Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Hideyuki Hiro

Kenji Tanaka

Kazuhiro Mizude

Hiroshi Ishii

Yasumasa Morimoto

Tomohiko Okada

Kazuma Ogawa

Kouji Miyake

Yoshinobu Umetani

Masahiro Kawano

Daisuke Mukaiyama

Masayuki Furusawa

Katsuharu Nagai

According to an automatic document feeder of a multifunction peripheral according to the present invention, two tilt sensors are provided in the middle of a document conveyance path to detect a tilt degree of a document being conveyed along the document conveyance path. Here, for example, if the positional deviation representing the tilt degree of the document is greater than a predetermined threshold value &#x394;Ls, the conveyance of the document is stopped. On the other hand, if this is not the case, the conveyance of the document is continued. In addition, the threshold value is set in accordance with the width dimension of the document, and in particular, the larger the width dimension, the smaller the threshold value.

Paper conveyance device, image reading apparatus, computer-readable storage medium storing control program and control method for paper conveyance device

An automatic document feeder includes a document loading detector, a document feeder, a document guide, a guide width measurer, a document width acquirer, a guide shift determiner, a document skew detector, a skew determiner, a warning display information generator, and a display. When a detected skew of a document is determined to be unallowable, the document feeder stops a feeding of the document. The warning display information generator generates a warning content about a feed trouble that stopped the feeding of the document, and the generated warning content about the feed trouble is displayed on the display.

Automatic document feeder comprising a storage that stores a guide width paper correspondence information that contains a type of paper to correspond with a tolerance of a width of the document guide and document length information, and the automatic document feeder determines if skew of a document is allowable before determining to display a warning message and stop feeding a document

An untaken sheet notification device to notify that the sheet is untaken from an ejection tray if an ejection tray sensor that detects presence or absence of the sheet on the ejection tray detects presence of the sheet, after a sheet is ejected, a document feeder, and an image forming apparatus include a counter that counts the number of the ejected sheets and a notification controller that performs a specific notification control to notify that the sheet is untaken if the number of the sheets counted by the counter is equal to or less than a predetermined reference number.

Untaken sheet notification device, document feeder, and image forming apparatus

When an open hole is detected at the front end of a sheet at a conveyance start position, a registration operation to correct a tilt posture of the sheet is avoided, and the present velocity is retrained to convey the sheet without temporarily stopping the sheet having the tilt posture.

Sheet conveyance apparatus

Provided is an image reading device includes a document transport device that sequentially transports a plurality of documents one by one, and the image reading device sequentially reads the plurality of documents transported by the document transport device one by one. The image reading device includes a document discharge tray, a document discharge detector that detects whether or not a document of the plurality of documents is discharged to the document discharge tray, a notifier that notifies that the document of the plurality of documents discharged to the document discharge tray is forgotten to take, and a controller that activates the notifier if it is determined that a last document among the plurality of documents is read and the document discharge detector detects that the document of the plurality of documents is discharged to the document discharge tray.

Image reading device and image forming apparatus including the same that sequentially transport and read plurality of documents one by one

An image forming apparatus has a power-saving mode in which the image forming apparatus is switched from a normal power consumption state to a low power consumption state where less energy is supplied than in the normal power consumption state. This image forming apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect an operating state of the image forming apparatus, and a memory unit configured to store a detection result by the detection unit. In the power-saving mode, the detection unit detects an operating state of the image forming apparatus, and the memory unit stores a detection result by the detection unit. When the image forming apparatus returns from the low power consumption state in the power-saving mode to the normal power consumption state, control of a return operation for the image forming apparatus from the power-saving mode is executed, based on the detection result by the detection unit stored in the memory unit.

Image forming apparatus

Contamination of a reading window is detected between documents by a contamination detection section when a plurality of sheets of documents are transferred and a transferred document is read through a reading window, transfer of the document is stopped by a stopping section based on the detection result, and a corresponding purport is displayed on a display section.

Image reading apparatus, image forming apparatus, reading method, and recording medium

A document reader has a main conveying path, an auxiliary conveying path, a pickup roller, a first conveying roller, and a second conveying roller. The auxiliary conveying path runs between a first connection point and a second connection point on the main conveying path. The cylindrical surface of the first conveying roller is located partially on the main conveying path and partially on the auxiliary conveying path. While the first conveying roller is under the forward or reverse control, it rotates normally. The cylindrical surface of the second conveying roller is located partially on the main conveying path between the second connection point and a discharge position. A controller switches from the forward control selected during this mode to the reverse control, while a document being conveyed along the main conveying path is out of contact with the first conveying roller.

Document reader

When reading of the documents set on the document feed tray is given priority by user designation, the documents set on the document feed tray are read first, then the document set on the platen plate is read. When reading of the document set on the platen plate is given priority, the document set on the platen plate is read first, then the documents set on the document feed tray are read. Even when originals are composed of documents that can be set on the document feed tray and an original that cannot be set on the document feed tray, use of the above configuration makes it possible to achieve copying of the originals as one job.

Document reading apparatus capable of sequentially reading documents stacked on an automatic document feeder and a document set on a platen

An operation of a pickup roller to be performed upon powering on or after paper jam elimination is adjusted according the presence or absence of a document on a document sheet support. When the document is absent on the sheet support, the pickup roller is moved down sufficiently and then moved up by a first distance to assume an upper limit position. When the document is present on the sheet support, the pickup roller is moved up by a second distance which is shorter than the first distance.

Sheet feeding device and document reading device

An image forming apparatus including: a plurality of image data acquisition units for respectively acquiring one or more page(s) of image data; a color or monochrome determining unit for determining whether each of the acquired pages is in color or in monochrome; an image forming unit for performing image formation of each page switchably using a monochrome-only image forming function for a monochrome page or a color and monochrome image forming function for a color page and a monochrome page; an image data switching unit for sequentially selecting and arranging the acquired pages of image data one by one so that the image formation of each page is performed in the order of selection; a function selecting unit for selecting either one of the monochrome-only and color and monochrome image forming functions for each of the arranged pages on the basis of the determination result made by the color or monochrome determining unit; and a control unit for controlling the image forming unit so that image formation of each page is performed using the selected image forming function.

A connection checking system of the present invention is arranged so as to apply a power supply voltage which is dropped by the resistance to a terminal when the control substrate and the unit are connected. Then, the control section determines that the unit is connected to the control substrate when the dropped voltage is applied to the terminal. On the other hand, when a dropped voltage is not applied to the terminal, the control section determines that the unit is not connected to the control substrate. The connection checking system of the present invention can be realized by using a conventional power supply cable, a signal cable and a terminal, and thus the connection checking system of the present invention can be manufactured at low costs.

Connection checking system, printer device, method of checking connected state, connection checking program, and recording medium storing connection checking program

A handwriting input device, despite having a simple structure, achieves correct acquisition of handwritten information. This input device has a pen stem housed inside a pen body formed in the shape of a pen, with the tip of the pen stem left sticking out of an opening formed at one end. This input device further has a pen stem holder having a hemispherical projection formed in its middle portion, an omnidirectional pressure sensor having an actuator and an operation shaft formed integrally, a data processor for processing electric signals outputted from the sensor, and a connector for connecting the tail-end cap portion of the pen stem holder to the operation shaft of the sensor. Thus, this input device detects the force applied to the tip of the pen stem by sensing pressure; in addition, it also detects the up/down movement of the pen stem by sensing pressure.

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Sakai, Japan

Hideyuki Hiro