JPS63303563A - Original reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To exactly and easily take out only the necessary part of an original by reading only an under-mentioned reading range according to the output of a reading range inputting means to instruct the reading range on the reading surface of the original from the upper surface of the original. CONSTITUTION:At first, when the original 1 is set under an original cover 12, as the surface to be read being made to face upward, and the range 2 of the original, desired to be read partially, is instructed by using a coordinate input pen 31, said instruction information is detected by a digitizer 30, capable of detecting the position of the pen point of the input pen 31. Next, when an instruction signal for reading the original is issued, a reading sensor 20 travels over the original 1 and the original cover 12 as keeping the definte range. Then, when the reading sensor 20 passes over the range to be partially read, instructed by the above-mentioned pen 31, only the partial reading range is fetched as image information, according to partial reading information, corresponding to the above-mentioned instruction information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a digital copying machine, an intelligent facsimile machine, or a document reading device for inputting image information to a personal computer or workstation.

E. Prior Art Conventionally, in many devices of this type, an optical system is placed below the document to be read, and the document is read from the bottom. For example, in a facsimile, the document sheet is The reading sensor is transported with its reading surface facing down. Also,
In the example of a copying machine, a document is placed with its reading surface facing down on a transparent document table, and a reading scanner is moved to read the document.

In addition, an upper-side reading type document reading device in which a document is placed on a document table with the surface to be read facing upward is known, for example.
It is disclosed in No. 9-40758, No. 59-41963, etc. The former discloses a document sheet reading device that transports a document sheet to be read facing upward, illuminates the document, and photoelectrically converts the reflected light with a light receiving element to read image information. The latter discloses a document reading device that reads the document by placing the document face up on a document table and scanning the document with a head, and it is possible to achieve accurate reading even if the position of the surface to be read of the document is high. I am trying to make it so that it can only be read.

Other top-side reading type document reading devices that read documents upward are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 55-157761 and 55-157.
It is also disclosed in No. 15766:1, No. 55-157664, etc.

By the way, in recent years, with the development of personal computers, engineering workstations, etc., these devices can generate figures and images under computer control, and also use word processing functions to create documents containing a mixture of figures and images. Although the machines and their performance have improved, there are still limits to how quickly these devices can create any desired figures or images, and the need to import image information from outside is increasing.

However, image information has a large amount of information, is difficult to encode like text information, and requires a large amount of memory, which increases system prices, increases processing time, and makes it difficult to use. Become. Therefore, preventing even the slightest amount of unnecessary image information from being taken in will make the entire system lighter and improve its usability. Therefore, it is considered to be very important for the document reading device to read only the necessary portions of the document in a manner that requires the minimum amount of processing after reading.

In this regard, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-213168 discloses a method for inputting a specified area of a document in a conventional copying machine. In this conventional example, as shown in FIG.
A large number of switches 404 are arranged in the direction (direction). With the switch 404, the partial designated area 403 of the original 402 is activated.
Enter. The procedure is as follows: two directions (X
The switches (marked with black circles) corresponding to the upper and lower limits of the
The information in 03 is input into the device.

In order to confirm the area, a special lamp is used to illuminate the area from below, so that the image pattern can be seen through the back side.

[Problem to be solved by the invention 1 With the above-mentioned conventional bottom-reading type facsimile device in which the side to be read of the document faces down, it is impossible to partially read the document unless the document is directly processed. It is. Similarly, bottom-reading copiers have the advantage of being able to read thick originals such as calligraphy, but they cannot read only the necessary parts.
It was necessary to take measures such as masking unnecessary parts with white paper, which required a lot of effort and effort.

In the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-40758,
The original is on the reading side or the top side, and although the contents of the original can be observed from the top, partial reading is not possible.
It is stated that the document can be read by starting the reading operation in a set state in which the document is partially conveyed, or sufficient partial reading accuracy and performance cannot be expected.

Furthermore, in the device of JP-A No. 59-4196:1 mentioned above, the reading side of the original is facing upwards, and thick originals such as ancient Japanese are also read in the reading section, so pages cannot be turned while the original is set. , and for partial reading, it is relatively easier to read from the top side than with the bottom-side reading type, because it requires operations such as covering unnecessary parts with a blindfold sheet or overlapping multiple sheets of original for composite defoaming. Even in this case, fine partial reading is difficult and manual labor is required.

Since the copying machine with the image editing moat described in Figure 3 is a bottom-side reading type, it is necessary to irradiate a special lamp from below to confirm the area and to make the image pattern visible on the back side. Also, since the image is upside down, it is difficult to understand the instructions for partial reading, and since the (x, y) point is entered as coordinates, there is a limit to partial reading of rectangles or simple polygons. Ta.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an easy-to-use document reading device that can accurately and extremely easily cut out and read only necessary portions of a document electronically.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a document table on which a document is placed with its reading surface facing upward; The present invention is characterized by comprising a reading range input means for inputting an instruction from the reading range input means, and a reading means for electronically reading only the reading range according to the output of the reading range input means and converting it into image information.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a see-through removable presser plate is provided on the upper surface of the document table to smoothly press the document.

As another embodiment of the present invention, the reading range input means has a configuration in which a digitizer device te is provided on the document table and the reading range is designated by a coordinate input ben.

Furthermore, as another embodiment of the present invention, the reading range input means has a configuration in which the holding plate is provided with a digitizer function and the reading range is designated by a coordinate input ben.

The means for inputting coordinates to the original platen or presser plate having the digitizer@moat is not limited to the coordinate input bezel, but may be other input means such as a cursor having an excitation coil.

[Effect 1] According to the present invention, it is possible to specify the reading range part using the reading range input means while directly viewing the original with the reading side of the original facing upward, so that the range to be read can be specified extremely accurately. I can do it.

The reading range is not limited to a polygon surrounded by straight lines, but it is also possible to instruct partial reading of a range of complex shapes or free curves.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a document, 10 is a document table, 12 is a document cover that smoothly presses and fixes the document from above, 20 is a document reading sensor, 21 is a carriage that supports the reading sensor 20, and 22 is the reading sensor. 20 is the carriage 21
23 is a guide rail on which the bearing 22 slides, and the carriage 21, bearing 22, and guide rail 23 (not shown) are on the opposite side of the document table (the opposite side in the figure). ) is also provided. Also, 2
4 is a pulse motor, 25 is a wire drum, 26 is a wire, and 27 is a guide pulley (a plurality of which are shown), and the wire 26 is guided by the guide pulley 27 while the wire drum 25 is fixed to the shaft of the pulse motor 24. and bearing 2
2 are connected.

Further, 30 is a digitizer, and 31 is a coordinate input ben, which will be described in detail later, or when the coordinate input ben 31 is operated by an electromagnetic induction method, the digitizer 30 detects the pen tip position of the input ben at that time. .

In the case of an electromagnetic induction digitizer, the distance between the input bevel and the digitizer is several square meters, and highly accurate coordinate detection is possible even through the document cover 12, document l, and document table 10 as shown in Figure 1. be.

In the above configuration, when the original l is set under the original cover 12 with the surface to be read facing upward and the coordinate input ben 31 is used to specify the range 2 of the original to be partially read, the instruction information is transferred to the reading sensor control (not shown). sent to the circuit. Thereafter, when a command signal for reading the document is sent to the reading sensor control circuit by a mode setting switch (not shown) or the like, the reading sensor control circuit sends a control signal to the motor 24 and the reading sensor 20. When the motor 24 rotates, the wire drum 25 drives the wire 26, and the wire 2
It moves smoothly in the direction of arrow F (or R) while being guided by a bearing 22 connected to 6 or a guide rail 23. Therefore, the reading sensor 20 fixed to the bearing 22 via the carriage 21 moves smoothly over the original 1 and the original cover 12 while maintaining a constant interval.

In this case, when the reading sensor 20 passes over the partial reading range designated by the coordinate input pen, only the partial reading range is captured as image information according to the partial reading information from the reading sensor control circuit. Generally, there is not enough storage space in the system that includes the document reading device, so only the image information of the partial scanning range is output to the storage device, or the system is required to specify several partial scanning ranges at the same time, or In some cases, image information for a range and image information for a non-specified range are required. Therefore, the term "partial reading" in this specification also includes processing in which separate attributes are given to read information in a specified range and in a non-specified range to enable separate processing.

Note that the document cover 12 is not directly necessary to overcome the basics of the present invention, but when the reading sensor 20 moves over the top of the document, if the document is uneven or turned over, it may be necessary to read the document. This is expected to have the effect of preventing the sensor 20 from getting caught and the read information being distorted, and the reading sensor 20 and the document from being damaged.

In addition, in the case of an ultrasonic type tablet, it can be constructed by using a transparent glass plate as the coordinate detection plate and installing multiple ultrasonic sensors at the edge of the plate, so if a digitizer is installed on the top surface of the document, the digitizer It becomes possible to specify the range of partial scanning from the top surface of the document by using watermarks. In the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, it is difficult to read only sheet-like originals, or in the case of the upper digitizer method, a mechanism similar to that of the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-41963 is adopted. This makes it possible to partially read thick manuscripts such as calligraphy.

FIG. 2 shows a partial view of another embodiment in which a digitizer mechanism is provided above the document, unlike the embodiment shown in FIG. A transparent digitizer 33 is installed above the digitizer. In this embodiment, while viewing the document from above through the digitizer 33 and the upper document cover 12, the partial reading range can be directly input using the coordinate input ben 34 of the digitizer, a cursor, or the like. In this case, by eliminating the document cover shown in FIG. 2 and using a flexible document table as the document table 40, a thick document such as a book can be brought into close contact with the digitizer 33 from below. In this case, the digitizer 33 also serves as the document cover shown in FIG. 1, and the effects of the present invention can be fully achieved even if the document cover 12 shown in FIG. 2 is removed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the surface to be read of a document is placed on the upper side, and the partial reading range can be specified very easily and accurately from the upper surface. A functional document reading device can be provided. In addition, as in the past, pasting blindfold paper on unnecessary parts, cutting out only the necessary parts from a copy with scissors, setting the original halfway and reading the original, and reading the original from the bottom. It is possible to read only the necessary parts of a document as image information without using special measures such as shining a light to see through the document. Furthermore, it is also possible to attach attributes to image information of multiple specified ranges, or specified and non-specified ranges, and perform individual processing.

The present invention will be most effective when applied to an intelligent facsimile, an intelligent digital copier, or an intelligent image scanner that provides image information to a personal computer, word processor, workstation, or the like.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a detailed explanatory diagram of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial explanatory diagram of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example. l... Original 2... Partial reading range 10
...Document stand 12...Document cover 20...
・Reading sensor 30... Digitizer 31...
Coordinate input means 33...upper digitizer 34--
・Coordinate input ben.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A document table on which a document is placed with the reading surface facing upward; a reading range input means for specifying a reading range on the reading surface of the document from the top surface of the document; and the reading range input means 1. A document reading device comprising: reading means for electronically reading only the reading range according to the output of the reading device and converting the read range into image information. 2. The document reading device according to claim 1, further comprising a see-through presser plate on the upper surface of the document table that smoothly presses the document. 3. The document reading device according to claim 1, wherein the reading range input means has a configuration in which the document table is provided with a digitizer function and the reading range is designated by a coordinate input pen. 4. The document reading device according to claim 2, wherein the reading range input means has a configuration in which the holding plate is provided with a digitizer function and the reading range is designated by a coordinate input pen.