JPH07226838A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the copy of securities by providing a means for reading an original, an image forming means, a means for evaluating that the copy of the original is inhibited in accordance with a prescribed reference and a means for inhibiting copying. CONSTITUTION:The evaluation means 400 compares a shading-corrected and also digitalized density signal with a pattern signal transmitted from a specified pattern storage part 420, and transmits an evaluation signal expressing the degree of vagueness by a maximum 100 levels to a controller 800. A whole control part 830 compares the value of the evaluation signal with a reference signal from a reference generation part 820 so as to judge whether an electrostatic photograph process is to be conducted or not. When the evaluation signal is more than a regulated value, the control part 830 disables the starting of a program conducting the electrostatic photograph process and an alarm message is displayed on a panel display on an operation display part 930. The control part 830 cannot conduct the electrostatic photograph process hereafter when the identification number of a manufacture is inputted as a release means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for reading an image on a document and recording it on a recording sheet, and is particularly suitable for application to a color copying machine capable of color copying the image of the document. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, since high-performance color image forming apparatuses have become widespread, it is expected that crimes such as forgery of securities such as banknotes will frequently occur. In order to prevent such crimes, when reading and copying a color original digitally, a read signal is used to identify a specific pattern in the original,
A proposal has been made to stop the copying operation when the identified pattern is recognized as that of securities (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-111977).

As a method for identifying a pattern, a method that employs a pattern matching method and a method that applies fuzzy theory to such a pattern matching method have been proposed (JP-A-4-302271 and JP-A-4-302267). Issue).
The securities discriminating means adopting such a pattern matching method uses an incandescent lamp for the color of a specific pattern for identifying a specific securities from a plurality of types of securities B (blue), G
(Green) and R (red) are separated into three primary colors and read as an electric signal by a line sensor, and the electric signals are A / D converted in multiple gradations to obtain color signals of the three primary colors. Is provided, and a signal obtained by comparing the specific pattern with a read signal from, for example, a scanner is output from the discrimination dictionary.

[0004]

However, in a color scanner that color-separates a color original document with three primary colors and digitally reads it, the accuracy of mounting the line sensor, the warp of the line sensor, the bending, and the change between the line sensors caused by the change over time. There is a tendency to have variations in the scanner characteristics related to the output level difference between red and blue due to pixel shift, mismatch between red and blue magnifications and MTF, and lens aberration. Therefore, there is the first problem that the specific mark actually read by the color scanner does not become the same as the specific pattern previously written in the discrimination dictionary as described above.

In order to solve such a problem, it is necessary to provide means for setting an evaluation standard so as to adjust the previously written specific pattern and the specific pattern read by the color scanner so as to match each other. Further, the color scanner needs to prevent erroneous recognition due to the influence of the color ghost due to the reasons described above. Here, the color ghost means that the color of one pixel is determined based on the signal from the individual line sensor by separately reading the image obtained by optically separating the original image into red and blue, and thus the position of the line sensor is determined. When there is a deviation, for example, a red line or a blue line is formed at the boundary of the black line.

On the other hand, the discriminating suitability of the securities discriminating means is fixed, and when a manuscript close to a specific securities is read, the securities discriminating means judges that the securities are counterfeit and cannot be read. Has a second problem that the original cannot be read forever.

Further, since the securities discriminating means gives only the signal judged to be forgery to the control part, the control part either stops the machine to prevent forgery or does not output the signal to the outside. Because there is only one.

A first object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of varying the suitability of securities discriminating means.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus in which the evaluation unit transmits the degree of conformity to the control unit, and the control unit calls the user's attention or disables the operation according to the degree of conformity. Especially.

[0010]

As means for solving the first problem of the present invention, a reading means for reading an image from a document, an image forming means for forming image information from the reading means on a recording medium, Evaluation means for evaluating according to a predetermined standard that the manuscript is prohibited to be copied;
It is characterized in that an operation prohibiting unit for prohibiting a copying operation to a degree according to the evaluation and a reference generating unit for changing the predetermined reference are provided.

As means for solving the second problem of the present invention, reading means for reading an image from an original, image forming means for forming the read image information on a recording medium, and copying of the original forbidden. It is characterized in that it is provided with an evaluation means for evaluating that there is a certain thing according to a predetermined standard, and a control section for changing the subsequent processing to a degree according to the evaluation.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the image forming apparatus according to the first and second aspects of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the essential configuration of one embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the first and second inventions, and FIG. 2 is one embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the first and second inventions. It is sectional drawing which shows an example.

In the image forming apparatus 1000, a line sensor 207 receives a reflected light image from a document positioned at a reference position of a platen 201 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and sends a color signal line by line. Shading correction is performed on the color scanner 200 and the color signal by the A / D conversion processing unit 211, and at the same time, analog / digital conversion is performed and output as a density signal. The density signal is color converted by the image processing unit 212 and undercolor processing is performed. , An image processing means 210 for applying a masking process and outputting as a recording signal, and the semiconductor laser 3 with the recording signal.
A writing unit 310 that controls light emission by 12 to form an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier 339 through an optical system, an electrostatic photography process unit 330 that executes an electrostatic photography process on the image carrier 339, a so-called Evaluation means 400 that evaluates according to a predetermined standard that the copy is prohibited from the density signal, and a control 800 that changes the subsequent processing to a degree according to the evaluation,
The reference generation unit 820 and the network control unit 9 that generate the above-described reference.
10, an incompatibility frequency storage unit 920, an operation display unit 930, and a pulse generation unit 220 that generates a pulse signal serving as an operation clock of the scanner 200 and the like. Each member will be described in detail below.

The color scanner 200 corresponds to a reading means, and moves an original document positioned at a reference position of the platen 201 with a light source 202 for irradiating white light from below placed thereon, as shown in FIG. A first mirror 203 provided on the moving member for reflecting the light from the document, and a V mirror portion provided with a pair of a second mirror 204 and a third mirror 205 for reflecting the light from the first mirror 203; By including the image forming lens 206 that forms an image of the light from the V mirror section on the light receiving section of the line sensor 207, the reflected light image from the image section of the document is received by the line sensor 207 and the color signal is output in line units. It is to be sent to the image processing means 210. Here, the color signal is obtained after MTF correction of the effects of the MTF of the lens in the optical system, the mounting accuracy of the line sensor and the vibration of the optical mirror or the like in the optical traveling system, and the fluctuation of the scan speed.

The pulse generating section 220 is a pulse generating circuit for generating a reference clock as an operation timing, and the switch S is generated by a control signal from the electrophotographic process control section 810.
Is closed, the reference clock is supplied to the color scanner 200, the image processing means 210, and the writing means 310. As a result, the reading operation of the color signal received by the line sensor 207 is executed. Where switch S
Is normally open. Therefore, when the control signal is applied from the electrophotographic process control unit 810, the closed state is set. The control signal is also a signal for starting scanning of the reading optical system of the color scanner 200.

The image processing means 210, as shown in FIG. 1, carries out shading correction on color signals and at the same time performs analog / digital conversion and outputs as density signals of 256 gradations A / D.
The conversion processing unit 211 performs color conversion into a density signal, under color processing, masking processing is performed as a recording signal, and the recording signal in which the density signal is subjected to MTF correction, γ correction and gradation correction in an arbitrary order is writing means. The image processing means 212 for sending to 310. The MTF correction referred to here is to correct the variation of the MTF of the lens, the accuracy of the prism surface and the scanning speed in the optical system constituting the writing means 310, which directly affects the deterioration of the resolution, into the density signal. To improve the reproducibility in the finest part of the image, the MTF value is 30
% Or more, and the strength of MTF correction is determined by edge enhancement, smoothing, and anti-moire.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the writing means 310 emits the semiconductor laser 312 based on the recording signal sent from the writing control section 311, and the image carrier 339 for each dot.
A line is scanned over the surface to form a latent image, and a so-called exposure process is performed.

The writing means 310 oscillates the semiconductor laser 312 by a pulse width modulated modulation signal as shown in FIG. 1 to rotate the laser light at a predetermined speed.
Then, the light is deflected by the f.theta. Lens 315, the first cylindrical lens (not shown), and the second cylindrical lens (not shown), and the image is carried on the image carrier 339 by focusing on a minute spot.

The scanning optical system constituting the writing means 310 is provided with a semiconductor laser 312 as a coherent light source and a collimator lens 3 as a modulation optical system as shown in FIG.
13 is provided, and polygon mirrors 314 and f are used as a deflection optical system.
A θ lens 315 is provided, and a first cylindrical lens and a second cylindrical lens are provided as a surface tilt correction optical system by the polygon mirror 314.

GaAlAs or the like is used for the semiconductor laser 312,
The maximum output is 10 mW, the light efficiency is 25%, and the divergence angle is 8 to 16 ° parallel to the joint surface and 20 to 36 ° perpendicular to the joint surface. Since color toners may be sequentially superposed on each other, exposure with light having a wavelength that is less absorbed by the color toners is preferable, and the wavelength in this case is 780 nm.

The collimator lens 313 is a lens which efficiently extracts a beam with a required diameter, has a numerical aperture NA of 0.33, and is composed of a lens having a transmittance of 97% or more, and improves spherical aberration and symmetry. It is a thing. The lens is a lens having a small refractive index.

The prism (not shown) is a prism having a transmittance of 80 or more and compresses the beam diameter from the semiconductor laser 312 to 1/3. The deflection angle is finely adjusted by a screw or the like (not shown).

The deflection optical system reduces the Pepper sum and the astigmatic difference in order to condense the beam and to flatten the scanning surface.

The polygon mirror 314 is provided with eight polygon surfaces and rotates at a rotation speed of 16535.4 (rpm) at a writing density of 400 dpi and 11023 (rpm) at a writing density of 600 dpi. To scan.

The fθ lens 315 reduces the Pepper sum and the astigmatic difference in order to realize the flattening of the scanning surface and removes the curvature of field.

A polygon mirror 314 is used as a correction optical system.
Before and after the first cylindrical lens (not shown) and the second
A cylindrical lens (not shown) is provided to reduce the unevenness of the scanning line pitch due to the surface tilt error of the polygon mirror 314. As a result, the polygon tilt angle is 120 seconds PP, and the tilt angle correction rate is 1'20 or more. The second cylindrical lens forms an image of the beam on the image carrier 339. The half-width of the spot size is 51.
6 was 57.0 μm in the sub-scanning direction.

The write control unit 311 is provided with a modulation circuit (not shown), an LD drive circuit (not shown), an index sensor (not shown) as a synchronization system, and an index detection circuit (not shown) for deflection. A polygon driver (not shown) as an optical system is provided.

The modulation circuit compares the reference wave with the analog recording signal obtained by D / A converting the recording signal consisting of a predetermined bit and multi-values it. The modulation signal thus obtained becomes the drive signal for the LD drive circuit.

The LD drive circuit uses a modulation signal to produce a semiconductor laser.
312 oscillates, a signal corresponding to the light amount of the beam from the semiconductor laser 312 is fed back, and is driven so that the light amount becomes constant, and the current conducted to the semiconductor laser 312 can be changed. It is like this. Thereby, the latent image potential can be adjusted.

The synchronization system enters an index sensor (not shown) via a mirror (not shown) that reflects the beam from the deflection optical system. The index sensor outputs a current in response to the beam, and the current is converted into a current / voltage by an index detection circuit and output as an index signal.
The surface position of the polygon mirror 314 that rotates at a predetermined speed is detected by this index signal, and optical scanning is performed by a modulation signal in a raster scanning system at a cycle in the main scanning direction. At 400 dpi, the scanning frequency is 16.1133 MHz, the effective print width is 297 mm or more, and the effective exposure width is 306 mm or more. At 600dpi, the scanning frequency becomes 4/9.

As shown in FIG. 1, the evaluation means 400 evaluates the degree of ambiguity with securities based on various evaluation results that the duplication is prohibited from the density signal of 256 gradations. The signal is sent out and the pattern comparison unit
It is composed of 410 and a specific pattern storage unit 420, and an evaluation signal is sent from the pattern comparison unit 410 to the controller 800.

The pattern comparison unit 410 is a specific pattern storage unit 4
20 by comparing with the data registered in advance, by comparing the comprehensive image pattern of a part or the whole of the manuscript for evaluation, and further by using these processes together, The feature extraction is performed for the content of the read image data.

The specific pattern storage unit 420 is, for example, a non-volatile RAM, and stores the color spectrum distribution of the document, a comprehensive image pattern of a part or the whole of the document (this is called a specific pattern), and the size of the document. It is a thing. The specific pattern referred to here is the color of a specific pattern that identifies a specific security from multiple types of securities, and is separated into three primary colors of B (blue), G (green), and R (red) using an incandescent lamp. The color signals are read by a line sensor as electric signals, the electric signals are A / D-converted in multiple gradations to obtain color signals of the three primary colors, and these color signals are encoded.

The control 800 is based on an electrophotographic process control unit 810 including a microprocessor in which a program for controlling timing control of members for executing the electrostatic photography process and a document conveyance timing is written, and a density signal of 256 gradations. Criteria generation unit 820 for generating a plurality of criteria for evaluating whether or not copying is prohibited
And, the execution of the electrostatographic process is stopped based on the communication processing with the external device, the interrupt processing from the input device, and the evaluation signal indicating the degree of ambiguity with the securities, and the restart is prohibited and the restart is prohibited. It is provided with an overall control unit 830 including a microprocessor in which a program for selecting and changing a method for canceling the state is written. The overall control 830 corresponds to the securities discriminating means in the conventional art.

Here, as described above, the color scanner 200 includes the line sensor mounting accuracy, the line sensor warp, the pixel shift between the line sensors due to the bending and the change over time, the red and blue magnifications, and the MTF mismatch. Since there are variations in the scanner characteristics related to the output level difference between red and blue due to lens aberration, the ID can be obtained from a touch key provided on the operation display unit 930 by a service person at the shipping stage or the installation stage of the apparatus. By typing
It will be set to a specific value from a plurality of reference signals. As a result, the characteristics of the scanner forming the image forming apparatus 1000 can be adjusted.

The overall control unit 830 also has a function of performing communication control for communicating with an external device through the communication line 911, and with a management place outside the image forming apparatus 1000 and other installed external devices. It is intended to enable communication such as data exchange between them periodically or at any time, and by providing the image forming apparatus side with means for storing the ID and password of the other party who permits the communication start request, It is possible to prevent unauthorized access when the password is leaked (the specific configuration is described in JP-A-4-318746). It is connected to the overall controller 830 by an RS-232C interface (not shown) (not shown),
Overall control unit 8 via this RS-232C interface
When the data transfer from 30 is performed, the transfer data is temporarily held in a RAM (not shown) provided in the network control unit (hereinafter referred to as NCU unit) 910, and the data transfer from the control 800 is completed. After that, the overall control unit 830 causes the NCU910
Can be controlled to establish a communication line connection with the outside, and data can be transferred to the outside through the line connection modem and NCU unit 910.

In this embodiment, the control 800 is realized by two micro-processors, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the control 800 may be realized by software on two or more or a single microprocessor. Good.

The nonconformity frequency storage means 920 is a RAM for writing the history of detection of the specific mark, and also records data relating to the frequency of each specific pattern registered in the specific pattern storage unit 420 and the frequency detected continuously. I am doing it. These data can be transmitted to the service center mentioned above regularly or at any time. Also, it can be displayed by a key input from the operation display unit 930. As a result, the guideline from the service person to the user can be considered.

The operation display unit 930 is an LCD (liquid crystal) type message touch display for displaying information relating to copying, and displays characters and figures with 96 × 192 dots, for example, the number of copies set with the numeric keypad,
In addition to the standard scaling key, the same size key, the zoom ratio set with the zoom key, the paper size selected with the copy paper selection key, the message showing the status of the image forming device main body, the guide message showing the operating procedure, and the compatibility and warning messages. Is displayed. Thereby, the guidance index for the user is displayed.

The electrostatic photography process section 330 corresponds to an image forming means, and includes a charging device 331 and developing devices 332 to 33.
5. A transfer device 336, a separation device 337, a cleaning device 338, and an image carrier 339 are formed, and an image is formed on a recording paper by executing an electrostatic photography process of charging, development, transfer, and separation. .

The image carrier 339 is formed by forming a photosensitive layer on the surface of a conductive base material made of, for example, aluminum. The photosensitive layer has a film thickness of 15 to 30 μm and a dielectric constant of 2.0 to 5.0.
The conductive base material is grounded.

The image carrier 339 has a linear velocity of 280 (mm / sec) or 1
It is a drum-shaped photosensitive member having a diameter of 180 mm, which is composed of a coating type OPC that is (-) charged and rotates in the direction of the arrow at 25 (mm / sec), and is an encoder ( (Not shown) is provided, and the encoder sends a phase signal indicating the phase of the image carrier 339 to the control 800.

A charging device 331, developing devices 332 to 335, a separating device 337, and a transfer device 33, which will be described later, are provided on the peripheral portion of the image carrier 339.
6, a cleaning device 338 is provided, and a paper feed tray 341,
A paper feed system including a registration roller 343, a conveyor belt 344 and the like is provided.

The charging device 331 is, for example, a scorotron charger, which prevents fog by uniformly charging the image carrier 339 to a predetermined voltage and adjusting gradation reproducibility before the latent image forming process. .

The developing devices 332 to 335 each include a toner made of a polyester material having an average particle size of about 8.5 μm and a ferrite coating carrier having an average particle size of 60 μm and a toner concentration of 4 to.
After stirring the developer controlled to 6% by rotating the stirring screw at 120 (rpm), the magnetic brush is placed on the outer circumference of the sleeve which is outside the magnet roller and rotates at about 400 (rpm) or 180 (rpm). Then, a predetermined bias voltage is applied to the developing sleeve to visualize the latent image in the developing area facing the image carrier 339 as a toner image.

As is well known, the transfer device 336 is an image carrier 339.
The transfer paper P is superposed on the electrostatically carried toner image, and the toner is transferred onto the transfer paper P by discharging the electric charge from the back side of the transfer paper. A scorotron discharger is preferable. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be any one that electrostatically transfers the toner image onto the transfer paper P such as a corotron charger or a charging roller.

As is well known, the separating device 337 separates the transfer paper P by electrostatically removing it from the transfer paper P electrostatically adsorbed on the image carrier 339. The separating paper 337 is separated by a scorotron charger, a corotron charger, and a charging device. A roller or the like is used.

The cleaning device 338 brings the image carrier 339 by bringing a blade or the like into contact with the surface of the image carrier 339.
The toner and dust adhering to the surface of the is scraped off and captured in the waste toner box.

As is well known, the fixing device 345 is a device for permanently fixing the toner image on the transfer paper P by applying heat or heat and pressure to the transfer paper P carrying the toner image. Is made of, for example, LTV (abbreviation of Roten Parachar Vulcanizing) having a rubber hardness of 30 ° coated with PFA (abbreviation of tetrafluoroethylene / perfluoroalkyl vinyl ether copolymer) to a thickness of 70 μm. , A 200 W electric heater is included, and the upper roller has a diameter of 50 mm and a total length of 324 mm, such as A5056.
It is formed of a TD (aluminum) core metal material and is PFA coated on the surface thereof. A fixing temperature sensor is provided on the surface of a heating roller including a 1100 W electric heater (not shown). The fixing temperature sensor is composed of, for example, a thermistor or the like, and detects the surface temperature of the upper roller including the electric heater as an output voltage of about 5 V at maximum.
The temperature sensor is used to control the fixing temperature at 180 ° C., for example.

A paper discharge sensor (not shown) is provided in the path on the discharge side from the fixing device 345, and sends a detection signal for detecting the rear end of the transfer paper P to the electrophotographic process control unit 810.

In the present embodiment, the electrostatic photography process section 330 for forming an image by the electrostatic photography method is used as the image forming means, but the invention is not limited to this, and the ink jet method is used. The image forming unit according to another method may be used.

An illegal copy prevention operation in the image forming apparatus 1000 will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus of this embodiment for preventing illegal copying.

When a power switch (not shown) is turned on,
The electrophotographic process control unit 810 executes a predetermined initialization routine, and after the fixing roller reaches a predetermined temperature, a command input state is input from a touch key group (not shown) provided on the operation display unit 930.

When the operator uses the touch keys to instruct a copying operation, the electrophotographic process control section 810 sends an ON state control signal to the switch S based on a command signal from the overall control section 830. The pulse generator 220 sends the reference clock to the color scanner 200 or the like via the switch S. As a result, the color scanner 200 is driven to read the original image. In this image reading, a line sensor 207 provided with a filter that transmits only blue, green, and red color components receives the light, and at the same time as shading correction, image processing is executed on the A / D-converted density signal and the inside of the image processing unit 212 is executed. Image memory (not shown).

In parallel with this, the evaluation means 400 compares the density signal digitized at the same time as the shading correction with the pattern signal sent from the specific pattern storage section 420 to express the degree of ambiguity at a maximum of 100 levels. An evaluation signal is sent to the control 800 (S1). Specifically, the readable area on the platen 201 and the specific pattern storage unit 4
Since the address correspondence with the storage area on 20 is made,
The size of the document is recognized based on the size of the data expansion area on the copy prohibition pattern storage unit 420 and compared. Since some pattern signals register the color spectrum distribution of the original document, the density signals of the respective colors are also compared. The registered color spectrum distribution is provided with a plurality of pixels shifted by several pixels in order to absorb the positional deviation and is also compared with these. A digital signal corresponding to the average degree of coincidence of these comparison operations is output.

The overall controller 830 determines whether to execute the electrostatographic process from the result of comparison between the value of the evaluation signal and the reference signal from the reference generator 820, and also determines the procedure for restarting. ing. For example, if the evaluation signal indicates 50% or less, the electrostatographic process is continued as it is (S2). However, the evaluation signal is 50-70
If it indicates%, the overall control unit 830 disables the program that executes the electrostatographic process and displays a warning message on the display of the operation display unit 930. The overall control unit 830 selects the release key as the release means (S
3). Therefore, if the release key is not attached, the electrostatographic process cannot be executed thereafter. If the release key is attached in advance, the next copy can be performed as it is. If the evaluation signal indicates 70 to 90%, the overall control unit 830 disables the program that executes the electrostatographic process and displays a warning message on the display of the operation display unit 930. The overall control unit 830 selects the personal identification number of the administrator as the releasing means (S4).
Therefore, unless the administrator inputs the personal identification number from the touch key (not shown) of the operation display unit 930, the electrostatic photography process cannot be executed thereafter. The evaluation signal is
If it is 90% or more, the overall control unit 830 disables the program for executing the electrostatographic process, and displays a warning message on the panel display of the operation display unit 930. The overall control unit 830 selects the manufacturer's personal identification number as the releasing means (S5). Therefore, for example, unless the service person inputs the manufacturer's personal identification number from the key group, the electrostatographic process cannot be performed thereafter.

As described above, the image forming apparatus of this embodiment
1000 prevents copying of manuscripts confusing with securities and can prevent the next copying from being started unless the electrophotographic process is disabled and the releasing means is not used. However, in this embodiment, since the degree of ambiguity is detected by using the specific mark, when trying to read a document close to the specific securities, the securities discriminating means judges that the securities are counterfeit and cannot be read. Therefore, there is an inconvenience that the user cannot permanently read the original. In such a case, in this embodiment, by inputting the ID from the touch key provided on the operation display unit 930, the set reference signal is changed. Specifically, by changing the normal copyable value shown in FIG. 3 to less than 80%, it is possible to read a document close to a particular securities.

Further, since the overall control unit 830 transmits data regarding the frequency for each specific pattern and the frequency detected continuously through the NCU unit 910 to the service center, the user can be identified by the ID or the like at the request of the user. Even when it can be confirmed that it is not the specific document, the set reference signal is changed. Specifically, by changing the normal copyable value shown in FIG. 3 to less than 80%, it is possible to read a document close to a particular securities.

In this embodiment, the evaluation means 400 is activated during the electrostatic photography process, but the invention is not limited to this, and it is executed during the prescan operation for detecting the document size and the like. You may. Further, the evaluation signal may be replaced with the number of times of recognition.

According to the above-described embodiment, in response to a request from a user who wants to read a document close to the one to be discriminated and collated, the discrimination unit is handled by a service person or by using a communication line or the like by a method that is difficult to decipher such as encryption. It is possible to read the image according to the user's wish by changing the matching degree of. Further, it can be used as a guide index from the service person to the user.

[0063]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, with the above configuration, a cipher or the like is decrypted by receiving a request from a user who desires to read a document close to an object to be discriminated and collated, by using a serviceman or using a communication line. By changing the adaptability of the control unit by a difficult method, it is possible to read according to the wishes of the user.

The second aspect of the present invention can be used as a guidance index from the service person to the user with the above configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the first and second aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation for preventing an illegal copy of the image forming apparatus of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 200 Color scanner 201 Platen 330 Electrostatographic process section 400 Evaluation means 800 Control

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06T 7/00 1/00 G03G 21/00 550 G06F 15/62 410 Z 15/66 A (72) Inventor Yoshihisa Kamata 2970 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji, Tokyo Konica stock company (72) Inventor Motohiro Takashima 1-16-18 Nishihashimoto, Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa Alps Giken Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A reading means for reading an image from an original, an image forming means for forming image information from the reading means on a recording medium, and a predetermined standard that the original is prohibited from being copied. And an operation prohibiting means for prohibiting the copying operation to a degree according to the evaluation,
An image forming apparatus comprising a reference generation unit that changes the predetermined reference. 2. A reading means for reading an image from a document, an image forming means for forming the read image information on a recording medium, and an evaluation that copying of the document is prohibited according to a predetermined standard. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an evaluation unit that performs the above-described evaluation, and a control unit that changes the subsequent processing according to the degree of the evaluation.