Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Nippon Telegraph

Mutumi Otobe

Hakudai Kondo

Shuji Otsuka

Eiichi Ohta

Suzuyo Murai

Kouichi Mino

Tetsuo Harano

Hiroya Inagaki

Michio Tsuchiya

Koji Matsumura

Takayuki Matsumoto

Kouzi Takeyama

An optical image reading apparatus for photoelectrically reading images formed in at least two colors on a surface of an original having a base color different from the at least two colors, including a first reading device for obtaining a first image signal for each of a multiplicity of reading spots in a predetermined area on the original. The first image signal has two different levels one of which corresponds to the base color and the other of which corresponds to the at least two colors. The apparatus further includes a second reading device for obtaining a second image signal for the each reading spot. The second image signal cooperates with the first image signal to discriminate each of the at least two colors from the other of the at least two colors. Provisions are made for determining whether the levels of the first image signals for all of the multiplicity of reading spots are equal to the above-indicated one level corresponding to the base color, or not. If so, the second reading device is inhibited from operating to obtain the second inage signal for each reading spot.

Optical image reading apparatus capable of reading multi-colored original

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Mutumi Otobe