JPH0263269A - Image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the color slurring correction by delaying a picture signal from the 2nd line sensor with respect to a picture signal from the 1st line sensor in plural line sensors whose read positions differ from each other in the moving direction. CONSTITUTION:The read positions by the 1st line sensor 219 and the 2nd line sensor 220 are differentiated. Thus, the line sensors are arranged freely. Moreover, in the case of delaying a signal from the 1st line sensor 219 with respect to a signal from the 2nd line sensor 220, the delay quantity is adjusted. Then even if the relative time delay is fluctuated to the original between outputs of the two line sensors 219, 220, excellent reading is attained independently of such fluctuation. Thus, the picture is read and processed efficiently at a fast speed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a copying device that copies or reproduces an original document, etc., and an image forming device such as a facsimile machine. The present invention relates to a copying apparatus that obtains a multicolor recorded image using recording means arranged to record a plurality of different colors.

Recently, the (original) information of a manuscript is read bit by bit using, for example, a self-scanning photodetector and converted into an electrical signal.
An image forming apparatus that digitally records in accordance with this converted signal has been proposed, and an example of the recording method is an inkjet recording method.

When attempting to perform multi-color recording using the inkjet recording method, it is difficult to record multiple colors with a single recording head (group) due to issues such as the ink supply to the head, and the number of multiple recordings corresponding to the number of colors to be recorded is required. For example, in the case of two-color recording of red and black, recording is generally performed using two sets of heads: a head for red and a head for black. By the way, these two sets of heads cannot be placed extremely close to each other. The reason for this is that a certain amount of space is required between the heads for maintenance and the bulk of the heads themselves.
Another reason is that when recording on recording paper, in order to prevent color mixing due to bleeding between red and black ink, the distance between the heads must be set according to the time required for one ink to dry. be.

Therefore, when recording by driving two sets of red and black heads at the same time, while reading the information at the same position on the document, when you try to record that information, the head spacing information is temporarily delayed in memory etc. , it is necessary to control the signals so that the two heads coincide and record at the same position. However, in practice, if an attempt is made to store the image information of the head spacing, the amount of information becomes enormous, and if high-resolution recording is attempted, this becomes a serious problem in terms of cost. Therefore, a method can be considered in which information is read from two different points on the document corresponding to the head spacing, and the read signals are transferred to the recording head for recording. The actual situation is that whether to use a memory method or to read from two locations is selected in consideration of cost space, amount of manufacturing process adjustment, etc. The present invention attempts to solve problems in printing apparatuses by reading information from two different points on a document corresponding to the head spacing and transmitting the read signals to the printing head.

It is very difficult to match the head spacing with the actual distance between two reading means for reading information on two different points on a document corresponding to the head spacing, and a complicated adjustment mechanism is required. The present invention provides a method that can easily correct the actual deviation between the reading means and the head spacing.

Its feature is that it makes it possible to correct color misregistration by correcting differences in the distances between multiple reading means and the distances between multiple recording means.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the overall configuration of a copying apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention.

A copying apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 is composed of a reading section 101 for reading information carried on a document surface and a writing section 102 for writing the read information onto a recording medium such as paper. There is.

As shown in FIG. 1, an original table 103 made of glass or the like is formed on the upper part of the reading section 101.
3 Place the original to be copied on top.

Then, there is a document table 10 on which information at two points separated by a distance on the document is read by a light-receiving element, which will be described later.
At the bottom of 3 is a rod-shaped light source 104 such as a fluorescent lamp that illuminates the original.
-1. 104-2, reflecting mirrors 105-1 and 105-2 provided so that the light emitted from the light source 104 effectively illuminates the surface of the original placed on the original platen 103; a first plane mirror 106, a second plane mirror 107,
An optical lens 108 for forming a light image of the document surface, a beam splitter 109 for color separation, and a self-scanning light receiving element 11 (1-1, 110) consisting of a large number of light receiving elements arranged in a straight line.
-2, 110-3, etc. are provided. Light source 104-1
．． 104-2, reflecting mirror 105-1. 105 - 2 and the first plane mirror 106 are integrated by a support 111 and fixed to a base 112 . The base 112 moves forward on the guide rail 113 from left to right in the figure (direction F) and back from right to left.

The second plane mirror 107 moves on the guide rail 113 in the same direction as the first plane mirror 106 at a speed that is half the moving speed of the first plane mirror 106 . That is, during forward scanning, the plane mirror 106. 107 moves to the position shown by the dotted line in the figure. At this time, the optical path length from the document table 103 to the lens 108 through the plane mirrors 106 and 107 is always kept constant.

Light receiving element 110-1. 110-2. The main scanning direction of 110-3 is a direction perpendicular to the drawing, and the plane mirror 1
06, 107, the light receiving elements 110-1. 11
If the signals from the light receiving elements of 0-2°110-3 are read out in order, the light receiving elements 110-'1, 110-2, 11
From 0-3, sequential signals obtained by raster scanning the document surface can be obtained.

The reading unit 101 is provided with three light-receiving elements due to the arrangement of the writing head for printing in two colors, for example, red and black, in the writing unit 102, which will be described later. Two of them are placed on the same side, and the remaining one is placed on the opposite side.

Lens 1 in the optical path of incident light entering the light receiving element 110
A beam splitter 109 is installed behind 0B,
The light transmitted through the lens 108 forms a readable information image of the document surface on the light receiving surface of each light receiving element 110.

For example, when writing in two colors, red and black, the beam splitter 109 is configured with a dichroic mirror that transmits short wavelengths in the visible light range (blue image) and reflects long wavelengths (red side). This dichroic mirror and three light receiving elements 110-1. 110-2 and 110-3 distinguish red and black signals, and these signals are sent to the writing unit 10.
The data is transferred to the red writing head and the black writing head of No. 2, respectively.

In the above explanation, for the sake of convenience, the two colors of world and black are:
Although the concept has been explained, the present invention is not limited to these two colors (although other two colors may be combined, or three or more colors may be combined).

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 1, a half mirror can be used as the beam splitter 109 without using a dichroic mirror.
In the optical path between the half mirror and the light receiving surface of the light receiving element 110, or on the light receiving surface of the light receiving element 110 or the half mirror.
A configuration in which a predetermined color filter is provided for each light-receiving element on the emission side of the light receiving element may be used to apply two colors.

The writing section 102 of the copying apparatus 100 shown in FIG.
21. A paper feed roller 122 and a timing roller 123 for feeding the recording paper 120 in the cassette 121 in the direction of the conveyance path, and a rotating drum rotatably attached to convey the recording paper while winding it during recording. 124, two sets of inkjet heads 125 for printing black and red.
125R, fan 126 for drying ink adhering to the recording paper, paper discharge tray 127, black ink tank 128 for supplying black ink to the inkjet head 125B, red color for supplying red ink to the inkjet head 125R. It includes an ink tank 129, a drive unit 130, etc., which accommodates a drive circuit for driving the two sets of heads 125B and 125R.

A large number of suction holes arranged at minute intervals are arranged on the surface of the rotary drum 124, and is rotated at a constant speed in the direction R in the figure by a drive source (not shown), and is driven by a commonly known suction means (not shown). (illustrated), the air inside the drum 124 is sucked and exhausted.

The recording paper guided to the rotating drum 124 by the paper feed roller 122 and the timing roller 123 is wound onto the drum 124 by the suction hole, and is divided into two sets according to the reading signal from the reading unit 101 while rotating together with the drum 124. Writing is performed by the heads 125B and 125R.

The part of the paper on which writing has been completed moves to the upper part of the drum 124 in the figure, and the recording paper is separated by the separation belt 131 and the separation claw 13.
2 from the surface of the rotating drum 124 and stored in the paper discharge tray 127.

The fan 126 is operated as needed, and when the recording paper that has been written on comes to the top of the drum 124 in the figure, the fan 126 forcibly dries the ink adhering to the recording paper and semi-permanently adheres the ink to the recording paper. It has the role of increasing the speed and helping the recording paper to be conveyed toward the paper discharge tray 127.

The inkjet heads 125B and 125R are, for example, full-line multiheads, in which ejection orifices for ejecting ink are arranged in a line with a density equal to the required resolution and a length approximately equal to the width of the recording paper. be.

Therefore, the main scanning direction of the self-scanning light-receiving element constituting the reading section and the ejection orifice arrangement direction of the full-line multi-inkjet head, as well as the sub-scanning direction F of the document surface and the rotational direction R of the recording paper, are the same. By scanning the surface and writing the image information on recording paper on the rotating drum 124, a copy of the original can be obtained. .

The inkjet head 125B is used for black printing, and the inkjet head 125R is used for red printing, and the heads are arranged around the outer periphery of the drum 124 so that the distance between the heads is equal to the distance between the landing points of ink droplets on the recording paper. However, in practice, it becomes very complicated to set the distances accurately on the drum 124 by mechanical adjustment. An embodiment of the present invention for electrically finely adjusting the distance between the heads will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system for controlling color misregistration correction. In this embodiment, input and output data are black and red two-color signals, which are output from the document reading device 203. For example, if the image recorded by the red head is out of alignment with the image recorded by the black head because the head spacing is smaller than the designed value, the red must be delayed. When red is specified to the color set register 201, the input discrimination circuit 204 transmits the black signal from the document reading device 203 to the shift register 205 and the red signal to the shift register 212. If the color specified in the color set register 201 is black, the signal transmission method is reversed. The black signal input to the shift register 205 can be converted from a serial signal to a parallel signal, for example, a 32-bit block signal.

This serial black block data is temporarily held in a latch 206 in units of 32 bits. Since the black signal is output to the recording head 208 without delay, the gate 207 is opened at the adjusted timing and input to the output discrimination circuit 208. Color set register 2
01 is now set to red, the discrimination circuit 208 transmits the signal that has not passed through the memory 214, that is, the black signal, to the black drive circuit 209. The output discrimination circuit operates so that the signal passing through the memory 214 is transmitted to the optical drive circuit 217. The shift timings of the shift registers 205 and 212, the latch timings of the latches 206 and 213, and the opening timings of the gates 1-207 and 216 are synchronized with a signal from the clock generation circuit 211. The drive circuit 209 generates the voltage and pulse width necessary to operate the black recording head 210, and drives the black recording head 210. On the other hand, the red signal to be delayed is detected by the discrimination circuit 204.
The signals are inputted to the shift register 212, converted into parallel signals, and held in the latch 213 in units of 32 bits.

The red signal temporarily stored in the memory 214 while adjusting the timing is sent to the gate 216 and the output discrimination circuit 208.
The signal is transmitted to the contact driving circuit 217, which drives the optical recording head 218. Now color set register 201
The color has been explained using the example of red, but when black is set, the input discrimination circuit 204 and the output discrimination circuit 208 control the black signal and the red signal so that they each pass through different routes.

Writing and reading of color signals to and from the memory 214 takes place in 32 steps.
The address is generated by an address generation circuit 212 and determined based on the contents of a line counter 216 and a block counter 217.

A schematic diagram of the memory 214 is shown in FIG. 4, and the addresses of this memory 214 consist of two parts, upper and lower, and the number of the line in the upper address (this line stores pixel signals equivalent to one scan of the original). The lower address indicates which block in one line it is.

The count value of the line counter 216 corresponds to the upper address, and the count value of the block counter 217 corresponds to the lower address. The line set register is used to preset a certain line in FIG. 4, and when the counted value of the line counter 216 reaches this set line, the line counter 216 is cleared.
The clock generation circuit 211 controls how the line specified by the line counter 216 becomes the first line.
From there, the start signal for one line is sent to the line counter 219.
The line counter 219 counts the signal. When the count advances to the desired line number (the number of lines set in the line set register), the line counter 219 receives a signal from the line number comparison circuit 221.
is cleared and the number of lines is counted again from the zero address. The line set register 218 is composed of switches, registers, etc., in which the number of lines for color misregistration correction is set.

The stored color signal for one line is sequentially transmitted to the recording head block by block, with 32 bits forming one block. The clock generation circuit 211 generates a clock every 32 bits and outputs it to the block counter 217. Therefore, the block counter 220 informs the address generation circuit 215 of the block position information in one line of the color signal being input/output. This block counter 2
The contents of 20 are cleared by the line synchronization signal. The address generation circuit 215 generates an address based on the contents of a line counter 219 indicating the number of line counts and a block counter 220 indicating the block position. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the address generation circuit.

In FIG. 3, the value of the line counter 219 is held in a line register 222 and a line delay register 223 after being delayed by one line. The line register 222 is used for reading, and the line delay register 224 is used as an upper address bit for writing. block counter 22
The contents of 0 are also latched once in the block register 226 and used as the lower address bits of the memory 214. Since the line counter 219 counts up until it is cleared by the comparison circuit 221, the number of lines stored in the line set register 202 is stored as the number of delay lines. - The color signal of the line is determined by the contents of the block register 226, with the line counter 219 (line register 222) counting a certain line n, the line delay register counting n-1, and the block register 226 counting m. To explain, first open the gate 225 with the clock generator 211 and read the information of the mth block of the nth line of the memory 214 block by block, then open the gate 224 and read the information of the (n-1)th line of the memory 214. The operation of writing the information of the l block stored in the latch 213 in the mth block is repeated to complete the reading of the n line and the writing of the n-1 line, and then the next
The process moves on to reading the +1 line and writing to the n line. is sequentially counted up, and by switching gates 224 and 225 for l block, the line address for writing and the line address for reading are determined alternately. Except when the correction number is zero, the memory line address for writing is always one value less than the memory line address for reading, and when the next line synchronization signal is input, the memory that was used for reading at the time of the previous line synchronization signal is Line address is used for write address.

When the line counter 219 reaches the correction value, it is cleared and the memory line address for reading is restored to zero, so that the memory is used within the specified correction value. When the number of corrections is zero, that is, when there is no need to delay any color signal, there is no delay between the line register 222 and the line delay register 223, and the memory line address is the same. Therefore, only the block address changes and writing and reading are performed using the same block address, so there is no data delay.

The present invention has been specifically described above with reference to the drawings, but in order to avoid complication, the writing section
1. As a write head that constitutes 02. Although the adoption of an inkjet head has been described as an example of a preferred embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this.
The reading section of the present invention may be combined with a writing section employing a thermal head or the like.

Further, although the embodiment has been described with black and red two-color recording, it goes without saying that the present invention may be implemented in other color combinations or recording in three or more colors. Furthermore, although the line counter and the block counter have been described as counters that increase each time a pulse is input, they may also be counters whose count value decreases each time a pulse is input.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a copying apparatus to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the copying apparatus, FIG. 3 is an address generation circuit diagram, and FIG.
The figure is a schematic diagram of memory. Here, 203 is a document reading device, 202 is a line set register, 214 is a memory, 215 is an address generation circuit, 219 is a line counter, 220 is a block counter, and 221 is a comparison circuit. Proceedings of the Municipal Corporation E (spontaneous) April 1, 1999, Name of the invention Relationship to the case of a person who amends an image processing device Patent applicant 3-3O-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo (100) Representative of Canon Co., Ltd. Person: Takashi Yamaji, 3 Canon Co., Ltd., 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo 146 (Telephone: 75B-2111) Description 6, Contents of amendment (1) Page 1, line 18 of the description to page 4, line 10
Correct the line description as follows. ``[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image processing device that can read and process an original image at high speed. A spot-type sensor movable on the rotating drum is provided, and the document is read by gradually moving the sensor on the rotating drum while the drum is rotating. However, the conventional image reading device described above has a problem in that it takes time to read the image because it uses a spot type sensor to read the document. It is also conceivable to read the original by using a method, but such a method may require multiple line sensors, for example, when reading a color image. There are still many points left to be improved.The present invention provides an image processing device that can read and process images efficiently and at high speed using a plurality of line sensors. [Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an image processing apparatus of the present invention includes a reading means for line-reading a document by moving relative to the document on a document table. A linear reading means having a plurality of linear sensors having different reading positions in the moving direction, wherein an image signal from a second line sensor of the plurality of line sensors is detected with respect to an image signal from a first line sensor. It has a delay means for delaying an image signal, and an adjustment means for adjusting the amount of delay of the delay means. [Actual Kaede Example] (2) The following between the 14th line and the 15th line on the 18th page of the specification: Insert "As explained above, according to the present invention, the reading positions of the first line sensor and the second line sensor are made different, so the arrangement of the line sensors can be made free. Furthermore, the amount of delay is adjusted when the signal from the first line sensor is delayed relative to the signal from the second line sensor, so even if the relative time delay with respect to the document between the outputs of the two line sensors varies. Even if it does, reading can be performed well regardless of such fluctuations.'' Procedural amendment (flag) Director General of the Japan Patent Office Yoshi 1) Takeshi Moon 1 Display of the case 1999 Patent Application No. 61828 2 Name of the invention Image processing Device 3, Person T who makes the amendment Relationship with address name case Patent applicant 3-3O-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo (100) Representative of Canon Co., Ltd. Keizo Yamaji 44, Agent 6, Subject of amendment Akira Particulars 7, Contents of amendment As per the engraving and attached sheet of the specification originally attached to the application (no change in content) Residence

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A reading means for reading a document in line by moving relative to the document on a document table, the linear reader having a plurality of linear sensors having different reading positions in the direction of movement. means, delay means for delaying the image signal from the second line sensor with respect to the image signal from the first line sensor of the plurality of line sensors, and adjustment means for adjusting the amount of delay of the delay means. An image processing device characterized by: