JPH0548835A - Image reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent blank paper information from being read by erroneous insertion of the paper surface to a picture input device by providing an image reader which detects whether the input page of the document is a blank paper or not and reads the rear side of the input document in the case of a blank paper and outputs picture information on the rear side at the time of detecting information on the rear side. CONSTITUTION:The paper surface on one side of a transmission document inserted to a document insertion hole 11 is read by an image scanner 15; and if it is judged that the whole of the paper surface is a blank paper, a subroller 18 is reversed to read the opposite side of this read paper surface. Thus, the blank paper surface is prevented from being unnecessarily read to output only paper surface information effective as picture information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and an image reading apparatus provided in a personal computer having a facsimile function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, facsimile apparatuses have become widespread and various image reading apparatuses have been proposed.

A conventional image reading apparatus will be described below. Regarding the image information drawn on the manuscript paper, the pixels in the part where the image is drawn are black, and the pixels corresponding to the part where the image is not drawn are white and converted into a binary image. In communication, the read binary image data is compressed and sent to the telephone line. However, in the conventional example, it is general that each individual judges whether the document surface is the front side or the back side, and it is not automatically detected.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, it is not confirmed whether the input paper surface is the front side or the back side. For example, in the image reading in the facsimile transmission, the operator confirms the front-back direction of the paper surface information to be sent. Therefore, there is a problem in that the blank information on the opposite side of the information that the operator wants to send is mistakenly sent to the communication partner. The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus that prevents the sending of blank page data and sends only the data on the page that is effective for sending.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the image reading apparatus of the present invention determines whether or not the image information on the sheet surface read by the image input apparatus is a blank sheet by the central processing unit, and the blank sheet is used. If so, it has a configuration in which the paper inserted in the image input device is turned upside down and the image on the surface opposite to the previously read surface is read again.

[0006]

With the above-described structure, the present invention can send only the page in which the image information is written without sending a blank sheet of paper to the facsimile apparatus of the transmission partner.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the image input device 1 reads image information on a sheet of paper to be transmitted, and the image data output from the image input device 1 is compressed / converted into a data string in accordance with the communication standard and input. The central processing unit 2 determines whether the paper surface information is blank and controls the entire system. The data compressed by the central processing unit 2 is stored in the storage unit 3, and the data stored therein is modulated by the communication unit 4 and sent to the communication circuit 5.

Next, the structure of the image input device shown in FIG. 2 will be described. A document sheet on which image information to be transmitted is drawn is inserted through the document insertion port 11 and read by the image input apparatus 1.

Next, the presence / absence of a document is detected by the paper detection sensor 12. The main roller 13 is the rotary shaft 1 in the direction of the broken line
4. The manuscript rotated around 4 and inserted is moved by utilizing the rotation. The inserted document is read by the image scanner 15 line by line. The moving direction of the inserted document is divided by the support bar 17. Here, the sub roller 18 is the rotary shaft 1
It is controlled so that it can rotate in both directions as shown by the dotted line in the figure. Further, a fixed guard 20 is provided for moving the document sheet, and a movable guard 16 for guarding the document sheet is provided near the document delivery port 21.

The operation of the image reading apparatus and the image input apparatus having the above-mentioned configurations will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

When an original is inserted into the original insertion port 11 and the paper detection sensor 12 confirms that the original 22 exists, the main roller 13 rotates in the direction of the broken line shown in FIG. 3 to start sucking the original. The leading edge of the original 22 is the image scanner 1
5, the image scanner 15 as shown in FIG.
Starts reading the image information line by line, the central processing unit 2 compresses the image data read by the image scanner 5 and stores it in the storage unit 3, and confirms whether the read line data are all white. .. Manuscript 2
When the starting end of 2 reaches the sub-roller 18, the draft is sent from the leading end toward the document delivery port 21 by the rotation of the sub-roller 18. As shown in FIG. 5, when the paper detection sensor 12 detects the end of the document, the image scanner 1 detects the lines existing between the image scanner 15 and the paper detection sensor 12.
5 reads, then finishes reading the image information,
The document 22 is sent to the document delivery port 21 side. The central processing unit 2 judges whether or not the paper surface read by the image scanner 15 is a blank sheet while the end of the original document advances from the image scanner 15 to the original document delivery port 21, and if it is not a blank sheet, the sheet is sent to the outside as it is. .. If it is determined that the read paper is blank, the movable guard 16 moves upward so as to sandwich the document as shown in FIG. 6, and the sub-roller 18 has the end of the document as the sub-roller 18 and the movable guard 16.
When the sub-roller 18 is in the state of being pinched, the sub-roller 18 starts to rotate in the opposite direction as shown in FIG. The document advances between the fixed guard 20 and the main roller 13 by the rotation of the main roller 13 and the sub roller 18. When the paper detection sensor 12 detects the beginning of the original from the original feeding port 21, the movable guard 16 opens downward as shown in FIG. 8 and enables the original to be delivered as shown in FIG. When the original 22 reaches the position of the image scanner 15, the image scanner 15 starts reading, and the central processing unit 2 performs the same operation as before. When the paper detection sensor 12 detects the end of the document, a document corresponding to the distance between the paper detection sensor 12 and the image scanner 15 is read, and when the end of the document is read, the image scanner 15 is read.
To stop reading. The main roller 13 and the sub roller 18 stop after the document is sent out.

Next, an example of control when this embodiment is used for facsimile transmission will be described with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 10 (a), 10 (b) and 10 (c). In step 1, the presence or absence of the original is detected, which corresponds to FIG. 3 described above. In step 2, when a document is detected, the main roller and the sub-roller start rotating, and the leading edge of the document inserted from the document insertion port is moved onto the image scanner. Step 3
When it comes to the original image scanner, the image of the original is read by the image scanner. In step 4, the image data of the original is read until the end of the original is detected by the paper detection sensor, which corresponds to FIG. Step 5 corresponds to FIG. 5, and when the end of the document is detected, the image data remaining on the document, that is, the image data between the image scanner and the paper detection sensor at the time of detecting the document end is read in step 5. After the document has been read to the end, the image scanner finishes reading, and it is judged in step 6 whether the read document is blank data, and if it is not blank, it is sent to the communication line as valid data for communication. Step 7 is a case where the detected result is a blank sheet, and the document end is shown in FIG.
As described above, the sub roller is temporarily stopped when it is between the sub roller and the movable guard, and the end of the document is held between the sub rollers so that the document is not sent by the movable guard. Next, at step 8, the sub-roller is rotated in the direction opposite to the rotation that has been performed so far, as shown in FIG.
In step 9, the leading edge of the document is detected, and the movable guard is moved downward in preparation for sending the document to be read in step 10.
After that, the document is read in steps 4 and 5, and it is determined in step 6 whether the data read is a blank sheet. Since the front and back sides of the original are currently being read, if the page is blank, the original is sent without doing anything, and if it is not a blank page, the image data of the currently read side is sent to the communication line.

[0014]

According to the present invention, the central processing unit determines whether or not the image information on the paper surface read by the image input device is a blank sheet, and if it is a blank sheet, the sheet inserted in the image input apparatus is turned upside down first. By using the means to re-read the image on the side opposite to the read side, it is possible to prevent the useless sending of a blank page in the case of facsimile transmission and to send only the page information that is effective for communication. The image reading device can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the image input device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a paper detection operation diagram of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an image reading operation diagram of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a document end detection operation diagram of the same embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a read end operation diagram of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a blank sheet confirmation operation diagram of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a paper detection operation diagram of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a paper feeding operation diagram of the embodiment.

10 (a), (b) and (c) are flowcharts showing the control procedure of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Image Input Device 2 Central Processing Unit 3 Storage Device 4 Communication Unit 12 Paper Detection Sensor 13 Main Roller 15 Image Scanner 16 Movable Guard 18 Sub Roller 20 Fixed Guard

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image input device capable of reading image information drawn on paper from both front and back sides of the paper,
A central processing unit that compresses and converts image information input from the image input device as data conforming to a communication standard, determines whether the input data is a blank sheet, and controls peripheral devices, and compresses the central processing device. And a communication unit that modulates the transmission data according to the characteristics of the communication circuit and sends the modulated data to the communication circuit. The image information on one side of one original document input from the image input device is blank. When the central processing unit determines that the blank page is read by the image input device, the sheet that is determined to be blank is turned over and the side opposite to the above is read to control so as not to read a blank page. An image reading apparatus having.