Decoloring apparatus and method for operating the same
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKenji Yokoyama
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A decoloring apparatus includes an erasing unit configured to generate heat so as to erase an image formed on a sheet with an erasable material, a sheet storing unit to store one or more sheets, each having the image formed thereon with the erasable material, a sheet conveying unit configured to convey the sheets from the sheet storing unit to the erasing unit, a quantity sensor configured to detect a quantity of the sheets stored in the sheet storing unit, and a control unit configured to determine whether or not the detected quantity is greater than a predetermined value, and control the sheet conveying unit to convey the sheets and the erasing unit to generate heat, when the detected quantity is determined to be greater than the predetermined value.
Claims20
A decoloring apparatus comprising:
- an image decoloring device;
- a sheet storage;
- a motion detector;
- a quantity sensor configured to detect a quantity of sheets stored in the sheet storage;
- and
- a controller configured to determine whether or not the detected quantity is greater than a predetermined value, and control the image decoloring device to start image decoloring with respect to the sheets in the sheet storage at a predetermined time of day, when the controller determines that the detected quantity is greater than the predetermined value and the motion detector has detected no moving object for a predetermined length of time.
A method for operating a decoloring apparatus including an image decoloring device and a sheet storage, the method comprising:
- detecting a quantity of sheets in the sheet storage;
- determining whether or not the detected quantity is greater than a predetermined value;
- carrying out a detection process to detect a moving object around the decoloring apparatus;
- determining whether or not the moving object has been detected for a predetermined length of time;
- and
- controlling the image decoloring device to start image decoloring with respect to the sheets in the sheet storage at a predetermined time of day, based on determination that the detected quality is greater than the predetermined value and no moving object has been detected for the predetermined length of time.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a program that is executable in a decoloring apparatus to cause the decoloring apparatus to perform a method for image decoloring, the method comprising:
- detecting a quantity of sheets in a sheet storage;
- determining whether or not the detected quantity is greater than a predetermined value;
- carrying out a detection process to detect a moving object around the decoloring apparatus;
- determining whether or not the moving object has been detected for a predetermined length of time;
- and
- starting image decoloring with respect to the sheet in the sheet storage at a predetermined time of day, when it is determined that the detected quantity is greater than the predetermined value and no moving object has been detected for the predetermined length of time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.