JPH11127286A - Picture reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continuously read a thick original and a sheet original and also to reduce a occupation space at the time of automatic carrying by inclining a part of an original stand so as to form a paper discharge tray and providing an automatic sheet original carrying means on the lower surface of the original stand. SOLUTION: An inclining part 7 at one side of the original stand 1 is inclined so as to form the paper discharge tray. A sensor for detecting that the original stand inclining part 7 is formed and a switch, etc., are provided, it is detected that the paper discharge tray is formed and the mode becomes the automatic carrying one. An original carrying part 60 contained in the lower part of the original stand 1 carries the sheet original 8 from an original piling part 40 under the original stand 1 toward the original stand inclining part 7 to be the paper discharge tray by a carrier route 50. Presence or absence of the sheet original 8 on an original push-up plate 26 is detected by an original empty detecting sensor 29 and the height of the original push-up plate 26 is automatically adjusted by a spring 27 supported by a support plate 28 in accordance with the weight of the sheet original 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus for reading an original placed upward from above by a reading means, and more particularly to an image reading apparatus capable of reading a thick original, and also capable of reading a sheet original. The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus capable of continuously and automatically reading (feeding / discharging) and reading.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an image reading apparatus for reading an original placed upward, an image reading apparatus for a thick original such as a book and an image reading apparatus for a sheet-like flat original (hereinafter, referred to as a sheet original). Reading devices are known.

In an image reading apparatus for a thick original, even if the original is a spatially curved original such as a book, the height of the original is detected, and the image distortion is corrected based on the detected height.

In an image reading apparatus for a sheet document,
There is an apparatus equipped with an automatic sheet document feeder (ADF) so that a flat sheet document can be automatically and quickly scanned (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-115516). In an image reading apparatus equipped with an automatic conveyance device for a sheet document, the upper portion of the document table is formed so as to be openable, and when reading a document one by one, it is closed and used, and the sheet document is automatically conveyed. The sheet is opened so that one of the opened portions is used as a sheet document feed tray and the other is used as a sheet discharge tray so that it can be used for both single-sheet reading and reading by automatic conveyance.

[0005]

However, when automatic conveyance is performed by such an image reading apparatus, the portion of the original plate serving as a paper feed tray and the portion of the original plate serving as a discharge tray are located on the right and left sides of the original plate. Will overhang. Therefore, when carrying out conveyance reading, the space occupied by the document table may be increased, and the installation place of the image reading apparatus may be limited.

In addition, the above-described conventional image reading apparatus for sheet documents has a problem that it cannot be used for thick documents because it is not intended to read thick documents such as books.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image reading apparatus which can read thick originals, and can also automatically and continuously read a sheet original without occupying a large space during automatic conveyance. It is in.

[0008]

The object of the present invention is achieved by the following means. (1) A document table on which a document is placed, document illuminating means for illuminating the document placed on the document table, document reading means for reading the document placed on the document table from above, and Shape recognition means for recognizing the height shape of a document placed on the document table, document table tilt means for forming a discharge tray by tilting a part of the document table, and a document provided on the lower surface of the document table. A sheet original automatic conveying means for conveying a sheet-like sheet original from a lower surface of the table toward a discharge tray, and, when the original plate tilting means forms a discharge tray, the original is conveyed by the sheet original conveying means. While the image reading control is performed by the reading unit, and the discharge tray is not formed, the height of the document is recognized by the shape recognizing unit, and the image read by the reading unit is processed based on the height. Reading And a take control means.

In this image reading apparatus, a part of a document table of a device capable of reading a document is tilted to form a discharge tray as required. Therefore, the discharge tray does not change the area occupied by the document table and does not limit the installation location of the image reading device.

[0010] Further, by providing the automatic sheet document conveying means on the lower surface of the document table, the installation space of the automatic sheet document conveying means can be shared with the installation space of the document table. It is possible to reduce the size.

Further, when the document table tilting means is provided with a sheet discharge tray, the reading control means controls reading of an image by the reading means while conveying the document by the sheet document conveying means. If no document is provided, the shape recognition unit recognizes the height shape of the document, and processes the image read by the reading unit based on the recognized document. Can be adapted to any of the thin originals.

[0012]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is an external view of a document reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention when reading a thick document. In this specification, this thick original reading is hereinafter referred to as a book original mode. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a thick original is placed on the apparatus.

This apparatus has a document table 1 on which a book document B (see FIG. 2) such as a book or a file can be placed upward. Above the platen 1, a CCD line image sensor 9 (see FIG.
An image pickup camera unit 2 which has an image sensor and reads an image of a document by scanning the image sensor is provided. In addition, an illumination unit 6 for illuminating the original surface is disposed on the upper rear side of the original platen.
A distance measuring mirror 4 is provided, and the height of the document surface is detected from the image of the upper end portion of the document reflected on the distance measuring mirror 4.

An operation panel 3 is arranged above the distance measuring mirror 4. On the document table 1, two independent document reading start switches 5 and 5 are provided, respectively. The document reading start switches 5 and 5 are used to switch the open pages of the book document as shown in FIG. In order to prevent the cover from being closed or floating, the cover is inclined on the document table 1 slightly in the horizontal direction so as to be easily operated even when it is held by a hand. The start switches 5 and 5 are provided with an LED 5a indicating the state of the reading operation.

In the present embodiment, the right side of the document table 1 in the figure is a document table inclined portion 7, which is configured to form a discharge tray by being inclined. A concave portion 7a is formed at an end of the platen inclined portion 7, and the concave portion 7a is used when forming a paper discharge tray used when reading a sheet document.

Next, a reading operation of a sheet document performed by the image reading apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described.

FIG. 3 is an external view at the time of reading a sheet document by automatic conveyance of the present apparatus. In the present specification, reading of a sheet document by automatic conveyance is hereinafter referred to as an automatic conveyance mode. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining reading of a document performed in the state of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a configuration of the illumination unit. In FIG. 4, a part of the internal structure is shown in a see-through manner.

On one side of the upper part of the original table 1, a sheet discharge tray is formed by inclining the original table inclined portion 7. This paper discharge tray is formed by putting a hand into the above-mentioned recessed portion 7a and moving the platen inclined portion 7. The apparatus is provided with a sensor, a switch, and the like for detecting that the platen inclined portion 7 is formed, and a discharge tray is formed by tilting the platen inclined portion 7 with the sensor or the switch. And then enters the automatic transfer mode. Accordingly, various setting modes for the sheet document are automatically set. In the book original mode shown in FIG.
If the sheet documents are manually set one by one, the sheet documents can be read without being automatically conveyed.

A sheet document 8 is set below the platen inclined portion 7, and the sheet documents are transported one by one onto the document table 1 by a document transport section provided below the document table 1. The configuration of the document transport unit will be described later.

A sheet original reading section 15 is formed between the original table inclined section 7 and the side of the original table 1 where the original is not inclined. The sheet document reading section 15 is a slit-shaped opening along the front-rear direction of the apparatus. If the sheet document reading unit 15 is covered with the transparent glass, there is a possibility that a reading error of the document may occur due to reflection of an illumination system or the like.

The sheet document 8 has a front surface (a surface having an image).
Are set downward, are reversed, and pass through the document reading unit 15 in the process of being conveyed below the document table 1 from the document conveying unit, where they are read one by one. The document whose reading has been completed is discharged to the document table inclined portion 7. At this time, the inclined platen inclined portion 7 functions as a discharge tray for stacking the discharged sheet documents 8.

Hereinafter, the reading of a document performed by the document reading section 15 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

The light illuminated by the illumination unit 6 and reflected by the sheet document 8 is imaged on an image sensor 9 as an image sensor through a mirror 13 and a lens 11. Further, the image of the distance measuring mirror 4 arranged on the back side of the document table 1 is also formed on the image sensor 9 in the same manner.

The illumination section 6 uses, for example, a halogen lamp as a light source. As shown in FIG.
The illumination unit 6 includes a first illumination unit 6a that partially illuminates a slit having a predetermined width, and a second illumination unit 6 that illuminates other portions.
b, 6c. FIG. 5B shows the illuminance distribution on the document table (the state in which the document table 1 is not tilted). As shown in the drawing, the central portion (the portion corresponding to the document reading unit 15) becomes bright. I have.

In the configuration of the illuminating section 6, only the first illuminating section 6a disposed at the center is turned on in the automatic transport mode, and all of the first illuminating section 6a and the second illuminating sections 6b and 6c are in the book original mode. Can be controlled to be turned on. This has the advantage that power consumption is reduced in the automatic transport mode. Also, as shown in FIG. 5 (B), by reducing the illuminance distribution only in the vicinity of the center, it is possible to prevent a decrease in the amount of illuminating light due to a slight increase in the distance from the illuminating unit 6 to the document surface in the automatic conveyance mode. In the book original mode, it is possible to prevent a decrease in the amount of illumination light due to the height distribution of the original having a concave shape at the center.

The image sensor 9 inside the imaging camera unit 2
Is in the sub-scanning direction (arrow A in FIG. 4) at the focal plane of the image.
Direction). The image sensor 9 is moved by an image sensor drive motor 10.
The lens 11 is moved by a lens drive motor 12 in a direction indicated by an arrow B in FIG. 1 to adjust the focus according to the height of the document surface. In the book document mode, the surface of the document is read while moving the image sensor 9 in the sub-scanning direction. On the other hand, when reading the sheet document 8 in the automatic conveyance mode, a sheet-through system in which the image sensor 9 is set at a fixed position and the document is read while being conveyed is adopted. In FIG. 4, reference numeral “14” is
The reading optical path is shown.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view for explaining a sheet document conveying section. The document conveying section 60 conveys the sheet document 8 from the document stacking section 40 below the document table 1 to the document table inclined section 7 serving as a discharge tray.
0, a platen inclined portion 7, and a transport path 50 for transporting a sheet document from the document stacking portion 40 to the platen inclined portion 7.

The document stacking section 40 is provided with a document push-up plate 26 for setting the sheet document 8, a document empty detection sensor 29 for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet document on the document push-up plate 26, and automatically based on the weight of the sheet document 8. A spring 27 for adjusting the height of the document push-up plate 26 and a support plate 2 for supporting the spring 27
8 is provided.

The original push-up plate 26 is provided with regulating plates 38 and 39 shown in FIG. The regulating plates 38, 39
A regulating plate on the document side for moving the sheet document 8 to one side on the document push-up plate 26, and the regulating plate 38 is of a fixed type. On the other hand, the regulating plate 39 also has a document size detecting mechanism and is slidable in the direction of arrow C in the figure. When the sheet document 8 is set, the size of the sheet document 8 in the width direction (the direction orthogonal to the sheet document transport direction) is detected by setting the regulating plate 39 at an optimum position that matches the set document. In this case, for example, a document size detection sensor (see FIG. 11) that detects the size of a sheet document by installing a reed switch or the like below the regulating plate 39 and arranging a magnet or the like on the regulating plate 39 side. ) Can be formed. As a result, the sheet document 8 is arranged at a predetermined position, and accurate document conveyance and reading are performed.

The document transport section 60 of the present embodiment
It is accommodated in the lower part of the document table 1. Therefore, the document transport unit 6
The installation space occupied by 0 and the installation space occupied by the document table 1 can be shared, and it is not necessary to provide a space for installing the document feeder 60 in the space where the document reading device is installed. In addition, the possibility that the document conveying unit 60 is inadvertently interfered with the outside and broken is reduced.

The transport system path 50 includes a separating roller 19 for transporting the sheet document 8 by rotating, a document feed roller pair 16, a transport roller pair 17, and a paper discharge roller pair 18.
And guide plates 22, 23, 2 provided between the rollers.
4, 25.

Further, below the platen inclined portion 7, there is provided an automatic conveyance mode switch 20 for detecting that the platen inclined portion 7 has been tilted to form a discharge tray. When it is detected by the automatic conveyance mode switch 20 that the platen tilt unit 7 is tilted, each unit of the document reading apparatus
Enters the automatic transfer mode. In this state, when a bundle of sheet documents 8 is set on the document push-up plate 26 with its surface facing downward and the start key 5 is pressed, the rollers provided in the transport path 50 start rotating. Among the rollers, the document separating roller 19 first presses the sheet document 8 placed on the uppermost portion of the bundle of the sheet documents 8, pulls out the sheet document 8, and sends it to the document feed roller pair 16.

The sheet document 8 sent to the document feed roller pair 16 travels between the guide plates 24 and is sent to the transport roller pair 17 and travels between the guide plates 23 while keeping the level. The guide plate 23 is provided with a reading slit 30. The sheet document 8 is read by the image sensor 9 while being conveyed at the position of the reading slit 30, and the portion passing through the reading slit 30 is sent to the discharge roller pair 18 and discharged to the document table inclined portion 7.

The above operation is repeated until all the sheet documents 8 set on the document pushing plate 26 are discharged to the platen inclined portion 7, and it is confirmed that the sheet document 8 on the document pushing plate 26 has disappeared. The process ends when the document empty detection sensor 29 detects the document.

Next, the configuration of the platen inclined portion 7 will be described in more detail.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the platen inclined portion 7. FIGS. 9 and 10 show a state in which the platen inclined portion 7 shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows the state each formed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the platen inclined portion 7 is rotatably mounted near the sheet document reading portion 15. A slide pin 33 is provided on a side surface of the platen inclined portion 7 that is orthogonal to a side surface along the sheet document reading portion 15. The slide pin 33 is attached to the platen inclined portion 7
And the platen 1 are connected, and the platen inclined portion 7 can be inclined with respect to the platen 1 as needed.

A guide rail 31a which engages with the slide pin 33 and supports the platen inclined portion 7 is provided on the platen 1,
31b is provided, and a leaf spring 32 for fixing the slide pin 33 is provided inside the guide rail 31a.

In the book original mode, the guide pins 33
As shown in FIG. 9, the document table inclined portion 7 is supported by the position A of the guide rail 31a and the guide rail 31b. At this time, the guide pin 33 on the guide rail 31a is pressed by the leaf spring 32 and locked at the position A, and the original platen inclined portion 7 is held horizontally.

In the automatic conveyance mode, the user manually pulls the platen inclined portion 7 in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG. By pulling the platen inclined portion 7, the slide pin 33 in the guide rail 31a pushes down the leaf spring 32 to release the lock. The slide pin 33 in the guide rail 31b comes off the guide rail 31b.

Thereafter, by pushing the platen inclined portion 7 so that the slide pin in the guide rail 31a reaches the position B, the platen inclined portion 7 is lowered to enter the lower side of the platen guide plate 34, and The automatic transport mode switch 20 below the guide plate 34 is turned on. Also, the original platen inclined portion 7
Is lowered, the side of the platen inclined portion 7 that is separated from the guide rail 31b is raised. By the above operation, the document table inclined portion 7 is inclined, and the paper discharge tray is formed.

Next, control of the apparatus will be described.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a control system of the present apparatus.

The CPU 100 includes the various switches described above,
Various sensors, a lighting unit, various driving systems, and the like are connected, and control the entire apparatus.

The document reading start switch 5 is connected to the CPU 1
A switch for instructing start of reading at 00. The automatic transport mode switch 20 is a switch for detecting whether or not a discharge tray is formed, that is, whether to read a document in the book document mode or in the automatic transport mode.

When reading a document in the automatic conveyance mode, the CPU 100 detects the size of the sheet document 8 with a document size detection sensor 49 interlocked with a regulating plate 39 on the document push-up plate 26, and detects the size of the detected sheet document 8. , The rotation timing of the rollers in the document transport unit 60 is controlled. Then, the presence or absence of the sheet document 8 on the document pushing plate 26 is detected by the empty detection sensor 26, and the document pushing plate 2 is detected.
When there is no more sheet document 8 on the sheet 6, the automatic conveyance ends.

The CPU 100 operates in a book original mode,
In any of the automatic conveyance modes, the illumination unit 6, the lens driving motor 12, and the image sensor driving motor 10 are controlled according to the respective reading operations, the image is read by the image sensor 9, and this data is stored in a memory (not shown).

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a main routine for controlling the reading operation of the present apparatus.

First, the CPU 100 of the apparatus determines whether the automatic transfer mode is selected by turning on and off the automatic transfer mode switch 20 (S1). If the result of determination in step 1 is that the automatic transport mode has not been set, the book original mode subroutine is entered (S
11) After the reading is completed, the process returns to step S1.

On the other hand, when the automatic transport mode is selected, the image sensor 9 is moved to a predetermined position (S2), and the lens unit is further moved to a predetermined position (S3). Then, the sheet document 8 on the document push-up plate 29 is detected by the empty detection sensor 26 (S4). If the sheet document 8 is not detected, the display of the start key LED 5a provided on the start key 5 is changed to red (S12). ), A status message of "Please set original" is displayed on a display screen provided on the operation panel 3 (S1).
3).

When the empty detection sensor 29 detects the sheet document 8, the display of the start key LED 5a turns green (S5) and waits for the start key 5 to be turned on. When the ON of the start key 5 is detected (S6), the display of the LED 5a of the start key 5 is turned red (S7),
The feeding of the sheet document 8 is started (S8), and the images formed on the fed sheet document 8 are sequentially read (S9). The above processing is repeated until the sheet document 8 is no longer detected by the empty detection sensor 29 (S10). When the sheet document 8 is no longer detected, the set sheet document 8 is determined to be completely read and the start key LED
5a is displayed in red (S12), for example, the operation panel 3
A state message of "Please set original" is displayed on the display screen provided at (S13), and the process returns to step S1.

In the present embodiment described above, the platen inclined portion, which is a part of the platen, is inclined as necessary to form the sheet discharge tray. Therefore, the space occupied by the document table and the space occupied by the discharge tray can be made common, and the space occupied by the image reading device can be prevented from increasing.

Further, since the document stacking section is provided below the document table 1, the space occupied by the document table 1 and the document stacking section can be shared, and the space occupied by the image reading device is increased. Can be prevented.

Further, the image reading apparatus can be applied to both the book original mode and the automatic transport mode. Even when there are a plurality of sheet originals, the image reader can be continuously and automatically transported and read. Image input can be easily performed without the need for image input.

Further, in the reading operation, if only the first illuminating section is turned on when reading a sheet original, and the first and second illuminating sections are turned on when reading a thick original, power consumption when reading a sheet original can be reduced. it can. In addition, by making the illuminance distribution bright only near the center, it is possible to prevent a decrease in the amount of illumination light.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, the discharge tray is formed without changing the area occupied by the document table.
Further, it is possible to share the installation space of the sheet original automatic conveyance means and the installation space of the original table. Therefore, it is possible to provide an image reading apparatus having a function of automatically conveying a sheet document and having a small installation space.

Further, by forming a discharge tray with a part of the platen inclined, the image reading apparatus can be configured to be able to handle both thick originals such as book originals and thin originals such as sheet originals. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a document reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention when reading a thick document.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state where a thick original is placed on the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an external view of the apparatus when reading a sheet document.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a configuration in which a sheet discharge tray is formed by inclining a part of a document table of the apparatus.

FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a lighting unit;
(B) is a diagram showing the illuminance distribution on the document table when the document table inclined portion is in a horizontal state.

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining a sheet document transport unit.

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining the document push-up plate of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a view for explaining an appearance of a document inclined portion.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a platen inclined portion when reading a thick document.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a platen inclined portion when reading a sheet document.

FIG. 11 is a circuit block diagram of a control system of the present apparatus.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a main routine of reading operation control of the present apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Original platen, 2 ... Image pick-up camera part, 3 ... Operation panel, 4 ... Distance measuring mirror (shape recognition means), 5 ... Original reading start switch, 6 ... Illumination part (Original lighting means), 7 ... Original platen inclined part (Document table tilting means) 8: sheet document, 9: image sensor (reading means), 11: lens, 15: sheet document reading unit, 16: document feed roller pair, 17: transport roller pair, 18: discharge roller Reference numeral 19: separating roller, 26: document push-up plate, 29: empty detection sensor, 60: document transport unit (sheet document automatic transport unit), 100: CPU (read control unit).

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Otsuka 2-3-13 Azuchicho, Chuo-ku, Osaka City Inside Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd. (72) Masahiro Kamiya 2-3-3 Azuchicho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi 13 Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kuniaki Obayashi 2-3-13 Azuchicho, Chuo-ku, Osaka City Osaka International Building Minolta Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A document table on which a document is placed; document illuminating means for illuminating a document placed on the document table; document reading means for reading a document placed on the document table from above; Shape recognition means for recognizing a height shape of a document placed on a document table; document table tilt means for forming a paper discharge tray by tilting a part of the document table; provided on a lower surface of the document table An automatic sheet document conveying means for conveying a sheet-like sheet document from the lower surface of the document table toward the discharge tray; and a sheet document conveyance method when the document table inclining means forms the discharge tray. Means for controlling the reading of an image by the reading means while the document is being conveyed by the means, and when the discharge tray is not formed, the height of the document is recognized by the shape recognizing means. An image reading apparatus, comprising: reading control means for processing a read image.