Electrophotography – Document handling – Original
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-07
2001-07-17
Beatty, Robert (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Document handling
Original
C399S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263184
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of copier machines and, more particularly, to a system for aiding a user of a copy machine to preview the arrangement of a document within a paper copying area, as well as a method of utilizing such a document previewing system.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In copying a piece of paper or other type of document, it is often desirable to limit the area of the document which is to be copied. In other words, it is often desirable to only copy a portion of a document or to simultaneously copy only portions of multiple documents. Unfortunately, properly positioning one or more documents within a copy zone of the machine can be extremely difficult. Typically, the document(s) will have to be initially copied to determine if any unwanted portions thereof are improperly positioned. Numerous iterations of this process may be required in order to simply obtain the proper document arrangement for copying. Obviously, this procedure wastes not only copy paper, but toner and operator time.
In an effort to address this problem in the art, it has been proposed to modify the construction of a copier machine to incorporate a display device which would enable any documents placed in the copy area to be viewed prior to actually performing the copying operation. An example of such a proposed prior art solution is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,175. In general, the type of display arrangement presented in this patent is similar to that utilized in connection with the previewing of microfilm prior to copying. Although this proposed arrangement does enable a copy machine operator to preview the document(s) prior to any copies being made, the overall display system considerably changes the construction of a standard copier machine and therefore represents a significant increase in the overall manufacturing costs of machines incorporating this technology. For at least this reason, this document preview system is not practical for incorporation in at least the majority of copier machines, particularly smaller copier machines used by numerous businesses.
Based on the above, there exists a need in the art for a system used in previewing documents to be copied, wherein the system is inexpensive and can be readily incorporated into existing copy machine designs, as well as being extremely effective and easy to operate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to the incorporation of a document previewing system in a conventional copy machine. More specifically, a copy machine is provided with a supplemental illumination source, such as an incandescent, a fluorescent or an optical lighting unit, beneath a transparent copying plate upon which a document to be copied is placed. With this arrangement, the illumination source can be selectively activated to allow the light to pass through the document such that subject matter on the document can be viewed, albeit a mirror image of the actual document subject matter. By simply viewing the writings, the document can be easily adjusted upon the copying plate in order to select the desired portions of the written material to be copied.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the illumination source is selectively controlled through the use of a switch arranged on a control panel portion of the copy machine. In the most preferred form, power to the illumination source also goes through an additional switch which is associated with the cover for the copying plate. With this arrangement, the previewing light source can only be turned on when the cover is opened and the control panel switch is activated. In addition, the previewing light source is automatically turned off whenever the cover is lowered to assure that the previewing light source will be maintained in an off condition whenever a copying operation is to be performed.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views
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patent: 5172178 (1992-12-01), Oushiden et al.
patent: 5710967 (1998-01-01), Motoyama
patent: 61-095333 (1986-05-01), None
patent: 5-257207 (1993-10-01), None
patent: 8-278574 (1996-10-01), None
patent: 10-126580 (1998-05-01), None
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