Abstract: Disclosed herein is a battery module constructed in a structure in which unit modules are horizontally stacked while the unit modules are vertically erected, wherein the battery module includes a base plate on which the unit modules are horizontally stacked while the unit modules are vertically erected, a pair of side plates fixed to the base plate at lower ends thereof such that the side plates are brought into tight contact with outer surfaces of the outermost unit modules, and a housing fixed to the base plate in a structure to surround the unit modules, the housing being provided at the inside thereof with supporting parts for supporting upper ends of the side plates, respectively.

Abstract: In an image processing technique for binarizing an image scanned by a shuttle type scanner in a multifunctional machine using a small amount of memory, after scanning pixels of one slice from a document, each pixel of the scanned slice are binarized using a mask. The processing results of the error values generated during binarizing of final pixels of a plurality of slices of the band are stored in a first memory, and the processing results of error values generated during binarizing of each of the pixels of the scanned slice are stored in a second memory. When each of the first pixels of a plurality of slices in the next band are binarized, the processing results of the error values of the final pixels of a plurality of slices in the previous band, stored in the first memory, are scanned and then binarized. By using minimum band memories, the cost of the multifunctional machine can be reduced.

Abstract: A multifunctional machine for scanning and printing and a scanning and printing method used in the multifunctional machine are capable of reducing the volume of the multifunctional machine and reducing data amount relative to parts other than a document when scanning a document smaller than a reference size document. The document or a printable medium is fed in a sub-scanning direction by a feeding unit. A scanner module scans the document by performing shuttle movement in a main scanning direction perpendicular to the sub-scanning direction, and a printer module is established next to the scanner module in the sub-scanning direction for printing data onto the printable medium. In addition, a white panel is located facing the bottom side of the scanner module in the main scanning direction, and a black panel is located facing the bottom side of the printer module in the main scanning direction.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for detecting a document size when the width of a document to be scanned is smaller than an effective scan width of a scanner module. One block of a document support plate is scanned before a document to be scanned is fed and a data value of the scanned block is stored as a reference color data value. After pre-scanning a first block of the document, dividing the document block, widthwise, into a predetermined number of slice, determining whether the reference color data value and a color data value of an Nth slice of the document block are equal, where N is initially set to one, increasing N by one, when it is determined that the reference color data value and the color data value of the Nth slice of the document block are not equal and repeating the determining step, setting a value of the document size to be equal to N−1, when it is determined that the reference color data value and the color data value of the Nth slice of the document block are equal.