JPH11142970A - Microfilm retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a microfilm retrieval device capable of not only retrieving a frame by detecting the existence of the frame but also retrieving a microfilm provided with a blip by a blip by providing the device with plural density sensors for detecting film density at plural different positions in the width direction of a microfilm. SOLUTION: This device is provided with the plural density sensors 108A-108C detecting the film density at the plural different positions in the width direction of the microfilm 26. When a mark for retrieving (blip) retrieving system is instructed, the outputs of the optical sensors 108B and 108C at both ends are used. When a retrieving system based on the existence of the frame 26A is instructed, seven outputs of the optical sensor 108A between them are used. By a decision part, only the decided result of the sensor 108 selected by a sensor selection part out of nine decided results is selected so that the existence of the blips 26B and 26C is decided or the existence of the frame 26A is decided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microfilm search apparatus for judging the presence or absence of a frame from a change in density of a microfilm in a running direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to search for microfilms,
A device is known in which a search mark (blip) is attached to each frame at a position that does not overlap the traveling locus width of the frame, and the blip is detected and searched.

On the other hand, it has been considered that a search is performed by detecting the presence or absence of a frame instead of the blip. That is, a density sensor is provided within the width of the traveling locus of a frame, and the presence or absence of a frame is determined from a change in film density detected by the density sensor.

[0004]

As described above, the search system used for searching for a film with a blip is different from the search system for searching based on the presence or absence of a frame without a blip. Was needed.
When detecting the presence or absence of a frame, the position of the frame (the position in the film width direction) changes depending on the film shooting method, so that the frame cannot be detected or the density sensor is located near the edge of the frame in the film width direction. In this case, the frame detection accuracy is deteriorated. For this reason, there is a problem that the search accuracy is reduced.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and enables not only a frame to be detected by detecting the presence or absence of a frame but also a blip-based film to be searched. A first object is to provide a microfilm search device. It is a second object of the present invention to provide a microfilm search device capable of accurately detecting the presence or absence of a frame even if the film shooting method changes, and improving the search accuracy.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a first object is to output a sampling signal for every predetermined feed amount of a microfilm in a microfilm search apparatus for determining the presence or absence of a frame from a density change in the running direction of the microfilm. An encoder, a plurality of density sensors for detecting film density at a plurality of different positions in the width direction of the microfilm including the blip detection position and the frame detection position, and a density signal which is an output of these density sensors as the sampling signal. A binarizing section for binarizing in synchronism, a sensor selecting section for selecting a density sensor for detecting a film density at a position on the blip traveling locus or a position included in the width of the traveling locus of the frame,
A determination unit that determines the presence or absence of a blip or the presence or absence of a frame using a binarized signal based on the density sensor selected by the sensor selection unit and outputs a determination signal, and a search that searches for a frame based on the determination signal And a microfilm search device characterized by comprising:

A second object is to arrange a density sensor at a position where a change in density can be detected for each frame according to each shooting method when the shooting method of the microfilm changes to simplex, duo, duplex, or the like. It is achieved by doing. In this case, the designation of the search by the blip or the frame (the setting of the search method) and the setting of the photographing method are performed manually or automatically, and the sensor selection unit selects the density sensor to be used based on these settings.

[0008] If a plurality of density sensors always detect a frame with respect to a frame even if the photographing method changes, the frame detection accuracy can be further improved. In this case, the determination unit determines the presence or absence of a frame on the condition that all the determination results of the plurality of density sensors match, or that the determination result of a certain percentage or more such as a majority decision has determined that there is a frame. The presence or absence of a frame can be determined using the logical product or logical sum of the determination results of the density sensor.

The density sensor is configured such that end faces of a pair of optical fibers are opposed to each other with a microfilm interposed therebetween, light guided from one optical fiber is made incident on the other optical fiber, and the amount of incident light is measured by the optical sensor. it can. In this case, substantially many density sensors can be arranged side by side in the width direction of the narrow microfilm.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a use state of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the inside of a scanner used here, FIG. 3 is a side view showing an arrangement of main parts of the scanner, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a line sensor driving unit, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a main part, and FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an arrangement of optical sensors.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a computer main body, which includes a CPU and the like. Reference numeral 12 denotes a display means such as a CRT or a liquid crystal plate, and 14 denotes a keyboard, which are placed on a desk 16. Reference numeral 18 denotes a scanner housed under the desk 16, which incorporates the microfilm search device of the present invention. Reference numeral 20 denotes a printer placed beside the desk 16.

The scanner 18 has a cartridge insertion port 22 at an upper portion of the front surface thereof.
4 (see FIGS. 2 and 3), the image of the micro-roll film 26 having a width of 16 mm is read at a low density. The read image is subjected to predetermined image processing by a CPU or the like in the computer main body 10 and then displayed on the display unit 12.

This image reading is performed while the line sensor 96 described below is stopped and only the film 26 is running.
In the meantime, the display means 12 of the CRT displays the read image while changing it continuously in synchronization with the running of the film 26. Therefore, the display on the display means 12 moves in synchronization with the running of the film 26, and an image substantially similar to that projected on the screen can be displayed on the display means 12.

At the time of a manual search, the operator looks at the image on the display means 12 and instructs an output for an image that needs to be printed. Based on this output instruction, the scanner 18 positions the frame at the correct position and reads the entire image with high-density image quality. This high-density image is printed out to the printer 20, stored in a hard disk or the like, or transferred to an external storage device.

At the time of automatic search, the address of the target frame is input from the keyboard 14. In this automatic search, a target frame is searched by detecting frames and counting the number of frames. This frame search is performed by the postscript search unit 116 by using a judgment result output by the judgment unit 112 described later by detecting a blip (blip search method) and detecting the presence or absence of a frame (frame search method).

Next, the configuration of the scanner 18 will be described. The scanner 18 has a vertically long housing 28, and a supply-side reel drive unit 30 is provided above a front portion of the housing 28, and a take-up reel drive unit 32 is provided below the front portion. The supply-side reel drive unit 30 inserts the cartridge 2 into the cartridge insertion slot 22.
When the cartridge 4 is inserted, the cartridge 24 is automatically moved to engage the reel 24A with the rotating shaft. Further, the leading end of the film 26 is pulled out, sent downward, and guided to the take-up reel 32A of the take-up reel drive unit 32.

Here, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the film 26 passes through the rear side of the gap between the reel drive units 30 and 32, that is, the rear side as viewed from the front of the housing 28. In FIG. 3, 34, 34,
36, 36 are guide rollers for the film 26. Accordingly, a space 38 is formed between the gap and the front panel 28A of the housing 28, and a light source unit 52 described later is accommodated therein.

The take-up reel drive section 32 has a drive belt 40 that runs in contact with the reel 32A as shown in FIG. This drive belt 40 is a guide roller 4
2, 44, a drive roller 46, an encoder 48, and a tension roller 50, and are driven by the drive roller 46 to travel in the film winding direction (the direction of the arrow). The encoder 48 controls a constant feed amount of the film 26 (for example, 0.1 m
m) to output a sampling signal.

Numeral 52 denotes a light source unit accommodated in the space 38 between the reel driving units 30 and 32, and a lamp 54,
It includes a reflecting mirror 56, a condenser lens 58, an appropriate filter, and the like. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 60 denotes a power supply circuit, and 62 denotes a power control circuit such as a motor.

Next, the line sensor driving section 64 will be described.
The line sensor driving section 64 is integrated with the projection lens 66. That is, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the frame (rotating frame) 68 of the line sensor driving unit 64 is integrally formed with a cylindrical portion 70 for holding the projection lens 66.
The projection lens 66 held by the cylindrical portion 70 has a fixed focal point and a magnification of about twice. The cylindrical portion 70 is rotatably held by a frame (fixed frame) 72 fixed to the housing 28 so that the inclination of the image to be read can be corrected. Here, the cylinder 70 rotates about an optical axis 74 perpendicular to the film 26.

The cylindrical portion 70 of the rotating frame 68 and the pulley 76 of the servomotor 76 attached to the fixed frame 72
A belt 78 is wound around A. The rotation frame 68 is rotatable around the optical axis 74 by the rotation of the motor 76.

As shown in FIG. 4, a movable base 80 is attached to the rotating frame 68 on a surface opposite to the cylindrical portion 70. That is, the movable base 80 is provided with a pair of guide rods 82, 82.
Slidably held by the optical axis 74 near the opening of the cylindrical portion 70.
Can be reciprocated in a direction orthogonal to.

A belt 86 wound around pulleys 84, 84 is provided on the rotating frame 68 in parallel with the reciprocating direction of the movable table 80.
And one side of the movable table 80 is fixed to the belt 86. One pulley 84 has a servo motor 8
The rotation of 8 is transmitted via the belt 90. As a result, by rotating the servo motor 88 forward and backward, the movable table 8 is rotated.
0 can be reciprocated on a plane orthogonal to the optical axis 74.

The movable table 80 has guide rods 82, 82
A long window 92 is formed in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the movable table 80, that is, in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocating direction of the movable table 80. This long window 92
Is located on the optical axis 74 in the longitudinal direction. A printed wiring board 94 is fixed to the rear surface of the movable base 80, that is, the surface opposite to the cylindrical portion 70 so as to be orthogonal to the optical axis 74.

A CCD line sensor 96 facing the long window 92 is fixed to the substrate 94 (FIG. 3). The substrate 94 is also provided with a preamplifier for amplifying the output of the line sensor 96. CCD line sensor 9
Of course, the light receiving surface of No. 6 coincides with the image forming surface of the projection image of the projection lens 66.

Next, an apparatus for detecting the frame 26A will be described with reference to FIG. The upstream side of the image reading position of the microfilm 26, that is, the position of the optical axis 74 (the supply reel 24)
A pair of optical fiber holding blocks 100 and 102 traversing the film 26 in the width direction and opposed to both surfaces of the film 26 with a slight gap are disposed on the side A).
Nine optical fibers 104 and 106 arranged in the film width direction are inserted through these blocks 100 and 102.

The optical fibers 104 and 106 are placed in blocks 100 and 10 so that they are perpendicular to the film 26.
2 and these end faces face each other with the film 26 interposed therebetween. That is, the end faces of the nine optical fibers 104 face the end faces of the nine optical fibers 106, respectively. As a result, nine combinations in which the end faces face each other with the film 26 interposed therebetween can be obtained.

The nine optical fibers 104 held by the block 100 are bundled and guided to the vicinity of the lamp 54 of the light source 52. Therefore, light enters the nine optical fibers 104 from the lamp 54 and is guided to one surface (the surface on the block 100 side) of the film 26.

Light emitted from nine optical fibers 104 opposed to each other enters the nine optical fibers 106 held by the block 102 via the film 26. 9
The optical fibers 106 are guided from the block 102 to the optical sensors 108, respectively. The density signals output from the nine optical sensors 108 are separately input to a binarization unit 110, where they are binarized in synchronization with a sampling signal output from the encoder 48.

Each of the nine binarized signals is determined by a decision unit 112.
The determination result of the presence or absence of the blips 26B and 26C (blip search method) or the presence or absence of the frame 26A (frame search method) is obtained based on the output of each optical sensor 108 here. The determination unit 112 also includes the sensor selection unit 1
14 signals are input. The sensor selection unit 114 is provided with an optical sensor 1 corresponding to the search mode and the film shooting mode
08 is selected. The search method and the photographing method are manually input from a keyboard or automatically determined and input from a film.

When the blip search method is instructed, the outputs of the optical sensors 108B and 108C at both ends are used to make the frame 26
When the frame search method based on the presence / absence of A is instructed, the outputs of the seven optical sensors 108A between them are used (see FIG. 6A). The determination unit 112 selects the sensor 108 selected by the sensor selection unit 114 from these nine determination results.
Is selected to determine the presence or absence of the blips 26B and 26C or the presence or absence of the frame 26A. When the presence or absence of the frame 26A is determined, the optical sensors 108 to be used are grouped according to the imaging method such as simplex, duplex, or duo, and the presence or absence of the frame is determined using the optical sensor 108 for each group.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the end faces of the nine optical fibers 104 and 106 are on a straight line perpendicular to the running direction of the film 26, and are located at different positions in the width direction of the film 26. is there. In this embodiment, since the optical sensor 108 detects the amount of incident light on the optical fiber 106,
This is substantially the same as the optical sensor 108 located at a position where the end face of the optical fiber 106 faces the film 26. Therefore, FIG. 6 illustrates that the optical sensor 108 is located at the end face position of the optical fiber 106 on the film 26 side.

As described above, the optical sensors 108B and 108C at both ends of the nine optical sensors 108 are used for blip search, and the middle seven optical sensors 108A are used for frame detection. The combination of the optical sensors 108A is changed according to the film photographing method.

FIG. 6A shows the case of the simplex system. At this time, the judging section 112 detects frames by the central seven optical sensors 108 A based on the output of the sensor selecting section 114. Therefore, in the determination unit 112, the seven binarization units 1
The presence / absence of a frame is determined using the binarized signal output from 10. For example, if a majority or a certain percentage or more of the determination results is black, it is determined that a frame exists. These optical sensors 108
The presence or absence of a frame may be determined by using the logical product or logical sum of the binary signal based on the output of A.

FIG. 6B shows the case of the duplex system, in which the front and back sides of the original are simultaneously photographed on the upper and lower channels, and there is an optical sensor 108D which does not detect the frame 26A between both channels. . Therefore, in this case, based on the output of the sensor selection unit 114, the determination unit 112 uses the outputs of the three optical sensors 108E and 108F passing within the width of the upper and lower channels except for the output of the optical sensor 108D. To detect the frame 26A of each channel.

FIG. 6C shows the case of the duo system.
The center optical sensor 108D does not detect the top 26A. For this reason, based on the output of the sensor selection unit 114, the determination unit 112 detects the frame 26A of each channel with three optical sensors 108E and 108F included in two groups, which are divided into upper and lower groups. Using the plurality of optical sensors 108E and 108F, the determination unit 112 determines the presence or absence of the frame 26A using the majority or logical product or logical sum at the same time as the case of FIG. 6A described above. Search unit 1
At 16, the target frame is searched by integrating the determination signals output by the determination unit 112.

When searching with the blips 26B and 26C, the determination unit 112 determines the presence or absence of the blips 26B and 26C based on the output of the optical sensors 108B and 108C. Sub-classification can be performed. In this case, the search unit 116 can perform a search by classifying into large, medium, and small categories.

In the embodiment described above, the blips 26B and 26C are provided near both edges of the film 26. However, the film 26 may be provided with the blip 26B on only one of them. In addition, since light is guided to each optical fiber 104 using the light source unit 52 for image capturing, there is an advantage that the light source can be simplified. However, the present invention may use another light source or use a plurality of light sources to guide light to each optical fiber 104.

In this embodiment, the optical fiber 1
04, 106, the narrow film 26
The end faces of these optical fibers 104 and 106 can be arranged close to each other in the width direction. However, the present invention can be used as long as a sufficiently small density sensor can be arranged in proximity. For example, a phototransistor array or a photodiode array in which phototransistors and photodiodes are arranged on a straight line L can be used. Further, it may be a CCD line sensor.

In this embodiment, since the density sensors (optical sensors) are arranged on a straight line perpendicular to the running direction of the film, the presence or absence of a frame can be detected at the same time. Therefore, a plurality of density sensors (optical sensors)
Is not necessary to correct the output timing of each density sensor (optical sensor) as in the case of disposing them in the running direction of the film, thereby simplifying the circuit configuration.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, the film density is detected by a plurality of density sensors at a plurality of different positions in the width direction of the film, and at least one of these density sensors is detected.
First, the blip detection position and the others are arranged at the frame detection position. By selecting the density sensor to be used, the search by blip (blip search method) and the search by the presence or absence of frame (frame search method) Can be selected.

If the density sensor is positioned at a position where each frame can be detected in different film shooting systems,
It can easily cope with films having different photographing methods (claim 2). The setting of the search by blip or the search by frame (search method) and the setting of the photographing method may be performed manually or automatically, but the density sensor to be used is selected based on the setting of these search method and photographing method ( Claim 3).

In this case, if a plurality of density sensors detect a frame for each frame of each photographing method, a plurality of frames are detected.
The presence or absence of a frame can be determined based on the digitized signal,
The search accuracy is further improved (claim 4).

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a use state of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the inside of a scanner used here in a see-through manner;

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the arrangement of the main part.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a line sensor driving unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a main part.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of optical sensors.

[Explanation of symbols]

 26 Microfilm 26A Frame 26B, 26C Blip 104, 106 Optical fiber 108 Optical sensor constituting density sensor 110 Binarization unit 112 Judgment unit 114 Sensor selection unit 116 Search unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] An encoder for outputting a sampling signal for each predetermined feed amount of a microfilm, an encoder for outputting a sampling signal for each predetermined feed amount of a microfilm, a blip detection position, and a frame detection position. A plurality of density sensors for detecting film densities at a plurality of different positions in the width direction of the microfilm, and a binarization unit for binarizing a density signal output from these density sensors in synchronization with the sampling signal And a sensor selection unit for selecting a density sensor for detecting a film density at a position on the blip travel locus or a position included in the frame travel locus width, and binarization based on the density sensor selected by the sensor selector. A determination unit for determining the presence or absence of a blip or the presence or absence of a frame using a signal and outputting a determination signal; Microfilm searching device characterized by and a search unit for searching for frame based. 2. A density sensor is provided so as to be located on the traveling locus of the blip near the side edge of the film and to be located within the traveling locus width of each frame photographed by a different photographing method. The microfilm search device according to claim 1, comprising: 3. The microfilm search according to claim 2, wherein the sensor selection unit selects a density sensor to be used based on a search method setting for designating a search by blip or a search by the presence or absence of a frame and a setting of a photographing method. apparatus. And determining whether the frame is present by using the outputs of a plurality of density sensors for detecting densities at a plurality of positions in a traveling locus of the frame corresponding to a different film photographing method in the case of the search method based on the presence or absence of a frame. The microfilm search device according to claim 1, wherein the determination is made.