Image processing apparatus and image forming apparatus connected to the image processing apparatus

• US 6,111,667 A
• Filed: 12/11/1996
• Issued: 08/29/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Mishima, Nobuhiro, Hanada, Eiji, Ueda, Kazuhiro, Nakatani, Munehiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Cheukfan
• Application Number:
  US08/763,466
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 358/488, 358/449, 358/404, 358/444, 358/401, 358/496, 358/497, 358/498, 358/408, 358/452, 358/527, 382/294, 382/296, 382/293, 382/295
• US Class Current: 358/488
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/146 Aligning or centring of the image pick-up or image-field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3878 Skew detection or correction

Abstract

An image processing apparatus capable of outputting high quality image by correcting deviations of respective positions or inclinations of a plurality of sheets of document simultaneously placed on a document base and an image forming apparatus connected to the image processing apparatus and capable of forming a copy with no inclination in respect of paper. Image data with the corrected position or corrected inclination is provided by processing the image signal.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a scanner for reading a first document and a second document different from the first document placed on a document base for providing a first image data corresponding to the first document and a second image data corresponding to the second document;

a memory for storing the first image data and the second image data;

identifying means for identifying a first image area of the first document and a second image area of the second document by comparing the first image data and the second image data with a threshold value;

detecting means for detecting a first inclination of the first image area in respect of the document base and a second inclination of the second image area in respect of the document base by comparing positions of the first image area and the second image area with a position of the document base;

rotation processing means for processing a rotation of the first image data and the second image data stored in the memory in order to correct the first inclination and the second inclination;

aligning means for aligning images based on the first image data and the second image data rotated by the rotation processing means at predetermined intervals, the aligning means controllably setting a predetermined gap between the images; and

a printer for printing the first image data and the second image data rotated by the rotation processing means on a record medium.

2. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying means for displaying a first image based on the first image data and a second image based on the second image data inclined in respect of the document base before rotation processing the first image data and the second image data, and a first image based on the first image data and a second image based on the second image data rotated by rotation processing the first image data and the second image data.

3. An image forming apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

display switching means for switching a display of the images based on the first and the second image data before rotation processing on the displaying means and a display of the images based on the first and the second image data after rotation processing on the displaying means.

4. An image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the displaying means displays the first and second images based on the first and the second image data after rotation processing overlapped with an image of a size of the record medium.

5. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an interval changing means for changing the predetermined intervals.

6. An image forming apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising operation parameter inputting means for inputting an operation parameter, said operation parameter inputting means includes the aligning means and the interval changing means.

7. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case of a book document, the first document corresponds to a right page of a spread book document and the second document corresponds to a left page of the spread book document.

8. An image forming apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

detecting means for detecting boundary between the right page and the left page of the spread book document placed on the document base in a spread state.

9. An image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the detecting means is a distance sensor for measuring a distance between a surface of the document base and the book document, said distance sensor detecting a maximum value of the measured distance as a bound portion of the book document and determining the bound portion as a boundary between the right page and the left page of the book document.

10. An image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising boundary changing means for changing the boundaries detected by the detecting means.

11. An image forming apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising:

operation parameter inputting means for inputting an operation parameter wherein the boundary changing means is included and image ranges of the right page and the left page of the spread book document are changed by operating the boundary changing means.

12. An image processing apparatus comprising:

first image area detecting means for detecting an image area of a first document;

second image area detecting means for detecting an image area of a second document different from the first document;

inclination detecting means for detecting a first inclination of the first document from the image area of the first document and a second inclination of the second document from the image area of the second document;

correcting means for correcting the first inclination and for correcting the second inclination;

aligning means for aligning the image data of the first document, the first inclination of which has been corrected by the correcting means, and the image data of the second document, the second inclination of which has been corrected by the correcting means, at predetermined intervals previously set, the aligning means controllably setting a predetermined gap between images; and

outputting means for outputting an image data of the first document with the corrected first inclination and an image data of the second document with the corrected second inclination.

13. An image processing apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising:

a printer connected to the outputting means for printing the image data of the first document and the image data of the second document both outputted by the outputting means.

14. An image processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the first inclination is different from the second inclination.

15. An image processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the first correcting means corrects the first inclination by rotating the image area of the first document and the second correcting means corrects the second inclination by rotating the image area of the second document.

16. An image processing apparatus according to claim 12 further comprising interval changing means for changing the predetermined intervals previously set.

17. An image processing apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising operation parameter inputting means for inputting an operation parameter, said operation parameter inputting means includes the aligning means and the interval changing means.

18. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a scanner for reading a first document and a second document thereby providing a first image data and a second image data;

detecting means for detecting an inclination of the first document and an inclination of the second document in respect of a scanning direction of the scanner based on the first image data and second image data;

correcting means for correcting the inclination of the first document and the inclination of the second document;

aligning means for aligning the first image data and the second image data the inclination of which have been corrected by the correcting means at predetermined intervals previously set, the aligning means controllably setting a predetermined gap between images; and

displaying means for displaying the first image data and the second image data before correcting and the first image data and the second image data after correcting by the correcting means.

19. An image processing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the inclination of the first document is different from the inclination of the second document.

20. An image processing apparatus according to claim 18, the correcting means corrects the inclination of the first document and the inclination of the second document by rotating the first image data of the first document and the second image data of the second document.

21. An image processing apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a printer for printing the first image data and the second image data which have been aligned at the predetermined intervals on paper.

22. An image processing apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the displaying means displays images based on the first image data and the second image data aligned by the aligning means overlapped with an image of a size of a record medium.

23. An image processing apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising interval changing means for changing the predetermined intervals previously set.

24. An image processing apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising operation parameter inputting means for inputting an operation parameter, said operation parameter inputting means includes the aligning means and the interval changing means.

25. An image processing apparatus having information processing means for executing an image data processing in accordance with a method comprising the steps of:

providing a first image data and a second image data;

detecting a first inclination of the first image data and a second inclination of the second image data;

correcting the first inclination and the second inclination;

aligning the first image data and the second image data the inclinations of which have been corrected at predetermined intervals;

controllably setting a predetermined gap between images; and

outputting the first image data the first inclination of which has been corrected and the second image data the second inclination of which has been corrected.

26. An image processing apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the method of the image data processing further comprising a step of printing the outputted first image data and the outputted second image data.

27. An image processing apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the method of the image data processing further comprising a step of displaying the first image data before correcting the first inclination thereof and the second image data before correcting the second inclination thereof or the first image data after correcting the first inclination thereof and the second image data after correcting the second inclination thereof.

28. An image processing apparatus having information processing means for executing an image data processing in accordance with a method comprising the steps of:

scanning a first image data and a second image data;

detecting a first inclination of the first image data in respect of a scanning direction and a second inclination of the second image data in respect of the scanning direction;

correcting the first inclination and the second inclination;

aligning the first image data and the second image data the inclination of which have been corrected at predetermined intervals;

controllably setting a predetermined gap between images; and

displaying the first image data and the second image data before correcting the first and the second inclinations thereof or the first image data and the second image data after correcting the first and the second inclinations thereof.

29. An image processing apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the method of the image data processing furthr comprising a step of printing the first image data and the second image data after correcting the first and the second inclinations thereof.