Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Toyo Soda Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Nobuyuki Baba

Toshiyuki Inokuchi

Hideo Maeda

Kazuhiro Fujita

Koichi Kudo

Shigeru Ohuchida

Sumiaki Aoki

Toshiharu Murai

Tetsuo Ikushige

Keiichi Housako

Tsutomu Hashimoto

Mitsutoshi Fukuda

Susumu Matsushita

Yoshimitsu Tada

Jun-ichi Toei

Kouichi Kudo

Kenji Arichika

A document sensing device for an image forming apparatus of the present invention is capable of sensing a document stably without being influenced by disturbing light, e.g., light ascribable to fluorescent lamps or similar illuminators illuminating a room. According to one aspect of die invention, optical elements are held by a jig rotatable about an optical axis. According to another aspect of the invention, a light receiving means or a photosensor means has at least four light-sensitive regions.

Document sensing device for an image forming apparatus

An original placement table is provided, on which an original sheet is placed. An original scanning device causes a light beam to scan the original sheet placed on the original placement table. A light receiving device receives a light beam which has been reflected by the original sheet placed on the original placement table after being emitted by the original scanning device. An original edge determining device monitors light intensity of the light beam received by the light receiving device. The original edge determining device determines that the light beam currently being received by the light receiving device is the light beam reflected by an edge of the original sheet placed on the original placement table when a significant variation is detected in the light intensity either for the first time or for the last time in one scanning operation of the original scanning device.

Optical sensor including a first and second converging optical system

Original edge detecting system and optical sensor using distance

Original edge detecting system and optical sensor

An image scanning apparatus can obtain, using a simple optical detection system, original sheet information including size and displacement information of an original sheet before an image scanning operation starts. The image scanning apparatus comprises a single beam emitting unit for emitting a coherent first beam. A deflecting unit deflects the first beam so that the first beam traces a predetermined scan line on a plane including a surface of the original sheet. A second beam is generated by reflection of the first beam at the surface of the original, and the second beam is input to the sensing unit via the deflecting unit. The original sheet information is obtained in accordance with the detection of a sharp change in the intensity of the second beam received by the sensing unit with reference to the scanning position of the first beam.

Optical image scanning apparatus detecting sheet size and displacement

An optical encoding apparatus is provided which is not affected by fluctuation of wavelength of a light beam due to temperature change, without sacrificing resolution of measurement. The optical encoding apparatus includes a light source for emitting a light beam, a light beam condenser for condensing the light beam emitted by the light source, a first diffraction grating to which light beams condensed by the light beam condenser are directed, and a second diffraction grating to which light beams exiting from the first diffraction grating are directed. Additionally, a displacement information obtaining device is included for obtaining information regarding a displacement of one of the first and second diffraction gratings, the information being obtained according to a twice-diffracted beam and a twice-transmitted beam incident upon the second diffraction grating. The twice-diffracted beam is diffracted by the first diffraction grating, and the twice-transmitted beam is transmitted through the first diffraction grating.

Optical encoding apparatus for measuring displacement of an object using

An optical scanner unit for scanning a document includes a laser unit for emitting a laser beam used for scanning the document, an optical system in which the laser beam emitted from the laser unit travels to the document and a reflection light beam obtained by reflection of the laser beam on the document can turn back through the optical system, the optical system having a scanning device for moving the laser beam which passes through the optical system so that a two dimensional scanning of the document is carried out by the light beam, and an optical sensor for detecting the reflection light beam turning back through the optical system, wherein an image formed on the document is read based on results obtained by the optical sensor.

Optical scanner unit having recursive optical system

A bar code scanner includes a semiconductor laser device for emitting a light beam, a hologram disc on which a grating is formed, the hologram disc rotating around a predetermined axis, an incident optical system provided for perpendicularly projecting the light beam emitted from the light source onto the grating formed on the hologram member, a first optical system which projects the light beam passing through the grating formed on the hologram member onto the medium, and a second optical system for guiding the light beam reflected by the medium to a detector. The first optical system includes a plurality of mirrors arranged under the hologram disc so as to surround the axis of rotation of the disc so that each of the mirrors reflects light diffracted by the hologram disc and thereby forms a scanning line.

Bar code scanner having hologram

An optical pick-up device for use in an optical disc information recording/reproducing apparatus is provided. In the present optical pick-up device, the functions of two or more separate optical elements provided in the prior art structure are combined or integrated in a single element to reduce the total number of separate optical elements provided in the device. In particular, use is made of a diffraction grating rather than lenses and/or lenses are formed as holo lenses. A diffraction grating and a holo lens may be formed substantially in the shape of flat plates, so that many optical components can be put together to define an integrated subassembly, which reduces the total number of discrete elements, facilitates manufacturing and eliminates the necessity of adjustments among optical elements once set.

Integrated optical pick-up device

An information reading device which comprises a semiconductor laser source which emits a semiconductor laser beam and a first condenser lens for converging the laser beam to form an irradiation beam. A beam shaping optical system is disposed on the optical path of the laser beam to form a predetermined beam section shape of the irradiation beam which is converged by the first condenser lens. A hologram disk is used for deflecting the irradiation beam. The information reading device further comprises an optical path separation system. The optical path of the irradiation beam is separated from that of the reflection beam reflected from the scanning surface irradiated by the irradiation beam. A second condenser lens is arranged from converging the reflection beam separated from the irradiation beam by the optical path separation means. And an optical sensor is arranged for detecting the reflection beam converged by the second condenser lens.

Information reading device

An optical pick-up device for use in an optical disc information recording/reproducing apparatus is provided. In the present optical pick-up device, the functions of two or more separate optical elements provided in the prior art structure are combined or integrated in a single element to reduce the total number of separate optical elements provided in the device. In particular, use is made of a diffraction grating rather than lenses and/or lenses are formed as holo lenses. A diffraction grating and a holo lens may be formed substantially in the shape of flat plates, to define an optical components can be put together to define an integrated subassembly, which reduces the total number of discrete elements, facilitates manufacturing and eliminates the necessity of adjustments among optical elements once set.

An optical head device for recording and reproducing information includes beam splitting and converging mechanisms which has a first portion and a second portion secured to the first portion and is disposed on an optical path of light reflected from a photo-magnetic disk. The first portion is adapted to split the reflected light received by the beam splitting and converging means into two beams which propagate in at least two directions different from each other and adapted to proportion the amount of reflected light in each of the two beams by means of the magnitude of the p-polarized component contained in the reflected light. The second portion is adapted to converge separately the two split beams. The converged two beams are used for reproducing binary data in the photo-magnetic disk.

Optical head device for recording and reproducing information

A method of recording a hologram on a recording medium composed of a substrate and a recording material coated as a thin layer on the substrate, the recording medium being transparent or semitransparent with respect to light to which the recording medium is exposed. A value B, B/A, B/Bo, A/B, or Bo/B is established where A is the intensity of the light at a surface of the recording medium, B is the intensity of the light that has passed through the recording medium, and Bo is the intensity of the light that has passed through the recording medium immediately after the recording medium has started to be exposed to the light. The recording medium is exposed to the light until the established value is equalized to a preset value. The exposure of the recording medium is stopped when the established value is equalized to the preset value.

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Yokohama, Japan

Nobuyuki Baba