JP2001086279A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] The present invention recognizes the number of pages written outside an image area of a document, and when the number of recognized pages is different from the number of pages actually subjected to image forming processing, the effect is recognized. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that can reduce useless processing and improve work efficiency by displaying. The present invention relates to a character recognizing means for recognizing the number of pages written outside an image area of a document fed by an automatic document feeding means, a number of pages recognized by the character recognizing means, When the number of documents fed by the feeding unit and read by the image reading unit is different, an image processing control unit is controlled to display a message indicating a mismatch on the display unit.

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, and more particularly, to character recognition of the number of pages of an original written at a predetermined position on the original, and the number of pages recognized and the number of originals read for image formation. And an image forming apparatus for displaying whether or not.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional image forming apparatus, when a page is missing from a bundle of documents outside the recognition of an operator, or when a single-sided document is read despite the fact that the document is a double-sided document. When the image formation is performed in, if the operator does not check the number of transfer sheets on which images have been formed or the image formation state, the operator does not notice whether the page is missing in the original or whether the operation for the double-sided / single-sided original state is correct or incorrect. As a result, work efficiency is reduced.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and recognizes the number of pages written outside the image area of a document, and determines the number of recognized pages and the number of pages actually subjected to image forming processing. If different, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of reducing unnecessary processing and improving work efficiency by displaying the fact.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is provided with an automatic document feeder, which converts the number of pages written outside the image area of a document into a character. If the number of pages recognized and recognized is different from the number of documents fed by the automatic document feeder and read by the image reader, a message indicating a mismatch is displayed on the display unit. Therefore, an erroneous operation of the operator can be prevented beforehand, and work efficiency can be improved.

The character recognizing means recognizes the number of pages written out of the image area of the last page of the original fed by the automatic original feeding means, and thereby the character is written outside the image area of the last page of the original. If the total number of pages of the document is recognized by performing character recognition on only the number of pages, the processing time required to perform the character recognition processing for each page can be shortened.

Further, since the position for recognizing the number of pages is arbitrarily set by the mode setting means, the operator can arbitrarily set the recognition position in accordance with the format of a frequently used document. Can respond.

Further, a plurality of positions for recognizing the number of pages are set in advance, and character recognition is performed at a certain position in the plurality of positions, and when the character cannot be recognized, the position is changed to another position. If the page is set upside down in the feeding device, or if the number of pages is written in a different position from the set position (frequently used items and documents in a different format) If the page number cannot be recognized, or if the page number is not entered at the position where the recognition was first performed, the page number can be correctly recognized by recognizing the page number at another preset position.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention relates to a character recognizing means for recognizing the number of pages written outside an image area of a document fed by an automatic document feeding means, and a method for recognizing the number of pages recognized by the character recognizing means. An image processing control unit for controlling the display unit to display a message indicating a mismatch when the number of originals fed by the automatic original feeding unit and read by the image reading unit is different.

[0009]

1 is a sectional view schematically showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an operation section, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present embodiment. In FIG.
When a start key 29 on the operation unit 27 in FIG. 2 is pressed, a bundle of documents placed on a platen 2 in an automatic document feeder (hereinafter, abbreviated as ADF) 1 is pressed. From the bottom document, the document is fed to a predetermined reading position on the contact glass 6 by the feeding roller 3 and the feeding belt 4. After reading the image data of the original on the contact glass 6 by the reading unit 50, the original that has been read is discharged by the feed belt 4 and the discharge roller 5, and the original is set on the original table 2 by the original set detection unit 7. If it is detected that there is a
Feeded on. The feed roller 3, the feed belt 4, and the discharge roller 5 in FIG. 1 are driven by the transport motor 26 in FIG.

The transfer sheets stacked on the first tray 8, the second tray 9 and the third tray 10 shown in FIG. 1 are supplied to the first sheet feeding device 11, the second sheet feeding device 12 and the second sheet feeding device 12, respectively. The paper is fed by the third paper feeder 13, and is transported by the vertical transport unit 14 to a position where it comes into contact with the photoconductor 15. Further, a remaining amount detection sensor (not shown) for detecting the remaining amount of the transfer paper stacked on the tray is provided corresponding to each tray. Further, the transfer paper on which the image data written on the photoreceptor 15 by the writing unit 57 is formed is conveyed by the conveyance belt 16 and the image is fixed by the fixing unit 17. Is discharged. The finisher 19 is a base engine control unit (hereinafter abbreviated as BCU) 2 shown in FIG.
Processing such as stapling and binding holes is performed based on a command from 0.

Further, the photosensitive member 15 and the conveyor belt 1 shown in FIG.
6, the fixing unit 17 and the paper discharging unit 18 are driven by the main motor 25 shown in FIG.
1 to 13 are transmitted by the paper feed CLs 22 to 24 for driving the main motor 25 in FIG. The vertical transport unit 14 in FIG. 1 controls the driving of the main motor 25 in FIG.
21 to be driven.

Further, a liquid crystal display 28, a start key 29, a clear / stop key 3 are provided on the operation unit 27 shown in FIG.
0, a numeric keypad 31, an enter key 32, and a mode clear key 33 are provided. On the liquid crystal display 28, the image forming mode, the number of copies set by each key, the state of the image forming apparatus, the image forming processing time, and A message indicating a warning such as an error is displayed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4 showing the configuration of the reading unit 50 and the writing unit 57 in FIG. 1, the reading unit 50 is provided with a contact glass 6 on which an original is placed.
And an optical scanning system. This optical scanning system includes
Exposure lamp 51, first mirror 52, lens 53, CC
It is composed of a D image sensor 54 and the like. The exposure lamp 51 and the first mirror 52 are fixed on a first carriage (not shown), and the second mirror 55 and the third mirror 5
6 is fixed on a second carriage (not shown).
When reading a document image, the first carriage and the second carriage are mechanically operated at a relative speed of 2: 1 so that the optical path length does not change. This optical scanning system is driven by a scanner drive motor (not shown). The original image is read by the CCD image sensor 54, converted into an electric signal, and subjected to image processing. When changing the image magnification, the lens 53 and the CCD image sensor 5 are used.
4 is moved in the left-right direction on the drawing of FIG. That is, the lens 53 and the CCD correspond to the designated magnification.
The left-right position of the image sensor 54 is set. The writing unit 57 includes a laser output unit 58,
The laser output 58 includes a laser diode (not shown) and a polygon mirror (polygon mirror) that is rotated at a high speed by a motor at a constant speed. . The laser light output from the writing unit 57 is applied to the photoconductor 15 of the image forming system. Further, a beam sensor (not shown) for generating a main scanning synchronization signal is disposed at a position where one end of the photoconductor 15 is irradiated with the laser beam.

Next, referring to FIG. 5 showing the configuration of the image processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as IPU) 49 of FIG.
The operation of the PU 49 will be described.

The CCD image sensor 54 photoelectrically converts the reflection of light emitted from the exposure lamp 51 shown in FIG.
The converter 61 converts the signal into a digital signal. The image signal converted into the digital signal is corrected by the shading correction unit 62, and the image processing unit 63 performs MTF correction, γ correction, scaling processing, and the like. The selector 64 switches the destination of the image signal to the image memory controller 65 or the writing unit 57 described later. Input / output of image data to / from the image memory 66 via the image memory controller 65 is performed. Image memory controller 65 and selector 64
The space between them has a configuration in which image signals can be input and output in both directions. Also, an IP for setting the image memory controller 65 and the like and controlling the reading unit 50 and the writing unit 57 are provided.
The U control unit 71 includes a CPU 68 and a ROM 69 and a RAM 70 for storing programs and data thereof. Further, the CPU 68 controls the image memory controller 65.
The data writing and reading of the image memory 66 are performed via the. The character recognition unit 67 is a unit that performs character recognition of a predetermined area in the image memory 66 in an area set by the CPU 68.
The character information of the designated area in 6800 is digitized in order, and the value is returned to the CPU 68. If it can be recognized, the value is returned. Otherwise, 0 is returned. Then, this recognition result is stored in the data area on the RAM 70. Note that the character recognition method in the character recognition unit 67 is known.

Here, an image signal for one page in the selector 64 will be described with reference to FIG. 6 showing an operation time chart of the present embodiment. A frame gate signal (hereinafter, abbreviated to / FGATE) indicates an effective period of one page of image data in the sub-scanning direction. The main scanning synchronizing signal (hereinafter abbreviated as / LSYNC) is a main scanning synchronizing signal for each line, and is a predetermined clock after this signal rises.
The image signal becomes valid. A signal indicating that the image signal in the main scanning direction is valid is a line gate signal (hereinafter, / LG)
ATE). These signals are synchronized with a pixel synchronization signal (hereinafter abbreviated as VCLK),
Data of 8 bits per pixel (256 gradations) is sent per cycle. In this embodiment, the writing density on the transfer paper is 400
dpi, the maximum number of pixels is 4800 pixels in main scanning and 68 in sub-scanning.
00 pixels. That is, the relationship between the image formed on the transfer paper as shown in FIG. 7 and the signals / FGATE and / LGATE is obtained. In the present embodiment, the image data is 2
It is assumed that the closer to 55, the whiter the image becomes.

Next, the input to the image memory 66 shown in FIG. 5 will be described. The image memory 66 controls the image memory controller 65 in addition to the normal image input / output, and outputs the image rotated by 180 ° when outputting the image. Output is possible. The image memory controller 65 controls input / output of image data through the image bus by setting an image area and an operation mode corresponding to the image signal shown in FIG.
The image data is composed of 8 bits (256 gradations) for each pixel.
Are stored in a state where the image data shown in FIG.

Next, the IPU 49 of FIG.
And the operation of the BCU 20 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. During operation of this device (JOB
The execution flag ON) does not accept a key input.

In FIG. 9, when the start key 29 of FIG. 2 is depressed (step S101; YES), and the job execution flag is further turned on (step S102; YE).
S), if the document is set on the document table 2 of FIG. 1 (step S103; YES), the transport motor 26 of the ADF 1 of FIG. 1 is turned on to feed the document to a predetermined position on the contact glass 6. (Step S104), and after completion of the feeding, transmits a read start command to the IPU 49 of FIG. 3 (Step S105).

In the image reading process shown in FIG.
When an image reading start command is received (step S2
01; YES), the IPU control unit 71 of FIG. 5 drives the scanner to read the image data, and the image memory 66 of FIG.
And the page counter is incremented (steps S202, S203). After the reading is completed, an image reading end command is transmitted to the BCU 20 in FIG. 3 (step S204).

In the pre-page number recognition process shown in FIG. 11, when the BCU 20 shown in FIG. 3 receives the image reading end command (step 301; YES), the image forming job is started (step S302). At this time, if a document is set on the document table 2, the conveyance motor 26 of FIG. 3 of the ADF 1 of FIG. 1 is turned on to feed the document to a predetermined position on the contact lens 6, and after the feeding is completed, the IPU 49 Transmits a read start command (step S303; YE)
S, steps S305, S306). On the other hand, if no original is set on the original platen 2 (if all originals have been fed), a page number recognition command is transmitted to the IPU 49 of FIG. 3 (step S303; NO, step S304).

Then, as shown in FIG. 12, the IP of FIG.
When U49 receives the page number recognition command (step S40)
1; YES), the image data of the last page of the document read last is stored at the recognition position (corresponding to the position where the number of pages is described) stored in the image memory 66 by the character recognition unit 67 in FIG. The total number of pages is recognized, and the recognized total page number and page count value are transmitted to the BCU 20 in FIG. 3 (steps S402 and S403). In this manner, by performing the character recognition processing only on the last page of the original and recognizing the total number of pages, the processing time for performing the character recognition processing for each page can be shortened.

Next, as shown in FIG. 13, the BCU of FIG.
When the page number and the page count value received by 20 are received (step S501; YES), the recognized page number and the page count value are compared, and when they do not match, "The page number does not match. Number of pages: A, Number of read pages: B "
Are displayed on the liquid crystal display 28 of FIGS. 2 and 3 (step S502; NO, step S50).
3).

In the recognition position setting in the user program mode, the recognition position is set by the operator (input of x and y coordinates when the original reference position is x = 0 and y = 0). If so, store that value in memory. In FIG. 12, when the total number of pages is recognized, character recognition is performed at the position indicated by the stored value.

In FIG. 14, when an image reading start signal is received (step S601; YES), the IP of FIG.
The U control unit 71 drives the scanner to read the image data and stores it in the image memory 66 of FIG. 5 (step S60).
2). Then, the total number of pages is recognized at the position in the image memory indicated by the first recognition position stored in the image memory 66 (step S603). The recognition value is transmitted to and stored in the IPU control unit 71 in FIG. 5 (Step S604; YE)
S, step S607). If the total number of pages cannot be recognized at the first recognition position (for example, image data does not exist), the total number of pages for the position on the image memory 66 indicated by the second recognition position set in advance in the image memory 66 Recognition is performed (step S604; NO, S605). If the total number of pages can be recognized at the second recognition position, the recognition value is set to the value shown in FIG.
(Step S60)
6; YES, step S607). If the total number of pages cannot be recognized even at the second recognition position, it is finally determined that the total number of pages cannot be recognized, and a series of processing ends (step S606; NO).
In this embodiment, the recognition positions are set at two positions, but more positions may be set.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various modifications and substitutions can be made within the scope of the claims.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The image forming apparatus according to the present invention character-recognizes the number of pages written outside the image area of the document fed by the automatic document feeder, and feeds the recognized number of pages and feeds the document by the automatic document feeder. If the number of originals read by the image reading means is different, a message indicating a mismatch is displayed on the display unit. Therefore, an erroneous operation of the operator can be prevented beforehand, and work efficiency can be improved.

The character recognizing means recognizes the number of pages written out of the image area of the last page of the original fed by the automatic original feeding means, thereby printing out the image area of the last page of the original. If the total number of pages of the document is recognized by performing character recognition on only the number of pages thus set, the processing time required for the character recognition processing for each page can be shortened.

Further, since the position for recognizing the number of pages is arbitrarily set by the mode setting means, the operator can arbitrarily set the recognition position in accordance with the format of a frequently used document. Can respond.

Further, by setting a plurality of positions for recognizing the number of pages in advance and performing character recognition at one of the plurality of positions and changing the position to another position when the character cannot be recognized, the operator can automatically copy the document. If the page is set upside down in the feeding device, or if the number of pages is written in a different position from the set position (frequently used items and documents in a different format) Even if the number of pages cannot be recognized, or if the number of pages is not entered at the position where the recognition was performed first, the number of pages can be correctly recognized by recognizing the total number of pages at another preset position.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating a part of an operation unit of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an outline of a configuration of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a configuration of a reading unit and a writing unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing unit according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a time chart showing each signal in the image processing of the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an image on a transfer sheet and main and sub scanning in the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a storage state of an image memory according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a reading operation according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a page number recognition process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a page number recognition pre-process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a total page number recognition process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating the comparison between the number of pages and the actual number of pages and the processing according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a page number recognition position changing process according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 67: character recognition unit, 71: IPU control unit.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image reading means for digitally reading an image on a document for each pixel, a storage means for storing image data of a plurality of documents read by the image reading means, and a storage means for storing the image data in the storage means. Reading means for reading image data from an arbitrary position, image forming means for forming an image on the transfer paper of the image data read by the reading means, and automatic document feeding means for feeding a document to a position for image reading; Mode setting means for setting various operations, image forming mode,
An image forming apparatus having a display unit for setting image forming conditions and displaying a state of the image forming apparatus, wherein the number of pages written outside the image area of the original fed by the automatic original feeding means is recognized by characters. When the number of pages recognized by the character recognizing means and the number of pages recognized by the character recognizing means are different from the number of documents fed by the automatic document feeding means and read by the image reading means, a message indicating a mismatch is displayed. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image processing control unit configured to control display on a unit. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the character recognizing means recognizes the number of pages written outside the image area of the last page of the document fed by the automatic document feeding means. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a position for recognizing the number of pages is arbitrarily set by the mode setting means. 4. A plurality of positions for recognizing the number of pages are set in advance,
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when character recognition is not performed at a certain position among the plurality of positions, the position is changed to another position and character recognition is performed for the number of pages.