Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yoichi Kubota

Kohei Shimbo

Naohiro Kamijo

Manabu Seo

Yusuke Taneda

Keiji Kojima

Toshihiro Shigemori

Masao Hosaka

Kiyoshi Ohshima

Takuji Kamada

Yuka Minamizono

An inspection system includes circuitry configured to determine whether a predetermined pattern is present in a master image of an inspection target object; acquire an inspection target image of the inspection target object from an image captured by an image capturing device; compare the master image of the inspection target object with the inspection target image, to inspect the inspection target object; and switch a threshold value used in comparing the master image with the inspection target image of the inspection target object depending on a determination result of determining whether the predetermined pattern is present in the master image of the inspection target object.

Inspection of a target object using a comparison with a master image and a strictness of a quality evaluation threshold value

A spectral property acquisition apparatus includes: a first conveying device to convey an object in predetermined conveying direction; a color data acquisition device including a plurality of spectroscopic sensors in the conveying direction, the plurality of spectroscopic sensors receive light emitted and reflected by the object to acquire color data on the object; a second conveying device to convey the color data acquisition device in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction; and circuitry to estimate a spectral property of the object based on the color data. The circuitry controls the first conveying device so as to generate predetermined tension for the object in a color data acquisition area in which the color data on the object is acquired.

Spectral property acquisition apparatus and image forming apparatus

A spectral characteristic acquisition device according to one aspect of the disclosed technique includes: a color data acquirer comprising a plurality of spectral sensors receiving light reflected from an object irradiated with light and acquiring color data of the object; circuitry configured to estimate a spectral characteristic of the object on a basis of the color data and calibrate the spectral characteristic calculator on a basis of the color data obtained from a calibration color mark having a color mark of a known spectral characteristic; a first conveyer configured to convey the object in a predetermined conveyance direction and conveying the color data acquirer in a direction intersecting the predetermined conveyance direction; and a second conveyer configured to convey the calibration color mark in the predetermined conveyance direction.

Spectral characteristic acquisition device, image forming apparatus, and image forming apparatus management system

A spectral characteristic obtaining apparatus includes a color information obtaining unit including a plurality of spectral sensors aligned in an array direction, the spectral sensors being configured to receive light reflected from an object so as to obtain first color information of the object; a spectral characteristic calculating unit configured to estimate a spectral characteristic of the object based on the first color information by using a preset transformation matrix; a calibration color index configured to include a region of a color with a known spectral characteristic; and a transformation matrix calibrating unit configured to calibrate the transformation matrix by using second color information obtained from the calibration color index, wherein the spectral sensors are configured to obtain the second color information from the same region included in the calibration color index, while relative positions thereof with respect to the calibration color index are changed at a time of calibration.

Spectral characteristic obtaining apparatus, image forming apparatus, and image forming system

A spectral characteristic acquiring apparatus includes a color data acquiring unit including a plurality of spectral sensors configured to receive reflected light from an object that has been irradiated with light to acquire color data of the object, a spectral characteristic calculating unit configured to estimate spectral characteristics of the object based on the acquired color data of the object using a preset transformation matrix, a first conveying unit configured to convey the object in a predetermined conveying direction, and a second conveying unit configured to convey the color data acquiring unit in a direction intersecting the predetermined conveying direction. The plurality of spectral sensors are arrayed in the predetermined conveying direction.

Spectral characteristic acquiring apparatus, image forming apparatus, image forming system, image forming apparatus management system, and image forming apparatus management method

A spectral characteristic acquisition device includes a member configured to have a plurality of openings arrayed in a predetermined direction, each of the plurality of openings inclined with respect to the predetermined direction, the plurality of openings being configured to pass light beams from a plurality of positions on an object therethrough, a spectrally dispersing part configured to spectrally disperse the light beams having passed through the plurality of openings in a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction, and a plurality of one-dimensional image capturing parts provided at a predetermined interval in a plurality of lines and configured to be irradiated with the light beams having been spectrally dispersed by the spectrally dispersing part, a plurality of pixels of the plurality of one-dimensional image capturing parts being arrayed in a direction parallel to the predetermined direction.

Spectral characteristic acquisition device, image evaluation device, and image formation apparatus

A spectral characteristic acquisition device includes a light irradiation part configured to irradiate an object with light, a diffraction part configured to diffract light reflected from the object to provide diffracted light, a light-receiving part configured to receive the diffracted light and output a signal based on an amount of the diffracted light, a calibration color index configured to include a color with a known spectral characteristic, and an operation part configured to calculate a spectral characteristic of the object from a signal output from the light-receiving part by using a predetermined transformation matrix and calibrate the transformation matrix by using the calibration color index.

A spectral characteristic acquisition apparatus includes a light emitting part configured to emit light onto an object, a light dividing part configured to divide the light reflected from the object into multiple light beams by multiple aperture parts of the light dividing part, a dispersing part configured to form multiple diffraction images corresponding to the aperture parts by spectrally dispersing the light beams, a light receiving part including an array of spectral sensors that receive the diffraction images at substantially the same position on their respective light receiving surfaces and convert the received diffraction images into electrical signals, and an operation part configured to compute a spectral characteristic of the object based on the electrical signals.

Spectral characteristic acquisition apparatus, image evaluation apparatus, and image forming apparatus

A spectrometer includes a light source to project a light beam to a target object, an optical element including a plurality of apertures through which the light beam reflected by the target object transmits, a diffraction element to form diffracted images from a plurality of light beams having transmitted through the optical element, and a light receiving element to receive the diffracted images formed by the diffraction element and including an optical shield to block a diffracted image other than a certain-order diffracted image.

Spectrometer, and image evaluating unit and image forming device incorporating the same

A spectral characteristic obtaining apparatus includes a detection unit detecting light quantities in plural wavelength bands from a measurement target, a storage unit storing pre-obtained spectral characteristics of the measurement target, a calculation unit calculating a primary transformation matrix from the light quantities and the pre-obtained spectral characteristics of at least one reference sample and a secondary transformation matrix from one of the pre-obtained spectral characteristics corresponding to a primary wavelength band and another one of the pre-obtained spectral characteristics corresponding to a secondary wavelength band, an estimation unit estimating the spectral characteristics of the measurement target by performing a primary estimation on the light quantities in the plural wavelength bands by using the primary transformation matrix, performing a secondary estimation on a result of the primary estimation by using the secondary transformation matrix, and compositing a result of the secondary estimation with the result of the primary estimation.

Apparatus and method for obtaining spectral characteristics

A spectral characteristic acquiring apparatus is provided which includes: an area dividing part; a spectrum separating part; a light receiving part; and a calculating part, wherein the calculating part includes a transformation matrix storing part that stores a transformation matrix used for calculating the spectral characteristic corresponding to electrical signals of a first diffraction pattern group including two or more adjacent diffraction patterns, and a spectral characteristic calculating part that calculates, based on the electrical signals of the first diffraction pattern group and the corresponding transformation matrix, the spectral characteristic at the locations of the image carrying medium corresponding to the apertures of the first diffraction pattern group.

Spectral characteristic acquiring apparatus, spectral characteristic acquiring method and image evaluating apparatus

A spectrometer includes a light source to project a light beam to a target object, a spectral element to disperse the light beam reflected by the target object and including a diffraction element to diffract the light beam, and a light receiving element to receive, at pixels, light beams with different spectral characteristics from each other dispersed by the spectral element, wherein the diffraction element and the light receiving element are integrally formed.

Spectral characteristics of an object is estimated using an extended sensor response, which includes a product of at least two light intensity signals whose wavelength ranges are partially overlapped with each other.

Spectral characteristics estimation device, image forming apparatus having the same, and spectral characteristics estimation method

A spectral characteristic measuring device includes an illuminating unit that illuminates a medium; a light dividing unit that divides reflection light from the medium into reflection light beams; a first imaging unit that includes first lenses and second lenses arranged alternately in a staggered pattern and focuses the respective reflection light beams; a diffraction unit that includes a first diffraction region and a second diffraction region and diffracts the focused reflection light beams to form diffraction images; and a light receiving unit that includes plural pixels for receiving the diffraction images. The reflection light beams focused by the first lenses enter the first diffraction region to form first diffraction images, the reflection light beams focused by the second lenses enter the second diffraction region to form second diffraction images, and the first and second diffraction images are arranged alternately on the light receiving unit in a pixel arrangement direction.

Spectral characteristic measuring device and image forming apparatus

A spectroscopic characteristics acquisition unit includes a light emitting unit to illuminate a measurement target; a lens array including lenses to receive reflected light reflected from the measurement target; a light blocking member having a pinhole array including openings; a focusing unit to focus light coming from the pinhole array; a diffraction unit to diffract the light to different directions depending on wavelength of light received by the focusing unit; and a light receiving unit to receive the reflected light diffracted by the diffraction unit. The light receiving unit includes a spectroscopic sensor array having spectroscopy sensors including pixels. Each of the lenses constituting the lens array corresponds to one of the openings of the pinhole array. The numerical aperture NA of the lens in the arrangement direction in the lens array satisfies the formula NA&#x3e;sin(&#x3b8;max) with respect to the maximum angle of view &#x3b8;max of the focusing unit.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yoichi Kubota