JPH09312737A - Hand scanner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize the improvement of the operability to prevent meandering of the hand scanner, to make the scanner small in size and the simplicity of the scanner configuration through the reduction in number of components. SOLUTION: The hand scanner is provided with a light source 1a to light up an original 9, a sensor 2 receiving a reflected light in the original 9 from a read section 12 and converting the light into an electric signal, a frame 3 supporting the light source 1a and the sensor 2, a rotary shaft 4 penetrated through the frame 3 and drive rollers 5a, 5b are fixed in the vicinity of both ends of the shaft 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hand scanner, and more particularly to a hand scanner which scans a document manually to read an image and inputs information to a host machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there have been the following hand scanners for manually reading image information and the like.
That is, as shown in FIG. 3 when the hand scanner is viewed from the bottom side, the conventional hand scanner 51 has a document reading unit 5
The two rollers 55a and 55b on both outer sides of the roller 2 are formed separately from each other.
5b rotate independently. When actually reading the image, the rollers 55a, 55b
Comes into contact with the original, and the entire hand scanner 1 travels on the original by the rotation of the rollers 55a and 55b. Thereby, the image on the document can be read over a wide range.

Further, as another conventional example of the hand scanner, as shown in FIG. 4, rollers 65a and 65b on both outer sides of the document reading portion 62 are formed separately as in the first conventional example. ing. However, each roller 6
A predetermined gear 73a, 73b, 74 is provided between 5a and 65b.
a, 74b and a shaft 64 parallel to the roller shaft supporting the rollers 65a, 65b. Therefore, the left and right rollers 65a and 65b are adapted to rotate in association with each other.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following disadvantages. That is, the l
The problem is that the operability of the hand scanner when reading an image is not sufficient. That is, the two rollers 55 on both outer sides of the original reading portion as shown in FIG.
In the conventional hand scanner 51 in which a and b rotate separately and do not interlock with each other, two rollers 55
Since a and 55b rotate independently, when scanning manually, a difference in rotation between the left and right rollers 55a and 55b is allowed, and the hand scanner 51 tends to meander.

[0005] Further, the image read while meandering requires subsequent correction work, etc. In order to correct the image, each roller 55a, 55b is equipped with an encoder or the like, and two rollers 55a, 55b are provided. Inconveniently, a complicated process of detecting the movement amount of the image data and correcting the image data from the difference is required.

The second problem is that the volume of the entire hand scanner is increased. That is, FIG.
As shown in FIG.
The two rollers 65a, 65b are mutually connected to the gears 73a, 73b.
b, 74a, 74b and the shaft 64, and the rotation of one roller 65a is transmitted to the other roller 65b. Accordingly, by setting the gear ratio of the gears 74a, 74b engaged with the two rollers 65a, 65b to 1: 1, the two rollers 65a, 65b rotate at the same speed, so that the meandering phenomenon of the hand scanner 61 is reduced. Is prevented. However, the gears 73a, 73b, 74 are separately provided.
An extra space is required to mount the a and 74b and the shaft 64, which causes the inconvenience that the configuration of the entire apparatus becomes complicated and increases in size.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to improve the operability of preventing meandering of a hand scanner, downsize the device, and simplify the device configuration by reducing the number of parts.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the invention of claim 1, a light source for illuminating a document on a hand scanner and a reflected light from a reading section of the document are received to generate an electric signal. It is equipped with a sensor for converting to, a light source and a frame for holding the sensor, a rotatable shaft penetrating the frame, and a traveling roller fixed near both ends of the shaft.

With the above construction, the light emitted from the light source passes through the space in the frame and is applied to the document. The light that hits the document is reflected according to the image on the document. A part of the reflected light passes through the SELFOC lens and reaches the sensor.

At the same time, when the hand scanner moves, the traveling roller comes into contact with the original and rotates. Then, this rotation is detected by the encoder and is converted into the movement amount of the hand scanner. As a result, the image of the reading unit is associated with the position of the image on the two-dimensional plane, and a two-dimensional image is formed by scanning the entire document.

At this time, each traveling roller is fixed to one shaft. Therefore, the respective traveling rollers come into frictional contact with the document, and both traveling rollers rotate at the same rotation speed. Accordingly, the hand scanner moves linearly, so that the so-called meandering phenomenon is effectively prevented even by manual scanning, and operability is improved. Further, since the shaft that directly fixes the two rollers penetrates the inside of the frame, the device can be downsized.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 adopts a structure in which the respective traveling rollers are arranged in the vicinity of both sides of the document reading portion, and the other structure is the same as that of the invention according to claim 1.

Furthermore, the invention according to claim 3 adopts a structure in which a friction member having a large friction coefficient is arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the traveling roller, and the other structure is the same as that of the invention according to claim 1 or 2. . With the above configuration, no slippage occurs between the original and the traveling roller. Therefore, the meandering is further prevented as compared with the case where the normal traveling roller is used.

[0014]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the hand scanner 1 includes a light source 1 a
And a sensor 2 for receiving the reflected light from the reading section 12 of the original 9 and converting it into an electric signal, a light source 1a and a frame 3 holding the sensor 2, and a rotatable shaft 4 penetrating the frame 3. Equipped with this shaft 4
Traveling rollers 5a and 5b are fixed near both ends of the roller.

The above will be explained in detail.
It is a D light source and is carried on a base 8 fixed to the frame 3. However, the type of light source 1a is LED
The light source is not limited to the light source, and may be a general laser light source. A sensor 2 that receives light reflected from the original 9 is also carried on the base 8. The sensor 2 is composed of a CCD sensor and generates a predetermined electric signal based on the received image.

A predetermined space is formed inside the frame 3, and the light emitted from the light source 1a passes through this space. Further, the frame 3 is formed with predetermined through holes 3a at both ends in the longitudinal direction, and the shaft 4 is inserted into the through holes 3a. However, the shaft 4 is fixed via a bearing so that it can freely rotate in the through hole 3a. The shaft 4 is, as shown in FIG. 1B, a light source 1a → reading unit 1
It is positioned in the vicinity of the optical path between the light source 1a and the reading unit 12 outside the triangle of the optical path composed of 2 → sensor 3. That is, the shaft 4 does not block the optical path from the light source 1a.

Traveling rollers 5a and 5b are fixedly arranged at both ends of the shaft 4 described above. The traveling rollers 5a and 5b are for traveling the hand scanner 1 itself when the image on the original 9 is read by the hand scanner 1, and are slightly projected from the hand scanner 1 while being fixed to the shaft 4. It is positioned so that In addition, as described above, each traveling roller 5
Since a and 5b are fixed to the shaft 4, the two traveling rollers 5a and 5b rotate at the same rotational speed.

An encoder (not shown) for detecting the number of revolutions of the shaft 4 or the traveling rollers 5a, 5b is engaged with the shaft 4 or the traveling rollers 5a, 5b. This encoder includes the traveling rollers 5a, 5
The rotation speed of b is detected and converted into the movement amount of the hand scanner 1, and based on this movement amount and the captured image information,
Used to form two-dimensional images.

A glass 6 is fitted on the side of the frame 3 where the original 9 is read. The glass 6 transmits the light emitted from the light source 1a to the original 9,
Further, it has a role of transmitting the light reflected from the original 9 to the sensor 2 side. At the same time, the glass 6 also has a function of preventing foreign matter from entering the space formed in the frame 3. A predetermined SELFOC lens 7 is arranged between the reading unit 12 and the sensor 2, and the light reflected from the reading unit 12 passes through the SELFOC lens 7 and is taken into the sensor 2.

The above-mentioned components are respectively the frame 3
The frame 3 is fixed to the cover 1 from above.
The whole of the hand scanner is constructed by being covered with 4.

The hand scanner 1 configured as described above
First, the light emitted from the light source 1a passes through the space in the frame 3 and is applied to the original 9.
The light hitting the document 9 is reflected according to the image on the document 9. A part of the reflected light passes through the SELFOC lens 7 and reaches the sensor 2. At this time, when the image of the reading unit 12 is dark, the amount of reflected light is small, while when the image is bright, the amount of reflected light is large.

At the same time, when the hand scanner 1 moves, the traveling rollers 5a and 5b come into contact with the original 9 and rotate. Then, this rotation is detected by an encoder (not shown) and is converted into a movement amount of the hand scanner 1. Thereby, the image of the reading unit 12 and the position of the image on the two-dimensional plane are associated with each other, and a two-dimensional image is formed by scanning the entire document 9. At this time, the traveling rollers 5a and 5b are fixed to the single shaft 4. Therefore, both the traveling rollers 5a and 5b rotate at the same rotation speed. Therefore, the hand scanner 1 moves linearly, and the so-called meandering phenomenon is effectively prevented.

Further, it is suitable to read an image by disposing a friction member having a high friction coefficient on the outer peripheral surfaces of the traveling rollers 5a and 5b. In other words, the friction member does not cause slippage between the original 9 and the traveling rollers 5a and 5b, the linear movement is accurately realized, and the quality of the formed image is improved. It is also effective to provide one set of traveling rollers to form a four-wheel type.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Hand scanner 21 shown in FIG.
Has the same basic components as the hand scanner 1 of FIG. And, particularly in the embodiment,
An optical path 10 for irradiating the frame 9 with the original 9 from the light source 1a
And an optical path 11 through which the sensor 2 receives the reflected light from the document 9.
Optical path 10 of the light source 1a and the sensor 2
A through hole 3a is formed between the optical paths 11a and 11b. And
The shaft 4 is inserted through the through hole 3a, and the shaft 4 is rotatably supported at both ends of the frame 3. Further, a pair of traveling rollers 5 a is fixed to both ends of the shaft 4 so as not to rotate with respect to the shaft 4. The shaft 4 is engaged with an encoder (not shown).

[0025]

As described above, in the hand scanner of the present invention, the traveling rollers are fixed to one shaft, the traveling rollers are arranged on both outer sides of the reading unit, and the shafts are arranged inside the frame. It is configured to penetrate. Therefore, there is an excellent effect that the size of the entire hand scanner can be reduced.

Further, a pair of running rollers on both outer sides of the reading unit are directly fixed to the shaft, and the running rollers come into frictional contact with the document in the vicinity of both ends of the hand scanner, so that the running rollers are separated from each other. Since the hand scanner rotates at the same speed, the hand scanner itself can perform manual scanning without meandering, which brings about an excellent effect that operability is improved. Along with this, since the image can be read accurately even by manual scanning, an encoder is attached to each traveling roller in order to correct the image read by meandering, which was a problem with conventional hand scanners. In addition, there is an excellent effect that the complicated work of detecting the movement amount of the two rollers and correcting the image data from the difference is completely unnecessary.

Furthermore, the meandering phenomenon of the hand scanner does not occur, a sensor and control for correcting an image are unnecessary, and it is not necessary to provide a shaft and a gear for engaging both traveling rollers with each other. The excellent effect that the simplification of the device configuration can be realized is produced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
1A shows a bottom view, and FIG. 1B shows a side sectional view.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a bottom view of a conventional hand scanner.

FIG. 4 shows a bottom view of another conventional hand scanner.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Hand Scanner 2 Sensor 3 Frame 4 Shaft 5a, 5b Traveling Roller 9 Original 12 Reading Section

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A light source for irradiating an original, a sensor for receiving reflected light from a reading portion of the original and converting it into an electric signal, and a frame for holding the light source and the sensor, and penetrating the frame. A hand scanner that is equipped with a rotatable shaft and has traveling rollers fixed near both ends of this shaft. 2. The hand scanner according to claim 1, wherein each of the traveling rollers is arranged in the vicinity of both sides of a document reading portion. 3. The friction member having a large friction coefficient is arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the traveling roller.
Hand scanner as described.