JPH11261815A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (With correction) [PROBLEMS] To prevent illegal copying when illegal copying is determined at the time of repeat copying, and suppress wasteful output to save resources. A document is detected by an optical reading determination unit (501), and it is checked whether the document is an illegally copied document (502). If the document is not an illegally copied original, normal copy processing is executed (503). If it is determined that the original is an illegally copied original, it is checked in step 504 whether the original is a repeat copy. If it is determined that the copy is a repeat copy, after the repeat copy is interrupted (505), the image processing is executed (506). This image processing is a process of performing various processes such as color conversion, blurring, mosaic, or filling on a document image to deteriorate the reproducibility of the document. At this time, a text explaining the reason why the repeat copy is interrupted and the reproducibility of the original document is deteriorated, in this case, that the illegal copy function has been activated, is synthesized with the original image and output (505 ').

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a color copying machine or a color printer having a function of preventing counterfeiting of bills and securities.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A color image forming apparatus such as a color copier may be used for forgery of bills and securities, and has a function of identifying bills and securities in order to prevent this. I have. If the data input or read by this identification function is bills or securities, it is necessary to take some measures to prevent forgery.

For example, in a color copier, a document image is input, and the image data is compared with dictionary data having characteristics of a specific document such as a bill. By performing various processes, a copy that is not true to the original image is output to prevent illegal copying.

As related inventions, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-223419 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
No. 2, JP-A-4-205274, JP-A-4-205274
The inventions described in JP-A-205277 and JP-A-4-205278 are known.

[0005]

When a conventional image forming apparatus determines that an illegal copy has been made, various types of image processing are performed on the output copy. Has determined whether or not all copies are illegitimately copied originals, and output a copy based on the determination result. For this reason, if the determination is made erroneously as an illegally copied original despite the fact that the original is a general original, a large amount of useless copying is performed, and it is necessary to review it in terms of saving resources.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to prevent illegal copying and suppress useless output when illegal copying is determined during repeat copying. To provide an image forming apparatus capable of saving resources.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which allows an operator to recognize the reason why the repeat copy is interrupted.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a first means includes an image forming means for forming an image on the basis of input image data, and discriminating the characteristics of a read document, and determining the characteristics of the read document. An image forming apparatus including a determination unit that determines whether a copy of the
When the determination unit determines that the image is not copied at the time of the repeat copy, a control unit that outputs an image different from the duplicated image of the document and interrupts the repeat copy operation is provided.

The second means is characterized in that, in the first means, when outputting the image, a character string indicating the reason for interrupting the repeat copy operation is synthesized and output.

A third means is the image processing apparatus according to the first means, wherein the input image data is either a scanner provided therein or image data read and input by the host device. .

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus according to this embodiment mainly includes a scanner unit 1, an image processing unit 2, a write processing unit 3, a control unit 4, an operation unit 5, and a printer unit 6. Further, an optical reading determination unit 7 and a microwave sensor unit 8 are provided.

The scanner unit 1 includes a reading sensor 11 and a reading signal processing unit 12 which receives a reading signal from the reading sensor 11 and outputs a control signal to the reading sensor 11. An image signal read by the read sensor 11 is output from the read signal processing unit 12 to the image processing unit 2, and a control signal for image processing is output from the image processing unit 2 to the read signal processing unit 12. In addition, image data of the read image is output from the read signal processing unit 12 to the signal processing unit 71 of the optical reading determination unit 7, and the signal processing unit 71 previously stores image data such as bills and securities to be compared. The data of the read dictionary 72 is compared with the read image data of a different document image to determine whether the data stored in the dictionary 72 is different.

The result of the determination is output to the control unit 4. The control unit 4 communicates with the scanner unit 1, the image processing unit 2, the operation unit 5, the printer unit 6, the optical reading determination unit 7, and the microwave sensor unit 8 to communicate with each unit and the image forming apparatus. Responsible for overall control. Note that the writing processing unit 3 executes a predetermined writing process according to the instruction output from the image processing unit 2.

The control unit 4 sets the scanner unit 1, the image processing unit 2, the printer unit 6, the optical reading determination unit 7 or the microwave sensor unit 8 in advance according to the operation input from the operation unit 5. The display is controlled in accordance with the program, and necessary display is performed on the operation unit according to the output from each unit. The control unit 4 also receives various information from the printer unit 6 including various output loads 61 such as motors, clutches, and solenoids, various sensors 62, and I / Os 63, according to the input information. Perform necessary controls.

The write processing unit 3 reads a laser diode (LD) 3 based on image data read by the scanner unit 1 and image-processed by the image processing unit 2.
A latent image is formed by exposing the surface of a photoreceptor (not shown) by the light emission control of 1 and an image visualized on a sheet by an image forming means (not shown) included in a printer unit 6 such as a developing device or a transfer device. Form. Such an image forming unit is well-known, and thus description thereof is omitted here. Further, in this embodiment, when it is determined that the document image read by the optical reading determination unit 7 is a banknote or a securities for which copying is prohibited, the control unit 4 is notified to that effect, and the read image is The control unit 4 outputs to the image processing unit 2 a signal indicating that a different image has been output and that the read original has been prohibited from being copied. The image processing unit 2 outputs image data including data processed based on this signal to the writing unit 3. Then, the writing processing unit 3 writes the image and the text based on the image data output from the image processing unit 2, and executes image formation.

The microwave sensor unit 8 uses special paper or ink (microwave sensitive material) that is sensitive to microwaves for printed materials (such as bills or securities, or printed materials arbitrarily set) whose copying is to be prohibited. For determining that the object is a copy-prohibited object using electromagnetic waves (microwaves), and includes a microwave sensor 81 and a signal processing unit 82. The microwave sensor 81 further includes an output unit 811 and a detection unit 812. Consists of Thus, when copying a document, when a microwave is transmitted from the output unit 811 of the microwave sensor 81, the transmitted microwave is reflected by the copy, and if the microwave sensitive material is included, the transmitted microwave is reflected. Reflected as a signal corresponding to the sensitive object,
The detection unit 812 detects the reflection signal. Signal processing unit 8
In step 13, signal processing is performed on the reflected signal to determine whether the document is a banknote, a security, or a copy-inhibited document in which copying is arbitrarily prohibited. This determination result is output to the control unit 4, and the control unit 4 performs the same control as that of the determination in the optical reading determination unit 7 according to the input determination result.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a mechanical configuration of a scanner (image reading unit) constituting the scanner unit 1. The scanner 1 includes a contact glass 102 disposed on an upper surface of a housing 101 and the contact glass 1.
Halogen lamp 1 serving as an illumination lamp for illuminating a document placed on contact glass 102 on the lower surface of OLED 02
03 and the first to guide the reflected light from the original to the CCD 109.
Mirror 104, second mirror 105, third mirror 106,
The halogen lamp 103 and the first mirror 104 are basically composed of an optical element group including a filter 107 and an imaging lens 108 and a processing substrate 110 for electrically processing an image read by the CCD 109. The second mirror 105 and the third mirror 106 are mounted on the second scanner 112, respectively. The second scanner 112 follows the sub-scanning direction at half the speed of the first scanner 111, and the optical path length is It is set so that it does not change during scanning in the scanning direction. A pressure plate 113 for pressing a document placed on the contact glass 102 is provided on the upper surface of the housing 101 so as to be openable and closable, and a plurality of cooling fans 114 and 115 are provided on a side surface of the housing 101.
Is provided, and a dew condensation prevention heater 116 is provided near the home position of each of the mirrors 104 to 106.
Further, in this embodiment, a microwave sensor 81 is provided at a position facing the lower surface of the contact glass 102 above the first scanner 111.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing processing steps of the entire image processing, and shows a series of processing in the scanner unit 1, the image processing unit 2, and the writing processing unit 3 in FIG.

First, in the scanner unit 1, a CCD
An image is read for each color of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) by 109, amplified by an amplifier 121, A / D converted by an A / D conversion circuit 122, and then synthesized by a synthesis circuit 123. . The combined image data is further subjected to shading correction by a shading correction circuit 124, and performs line-to-line correction for each of the RGB colors. The line-to-line correction memory 125 is used for this line-to-line correction.

The image data of each of the R, G, and B colors subjected to the line-to-line correction is input to the image processing unit 2, where dot correction and scanner γ correction are performed. here,
The dot correction is performed for each color by the dot correction circuit 126 and the scanner γ correction is performed by the scanner γ correction circuit 127. The image data corrected in this way is temporarily stored in the delay memory 128 and input to the RGB filter color conversion circuit 129, where the RGB filter color conversion circuit 1
At 29, a filter color conversion process is performed. Also, RG
In the B filter color conversion circuit 129, ACS (Auto Color
Based on the output of the (select) unit 130, filter color conversion processing is performed on characters and halftone dots based on image data that has been subjected to separation processing by the character / halftone separation circuit 131.

The image data processed by the RGB filter color conversion circuit 129 is then subjected to magnification processing by a magnification circuit 132 and a create circuit 133 if a magnification instruction is given, and if the desired create processing has been input. And execute the input create process. Next, a YMCK filter for forming a color image with toner, printer γ processing and gradation processing are performed by a printer γ gradation processing circuit 13.
Execute in step 4. At that time, if you need to process the area,
Area processing is performed by the area processing circuit 136 with reference to the area memory 135.

The image data that has been subjected to the printer γ process and the gradation process as described above and converted into information capable of forming an image with toner is stored in the synthesized character data memory 138 in the character synthesis processing circuit 137. A character synthesizing process is performed with reference to the synthesized character data, and the read image data is subjected to character synthesizing and output to the write processing circuit 139, which outputs a modulation signal for performing laser writing in the write processing circuit 139. Convert. The LD modulation section 140 of the writing processing unit 3 drives the laser diode 31 according to the modulation signal to execute laser writing.

In this embodiment, the image data of the optically read original and the image data of the original are stored in the dictionary 72 in advance when detecting a copy-inhibited original such as a bill or a securities, or detecting an arbitrarily set copy-inhibited original. Although the image data is compared with the existing image data and the microwave sensor unit 8 is used, an IR (out-of-product line detection) sensor unit 10 as shown in FIG. Can also. The IR sensor unit 10 includes an IR sensor unit 101 and a signal processing unit 102, irradiates a copy with infrared rays from an output unit 1011 of the IR sensor unit 101, and detects the reflected light with a detection unit 1012. Signal processing is performed to determine whether or not a copy-inhibited material is detected by detecting, for example, components contained in the printing ink of the copy-inhibited material using infrared rays. In the embodiment shown in FIG.
A human body detection unit 11 is provided, and the control unit 4
The proximity of the human body to the device can be detected from the output from the human body detection unit 11.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the illegally copied original document detection process. In this process, first, a document detection process is performed by the optical reading determination unit 7, the microwave sensor unit 8, or the IR sensor unit 9 (step 501), and it is checked whether or not the document is an illegal copy (step 502). ). If the document is not an illegally copied original, a normal copy process is executed (step 503). On the other hand, if it is determined in step 502 that the original is an illegally copied original, it is checked whether the original is a repeat copy (step 504). In this check, if it is determined that the copy is a repeat copy, after the repeat copy is interrupted (step 505), the image processing is executed (step 506). This image processing is a process of performing various processes such as color conversion, blurring, mosaic, or filling on a document image to deteriorate the reproducibility of the document.
These processes are performed by the RGB filter color conversion circuit 12.
9. This is performed in the create circuit 133, the printer γ gradation processing circuit 134, or the like. If it is not a repeat copy in the check of step 504,
The image processing of step 506 is executed.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, after the repeat copy is interrupted, the character synthesizing process (step 505 ') can be performed. In this character synthesizing process, a character explaining the reason why the repeat copying was interrupted and the reproducibility of the original was degraded in step 506, here, that the illegal copying function was activated, is synthesized with the original image. Based on the combination, image processing is performed in step 506, and the combined character is output at the same time. FIG. 7 shows this output result. In FIG. 7, the original copy 701 is filled, and a sentence 702 "Repeat copy has been interrupted because a check function of an illegal copy prevention function has been activated" is synthesized and output below the original copy 701. If the copy prohibition function does not work, a color copy image 801 of a bill of 10,000 yen, for example, is output as shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, the synthesized character is printed below the copied image subjected to the image processing. In addition to this character, a character indicating that the image is a copy is displayed on the entire image. The character is synthesized and output so that the image is composed by combining the character "copy" on the background part as a continuous repetitive pattern, or after duplicating the banknote, the character "sample" is erased It can also be an image formed on the background like a pattern.

[0028]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that the normal image formation of the duplicate of the original is prohibited during the repeat copy, an image different from the duplicate image of the original is output. At the same time, since the repeat copy operation is interrupted, illegal copying at the time of repeat copy can be prevented, and unnecessary output can be suppressed to save resources.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when outputting an image, a character string indicating the reason for interrupting the repeat copy operation is synthesized and output, so that the reason for interrupting the repeat copy can be assured to the operator. Can be recognized.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the input image data is either the scanner provided in itself or the image data read and input by the host device side, it is illegal for both the copying apparatus and the printer. It is possible to prevent the creation of a faithful copy by the repeat copy of the copy manuscript.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a mechanical configuration of a scanner unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining details of image processing performed by a scanner unit, an image processing unit, and a writing processing unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an illegally copied original document detection process according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an illegally copied original document detection process according to another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another output example of an image processed according to the flowchart of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which an illegally copied original is copied without any processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Scanner part unit 2 Image processing unit 3 Writing processing unit 4 Control unit 5 Operation part unit 6 Printer part unit 7 Optical reading judgment unit 8 Microwave sensor unit 9 IR sensor unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] An image forming means for forming an image on the basis of input image data, a feature of a read document is determined, and a determination is made as to whether a copy of the document can be normally formed. An image forming apparatus comprising: means for outputting an image different from the duplicate image of the document when the determination means determines that the image is not repeatable at the time of repeat copying, and including control means for interrupting the repeat copy operation. Characteristic image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when outputting the image, a character string indicating a reason for interrupting the repeat copy operation is synthesized and output. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input image data is one of a scanner provided therein and image data read and input by a host device.