Optical sensor and image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKatsuhiro Ishido
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical sensor includes a first LED, a second LED, a first PD, and a second PD. The first LED and the second LED are configured to irradiate an optical-axis center point of an intermediate transfer belt. The first PD is arranged at a position at which specularly reflected light of light emitted from the first LED and diffused reflected light of light emitted from the second LED are received. The second PD is arranged at a position at which diffused reflected light of the light emitted from the first LED is received.
Claims13
An optical sensor configured to measure an unfinished measurement image formed with toner, the optical sensor comprising:
- a substrate;
- a first light emitting element formed on a predetermined surface of the substrate;
- a second light emitting element formed on the predetermined surface;
- a first light receiving element, which is formed on the predetermined surface, configured to receive specularly reflected light, wherein the specularly reflected light is changed with an amount of toner of the unfinished measurement image in a case where the first light emitting element emits light to the unfinished measurement image;
- and
- a second light receiving element, which is formed on the predetermined surface, and is configured to receive diffused reflected light, wherein the diffused reflected light is changed with the amount of toner of the unfinished measurement image in a case where the second light emitting element emits light to the unfinished measurement image.
An image forming apparatus configured to form an image on a sheet based on an image forming condition, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image forming unit configured to form the image with toner;
- an image bearing member, on which a measurement image is to be formed;
- a sensor configured to measure reflected light from the measurement image on the image bearing member;
- and
- a controller configured to control the image forming unit to form the measurement image, control the sensor to measure the measurement image, and control the image forming condition, based on a measurement result of the measurement image by the sensor,
- wherein the sensor includes:
- a substrate;
- a first light emitting element formed on a predetermined surface of the substrate;
- a second light emitting element formed on the predetermined surface;
- a first light receiving element, which is formed on the predetermined surface, configured to receive specularly reflected light from the measurement image in a case where the first light emitting element emits light to the measurement image;
- and
- a second light receiving element, which is formed on the predetermined surface, configured to receive diffused reflected light from the measurement image in a case where the second light emitting element emits light to the measurement image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.