Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Position or velocity determined
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-13
2002-04-23
Williams, Kimberly A. (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Position or velocity determined
C358S296000, C358S451000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06377360
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copier having an optically scanning device for scanning an original and scanning a photo-sensitive substance by using a light source such as a laser or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional apparatus for reading and recording an image by using a laser light, an apparatus which switches an optical path of a laser light between an original side and a photo-sensitive substance side by means of a reflection mirror etc. is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 2-58605. This apparatus performs reading and recording operations in a main scanning direction by using: a polygon mirror for deflecting the laser light at a constant angular velocity; and an f &thgr; lens for converting the angular deflecting operation into a linear scanning operation at a constant linear velocity. Further, the apparatus performs the reading operation in a sub-scanning direction by moving an original base, on which an original is placed, to a direction perpendicular to an incident direction of the light beam (i.e., perpendicular to the main scanning direction), and performs a recording operation in the sub-scanning direction by rotating the photo-sensitive substance such as a photosensitive drum.
However, a read width in the main scanning direction is fixed according to the above mentioned conventional apparatus, so that a length of an image read for each unit time is constant. Thus, in order to enlarge or shrink the image, it is necessary to once store the read image in a frame memory to thereby digitally process the stored information.
As a result, it is difficult to make a copy time shorter and implement a reduction of a cost needed for the frame memory.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a copier equipped with a light source for emitting a light having a predetermined wave length, which can enlarge or shrink an original with a fast speed and a low cost.
The above object of the present invention can be achieved by a copier provided with: an original base on which an original is placed; a photo-sensitive substance on which a latent image corresponding to an image of the original is to be recorded; a light source device for emitting light; a deflecting device for deflecting the emitted light in a main scanning direction, to thereby perform a main scanning operation for each scanning line in the main scanning direction; a light collecting device for collecting the deflected light, to thereby irradiate the original and the photo-sensitive substance with the collected light respectively; a guiding device for guiding the collected light to the original and the photo-sensitive substance respectively; a light detecting device for reading the image of the original by receiving a scattered light from the irradiated original for the each scanning line at a reading cycle, and outputting image information, which indicates the image of the original; a sub-scanning direction moving device for relatively moving the collected light with respect to the original and the photo-sensitive substance respectively in a sub-scanning direction, to thereby perform a sub-scanning operation in the sub-scanning direction; a memory device for storing the outputted image information for the each scanning line; a light recording device for recording the latent image onto the photo-sensitive substance for the each scanning line at a recording cycle by reading out the stored image information from the memory device and driving the light source device to emit the light on the basis of the read out image information; and a magnification control device for relatively varying the reading cycle and the recording cycle with respect to each other.
According to the copier of the present invention, the light for reading the image of the original included in the emitted light from the light source device is deflected by the deflecting device in the main scanning direction, is collected by the light collecting device, and is guided by the guiding device, to be incident to the original placed on the original base. Then, the scattered light from the irradiated original is received by the light detecting device, so that the image of the original is read by the light detecting device, for each scanning line at the reading cycle. Then, the image information is outputted from the light detecting device and is stored into the memory device for each scanning line at the reading cycle.
On the other hand, the stored image information is read out from the memory device, and the light source device is driven to emit the light, on the basis of the read out image information, by the light recording device. The light for recording the latent image included in the emitted light from the light source device is deflected by the deflecting device in the main scanning direction, is collected by the light collecting device, and is guided by the guiding device, to be incident to the photo-sensitive substance. In this manner, the latent image is recorded by the light recording device onto the photo-sensitive substance for each scanning line at the recording cycle.
Further, by the sub-scanning direction moving device, the collected light is relatively moved with respect to the original and the photo-sensitive substance respectively in the sub-scanning direction.
Accordingly, a two dimensional scanning operation is performed for reading the image of the original, and a two dimensional scanning operation is performed for recording the latent image onto the photo-sensitive substance. Therefore, if the reading cycle and the recording cycle are equal to each other, the scan width for reading the image of the original and the scan width for recording the latent image onto the photo-sensitive substance are also equal to each other, so that a copying operation with an equivalent magnification is performed. On the other hand, if the reading cycle and the recording cycle are relatively varied with respect to each other by the magnification control device, the scan width for reading the image of the original and the scan width for recording the latent image onto the photo-sensitive substance are different from each other, so that a copying operation with an enlargement or shrinkage is performed.
Consequently, it is possible to speedily perform the copying operation with the enlargement or shrinkage, while it is possible to reduce the cost of the copier since a frame memory is not necessary for the copying operation with the enlargement or shrinkage.
In one aspect of the copier of the present invention, the magnification control device relatively varies (i) an emitting cycle of the light emitted from the light source device to the original and (ii) an emitting cycle, based on the read out image information, of the light from the light source device to the photo-sensitive substance, with respect to each other.
According to this aspect, on one hand, if the emitting cycle of the light to the original is varied by the magnification control device, the image information outputted by the light detecting device and stored into the memory device is delayed or advanced in time as compared with the case for the equivalent magnification. Therefore, the scan width for reading the image of the original and the scan width for recording the latent image onto the photo-sensitive substance are different from each other, so that the copying operation with the enlargement or shrinkage is performed. On the other hand, if the emitting cycle of the light to the photo-sensitive substance is varied by the magnification control device, the image information read out from the memory device is delayed or advanced in time as compared with the case for the equivalent magnification. Therefore, the scan width for reading the image of the original and the scan width for recording the latent image onto the photo-sensitive substance are different from each other, so that the copying operation with the enlargement or shrinkage is performe
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Williams Kimberly A.
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