IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM, AND IMAGE FORMATION CONTROL METHOD

• US 20150271347A1
• Filed: 03/17/2015
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Inventors: HONMA, Mikimasa
• Granted Patent: US 9,813,575 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00848 by detecting a particular original
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00862 Retaining the original

Abstract

An image forming apparatus, includes an image forming section to form an image on a paper sheet based on image data; an output image reading section to read the image formed on the paper sheet by the forming section and to produce formed image data; a data memory section to memorize various kinds of data; an attribution information producing section to discriminate the contents of the formed image data and to produce attribution information which shows the attribute of the formed image data; and a control section to control image formation by the image forming section, reading by the output image reading section, and memorizing by the data memory section, wherein the control section controls the memorizing by the data memory section for formed image relating information in association with the formed image data based on the attribution information.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

an image forming section to form an image on a paper sheet based on image data;

an output image reading section to read the image formed on the paper sheet by the image forming section and to produce formed image data;

a data memory section to memorize various kinds of data;

an attribution information producing section to discriminate the contents of the formed image data and to produce attribution information which shows the attribute of the formed image data; and

a control section to control image formation by the image forming section, reading by the output image reading section, and memorizing by the data memory section;

wherein the control section controls the memorizing by the data memory section for formed image relating information in association with the formed image data based on the attribution information.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control section controls whether to memorize the formed image relating information in the data memory section or not.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the formed image relating information includes the image data, the formed image data, and the attribution information, and the control section controls based on the attribution information whether to memorize any of the image data, the formed image data, and the attribution information in the data memorizing section.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when any multiple items of the image data, the formed image data, and the attribution information are memorized in the data memorizing section, the control section controls the multiple items so as to be memorized in a state of being correlated with each other.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribution information producing section produces the attribution information by comparing the image data with the formed image data.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribution information producing section produces the attribution information by comparing a predetermined specific pattern with the formed image data.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the specific pattern is constituted so as to include a pattern corresponding to the whole or a part of a predetermined image, and the attribution information producing section produces whether a coincidence exists between the specific pattern and the formed image data or not as the attribution information.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribution information producing section compares the image data with the formed image data and makes the attribution information include extent information showing an extent of coincidence or non-coincidence.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the control section controls a magnification of the formed image data to be memorized in the data memory section based on the extent information included in the attribution information.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a display section to display various kinds of information, wherein the control section controls a display magnification at the time of displaying the formed image data on the display section based on the extent information included in the attribution information.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a display section to display various kinds of information, wherein the control section controls the number of displayed images at the time of displaying the formed image data on the display section based on the extent information included in the attribution information.

12. An image forming system, comprising:

the image forming section described in claim 1;

the output image reading section described in claim 1;

the data memory section described in claim 1;

the attribution information producing section described in claim 1; and

the control section described in claim 1,

wherein the image forming section, the output image reading section, the data memory section, the attribution information producing section, and the control section are connected.

13. An image formation control method for controlling image formation in an image forming apparatus, wherein the image forming apparatus includes an image forming section to form an image on a paper sheet based on image data;

an output image reading section to read the image formed on the paper sheet by the image forming section and to produce formed image data;

a data memory section to memorize various kinds of data;

an attribution information producing section to discriminate the contents of the formed image data and to produce attribution information which shows the attribute of the formed image data; and

a control section to control image formation by the image forming section, reading by the output image reading section, and memorizing by the data memory section

the image formation control method comprising;

a step of controlling memorizing by the data memory section for formed image relating information in association with the formed image data based on the attribution information.

14. The image formation control method according to claim 13, wherein whether to memorize the formed image relating information in the data memory section or not, is controlled.

15. The image formation control method according to claim 13, wherein the formed image relating information includes the image data, the formed image data, and the attribution information, and whether to memorize any of the image data, the formed image data, and the attribution information in the data memorizing section, is controlled based on the attribution information.

16. The image formation control method according to claim 15, wherein when any multiple items of the image data, the formed image data, and the attribution information are memorized in the data memorizing section, the multiple items are memorized in a state of being correlated with each other.

17. The image formation control method according to claim 13, wherein the attribution information is produced by comparing the image data with the formed image data.

18. The image formation control method according to claim 13, wherein the attribution information is produced by comparing a predetermined specific pattern with the formed image data.

19. The image formation control method according to claim 18, wherein the specific pattern is constituted so as to include a pattern corresponding to the whole or a part of a predetermined image, and the attribution information is produced to include whether a coincidence exists between the specific pattern and the formed image data or not.

20. The image formation control method according to claim 13, wherein the image data are compared with the formed image data, extent information showing an extent of coincidence or non-coincidence is produced by the comparison, and the extent information is included in the attribution information.

21. The image formation control method according to claim 20, wherein a magnification of the formed image data to be memorized in the data memory section is controlled based on the extent information included in the attribution information.

22. The image formation control method according to claim 20, wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises a display section to display various kinds of information, and a display magnification at the time of displaying the formed image data on the display section is controlled based on the extent information included in the attribution information.

23. The image formation control method according to claim 20, wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises a display section to display various kinds of information, and the number of displayed images at the time of displaying the formed image data on the display section is controlled based on the extent information included in the attribution information.