Seiko Epson Corporation

Yuji Takiguchi

Akira Koyabu

Satoshi Nakajima

Yoshiaki Kinoshita

Naohiko Koakutsu

Akihiro Ikeda

Noboru Usui

A thermal printer and control method for a thermal printer is provided. The thermal printer includes a print head and a paper feed mechanism for conveying a print medium past the print head at a controlled print speed based on predetermined print speed control factors. Operations include determining the print speed of the print medium based on the print speed control factors; determining a change, if any, in the print speed; determining if the change in print speed exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and controlling the paper feed mechanism to limit the change in the print speed if the change in the print speed is determined to have exceeded the threshold value. The change of the print speed is decreased for at least one predetermined time when the change in the print speed is determined to have exceeded the threshold value.

Thermal printer, thermal printer control method, and printing system

A thermal printerand control method for controlling print speed to prevent variation in printing pitch due to frequent slight changes in the print speed following a significant change in print speed. The print speed, which is the speed at which the print medium i.e., paper is conveyed when printing, is controlled based on known print speed control factors. The thermal printer comprises a paper feed mechanism for conveying the print medium at a controlled print speed passed a thermal print head, a print speed control unitfor controlling the print speed of the paper feed mechanism based on the print speed control factors, a print speed change acquisition unitfor determining the change in the print speed over a predetermined time, and a comparison unitfor determining if the change in print speed exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The print speed control unitlimits change in the print speed based on the print speed control factors for a predetermined time after the comparison unitdetermines that the change in print speed exceeds the threshold value.

An optical reading apparatus and optical character recognition processing apparatus operating in conjunction with a magnetic ink character reading apparatus reduce the time in reading a string of characters formed in a line on a processed medium. This is done in the optical reading and recognition operations by selectively using a broad recognition area that allows for variation in character positions and a narrower recognition area where the probability of the desired character string being present is high depending on past results. An extracted image containing the character string is acquired from scanned image data and the recognition process is run. If recognition succeeds, the next matching area is set to a relatively narrow predicted range and the recognition process is applied to the predicted range. If character recognition succeeds within a specified distance, the next matching area is set to a relatively narrow predicted range. If character recognition does not succeed within the specified distance, the next matching area is set to the full width of the extracted image.

Optical reading apparatus, character recognition processing apparatus, character reading method and program, magnetic ink character reading apparatus, and POS terminal apparatus

A magnetic ink character reading apparatus, magnetic ink character reading method and program, and a POS terminal apparatus reduce recognition errors and thereby improve the read rate. The magnetic ink character reading apparatus reads a text string of magnetic ink characters using both a magnetic reading mechanism and optical reading mechanism to obtain magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) results and optical character recognition (OCR) results, which are compared. The OCR process is repeated if the results differ. The positions of the read character blocks are compared to find character blocks that are offset perpendicularly to the base line of the magnetic ink characters, and the OCR process is repeated. The area to which the OCR process is applied again is near the position of the offset character block corrected in the direction perpendicular to the line of magnetic ink characters to be in line with the character blocks for which the MICR result and OCR result were the same.

Magnetic ink character reading method and program

High print quality from a thermal printer is maintained while the print speed is decreasing without producing white streaks or uneven print density by controlling the hysteresis coefficient of the thermal print headbased on the energizing history of the thermal print headand print speed control factors used for determining print speed, which is the speed at which the paper is advanced while printing. The thermal printer, comprises a hysteresis coefficient setting unitfor setting a hysteresis coefficient for the print head based on the energizing history of the thermal print headan energizing time calculation unitfor calculating the energizing time during which drive signals are to be applied to the thermal print headfor printing based upon the hysteresis coefficient set by the hysteresis coefficient setting unit; a printing control devicefor generating the drive signals to be applied to the print head in response to the energizing time calculated by the energizing time calculation unit; a print speed determination unitfor determining the change in the print speed and when the print speed is decreasing; and a coefficient changing unitfor changing the hysteresis coefficient when a change in print speed occurs causing the print speed to decrease. Preferably the coefficient changing unit changes the hysteresis coefficient to a value greater than the hysteresis coefficient value used immediately before deceleration.

Thermal printer and thermal printer control method

Image data is processed appropriately even when there is a problem with a storage component of an image scanning apparatus. The image scanning apparatus acquires image data and stores it in local storage memory, and sends a storage result report to a terminal computer. Based on this storage result report the terminal computer determines the image data processing method. The image scanning apparatus then processes the image data according to the method determined by the terminal computer.

Image data processing method, image scanning apparatus, POS terminal, and electronic payment system

An apparatus comprising a first detector for detecting if conveyed work that has passed or is passing a specific position is or is not present at a first position; a calculator for calculating a distance traveled by the conveyed work based on the specific position; and an evaluator that determines the conveyed work was removed if the first detector does not detect the conveyed work when the conveyed work is determined to be present at the first position based on the calculated traveled distance.

Apparatus and method for detecting removal of conveyed work

An image reading apparatus having an image sensor for slips and an image sensor for card-type media is configured to switch operation between the two image sensors quickly and efficiently. The slip image sensor reads slips conveyed through a first transportation path to acquire image data from the slips. The card-type image sensor reads cards conveyed through a second transportation path to acquire image data from the cards. An active device selector selects, according to a change active scanner (change operation) command sent from a host computer, one or the other of the image sensors as the active image sensor to be driven. These control operations are also embodied in a control method for such an image reading apparatus.

Image reading apparatus and a control method for an image reading apparatus

A character reading system efficiently and quickly applies an optical verification process to detect magnetic ink character misreads. In the system, a magnetic ink character reading device reads magnetic ink characters on a processed medium and generates magnetic ink character data, an image reading device scans an image of the processed medium and generates image data, and a position calculator calculates positions of magnetic ink characters on the processed medium and generates magnetic ink character position information. A communication controller sends the magnetic ink character data, image data, and magnetic ink character position information to a host device which includes an optical recognition device that optically recognizes select magnetic ink characters from the image data based on the character position information. By selectively applying optical verification (e.g., only when character misread by the magnetic reading device is high), verification is required less frequently and high speed processing is enabled.

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Shiojiri, Japan

Yuji Takiguchi