Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Kunihiro Amano

Seiya Sato

Kentaro Aoyama

Kazushi Shumiya

Jie Zheng

Takato Mori

Hiroshi Ono

A scanning device includes a casing holding a original document table. A facing area is provided to the casing, and a rectangular hole is formed on the facing area. The rectangular hole has edges extending along a main scanning direction and edges extending along a sub-scanning direction. The edges extending along the sub-scanning direction are located in a central area of a photoelectric conversion element row of a sensor assembly in the main scanning direction. The sensor assembly scans the rectangular hole and detects a edge extending along the main scanning direction and a edge extending along the sub-scanning direction, thereby determines a scanning start position.

Scanning device comprising a sensor assembly including photoelectric conversion elements in a row that detect a rectangular hole to determine a scanning start position

A reading apparatus, having a document placement plate, a reader, a driving device, a cover, and a controller, is provided. The cover includes an alignment part and a protrusive part. The protrusive part includes an uneven surface and first and second edges forming outer edges of the uneven surface extending in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, respectively. The controller is configured control the driving device to move the reader in the sub-scanning direction and the reader while being moved to read the protrusive part, and detect the first edge and the second edge in image data of the protrusive part read by the reader based on an image of the uneven surface and determine a reading range for the reader in the document placement plate based on positions of the first edge and the second edge.

Reading apparatus

An optical scanning device includes a controller, and a scanning unit connected with the controller via a signal line. The scanning unit includes a semiconductor laser having light emitting elements, an optical system configured to convert light emitted by each light emitting element into a beam, a deflector configured to deflect the beam received through the optical system, and a shift register including a plurality of output terminals each configured to output a light emission signal for controlling light emission from a corresponding one of the light emitting elements, and an input terminal configured to receive a shift signal from the controller via the signal line. The shift register is configured to, each time receiving the shift signal via the input terminal, shift a specific output terminal to output the light emission signal from one output terminal to another in sequence among the plurality of output terminals.

Optical scanning device, laser diode driver and image forming apparatus having shift register to receive a shift signal

A reading apparatus, having a document supporting part, a reader, a driving mechanism, a reference density plate, and a controller, is provided. The controller controls the reader to perform a first reading action to read the reference density plate at a first position and adjust an amount of light, controls the reader to perform a second reading action under the light in the adjusted amount and create correction data for shading correction, controls the driving mechanism to move the reader from the first position toward a standby position, controls the reader while being moved from a second position toward a third position to perform a third reading action including a plurality of reading actions under the light in the adjusted amount, and inspects validity of the correction data by comparing read data obtained from signals resulted from the plurality of reading actions.

Growing community of inventors

Kitanagoya, Japan

Kunihiro Amano