Patents by Inventor Akira Iwayama

Akira Iwayama has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10049264
    Abstract: According to the present disclosure, a page-turned bound medium is read continuously to acquire images, it is determined whether there is any image without the appearance of a foreign object out of the images corresponding to the same page, when it is determined that there is any image without the appearance of the foreign object, the image without the appearance of the foreign object is acquired as an output image, and when it is determined that there is not any image without the appearance of the foreign object, the images corresponding to the same page are combined to acquire the output image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: PFU LIMITED
    Inventor: Akira Iwayama
  • Patent number: 9648193
    Abstract: An image reading apparatus for bound media includes a placement table, on which a bound medium is placed, a first arm that is opposite to a bound portion of the bound medium, a second arm, a lifting unit that lifts up a turned medium of the bound medium, a second arm moving mechanism that moves the second arm, so that the turned medium lifted by the lifting unit is sandwiched between the first arm and the second arm, an arm moving mechanism that moves the first arm and the second arm, so that the turned medium turns over, a first imaging unit that performs imaging of a side of the turned medium opposite to the first arm, and a second imaging unit that performs imaging of the a side of the turned medium opposite to the second arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: PFU LIMITED
    Inventors: Akira Iwayama, Masanari Takabatake, Masahiko Kobako
  • Patent number: 9635211
    Abstract: A image reading apparatus includes a first placement unit, a second placement unit, a first reading unit, a second reading unit, a rotating mechanism, and a switch-over mechanism that switches over the first placement unit and the second placement unit between a horizontal state and an inclined state. The rotating mechanism rotates the first reading unit and the second reading unit, so that, in the horizontal state, the first image reading unit and the second image reading unit read a medium placed on the first placement unit and a medium placed on the second placement unit respectively, and, in the inclined state, the first image reading unit and the second image reading unit read a medium placed on the second placement unit and a medium placed on the first placement unit respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: PFU LIMITED
    Inventors: Akira Iwayama, Masanari Takabatake, Masahiko Kobako
  • Publication number: 20170078514
    Abstract: A image reading apparatus includes a first placement unit, a second placement unit, a first reading unit, a second reading unit, a rotating mechanism, and a switch-over mechanism that switches over the first placement unit and the second placement unit between a horizontal state and an inclined state. The rotating mechanism rotates the first reading unit and the second reading unit, so that, in the horizontal state, the first image reading unit and the second image reading unit read a medium placed on the first placement unit and a medium placed on the second placement unit respectively, and, in the inclined state, the first image reading unit and the second image reading unit read a medium placed on the second placement unit and a medium placed on the first placement unit respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2016
    Publication date: March 16, 2017
    Inventors: Akira IWAYAMA, Masanari TAKABATAKE, Masahiko KOBAKO
  • Publication number: 20160360060
    Abstract: An image reading apparatus for bound media includes a placement table, on which a bound medium is placed, a first arm that is opposite to a bound portion of the bound medium, a second arm, a lifting unit that lifts up a turned medium of the bound medium, a second arm moving mechanism that moves the second arm, so that the turned medium lifted by the lifting unit is sandwiched between the first arm and the second arm, an arm moving mechanism that moves the first arm and the second arm, so that the turned medium turns over, a first imaging unit that performs imaging of a side of the turned medium opposite to the first arm, and a second imaging unit that performs imaging of the a side of the turned medium opposite to the second arm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2016
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Applicants: PFU Limited, PFU Limited
    Inventors: Akira IWAYAMA, Masanari TAKABATAKE, Masahiko KOBAKO
  • Publication number: 20160232405
    Abstract: According to the present disclosure, a page-turned bound medium is read continuously to acquire images, it is determined whether there is any image without the appearance of a foreign object out of the images corresponding to the same page, when it is determined that there is any image without the appearance of the foreign object, the image without the appearance of the foreign object is acquired as an output image, and when it is determined that there is not any image without the appearance of the foreign object, the images corresponding to the same page are combined to acquire the output image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2016
    Publication date: August 11, 2016
    Inventor: Akira IWAYAMA
  • Patent number: 9286536
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus including a candidate pixel detector for detecting candidate pixels of boundary lines of sides of a document region, a classifier for classifying coordinates of the candidate pixels into coordinate groups, an approximate line calculator for calculating approximate lines for the boundary line based on each of the coordinate groups, a provisional line determination unit for determining a provisional line of the boundary line based on the approximate lines that is selected based on the number of candidate pixels that are within a distance from the approximate line, a shadow detector for detecting a shadow image of an edge of the document within a predetermined distance from the provisional line, and a boundary line determination unit for determining whether the boundary line is within the predetermined distance from the provisional line based on the shadow image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Masayoshi Hayashi, Hiroyuki Sakano, Akira Iwayama
  • Patent number: 9088680
    Abstract: An image reading device includes a first conveying unit that sequentially feeds a plurality of media placed in a tray one by one in a conveying direction, a second conveying unit disposed downstream of the first conveying unit in the conveying direction and conveys a medium among the plurality of media fed by the first conveying unit in the conveying direction, and an imaging unit disposed downstream of the second conveying unit in the conveying direction. The imaging unit captures an image of the medium conveyed thereto and generates image data of the medium. The image reading device detects the medium conveyed based on the image data, and stops conveying a next medium subsequent to the medium conveyed before the first conveying unit starts conveying the next medium. The image reading device resumes conveying the next medium when the medium conveyed is no longer detected based on the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventor: Akira Iwayama
  • Patent number: 9036217
    Abstract: Provided are an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a computer-readable medium storing a computer program and an image processing system cropping a document image from image data including a document region having a tab. The image processing apparatus includes a line determination unit for determining a line extending the boundary of the document region in the tab portion and a line extending the boundary of the document region in the non-tab portion, respectively, a selector for selecting, in accordance with the setting designating the outside or the inside of the document region, one line either in the outside or in the inside from the among lines determined by the line determination unit, and an image cropper for cropping an image of the document region with the selected line as a boundary line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Akira Iwayama, Masayoshi Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8879123
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus that performs a color conversion of a image expressed by coordinates of a multidimensional color space, including, a storage unit for storing lattice point data in the multidimensional color space, an address generating unit for generating addresses for reading from the storage unit the lattice point data in a first region and a second region in accordance with input values of a color signal, the first region being a region where values of all color components are equal to or larger than a first threshold, the second region being different from the first region, and an interpolating unit for generating a converted color signal by an interpolating process based on the read lattice point data. A lattice-point interval in the first region is narrower than a lattice-point interval in the second region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Junji Yagi, Akira Iwayama
  • Patent number: 8861054
    Abstract: Provided are an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a computer-readable medium storing a computer program and an image processing system improving edge detection precision at the time of flare occurrence. The image processing apparatus includes an input unit for taking image data including a document region, a first candidate detector for detecting a first candidate of an edge point constituting a boundary line of the document region by scanning binarized image of the image data with a predetermined pattern along a line, a second candidate detector for detecting a second candidate of an edge point based on differential value of pixels adjoining each other, and an edge point determination unit for determining the second candidate as an edge point when the second candidate is positioned more inside of the document region than the first candidate, and otherwise determines the first candidate as an edge point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Akira Iwayama, Toshihide Suzumura
  • Patent number: 8842350
    Abstract: Provided are an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a computer-readable medium storing a computer program and an image processing system improving precision of the calculation of boundary based on candidate pixels constituting the boundary of a side of the document region. The image processing apparatus includes a candidate pixel detector for detecting candidate pixels constituting boundary of sides of the document region, a classifier for classifying coordinates of the candidate pixels respectively detected in plural portions of the boundary into a plurality of groups, an approximate line calculator for calculating a plurality of approximate lines for the boundary based on the coordinates belonging to each of the plurality of groups, and a provisional line determination unit for determining a provisional line for the boundary of the side based on the approximate line having the largest number of candidate pixels within a prescribed distance from the approximate line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Akira Iwayama, Masayoshi Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8823995
    Abstract: An image data processing device includes a first integrated circuit, a second integrated circuit, and a third integrated circuit. The first integrated circuit includes a first image processing circuit for first image processing for image data in a first memory, and a first serial interface for direct memory access transfer between the first memory and a third memory. The second integrated circuit includes a second image processing circuit for second image processing for image data in a second memory, and a second serial interface for direct memory access transfer between the second memory and the third memory. The third integrated circuit includes a third image processing circuit for third image processing for image data in the third memory, and a third serial interface for direct memory access transfer between the third memory and the first memory, and between the third memory and the second memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Keisuke Doumae, Akira Iwayama, Hirotake Shinde
  • Patent number: 8804209
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus including, an input unit for inputting image data including a document region, a storage for storing the brightness of each pixel on a first main scan line outside the document region, a corrector for correcting the brightness of each pixel on the first main scan line in accordance with the brightness of pixels in a first part and the brightness of pixels in a second part on a second main scan line following the first main scan line, and an edge point detector for detecting an edge point of the document region situated on the second main scan line in accordance with the difference between the brightness of each pixel on the first main scan line corrected and the brightness of each pixel on the second main scan line respectively corresponding to each pixel on the first main scan line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventors: Akira Iwayama, Masayoshi Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8792106
    Abstract: An image reading apparatus includes a hopper unit, a separating unit, a reading unit, an ejecting unit, a stacking unit, a control unit, and a storage unit. The control unit includes a detecting unit that detects abnormal reading of the document read by the reading unit, an image storing unit that associates the read image and an abnormal reading result with a reading order of the document to store, a separation stacking unit that controls the ejecting unit to separate the document in which the abnormal reading is detected and the document in which the abnormal reading is not detected to eject to the stacking unit, a rereading unit that allows the reading unit to read again the document in which the abnormal reading is detected, thereby obtaining a reread image, and an image replacing unit that replaces the image corresponding to the reading order with the reread image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventor: Akira Iwayama
  • Publication number: 20140093177
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus including a candidate pixel detector for detecting candidate pixels of boundary lines of sides of a document region, a classifier for classifying coordinates of the candidate pixels into coordinate groups, an approximate line calculator for calculating approximate lines for the boundary line based on each of the coordinate groups, a provisional line determination unit for determining a provisional line of the boundary line based on the approximate lines that is selected based on the number of candidate pixels that are within a distance from the approximate line, a shadow detector for detecting a shadow image of an edge of the document within a predetermined distance from the provisional line, and a boundary line determination unit for determining whether the boundary line is within the predetermined distance from the provisional line based on the shadow image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2013
    Publication date: April 3, 2014
    Inventors: Masayoshi Hayashi, Hiroyuki Sakano, Akira Iwayama
  • Publication number: 20140085679
    Abstract: An image data processing device includes a first integrated circuit, a second integrated circuit, and a third integrated circuit. The first integrated circuit includes a first image processing circuit for first image processing for image data in a first memory, and a first serial interface for direct memory access transfer between the first memory and a third memory. The second integrated circuit includes a second image processing circuit for second image processing for image data in a second memory, and a second serial interface for direct memory access transfer between the second memory and the third memory. The third integrated circuit includes a third image processing circuit for third image processing for image data in the third memory, and a third serial interface for direct memory access transfer between the third memory and the first memory, and between the third memory and the second memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2013
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Applicant: PFU LIMITED
    Inventors: Keisuke Doumae, Akira Iwayama, Hirotake Shinde
  • Publication number: 20130265614
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus that performs a color conversion of a image expressed by coordinates of a multidimensional color space, including, a storage unit for storing lattice point data in the multidimensional color space, an address generating unit for generating addresses for reading from the storage unit the lattice point data in a first region and a second region in accordance with input values of a color signal, the first region being a region where values of all color components are equal to or larger than a first threshold, the second region being different from the first region, and an interpolating unit for generating a converted color signal by an interpolating process based on the read lattice point data. A lattice-point interval in the first region is narrower than a lattice-point interval in the second region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2013
    Publication date: October 10, 2013
    Applicant: PFU LIMITED
    Inventors: Junji Yagi, Akira Iwayama
  • Patent number: 8508812
    Abstract: An image reading apparatus includes a light source unit, an image sensor, and a light guiding unit at least including a light reflector. The light guiding unit may include a first masking shield and a second masking shield. The light source unit irradiates light toward an original. The image sensor picks up an image of the original based on reflected light of the light by the original. The light guiding unit is provided on an opposite side to the light source unit to cause a part of the light to directly enter into the image sensor, when the original is not fed to the image sensor. The light guiding unit reduces light incident to the image sensor, among the light and light having transmitted through the original, at the time of picking up the image of the original by the image sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventor: Akira Iwayama
  • Patent number: 8500021
    Abstract: In an image reading apparatus, an interference suppressing unit includes a closed-loop coil that forms a suppression area disposed in a propagation area where at least either one of the electromagnetic wave for power supply and the electromagnetic wave for transmission and reception of the ID information is propagated, and suppresses a magnetic-flux change based on the magnetic-flux change in the propagation area. At least one of an image pickup device and a carrier cable is disposed in the suppression area, and consequently, interference of the electromagnetic wave for power supply or the electromagnetic wave for transmission end reception of ID information that would otherwise propagate to a reading unit with the carrier cable thereof is suppressed. Thus, even if pickup image data of the RFID card and the ID information of the electronic tag are simultaneously obtained, the obtained pickup image data can be of high quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: PFU Limited
    Inventor: Akira Iwayama