Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Takuhei Yokoyama

Tatsuya Miyadera

Takeshi Shikama

Yoshinori Shirasaki

Kunihiro Komai

Akinori Yamaguchi

Izumi Kinoshita

Motohiro Kawanabe

Masayuki Hayashi

Hiroaki Ikeda

Susumu Miyazaki

Masamoto Nakazawa

Ayumu Hashimoto

Yasuo Yamaguchi

Masaki Yoshino

Shogo Nakamura

Hiroki Shirado

Tadaaki Oyama

Keiji Kunimi

Akito Yoshimura

An image forming apparatus, a system, and a method. The image forming apparatus includes an image forming engine to form an image on a recording medium, interrupts an image formation by the image forming engine in response to a malfunction, detects a recording medium on which the image formation is interrupted, and notifies an external device of a detection result of the recording medium.

Image forming apparatus, system, and method for detecting malfunction

A reading device includes a first light source configured to emit light, a second light source configured to emit light in a wavelength of light different from a wavelength of light of the first light source, circuitry configured to instruct the first light source and the second light source to turn on and turn off, a first light-intensity adjuster configured to adjust light intensity of the first light source based on a first light intensity value, a second light-intensity adjuster configured to adjust light intensity of the second light source based on a second light intensity value, a first image sensor configured to receive the light that is emitted from the first light source and is reflected by an object, and a second image sensor configured to receive the light that is emitted from the first light source and the second light source and is reflected by the object.

Reading device, image forming apparatus, and color mixture prevention method

A photoelectric conversion device includes a photoelectric conversion element to generate an image signal according to an intensity of light being input and circuitry. The circuitry obtains pixel values in dark time, respectively, for at least a first time and a second time. The second time is longer than the first time. The pixel values in dark time represent pixel values obtained when no light is input to the photoelectric conversion element. The circuitry obtains a subtraction between the pixel values for the first time and the pixel values for the second time. The circuitry detects a noise amount based on the subtraction. The circuitry determines at least one pixel having the detected noise amount that is equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold value, as a defective pixel of the photoelectric conversion element.

Photoelectric conversion device, defective pixel determining method, image forming apparatus, and recording medium

An optical writing device is configured to form electrostatic latent images on a plurality of photosensitive elements by a plurality of light sources. The optical writing device includes: an image-data acquiring section that acquires image data; and a light-source control section that performs light-emission control on the light source based on pixel data generated from acquired image data, and also performs a neutralization process on the photosensitive element by controlling the light source to expose the photosensitive element to light. In the neutralization process, the light-source control section divides a period during which light-on/off control can be performed on the light source, into sub-periods based on pixel data input to the light-source control section, and causes the light sources to be lit in any one of the sub-periods so as to always place at least one of the plurality of light sources in a light-off state.

Optical writing device, image forming apparatus, and method of controlling optical writing device

According to an embodiment, provided is an image forming device that includes: an image forming unit forming an image in a predetermined cycle in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of a printing medium; a velocity acquisition unit acquiring a conveying velocity of the printing medium at a position where the image is formed by the image forming unit; and a correcting unit correcting the cycle on which the image forming unit forms the image in accordance with the conveying velocity acquired by the velocity acquisition unit.

Image forming device and control method for image forming device

In the invention, an inclination amount of sensors is reflected in positional deviation correction patterns, and for correcting formation positions of images of various colors, the positional deviation correction patterns are formed on a conveying belt. The positional deviation correction patterns are detected by the sensors. A control unit calculates positional deviation correction amounts based on detection results of the positional deviation correction patterns. Based on the calculated positional deviation correction amounts, the control unit performs calculation for correcting the positional deviation correction patterns, and cancels the inclination amount reflected in the calculation results to obtain final positional deviation correction amounts. Skew correction is performed based on the final positional deviation correction amounts, and thus, the positional deviations are corrected.

Image forming apparatus and method for controlling the same

A light source control apparatus which controls, based on image data input, light emission of a light source which forms an electrostatic latent image on an image bearing body in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is disclosed, including a pattern generating unit which generates an internal pattern for position aligning and concentration correcting according to the image data; and a mirroring processing unit which performs a process of mirroring the image data and the internal pattern at a later stage of the pattern generating unit.

Light source control apparatus and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming images at a plurality of resolution levels including at least one low resolution level and one high resolution level includes a photoconductor, onto which a beam size is set for the low resolution level; and an adjustment unit to conduct an exposure time-based density adjustment using a plurality of half-tone patterns prepared by changing an exposure time per pixel at a timing when a resolution level shifts from the low resolution level to the high resolution level and before actually shifting to an image forming operation executed at the high resolution level.

Imaging forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus can transfer a plurality of color component images onto a surface of a recording medium to form an image on the recording medium. The image forming apparatus includes a pattern generation part to generate information about an alignment pattern to be used for a calibration of an image forming, a plurality of stations each including a photosensitive drum to form an alignment pattern corresponding to each of a plurality of color components onto a carry belt or the recording medium, and a read part to detect a plurality of alignment patterns formed by the plurality of stations.

Image forming apparatus including image forming calibration

A line-head control device that controls a line head includes: a calculation unit that divides image data into a plurality of areas in sub-scanning direction and calculates a printing percentage for each of the areas; an allocation unit that allocates a total correction amount, for correcting magnification of the image data in the sub-scanning direction, to the areas according to the printing percentage for each of the areas calculated by the calculation unit; and a control unit that changes an emission period of the light emitted from the line head so as to satisfy a partial correction amount that is an allocation of the total correction amount to each of the areas, exposes the image carrier to the light emitted from the line head with the changed light emission period, thereby causing a latent image to be formed on the image carrier based on the image data.

Line-head control device, image forming apparatus, and line-head control method

An image processing apparatus includes a reading part configured to optically read skew amount measurement patterns and opposite ends of a paper sheet; an image skew amount detecting part configured to detect skew amounts on a color basis based on the skew amount measurement patterns; a paper sheet skew amount detecting part configured to detect a skew amount of the paper sheet based on a displacement between the opposite ends of the paper sheet; a skew correction amount calculating part configured to calculate skew correction amounts of the respective colors based on the skew amounts; and a skew correcting part configured to shift the images to correct the skews by recording input image data in plural lines of a line memory, dividing the input image data into plural areas in a main scanning direction, and setting line delay amounts on an area basis based on the skew correction amounts.

Image processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, an image processing method and a recording medium

An embodiment of the image processing apparatus for controlling the lighting of a line head that is driven with binary data and performs exposure with subline lighting to thereby form images, includes: a subline generating unit that generates a plurality of sublines from a same image data; an inclination correcting unit that exposes the generated sublines so as to generate correction image data used to correct an inclination of an exposure position; a gradation control unit that controls the lighting of sublines based on the correction image data generated by the inclination correcting unit to express gradation; and a light intensity correction unit that corrects and controls the light intensity based on the correction image data generated by the inclination correcting unit, wherein an output of the gradation control unit and an output of the light intensity correction unit are input into the line head in parallel.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer program product for image processing

An image forming apparatus performs pseudo gradation processing using dithering, and includes an image carrier; a plurality of light-emitting element arrays arranged in a main-scanning direction and including a plurality of light-emitting elements; an image forming unit performing lighting control of the arrays and forming a pattern image on the image carrier; a detecting unit detecting a density of the pattern image; a position detecting unit detecting a position in the main-scanning direction of the detecting unit with respect to the light-emitting element arrays; a determining unit that, based on the detected position, determines whether the detecting unit is positioned at a proper detection position with respect to the pattern image on which noise has no effect; and an operation control unit that, when the detecting unit is positioned at the proper detection position, performs an image density detection operation on the pattern image using the detecting unit.

Image forming apparatus and image density detecting method

An image forming apparatus includes plural image forming units of plural colors, each including a print head including plural LED chips aligned in a main scanning direction; a screen angle selecting unit that selects screen angles for the plural colors respectively based on the amounts of skew of the plural image forming units; an image processing unit that performs image processing on input data to be expressed by pixels of the plural colors such that the pixels of the colors have the corresponding screen angles selected by the screen angle selecting unit; a correction amount determining unit that determines a total amount of skew correction based on the amount of skew detected by the skew detection unit, and determines the amounts of skew correction in the sub-scanning direction for predetermined groups of the pixels, based on the total amount of skew correction, for each of the colors.

Method of compensating for errors caused by a print head using skew correction

An optical writing device stores pieces of dithering information indicating dithering patterns whose densities are different, each piece of dithering information including pieces of identification information associated with pixels of the corresponding dithering pattern, and stores pieces of pixel setting information in which pieces of colored/colorless information indicating each of the pixels is colored or colorless are associated with the pieces of identification information, the pieces of colored/colorless information being set based on a resolution of a light source for forming an electrostatic latent image. The optical writing device also includes a control unit configured to arrange the same dithering patterns in a way that the dithering patterns form a pattern with a given size, and cause the light source to emit light based on information generated by setting the pixels of each of the same dithering patterns to be colored or colorless in accordance with the pixel setting information.

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Osaka, Japan

Takuhei Yokoyama