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US 5,471,277 AGranted
Book document reading device having a page turning capability
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsTetsuya Fujioka, Kazunori Bannai, Hiroshi Takahashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a book document reading device having a page turning capability, a turn belt has a flat portion at the underside thereof and is supported by a turn roller. The turn roller selectively moves the turn belt to a first position where the flat portion of the belt electrostatically attracts the uppermost leaf of a book document, which is spread on a table, in contact with the leaf, or to a second position where the belt is spaced apart from the book document while carrying the uppermost page therewith. When the turn belt is moved from the first position to the second position, a scanning unit is caused to stop moving. This allows the leaf of the document to surely adhere to the turn belt.
Claims24
A device for reading a book document, comprising:
- a document table for setting the book document in a spread position face up;
- page turning means for turning a page of the book document;
- and
- a scanning unit supporting said page turning means for scanning the book document;
- said page turning means comprising:
- a belt made of a dielectric material;
- support means over which said belt is passed such that said belt has a flat portion at an underside thereof;
- drive means for rotating said belt in a direction in which said scanning unit moves;
- electric field generating means for generating an electric field on said belt for electrostatically attracting an uppermost leaf of the book document and separating said uppermost leaf from other leaves;
- and
- moving means for moving said support means between a first position where said flat portion of said belt contacts the uppermost leaf of the book document for attracting said uppermost leaf, and a second position where said flat portion is spaced apart from said book document while carrying said uppermost leaf therewith to thereby separate said uppermost leaf from other leaves;
- the device further including at least one page feed roller which contacts said belt to form a nip between said belt and said page feed roller when said support means is in said second position, and wherein a leaf of said book document is fed into said nip between said belt and said page feed roller.
9 more elements
A device for reading a book document, comprising:
- a document table for setting the book document in a spread position face up;
- page turning means for turning a page of the book document;
- and
- a scanning unit supporting said page turning means for scanning the book document;
- said page turning means comprising:
- a belt made of a dielectric material;
- support means over which said belt is passed such that said belt has a flat portion at an underside thereof;
- drive means for rotating said belt in a direction in which said scanning unit moves;
- electric field generating means for generating an electric field on said belt for electrostatically attracting an uppermost leaf of the book document and separating said uppermost leaf from other leaves;
- and
- moving means for moving said support means between a first position where said flat portion of said belt contacts the uppermost leaf of the book document for attracting said uppermost leaf, and a second position where said flat portion is spaced apart from said book document while carrying said uppermost leaf therewith to thereby separate said uppermost leaf from other leaves;
- wherein said page turning means further comprises air blowing means for blowing air against said flat portion of said belt while said flat portion of said belt is holding a leaf of said book document.
9 more elements
A device for reading a book document, comprising:
- a document table for setting the book document in a spread position face up;
- page turning means for turning a page of the book document;
- and
- a scanning unit supporting said page turning means for scanning the book document;
- said page turning means comprising:
- a belt made of a dielectric material;
- support means over which said belt is passed such that said belt has a flat portion at an underside thereof;
- drive means for rotating said belt in a direction in which said scanning unit moves;
- electric field generating means for generating an electric field on said belt for electrostatically attracting an uppermost leaf of the book document and separating said uppermost leaf from other leaves;
- and
- moving means for moving said support means relative to a remainder of said scanning unit between a first position where said flat portion of said belt contacts the uppermost leaf of the book document for attracting said uppermost leaf, and a second position where said flat portion is spaced apart from said book document while carrying said uppermost leaf therewith to thereby separate said uppermost leaf from other leaves, and wherein said moving means moves at least a portion of said flat portion of said belt in a direction away from said other leaves during movement from said first position to said second position;
- wherein said moving means moves said support means such that when said scanning unit is moved in a page turning direction, said support means is moved to said second position while carrying the uppermost leaf therewith, and said scanning unit is moved in said page turning direction with said support means held in said second position, and then said support means is moved to said first position when said belt is past a bound portion of the book document.
9 more elements
A device for reading a book document comprising:
- a document table for supporting a book document;
- a scanning unit for scanning said book document, said scanning unit including a platen through which said book document is optically scanned;
- a page turning belt mounted upon said scanning unit for attracting and feeding a leaf of said book document during a page turning operation;
- and
- means for moving said scanning unit during a page turning operation;
- wherein said page turning belt is mounted on a trailing side of said scanning unit relative to said platen with respect to movement of said scanning unit during a page turning operation, such that a leaf of said book document is attracted to said page turning belt at a trailing side of said scanning unit relative to said platen during a page turning operation.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.