to surely prevent illegal copying. can do.

[0046]

As described above, the copying machine with the special original discriminating function of the present invention has the special function of discriminating whether the content of the input image data is a special original such as a bill or securities. In a copying machine with an original discriminating function, an original exchange detecting means for detecting whether or not an original has been exchanged, a special original discriminating means for discriminating whether or not an original is a special original such as bills, securities, and the original. When the replacement of the document is detected by the replacement detection unit, the control unit executes the discrimination control of the special document discrimination unit only at the first image formation after the document exchange, so that the reduction of the copying efficiency is minimized. In addition, it is possible to prevent illegal copying without fail by accurately discriminating special documents.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a copying machine with a special document discrimination function according to a first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an ADF (automatic document feeder) installed in a copying machine with a special document discriminating function according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a special document discrimination unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a special document determination process.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a histogram for each direction code and character code.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which a contour image of a character image “station” having a rotation angle of 0 degree is extracted and a direction code is added.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which a contour image of a character image “station” having a rotation angle of 90 degrees is extracted and a direction code is added.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which a contour image of a character image “station” having a rotation angle of 180 degrees is extracted and a direction code is added.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which a contour image of a character image “station” having a rotation angle of 270 degrees is extracted and a direction code is added.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a copy sequence according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a copy sequence according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a block configuration diagram of a copying machine with a special original discriminating function according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an image matching determination unit according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a copy sequence according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Scanner Unit 102 Image Processing Unit 103 Printer Unit 104 Operation Display Unit 105 Special Document Discrimination Unit 106 Main Control Unit 107 ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) 108 Image Matching Discrimination Unit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G07D 7/00 H 9340-3E

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A copying machine with a special document discriminating function having a function of discriminating whether or not the contents of the input image data are special documents such as bills and securities, and detects whether or not the documents have been exchanged. Document exchange detection means for
When a document replacement is detected through the document replacement detection unit and the document replacement detection unit that determines whether the document is a special document such as securities, the special document is only displayed when the first image is formed after document replacement. A copying machine with a special document discriminating function, comprising: a control unit that executes a discriminating control of the discriminating unit.