JPH1155475A - Image reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the image reader in which an image of a designated and required part with a designated resolution or at a high resolution is read and the entire scanning line is read. SOLUTION: A 1st read block 10 is formed by a CCD 2, a lens 3, and a mirror 4 and a 2nd read block 11 is formed by a CCD 5, a lens 6, and a mirror 7. The resolution of the CCD 2 is the same as that of the CCD 5. The 1st read block 10 reads the entire read original width and the 2nd read block 11 adjusts a reduction optical system so that the read original width is halved but the resolution is doubled. The resolution of the image that cannot be read by the 1st read block 10 is converted into the resolution of the image read by the 2nd read block 11 and the images read by the 1st read block 10 and the 2nd read block 11 are composited.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus using a plurality of low resolution reduction optical sensors and having a function of securing required resolution and dynamic range.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to read various originals,
Various image reading apparatuses having a zoom function capable of reading a document at higher resolution have been proposed and implemented.

[0003]

However, in the conventional image reading apparatus, the zoom function can read only a part of the scanning, and another image reading apparatus is prepared to read the entire scanning line with high resolution. Needed.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the cost of reading at a high resolution and reading the entire scanning line without using a high-resolution sensor. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus which can be used for the following.

[0005]

An image reading apparatus according to the present invention comprises a first sensor having a reduction optical system for condensing light through a lens and reading an image, and a second sensor having the same resolution as that of the first sensor. A second optical sensor, the first sensor reads the entire width of the read original, and the second sensor adjusts the reduction optical system to read at half the width of the read original but at twice the resolution. By fixing the reading position of the original by the sensor or freely moving the reading position to the position designated by the operator in the scanning direction, the first sensor of the reading image of the second sensor and the reading image of the first sensor can read. Control means for converting the image of the unremovable portion to the resolution read by the second sensor, synthesizing the images read by the first sensor and the second sensor, and controlling the scanned image to one line. To.

According to this configuration, the resolution is automatically determined from the specified resolution or area specification of a necessary part specified in advance without using a high resolution sensor, so that it is possible to read at a high resolution and to read the entire scanning line at low cost. An image reading device that can be realized can be realized.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 has a first optical system having a reduction optical system for condensing light through a lens and reading an image.
And a second sensor having the same resolution as that of the first sensor. The first sensor reads the entire width of the read document, and the second sensor reads half the width of the read document but doubles it. The readout position of the second sensor is adjusted by adjusting the reduction optical system so as to read at the resolution of the second sensor, and by freely moving the reading position of the document of the second sensor to the position designated by the operator in the scanning direction. The image read by the first sensor and the second sensor is converted from the image read by the first sensor to the resolution read by the second sensor, from the image of the portion that cannot be read by the first sensor. And a control means for synthesizing and controlling the scanned image of one line.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first sensor having a reduction optical system for condensing light through a lens and reading an image, and a second sensor having the same resolution as the first sensor. The first sensor reads the entire width of the document to be read, and the second sensor sets the reading resolution by the operator or specifies the area to be read at a high resolution in the document based on the resolution automatically determined. The read image of the second sensor and the read of the first sensor are adjusted by adjusting the reduction optical system and fixing the original reading position of the second sensor or freely moving the original reading position to the position designated by the operator in the scanning direction. The image of the portion where the first sensor cannot be read out of the image is converted to the resolution read by the second sensor, and read by the first sensor and the second sensor. Comprising control means for controlling the scanned image of the synthesized 1-line image.

According to each of the above-described configurations, it is possible to read a designated required portion at a high resolution without using a high-resolution sensor, and to read the entire scanning line. It is automatically determined and a higher resolution image can be read over the entire scanning line.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are configuration diagrams of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a scanning direction of a document and a moving direction of a reading unit of the image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control operation of the image reading apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a light source, 2 is a CCD (Char) as a first reading sensor for reading an image.
3 is a lens that condenses an image from a light source, and 4 is a mirror that changes the direction of light that has hit the document. 5 is a CCD as a second reading sensor having the same resolution as the CCD 2, 6 is a lens for condensing an image from a light source, 7 is a mirror for changing the direction of light hitting the original, and 8 is a unit for each of the above elements. The read unit 9 is a read original.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a CCD 2 and a lens 3.
And a maximum A6 size main scanning width in which the mirror 4 is blocked, but a high resolution optically adjusted so that the CCD 5, the lens 6 and the mirror 7 can be read at twice the resolution of the second reading block 11 in which the unit is unitized. Is the first read block. Although the second reading block 11 has a lower resolution than the first reading block 10, it is optically adjusted to read the entire A4 size main scanning width. Reference numeral 12 denotes a resolution conversion unit for converting the resolution of the image data read by the second reading block 11, 13 denotes a memory unit for storing the image data read by the second reading block 11, and 14 denotes the first reading block 10. Reference numeral 15 denotes a memory unit for storing the image data read by the image reading unit 15 and an image synthesizing unit 15 for synthesizing the image data read by the first reading block 10 and the image data subjected to the resolution conversion by the resolution conversion unit 12.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the operator determines in advance whether or not to read a part of an A4 size document at a high resolution (Step 1), and if so, specifies an area (Step 2). When an area is designated, the first reading block 10 is moved in the main scanning direction based on the area (Step 3). Thereafter, the light source 1 is turned on to move the reading unit 8 in the sub-scanning direction (Step 4).
It is sent to the reading start position (Step 5).

When the image reaches the reading start position, the image data on the document is sent to the reading resolution converter 12 by the second reading block 11 (Step 6). hand,
The data is stored in the memory unit 13 and thereafter data is output without activating the image combining unit 15 (Step 12). If there is a high resolution request (Step 7), the resolution conversion processing 12
Is activated and converted to the same resolution as the first reading block 10 and stored in the memory unit 13 (Step 8). afterwards,
It is determined whether or not the first read block 10 is in the designated area (Step 9).
3, the image data is output (Step 12). If the image data is within the area, the high-resolution image data is read using the first reading block 10 and stored in the memory unit 14 (Step 12).
10).

Thereafter, the scanned image data at the same position from the memory unit 13 and the data just read from the memory unit 14 are sent to the image synthesizing unit 15 and read from the first reading block 10 as shown in FIG. Data is stored in area h and second
Then, only the portion corresponding to the inner region g and the region i of the data read and resolution-converted by the read block 11 is validated and combined (Step 11). Thereafter, the combined data is output (Step 12), and the process is continued until the entire document is read (Step 13).

As a second method, the operator can set the resolution of the first reading block 10, or automatically determines the resolution from a designated area, and based on the resolution, the CCD 2, the lens 3 and the like. And the like, and at the same time, control the area of the resolution conversion processing and the image synthesis processing. The operation algorithm is the same from Step 1 to Step 13. As described above, according to the image reading apparatus of the present embodiment, it is possible to read a designated required portion at a high resolution without using a high-resolution sensor and to read the entire scanning line, and further to specify a designated resolution or area. The resolution is automatically determined from the designation, and a higher resolution image can be read on the entire scanning line.

[0016]

According to the image reading apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to read a designated required portion at a high resolution without using a high resolution sensor and to read the entire scanning line.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a scanning direction of a document and a moving direction of a reading unit of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 light source 2 CCD 3 lens 4 mirror 5 CCD 6 lens 7 mirror 8 reading unit 9 document 10 first reading block 11 second reading block 12 resolution conversion unit 13 memory unit 14 memory unit 15 image synthesis unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] A first sensor having a reduction optical system for condensing light through a lens and reading an image, and a second sensor having the same resolution as the first sensor;
Adjust the reduction optical system so that the sensor reads the entire width of the read document, and the second sensor reads at half the width of the read document, but at twice the resolution, and fixes the document reading position of the second sensor. Alternatively, by freely moving to a position designated by the operator in the scanning direction, the first image read out of the image read by the second sensor and the image read out by the first sensor can be read.
Control that converts the image of the part that cannot be read by the sensor to the resolution read by the second sensor, combines the images read by the first sensor and the second sensor, and controls the scanned image to one line An image reading apparatus comprising: A first sensor having a reduction optical system for reading an image by condensing light through a lens; and a second sensor having the same resolution as the first sensor, wherein the first sensor reads the image. The entire document width is read, and the second sensor adjusts the reduction optical system based on the resolution automatically determined by setting the reading resolution by the operator or designating the high-resolution reading area of the document. ,
By fixing the reading position of the document by the second sensor or freely moving the reading position to the position designated by the operator in the scanning direction, the first sensor reads out the image read by the second sensor and the image read by the first sensor. Control means for converting an image of a portion which cannot be read by the sensor into a resolution read by the second sensor, synthesizing the image read by the first sensor and the second sensor, and controlling the combined image to a one-line scanned image. An image reading device comprising: