JPH0814836B2 - Print medium discrimination device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Outline] A method of determining a medium type of a printed medium, in which image data read from a medium by a character projection processing unit is subjected to projection processing in character units of character lines and character strings, The center positions of the double-ended characters are obtained respectively, and then the number of bits between the center positions of the double-ended characters of the rows and columns is counted by the counting means, and the number of bits of the printing range of the plurality of types of media stored in the storage means is sequentially calculated. The type of the print medium can be automatically determined by reading out the number of bits counted by the counting means and sequentially collating by the collating means 12 and determining that the medium corresponds to the print range when they match. .

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a print medium discriminating apparatus for a medium on which a test character is printed, and more particularly to a print medium discriminating apparatus capable of discriminating a medium type by using image data of a print read from the medium.

[Problems to be solved by conventional technology and invention]

At the time of manufacturing a device such as a printer, a print quality inspection of a character printed on the entire printable range of a print medium is performed, and it tends to be automated. In this inspection, whether or not alignment such as print position and print interval is judged is performed. However, multiple types of print media used in the device, such as cut sheets of various sizes (such as slips and A4 size cut sheets) and passbooks. Different alignment tolerances are applied to different media (such as different printable areas because of different media sizes).

Therefore, in addition to the automation of the inspection, there is a need for a method of automatically, correctly and easily determining the type of print medium.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a print medium discriminating apparatus capable of discriminating the type of medium on which test characters are printed.

[Means for solving problems]

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention.

In the figure, 7 is a character projection processing means for reading characters of a medium on which test characters are printed on the entire printable range by a reading means and performing projection processing for each character line and character string of the read image data. Is a counting means for respectively counting the number of bits between the center positions of the characters on both sides of the rows and columns of the character projection data projected by the character projection processing means 7, and 9 is the print range of a plurality of types of media having different print ranges. Is a storage means in which the number of bits is stored as a bit number, and 10 is the number of bits between the center positions of the characters at both ends of the rows and columns counted by the counting means 8 and the number of bits of a plurality of printing ranges stored in the storage means 9. It is a collating means for sequentially collating.

Therefore, when the collation by the collating means 10 results in a match, it is determined that the medium type corresponds to the print range.

[Action]

At the time of the print quality inspection, the image data of the test character read from the medium by the character projection processing means 7 is used as a character line,
Also, the projection process is performed for each character of the character string, and the center position of each character is obtained. Next, the counting means 8 counts the number of bits between the center positions of the characters at both ends of the row and column, and the printing ranges of the plurality of types of media stored in the storage means 9 are sequentially read out, and the counting means 8 The counted number of bits and the number of bits read from the storage means 9 are sequentially collated by the collation means 10. By determining that the medium corresponds to the print range when they are matched by collation, it is possible to automatically determine the medium type.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The same reference numerals denote the same objects throughout the drawings. In FIG. 2, the ones corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are shown surrounded by a one-dot chain line.

In FIG. 2, the reading unit 2 includes a positioning / conveying mechanism 3 for setting and conveying the medium 1, an image sensor S, and an analog / digital (hereinafter referred to as A / D) conversion unit 4, and the medium 1 is printed. Read the image data of the characters and convert it to A / D.

The binarization circuit 5 binarizes the multi-tone image data sent from the reading unit 2, separates the medium surface from the printing unit, and removes noise by a median filter (not shown).

The image buffer 6 stores binarized image data.

The character projection processing unit 7a performs a projection process on a character-by-character basis for each character line and character string of the image data, and obtains the center position of the projection data of each character.

The pixel counting unit 8a counts the number of bits between the center positions of the projection data of the characters on both ends of the row and the column.

In the medium print range memory 9a, the print ranges in the row and column directions of a plurality of types of media 1 having different print ranges are stored in the number of bits corresponding to the data indicating the medium type. That is,
FIG. 3 shows a passbook A, a slip B, and an A4 size cut sheet C as types of the medium 1, and different printing ranges correspond to each other.

The comparison / determination unit 10a determines the number of bits of the printing range in the row and column directions counted by the pixel counting unit 8a, and the number of bits of the printing range in the rows and columns read from the medium printing range memory 9a. Sequential comparison is performed until they match, and when they match, it is determined that the medium type corresponds to the print range.

Further, 11 is a display (hereinafter referred to as CRT), 12 is a printer, and 13 is a control unit.

Having such a configuration and function, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Image data read from the medium 1 test-printed on the entire printable range by the reading unit 2 and binarized is stored in the image buffer 6.

The character projection processing unit 7a performs projection processing of the projection ranges Xs and Ys shown in FIG. 5 (a). FIG. 5 (b) shows the projection data of the projection range Xs.

The character center positions of the double-ended characters are obtained from the projection data.

The pixel counting unit 8a counts the number of bits Bx, By between the character center positions on both ends of the projection range Xs, Ys.

The number of bits Bx, By is sent to the comparison / determination unit 10a.

Then, the number of print range bits in the row and column directions of the medium type A is read out from the medium print range memory 9a, and the comparison / determination unit 10
sent to a.

The comparison / determination unit 10a compares the number of bits Bx, By with the number of print range bits in the medium type A row and column directions, respectively.

When they match, the medium type A is determined.

If they do not match, the number of print range bits in the row and column directions of the next medium type B is read from the medium print range memory 9a and sent to the comparison / determination unit 10a for comparison and determination, as in the subsequent flow. The determination is performed by sequentially repeating the following.

The medium types A, B, and C as the determination result are output to the CRT 11 and the printer 12.

In this way, the type of medium 1 can be automatically determined.

Therefore, it is possible to apply different tolerances of print quality depending on the type of the medium 1 to contribute to the automation of the inspection for automatically making a pass / fail judgment.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically determine the type of medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is an explanatory view illustrating the types of print media, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the embodiment, and FIG. The drawing is an explanatory view showing the printing and projection data of the printing medium of the embodiment. In the figure, 7 is a character projection processing unit, 7a is a character projection processing unit, 8 is a counting unit, 8a is a pixel counting unit, 9 is a storage unit, 9a is a medium print range memory, 10 is a collating unit, and 10a is a comparison / discrimination unit. Indicates.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A character projection processing means for reading the character of a medium on which a test character is printed on the entire printable range by a reading means and performing a projection process for each character line and character string of the read image data. And counting means for respectively counting the number of bits between the center positions of the characters on both ends of the rows and columns of the projection data of the characters projected by the character projection processing means, and the printing ranges of a plurality of types of media having different printing ranges. And the number of bits of the plurality of print ranges stored in the storage means are sequentially collated with the number of bits stored between the storage means and the center position of the characters at both ends of the row and column counted by the counting means. A print medium discriminating apparatus comprising: a collating unit, wherein when the collation by the collating unit results in a match, it is determined that the medium type corresponds to the print range.