Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masayuki Fujii

Nobuyuki Satoh

Mamoru Yorimoto

Kenji Morita

Daisaku Horikawa

Suguru Yokozawa

Hiroshi Matsumoto

Masato Kobayashi

Masaya Kawarada

Yuichi Sakurada

Suguru Masunaga

Tomohiro Sasa

Satoshi Iwanami

Satoshi Hirata

Masahiro Hiranuma

Hideaki Suzuki

Osamu Kizaki

Yasuyuki Suzuki

An image forming apparatus includes a printing device to print, on a recording medium, a colorimetric pattern including a plurality of colorimetric patches; an imaging device; a conveyor to convey the recording medium in a conveyance direction; and circuitry. The circuitry causes the printing device to form a plurality of marker patterns on a side of the colorimetric pattern and at predetermined intervals in the conveyance direction so that one of the marker patterns is downstream from a first row of the colorimetric patches in the conveyance direction; causes the conveyor to convey the recording medium to position the colorimetric pattern at a reading position by the imaging device based on a distance between the plurality of marker patterns and the colorimetric pattern in the conveyance direction; and causes the imaging device to read the colorimetric pattern on the recording medium.

Image forming apparatus, conveyance control method, and recording medium

An image forming apparatus includes a conveyance device to convey a recording medium in a first direction and a second direction opposite the first direction; an image forming device; an imaging device; and circuitry to control the image forming apparatus. Controlled by the circuitry, the image forming device forms the colorimetric pattern on the recording medium that has been conveyed in the first direction by a predetermined distance after the marker pattern is formed. Controlled by the circuitry, after the colorimetric pattern is fixed, the circuitry causes the conveyance device to convey the recording medium in the second direction by an amount equivalent to a distance from the marker pattern to an imaging position by the imaging device plus a margin, conveys the recording medium in the first direction until the imaging device detects the marker pattern, and conveys the recording medium in the first direction to a colorimetry position.

Image forming apparatus, recording medium conveying method, and recording medium

A medium identification device identifies a type of a recording medium used for image formation. The medium identification device includes: a two-dimensional image sensor that captures an image of the recording medium; and an identifying unit that obtains a glossiness evaluation value indicating glossiness of the recording medium, a surface roughness evaluation value indicating surface roughness of the recording medium, and a coloring evaluation value indicating coloring of the recording medium, using image data of a specular reflection region reflecting specular reflection light from the recording medium and image data of a diffused reflection region reflecting diffused reflection light from the recording medium, the regions being in the image of the recording medium, and identifies the type of the recording medium by combining determination using the glossiness evaluation value, determination using the surface roughness evaluation value, and determination using the coloring evaluation value.

Medium identification device, image forming apparatus, method of identifying medium, and computer program product

An apparatus includes: a light source; a two-dimensional image sensor that receives reflected light from a subject including specular light of the source and outputs an image of the subject; and an optical member arranged in an optical path of light emitted from the source to the subject. When a specular position of the source in the subject arranged apart from the two-dimensional image sensor by a certain distance is defined as a first specular position, whereas a specular position of the source in the optical member is defined as a second specular position, a relative positional relation of the optical member and the source with respect to the two-dimensional image sensor is determined so that a difference between an incident angle from the source toward the first specular position and an incident angle from the source toward the second specular position is a reference value or more.

Image capturing apparatus, medium type determining apparatus, and image forming apparatus

An imaging device comprises: a two-dimensional image sensor that includes a plurality of light receiving units capable of reading an output value individually according to a volume of received light thereof; a receiving unit that receives a control signal that specifies an operation mode of the two-dimensional image sensor that is predetermined according to a purpose of using the output value; and a sensor controller that sets, on the basis of the control signal received by the receiving unit, an imaging area representing an area of a light receiving unit that reads the output value from among the light receiving units of the two-dimensional image sensor and controls reading of the output value.

Imaging device, image forming apparatus, and method of controlling driving of two-dimensional image sensor

A nozzle testing device includes: a two-dimensional image sensor to capture an image of a pattern formed on a recording object by discharging ink from a nozzle row while moving the nozzle row and the recording object relative to each other in a direction orthogonal to the nozzle row; a light source unit provided such that regularly reflected light by the pattern forms a regular reflection area in the image of the pattern captured by the two-dimensional image sensor; and a detection unit to analyze the image to detect discharge failure of the nozzles. The regular reflection area is formed in the image such that a dimension in a direction corresponding to the direction of relative movement between the nozzle row and the recording object is greater than a dimension in a direction orthogonal to the direction corresponding to the direction of relative movement in the image.

Nozzle testing device and image forming apparatus

An imaging device includes: a housing having an opening in a surface thereof facing a subject; a light source that irradiates the subject with light; a two-dimensional image sensor that captures, from inside of the housing through the opening; an image of the subject illuminated by the light source; an optical member that is disposed between the two-dimensional image sensor and the opening and that transmits light reflected off the subject; and a contamination inspection member that is disposed between the opening and the optical member and that causes inspection light for inspecting contamination on the optical member to be incident upon the two-dimensional image sensor via the optical member.

Imaging device, image forming apparatus, and contamination inspection method

An image forming apparatus includes a printing unit that prints at least one object image using a color material; a color information acquiring unit that acquires color information of the object image; and a control unit that starts one of colorimetry of the object image using the color information acquired by the color information acquiring unit and color adjustment of the printing unit after a variation amount of color information of the object image measured at different points of time is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold.

Image forming apparatus, calibration method, and drying determination method

A glossiness determining device includes: a light source; a two-dimensional sensor that receives reflected light containing a specular reflection component of a subject illuminated by the light source, and outputs an image of the subject; and a determining unit that determines glossiness of the subject by using a saturated image, which is the image of the subject output by the two-dimensional sensor and in which pixel values of a partial area are saturated.

Glossiness determining device, color measuring device, image forming apparatus, and glossiness determination method

An image processing device includes a first storage unit, a calculating unit, a second storage unit, and an interpolation calculating unit. The first storage unit is configured to store values at lattice points on a plurality of unit cubes to which a color space made up of the plurality of color components is segmentalized. The calculating unit is configured to calculate a difference between a first lattice-point value stored in the first storage unit and a color component value mapped to color coordinates of the first lattice point for each of the lattice points. The second storage unit is configured to store the calculated difference on a lattice-point-by-lattice-point basis. The interpolation calculating unit is configured to calculate a second image data by reading out the stored differences designated by a first image data and performing interpolation calculation using the read-out second lattice-point values.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Masayuki Fujii