Reflective type media sensing methodology
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsChangguo Mike Yang, Chen Liu, Seng San Koh
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Abstract
A printer, which can detect a media sheet type, includes: a light emitting source and a reflector, the light emitting source being capable of emitting light in a light emission direction towards the reflector, the reflector being arranged in light emission direction and being capable of reflecting light emitted by the light emitting source in a light reflection direction; a detector being arranged such that it can detect reflected light; and a controller connected to the reflector, the controller being capable of modulating a characteristic of the reflected light.
Claims11
A printer, comprising:
- a light emitting source and a reflector, the light emitting source being capable of emitting light in a light emission direction towards the reflector, the reflector being arranged in the light emission direction and being capable of reflecting light emitted by the light emitting source in a light reflection direction,
- a detector being arranged such that it can detect reflected light,
- a controller connected to the reflector, the controller being capable of modulating a characteristic of the reflected light, and
- a feeding mechanism which moves a media sheet through a position in which the reflector is located on one side of the media sheet and the light emitting source and the detector are both located on the other side of the media sheet.
A method of detecting a media sheet in a printer, comprising the following steps:
- feeding a media sheet through a position in which a reflector is located on one side of the media sheet and a light emitting source and a detector are both located on the other side of the media sheet,
- emitting light by the light emitting source towards the reflector,
- reflecting light emitted by the light emitting source by the reflector and/or the media sheet, which has a given type and which is arranged between the light emitting source and the reflector, in a light reflection direction,
- generating a signal corresponding to the reflected light by the detector,
- modulating a characteristic of the reflected light by a controller connected to the reflector, and
- using the signal generated by the detector for detecting the media sheet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.