GLOSSINESS DETERMINING DEVICE, COLOR MEASURING DEVICE, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND GLOSSINESS DETERMINATION METHOD

• US 20150070737A1
• Filed: 09/10/2014
• Published: 03/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Hirata, Satoshi, Satoh, Nobuyuki, Suzuki, Yasuyuki, Suzuki, Hideaki, Iwanami, Satoshi, Yorimoto, Mamoru, Kobayashi, Masato, Matsumoto, Hiroshi, Fujii, Masayuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,367 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/504
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/6044 involving a sensor integrated in the machine or otherwise specifically adapted to read the test pattern

Abstract

A glossiness determining device includes: a light source; a two-dimensional sensor that receives reflected light containing a specular reflection component of a subject illuminated by the light source, and outputs an image of the subject; and a determining unit that determines glossiness of the subject by using a saturated image, which is the image of the subject output by the two-dimensional sensor and in which pixel values of a partial area are saturated.

Claims

1. A glossiness determining device comprising:

a light source;

a two-dimensional sensor that receives reflected light containing a specular reflection component of a subject illuminated by the light source, and outputs an image of the subject; and

a determining unit that determines glossiness of the subject by using a saturated image, which is the image of the subject output by the two-dimensional sensor and in which pixel values of a partial area are saturated.

2. The glossiness determining device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a light source drive control unit that controls drive of the light source, and gradually increases an amount of light emitted from the light source from a reference light emission amount, with which the two-dimensional sensor does not output the saturated image as the image of the subject, to an amount, with which the two-dimensional sensor outputs the saturated image, wherein

the determining unit determines the glossiness of the subject based on an increase in the amount of light emitted from the light source until the two-dimensional sensor outputs the saturated image.

3. The glossiness determining device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a light source drive control unit that controls drive of the light source, and gradually increases an amount of light emitted from the light source from a reference light emission amount, with which the two-dimensional sensor does not output the saturated image as the image of the subject, to an amount with which the two-dimensional sensor outputs the saturated image, wherein

the determining unit determines the glossiness of the subject based on a size of an area where pixel values are saturated in the saturated image when the two-dimensional sensor outputs the saturated image.

4. The glossiness determining device according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines whether the two-dimensional sensor outputs the saturated image when an amount of light emitted from the light source is a predetermined light emission amount, and when the image of the subject output by the two-dimensional sensor is not the saturated image, determines the glossiness of the subject based on magnitude of a pixel value of the image of the subject.

5. The glossiness determining device according to claim 1, further comprising a housing that integrally holds the light source and the two-dimensional sensor.

6. The glossiness determining device according to claim 1, wherein

a glossiness reference area containing a plurality of glossiness patterns different in glossiness is provided inside the housing,

the light source includes a first light source that illuminates the subject and a second light source that illuminates the glossiness reference area,

the two-dimensional sensor receives reflected light containing a specular reflection component of the subject illuminated by the first light source and reflected light containing a specular reflection component of the glossiness reference area illuminated by the second light source, and outputs an image of the subject and the glossiness reference area, and

the determining unit extracts the saturated image and a glossiness reference image being the image of the glossiness reference area, from the image of the subject and the glossiness reference area output by the two-dimensional sensor, and determines the glossiness of the subject by comparing the saturated image and the glossiness reference image.

7. The glossiness determining device according to claim 6, further comprising a light source calibration unit that adjusts an amount of light of at least one of the first light source and the second light source such that the amount of light of the first light source and the amount of light of the second light source are equalized.

8. A color measuring device comprising:

the glossiness determining device according to claim 1, wherein

the color measuring device acquires an image of a color measurement target as a subject by using the two-dimensional sensor, and performs color measurement on the color measurement target by using the image.

9. An image forming apparatus comprising:

the color measuring device according to claim 8; and

an image forming unit that forms a patch on a sheet, wherein

the color measuring device performs color measurement on, as the color measurement target, the patch formed on the sheet by the image forming unit.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the determining unit determines glossiness of a blank area of the sheet, the blank area being an area in which the patch is not formed, and

the color measuring device starts color measurement on the patch after a lapse of a wait time determined according to the glossiness determined by the determining unit.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a display unit that displays a remaining time of the wait time.

12. A glossiness determination method performed by a glossiness determining device that includes a light source, a two-dimensional sensor, and a determining unit, the glossiness determination method comprising:

receiving reflected light containing a specular reflection component of a subject illuminated by the light source and outputting an image of the subject by the two-dimensional sensor; and

determining, by the determining unit, glossiness of the subject by using a saturated image, which is the image of the subject output by the two-dimensional sensor and in which pixel values of a partial area are saturated.