JPH09171221A - Stereoscopic image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and quickly form a stereoscopic image with a simple constitution by providing a moving means for displacing the relative position of a photographing means to an object so as to photograph the object in two directions. SOLUTION: When a reading start instructing key is depressed, a CPU instructs an original platen moving part to move an original platen 5 to a first position, so that a stepping motor is driven to move the original platen 5 to the first position. A scan control part moves a CCD line sensor 12 to execute reading. Then, after the signal of the reading completion with respect to the first position outputted, the CPU instructs the original platen moving part so as to move the original platen 5 to a second position, so that the stepping motor is driven to move the original platen 5 to the second position. The scan control part moves the CCD line sensor 12 to execute the reading.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stereoscopic image forming apparatus capable of forming a stereoscopic image by picking up a stereoscopic object from a plurality of directions and outputting it on the same sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of three-dimensional image forming apparatus is used when it is desired to display small items such as ornaments and stationery as a three-dimensional image in a museum or a museum, for example. Devices and methods are known. One of them is a photographing device such as a silver salt camera which has two lens systems and shoots with binocular parallax, and a reproducing device which prints the picked-up images side by side at regular intervals. (Parallel / Cross-Stereo). The other one is a printing machine that attaches different colors to images captured by the imaging units corresponding to the left and right eyes, separates them, and prints them on a sheet of paper. It is used for viewing (color separation method).

[0003]

However, each of the above-described conventional devices and methods has the following problems. The former requires a relatively long processing time because the image capturing device and the reproducing device are separated and exist independently. Further, regarding the latter, a large-scale device configuration is required for the process of performing color separation, and the printing work is troublesome. The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a stereoscopic image forming apparatus capable of easily and promptly forming a stereoscopic image without requiring a large-scale configuration or complicated work. The purpose is to

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a stereoscopic image forming apparatus for photographing a stereoscopic subject to form a stereoscopic image, and an image pickup means for photographing the subject, The moving means for displacing the relative position between the image pickup means and the subject so that the image is taken from the first and second directions, and the image taken from the first direction and the image taken from the second direction are the same subject image And an image forming means for forming an image on a forming medium.

In the above structure, the image pickup means photographs a three-dimensional subject, and the moving means displaces the relative position between the image pickup means and the subject so as to photograph the subject from the first and second directions, and forms an image. The means forms a stereoscopic image by forming images captured from the first and second directions on the same image forming medium.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a stereoscopic image forming apparatus. The device 1 is composed of an image reading device 2 for photographing a three-dimensional subject, and an image output device 3 for outputting the image read by the image reading device onto an image forming medium such as paper.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the image reading apparatus 2, and FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration view of the apparatus as viewed from the front. Image reading device 2
Is a photographing table 5 on which a three-dimensional object 4 such as ornaments and stationery is placed, and a photographing camera section 6 (imaging means) for scanning the object 4 placed on the photographing table 5 from above.
And an illumination unit 7 arranged above the photographing table 5 to illuminate the subject 4, and an operation unit 8 for setting image reading conditions and the like.
And so on. A predetermined gap is provided between the photographing table 5 and the photographing camera section 6, and a stereoscopic parallax is generated by this gap. In addition, the photographing table 5 includes a photographing camera unit 6
It is provided so as to be movable left and right by a certain amount. Specifically, the photographing table 5 is slidably arranged on the main body, and the photographing table 5 and the apparatus main body are provided with a rack 9 and a pinion 10.
It is movable to the first position and the second position by a drive source such as a stepping motor connected by (moving means) and connected to the pinion 10.

The photographic camera unit 6 of the image reading apparatus 2 includes a photographic lens 11 for forming an image of the subject 4 on an image sensor.
And a CCD line sensor 12 (imaging means) for scanning in the sub-scanning direction (direction shown by the arrow in FIG. 3) on the focal plane on which the image of the original is formed. The subject 4 placed on the photographing table 5 is a relatively small object such as an ornament or a stationery, and its shape and pattern can be more realistically expressed by stereoscopic viewing.

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of the image output device 3. The image output device 3 (image forming means) is composed of a color electrophotographic laser printer, and a print head 14 including a semiconductor laser or the like driven based on image information.
And a photoconductor unit 15 on which a latent image is formed by being exposed by the print head 14, and the photoconductor unit 15
Elevator-type movable developing unit 16 including a developing device that stores toners of red (R), blue (B), and black (BK) for developing the latent image formed on the toner.
A transfer drum unit 17 for transferring the developed toner image on the photoconductor unit 15, a paper feeding unit 18 for feeding a paper from a paper feeding cassette, and a fixing unit 19 for fixing the image transferred on the paper. Etc. By driving the print head 14 based on the image information read by the image reading device 2, a latent image is formed on the photoconductor unit 15, and the latent image is toner-developed by the developing unit 16 and the latent image is formed. The toner image is transferred onto the paper by the transfer drum unit 17, and thereafter,
The image is transferred to the fixing unit 19 by the conveyor belt, and the image transferred onto the sheet is fixed there. The fixed sheet is ejected to the sheet ejection tray 20.

FIG. 5 shows the construction of the print head 14. The print head 14 has a semiconductor laser 21,
The laser light is raster-scanned in the main scanning direction by a polygon mirror 24 via a collimator lens 22 and a cylindrical lens 23. The raster scanned light is
The optical path is corrected by the fθ lens 25 so as to uniformly record each pixel, reflected by the folding mirror 26, and guided to the photoconductor of the photoconductor unit 15 to form an electrostatic latent image.

FIG. 6 shows the structure of the transfer drum unit 17. The transfer drum unit 17 has a transfer drum 27, which is connected to the photoconductor of the photoconductor unit 15 by a drive gear 28 and is integrally driven by a drive source (not shown). On the outer periphery of the transfer drum 27, a joint portion 29 for connecting both end ring portions is provided, a dielectric film 30 is arranged on the body portion, and a claw 31 for chucking the leading end of the sheet is provided on the joint portion 29. .
Inside the transfer drum 27, a transfer charger 32 for forming a transfer electric field, a separation charger 33, and a charge removing charger 34 are arranged. The pitch circle diameter of the drive gear 28 is the same as each drum diameter, and the ratio thereof is an integral multiple. As a result, the peripheral speeds of the two drums are the same,
At the time of transferring each color to each pixel on the transfer drum 27, the same point on the photoconductor is always opposed to each other, so that a slight positional deviation for each color and a slight deviation in the adhesion amount characteristic are suppressed. The paper conveyed from the paper supply unit 18 is held at the leading edge thereof and electrostatically adsorbed on the film 30, and the respective colors are transferred while rotating integrally. However, when the first color is transferred, an electric charge is applied to the film surface. Accumulate,
It hinders the subsequent transfer electric field. Therefore, the transfer charger output for the second and subsequent colors is increased to maintain the transfer efficiency of each color constant.

FIG. 7 shows the circuit blocks of the image reading device 2 and the image output device 3 of this apparatus. The image reading device 2 includes a CPU 35 that controls the entire device and a CCD line sensor 1.
An image processing unit 37 that takes in a read signal from the device 2 via the A / D converter 36 and performs image processing is provided. C
The PU 35 receives an operation command from the operation unit 8 and controls the lamp control unit 39, the scan control unit 40, and the document table moving unit 41 including a stepping motor that drives the rack 9 and the pinion 10. In addition, the image output device 3
Executes the image forming process by operating the CPU 43 that controls the entire apparatus, the print head 14 that operates by receiving the output from the image processing unit 37 through the interface, the photoconductor unit 15 and the transfer drum unit 17. Image forming process control unit 44, paper feed control unit 45 that controls the paper feed unit 18, and movable developing unit 16
And a developing device switching control unit 46 for operating the above, which are controlled by the CPU 43.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the operations executed by the CPU 35 of the image reading apparatus 2 and the CPU 43 of the image output apparatus 3 of the stereoscopic image forming apparatus 1 configured as described above. In the image reading apparatus 2, the operation unit 8 is provided with a reading start instruction key for giving a reading start instruction,
When the reading start instruction key is pressed, the operation unit 8
A reading start signal is output to the PU 35 (S101). C
The PU 35 is the CPU of the image output device 3 that receives this signal.
An image forming (printing) start instruction is output to 43 (S
102). Then, the lamp control unit 39 is instructed to turn on the lamp of the illumination unit 7 (S103). afterwards,
The CPU 35 instructs the document table moving unit 41 to move the document table 5 to the first position shown in FIG. Upon receiving this instruction, the document table moving unit 41 drives the stepping motor to move the document table 5 to the first position (S104). The CPU 35 is a CPU of the image output device 3 described later.
When the reading start signal for the first position output after the processing of S202 and S203 by S43 is input (S10
If YES in step 5, the scan control unit 40 is instructed to start the reading operation. The scan control unit 40 drives a motor (not shown) to move the CCD line sensor 12, and reading is performed (S106). The image signal output from the sensor 12 is converted into digital data by the A / D converter 36, subjected to predetermined processing in the image processing unit 37, and then transferred to the print head 14 of the image output device 3 via an interface. Is output.

Next, the CPU 35 waits for the signal indicating the end of reading for the first position to be output (YES in S107), and then moves the document table 5 to the second position shown in FIG. Instruct the moving unit 41. Upon receiving this instruction, the document table moving unit 41 drives the stepping motor to move the document table 5 to the second position (S108). The CPU 35 is a CPU of the image output device 3 described later.
When the reading start signal for the second position output after the processing of S205 to S208 in S43 is input (S10
(YES in 9), the scan control unit 40 is instructed to start the reading operation, and the scan control unit 4 performs the same operation as in S106.
0 drives a motor (not shown) to drive the CCD line sensor 12
Is moved to perform reading (S110), and the read image signal is output to the print head 14 of the image output device 3.
Output to After that, the CPU 35 waits until a signal indicating the end of reading for the second position is output (S111).
YES), the lamp control unit 39 is instructed to turn off the lamp of the illumination unit 7 (S112), and the process is ended.

In the CPU 43 on the image output device 3 side, when an image formation start command is input from the CPU 35 on the image reading device 2 side (YES in S201), the paper feed control section 45.
The paper feed controller 45 conveys the paper from the paper feed cassette to the transfer drum 27, and transfers the paper to the transfer drum 2
It is sandwiched by the chucking claws 31 of No. 7, and the front end of the paper is set at the image writing position (S202). Next, the developing device switching control unit 46 is instructed to set the developing device (R), the developing device unit 16 is moved, and the developing device (R) containing the toner of the first color, for example, red is predetermined. The position is set (S203). When the developing device (R) is set, the CPU 43 causes the CPU 35 on the image reading apparatus 2 side to
The first position reading start signal is output to (S204).

Next, the image data sent from the image reading device 2 side is input to the printer head 14, and the semiconductor laser 21 emits light modulated according to the image signal,
The image of the first color is written (exposed) on the photoconductor of the photoconductor unit 15 (S205). The CPU 43
Instructions such as writing timing are given. Then, CPU4
3 instructs the image forming process control unit 44 to develop the image written on the photoconductor (206). This allows
The developing device R forms a red toner image on the photoconductor. Further, the transfer of the toner image is instructed (S20).
7). The toner image on the photoconductor is transferred to the sheet chucked on the transfer drum 27. The appearance of the image transferred onto the paper is shown in FIG. The image-transferred sheet is held on the transfer drum 27 while being chucked because the image read at the second position described later is superposed on the image at the first position.

After receiving the transfer end signal from the image forming process controller 44, the CPU 43 instructs the developing device switching controller 46 to set the developing device (B), moves the developing device unit 16, and The developing device (B) containing two-color, for example, blue toner is set at a predetermined position (S2).
08). After setting the developing unit (B), CPU4
3 outputs a second position reading start signal to the CPU 35 on the image reading device 2 side (S209). Subsequent step S21
The processes of 0 to S212 are performed in the same manner as the processes of S205 to S207, and the image of the second color, for example, the blue color is superimposed on the sheet on which the red image is formed. The appearance of the image transferred onto the paper is shown in FIG. Then the CPU
43 is a fixing unit 19 of the image forming process control unit 44.
And the like are instructed to fix and discharge the paper on which the red and blue toner images are formed (S213). As a result, the sheet is unchucked, sent to the fixing unit 19 by the conveyor belt, fixed, and then ejected to the sheet ejection tray 20.

As shown in FIG. 2, the two images formed on the sheet as described above are obtained by moving the document table 5 to the left at the first position and to the right at the second position. Since the subject is photographed, as shown in FIG. 10, a red image at the first position is formed on the right side of the sheet, and a blue image is formed on the left side of the sheet. Therefore, by attaching a red filter to the right eye and a blue filter to the left eye, and viewing this image, a stereoscopic image appears to appear.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of operations executed by the CPU 35 of the image reading apparatus 2 and the CPU 43 of the image output apparatus 3 according to another embodiment. In the above-described embodiment, the image is formed in different colors according to the reading at the first position and the second position. However, in the embodiments described below, a single color is used to form an image in different positions. Then
The image on the right side of the created image is viewed by the right eye, and the image on the left side is viewed by the left eye by a parallel / cross stereoscopic method. That is, FIG. 11 differs from FIG. 8 in that
The steps of installing the developing devices for the first and second colors in S203 and S208 are omitted, and S404 to S407 and S404 are omitted.
409 to S412, the image forming process is executed with the same one color. In S404 to S407, an image is formed on the right side position of the paper, and the state of the image at that time is shown in FIG. In S409 to S412, an image is formed on the left side position of the sheet, and the state of the image at that time is shown in FIG. Even with the image created in this manner, the stereoscopic image can be seen by being seen by the parallel / intersecting stereoscopic method.

The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the subject is photographed (read) and the print operation is executed in parallel, but the image may be photographed first and then the print may be performed. .

[0021]

As described above, according to the three-dimensional image forming apparatus of the present invention, the positional relationship between the image pickup means and the subject is changed to take an image, and the respective images are positioned on the same image forming medium. By outputting by shifting or by shifting the position in different colors, a stereoscopic image observed by a color separation method using color glasses, or a stereoscopic image observed by a parallel / cross stereoscopic method, With a simple configuration,
It can be easily formed without any troublesome work.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a stereoscopic image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of an image reading device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of the same device as seen from the front.

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of an image output device.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a print head.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a transfer drum unit.

FIG. 7 is a circuit block diagram of an image reading device and an image output device.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of operations executed by the image reading device and the image output device.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a state of an image transferred on a sheet.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state of an image transferred onto a sheet.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of operations executed by an image reading apparatus and an image output apparatus according to another embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a state of an image transferred onto a sheet.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a state of an image transferred on a sheet.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 image reading device 3 image output device (image forming means) 4 three-dimensional object 5 photographing stand 6 photographing camera section (imaging means) 9 rack (moving means) 10 pinion (moving means)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A stereoscopic image forming apparatus for photographing a stereoscopic subject to form a stereoscopic image, and an image pickup means for photographing an image of the subject, and the subject to be photographed from first and second directions. Moving means for displacing the relative position between the image pickup means and the subject; and image forming means for forming an image photographed in the first direction and an image photographed in the second direction on the same image forming medium. A stereoscopic image forming apparatus comprising: