JPH01217480A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify signal processing for the discrimination of an image editing area by switching light wave length, moving a scanning means twice in the same direction, reading original images every movement, storing the read original images in the same direction in a storing means and discriminating the image editing area applied to the original images by both the stored original images. CONSTITUTION:The light wave length to read is switched and the scanning means made up of a exposing lamp 4 and mirrors 5-7 is moved twice in the same direction. A reading means 29 reads the original images every movement and a control means stores the read original images in the same direction in the storing means. The image editing area applied to the original images is discriminated by both the stored original images. Thus, the signal processing for the discrimination of the image editing area can be simplified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is capable of specifying and erasing a desired portion of a document image, for example.

(Prior Art) As is well known, there is a technique called "trimming" or "masking" in which a predetermined part of an original image can be erased and copied.
Electronic copying machines have been developed that have image editing capabilities.

In this type of copying machine, there is a method of specifying an image editing area of a document using a marker pen of a color to which the photoreceptor drum is highly sensitive, in order to specify an area for image editing.

In an image forming apparatus that uses a marker pen to specify an image editing area, prior to copying the original,
The scanning means reads the image editing area designated on the document by the marker pen.

This reading marks the area specified by the marker pen and
For example, a filter of the same color as the marker pen and a filter of a different color are inserted into the optical path for each exposure scan of the document so that the area can be easily distinguished from other areas. The image information of the document obtained for each exposure scan is stored in the memory. Thereafter, the image information stored in the memory is subjected to arithmetic processing to obtain an image editing area.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Incidentally, when exposing and scanning the above-mentioned original image, conventionally, a scanning means is moved back and forth, and during this back and forth movement, a filter is switched to perform scanning. For this reason, the scanning direction for the original is reversed for each filter, so when storing it in memory, the original image must be stored in the opposite direction, or the original image must be stored in the opposite direction and then read out in the reverse direction to perform arithmetic processing. However, the signal processing was complicated.

This invention solves the problem of complicating signal processing caused by reciprocating an exposure scanning means and reading the image editing area of a document during this reciprocating movement. The present invention aims to provide an image forming apparatus that can simplify signal processing.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) This invention switches the wavelength of light to be read each time a document is scanned by a scanning device, reads the document image guided by the scanning device by the reading device, and uses the scanning device to read the document image guided by the scanning device. a first control means that stores a read original image in a storage means for each scan and determines an image editing area attached to the original image from both original images stored in the storage means; While forming an image on the transfer material, the first
In an image forming apparatus that performs required image editing on an image editing area determined by a control means, a drive means switches the wavelength of the reading light and moves the scanning means twice in the same direction to expose and scan the original; and second control means for storing the document image read by the reading means as the scanning means scans in the storage means in the same direction every scan.

(Function) This invention moves the scanning means twice in the same direction by switching the reading light wavelength, reads an original image by the reading means each time it moves, and stores the read original image by the second control means in the storage means. By storing the images in the same direction and determining the image editing area attached to the original image from both stored original images, signal processing for determining the image editing area can be simplified.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an image forming apparatus of the present invention, such as a copying machine. That is, a document table (transparent glass) 2 for supporting a document is fixed to the upper surface of the copying machine main body 1. This document table 2 is provided with a fixed scale 21 that serves as a reference for setting the document, and furthermore, a document cover 11 that can be opened and closed is provided near the document table 2.

The document placed on the document table 2 is exposed and scanned by an optical system consisting of an exposure lamp 4 and mirrors 5, 6, and 7 moving back and forth along the lower surface of the document table 2. . In this case, mirror 6.7 moves at half the speed of mirror 5 so as to maintain the optical path length. The light reflected from the original by the scanning of the optical system, that is, the light reflected from the original by the light irradiation of the exposure lamp 4, is reflected by the mirror 5.6.7 and then passes through the variable magnification lens block 8, and further passes through the mirror 9119. The light is reflected by □, 93 and guided to the photoreceptor drum 10, so that an image of the document is formed on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 10.

The photosensitive drum 10 rotates in the direction of the arrow a in the figure, and the surface is first charged by the charging device 11, and then the image is exposed to slit light in the exposure section ph, so that an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface. Ru. This electrostatic latent image is visualized by adhering the toner to it by developing devices 121 and 122, each of which contains, for example, red or black toner and is selectively operated as required.

On the other hand, sheets of paper (material to be transferred) are taken out one by one from the selected upper paper feed cassette 13□ or lower paper feed cassette 132 by the feed rollers 141, 142 and roller pair 151, 152, and are taken out one by one by the paper guide path 16. ．． 16 degrees, and is guided to a pair of registration rollers 17, and guided to a transfer section by this pair of registration rollers 17.

Further, the upper paper feed cassette 13 is provided with a guide 13a for manual paper feed, and the paper fed by being guided by the guide 13a for manual paper feed is transferred to the feed roller 14a, the roller The paper is guided to a pair of registration rollers 17 via a pair of paper guides 151 and a paper guide path 161, and guided to a transfer section by this pair of registration rollers 17. Here, the paper feed cassettes 130 and 132 are removably provided at the lower right end of the main body 1, and one of them can be selected on the operation panel described later. The cassette size of each of the paper feed cassettes 13□ and 132 is detected by cassette size detection switches 601 and 602, respectively. This cassette size detection switch 601.60. is composed of a plurality of microswitches that are turned on and off according to the insertion of cassettes of different sizes.

The paper sent to the transfer section comes into close contact with the surface of the photoreceptor drum 10 at the transfer charger 18, so that the toner image on the photoreceptor drum 10 is transferred by the action of the charger 18. The transferred paper is electrostatically peeled off from the photoreceptor drum 10 by the action of a peeling charger 19, conveyed by a conveyor belt 20, and sent to a fixing roller 21 as a fixing device provided at the end of the conveyor belt 20. The transferred image is fixed by passing through this area. The sheet after fixing is then discharged to a tray 23 outside the main body 1 by a pair of delivery rollers 22.

Further, residual toner on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 10 after transfer is removed by a cleaner 24, and a static elimination lamp 2
5, the afterimage is erased to return to the initial state.

Incidentally, 26 is a cooling fan for preventing the temperature inside the main body 1 from rising.

Further, for example, the charger 11 and the exposure section p of the photoreceptor drum 10 are connected to each other.
An erasing array 27 serving as erasing means is provided adjacently between h. The erasure array 27 has a plurality of light emitting diodes arranged in the longitudinal direction of the photoreceptor drum 10, and when these light emitting diodes are selectively turned on, the charges on the photoreceptor drum 10 are erased. It looks like this.

Further, the exposure lamp 4 and the mirror 5 are provided on the first carriage 28a, and the mirror 6.7 is provided on the second carriage 28b. the first carriage 28a
When the copying machine main body 1 is in a standby state, it is moved to a position indicating the copying range of the original defined by the currently selected paper size and copying magnification, for example, the standby position RP shown by the broken line in FIG. It is on standby.

On the other hand, a document image reading device 29 is provided on the side of the variable magnification lens block 8 .

2 and 3 show the reading device 29. FIG.

The lens 29a includes the exposure lamp 4 and the mirror 5.6.7.
The original image guided by the CCD line sensor 29b
It leads to A rotator 29c is provided at the entrance portion of the lens 29a. A rotary solenoid 29d is provided at one end of the rotor 29c, and the rotary solenoid 29d controls the rotor 2.
9c is adapted to be rotated in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. Further, the other end of the rotator 29c is provided with a filter fa made of red and fb made of blue, for example.
These filters fa.

fb is the lens 2 when the rotator 29c is rotated.
It is designed to be selectively inserted into the optical path of 9a.

FIG. 4 shows the operation panel 30 provided on the main body 1. 301 is a copy key for instructing the start of copying; 302
13. is a numeric keypad for setting the number of copies, etc.; 303 is a display unit that displays the operating status of each part and paper jams; 304 is an upper and lower paper feed power set; 13. ．． 13 A cassette selection key for selecting □, 305 a cassette display section for displaying the selected cassette, 306 a magnification setting key for setting the copy enlargement/reduction magnification in a predetermined relationship, 307 a stepless enlargement/reduction magnification 308 is a display section for displaying the set magnification, 309 is a density setting section for setting copy density, 30a and 30b are erase specification keys for specifying the original erase operation, and 30a is operated. If
When the image within the specified range is erased and 30b is operated, the image outside the specified range is erased.

In addition, 30c and 30d are the erase designation keys 3, respectively.
0a and 30b are light emitting display elements indicating that they are being operated; 30e is a developing device 12 containing, for example, red toner;
The red designation key 30f designates, for example, the black designation key which designates the developing device 122 containing black toner.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the main parts of the control system.

The control unit 4] performs overall control of the copying machine main body 1, and is constituted by, for example, a microcomputer. This control section 41 includes the operation panel 30 and a CCD line sensor 29b that constitutes the reading device 29.
an A/D conversion circuit 42 that converts the output signal of the output signal into a digital signal, a solenoid drive circuit 43 that drives the rotary solenoid 29d, and the first and second carriages 28.
A motor drive circuit 45 that controls the drive of the motor 44 that drives the a128b, a lamp regulator 46 that controls the lighting of the exposure lamp 4, and first and second memories that store the conversion output of the A/D conversion circuit 42. 47.48 are connected.

The operation of the above configuration will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

When performing image editing, as shown in Figure 7(a), the original O
A desired image editing area E is written on G using, for example, a marker pen. The color of this marker pen is the photoreceptor drum 1.
It is sufficient if the color has a high sensitivity of 0, for example, the color of photoreceptor drum 1
When 0 is composed of selenium Se, a blue color is preferable. With the image editing area E written in this way, the original is placed on the original table 2, and the erase designation key 30a or 30b on the operation panel 30 is operated.

In this case, it is assumed that the deletion designation key 30a has been operated.

When the copy key 301 is operated, the control section 41 performs the operation shown in FIG.

That is, the rotary solenoid 29d is driven by the solenoid drive circuit 43, and the red filter fa of the rotator 29c is inserted into the optical path of the lens 29a (step 5TI). In this state, the lamp regulator 46
The exposure lamp 4 is turned on, and the motor 44 is driven by the motor drive circuit 45, and the first carriage 28a is moved from the standby position shown in FIG. 1 toward the fixed scale 21 to expose and scan the original ( Step 5T2).

At this time, devices related to the developing process, such as the photosensitive drum 10 and the charging device 11, are stopped.

Along with this exposure scanning, the light from the document guided by the mirrors 5 to 7 passes through the red filter fa.

The light enters the CCD line sensor 29b through the lens 29a and is read by the CCD line sensor 29b (step 5T3). This CCD line sensor 29b
The output signal is converted into a digital signal by the A/D conversion circuit 42, and the signal corresponding to the digitized original image is stored in the first memory 4 as shown in FIG. 7(C).
7 (step 5T4). In this way,
When the reading of the original image using the red filter fa is completed (step 5T5), the exposure lamp 4 is turned off and the first carriage 28a is returned to the standby position RP indicating the copying range (step 5T6).

Next, the rotary solenoid 29d is driven by the solenoid drive circuit 43, and the blue filter fb of the rotator 29c is inserted into the optical path of the lens 29a (step 5T7). In this state, the lamp regulator 46
At the same time, the exposure lamp 4 is turned on, and the motor 44 is driven by the motor drive circuit 45, so that the first carriage 28a moves from the standby position RP shown in FIG. 1 to the fixed scale 2. direction, and the original is exposed and scanned (step 5T8).

At this time, devices related to the developing process, such as the photosensitive drum 10 and the charging device 11, are also stopped.

Along with this exposure scanning, the light from the original guided by the mirrors 5 to 7 passes through the blue filter fb.

The light enters the CCD line sensor 29b through the lens 29a and is read by the CCD line sensor 29b (step 5T9). This CCD line sensor 29b
The output signal is converted into a digital signal by the A/D conversion circuit 42, and the signal corresponding to the digitized original image is stored in the second memory 4 as shown in FIG. 7(d).
8 (step 5TIO). In this way, when the reading of the original image using the blue filter fb is completed (step 5T11), the exposure lamp 4 is turned off and the first carriage 28a is stopped at the position of the fixed scale 21 (step 5T12). .

In this state, the image editing area specified by the marker marker is determined from the signals corresponding to the original images stored in the first and second memories 47 and 48 (step 5T13). That is, first, the signal stored in the second memory 48 is inverted as shown in FIG. 4(e). This inverted signal and the first memory 47 shown in FIG.
When we take the AND with the signal stored in , we get (f) in the same figure.
The image editing area E designated by the marker pen is obtained as shown in FIG.

When the image editing area E is determined in this way, image formation of the original image set on the original platen 2 is performed.

That is, the photoreceptor drum 10 is rotated, and the charger 11 for charging
At the same time, the surface of the photosensitive drum 10 is charged with an electric charge, and the portions of the light emitting diodes constituting the erasing array 27 that correspond to the determined image editing area E are selectively turned on and the designated areas are turned on. The charges in the portion corresponding to the image editing area E are erased.

At the same time, the exposure lamp 4 is turned on, the first and second carriages 28a and 28b are moved, and the original image is exposed and scanned. The light reflected from the original document is irradiated onto the photosensitive drum 10, but the light reflected from the original document is not applied to the erasing array 2.
No image is formed in the portion where the charge is erased by step 7. Therefore, even when this part is developed, no image is formed, and as shown in FIG. 7(b), the original image in the area surrounded by the image editing area E is erased and an image is formed. (Step 5T14).

According to the above embodiment, when determining the image editing area of a document, the first carriage 28a is moved twice from the standby position indicating the image forming range in the direction of the fixed scale 21, and along with this movement, the filters fa and fb are adjusted. The image editing area of the document is then read by the CCD line sensor 29b. Therefore, when reading an original image by switching the filters fa and fb, the reading direction of the original is the same, so the first and second memories 47 and 48 store signals corresponding to the original image in the same direction. This makes signal processing easier.

Incidentally, in the above embodiment, the document image is read using red and blue filters, but the invention is not limited to this. For example, only a blue filter is provided, and first, the document image is read without any intervening filter. It is also possible to obtain the same effect as in the above embodiment by reading the original image and then reading the original image through a blue filter.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the case where the wavelength of light to be read is changed by changing the color of the filter was explained.
The present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to implement the same method by, for example, providing exposure lamps that generate light of different colors and changing the color of the light irradiated onto the document.

It goes without saying that various other modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, the scanning means is moved twice in the same direction by switching the reading light wavelength, and each time the scanning means reads the document image, A signal for determining the image editing area by storing the original image in the same direction in the storage means by the second control means and determining the image editing area attached to the original image from both stored original images. An image forming apparatus that can simplify processing can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 each show the configuration of a reading device, and FIG. 2 shows an extracted part of the image forming apparatus. A top view, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the main parts taken out, FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the configuration of the operation panel, FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing the main parts of the control system, and FIGS. 6 and 7. are diagrams shown to explain the respective operations. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Copying machine main body, 2... Original table, 4... Exposure lamp, 10... Photosensitive drum, 28a, 28b...
First and second carriages, 29...reading device, 29a
...Lens, 29b...CCD line sensor, fa
, fb...filter, 41...control unit. Figure 6 (a) (b) 1.7 (C) (d) 6th

Claims (1)

[Claims] Switching the wavelength of light to be read each time a document is scanned by the scanning means,
The reading means reads the original image guided by the scanning means, the original image read by the reading means is stored in the storage means for each scan, and the original image is added to the original image from both original images stored in the storage means. a first control means for determining an image editing area; and forming the original image on a transfer material during image formation, and performing necessary image editing on the image editing area determined by the first control means; In the image forming apparatus, the driving means switches the reading light wavelength and moves the scanning means twice in the same direction to expose and scan the original, and the reading means scans the original image read as the scanning means scans. an image forming apparatus comprising: second control means for storing data in the same direction in each case in the storage means;