A reading module has a light source, an optical system imaging, as image light, reflected light of the light radiated from the light source to the document, and a sensor converting the image light imaged by the optical system into an electrical signal. The optical system has a mirror array in which reflection mirrors are coupled together in an array in the main scanning direction and an aperture stop portion having a first aperture adjusting the amount of image light reflected from a reflection mirror and a second aperture shielding stray light that enters the first aperture from an adjacent reflection mirror. The second aperture is arranged at such a position as to be able to shield stray light passing through a boundary between the reflection mirrors and the center of the first aperture when the mirror array contracts to the maximum extent in the main scanning direction.

A computer peripheral that may operate as a scanner. The scanner captures image frames as it is moved across an object. The image frames are formed into a composite image based on computations in two processes. In a first process, fast track processing determines a coarse position of each of the image frames based on a relative position between each successive image frame and a respective preceding image determine by matching overlapping portions of the image frames. In a second process, fine position adjustments are computed to reduce inconsistencies from determining positions of image frames based on relative positions to multiple prior image frames. The peripheral may also act as a mouse and may be configured with one or more navigation sensors that can be used to reduce processing time required to match a successive image frame to a preceding image frame.

A reading method guidance apparatus includes a receiving unit, an acquisition unit, and a guidance unit. The receiving unit receives a document size that is a size of a document as a reading target. The acquisition unit acquires an image of at least a partial area in the document. The guidance unit provides an operator with guidance about a reading procedure when the document is read by a first reading apparatus in plural batches, using a feature amount obtained from the acquired image, the received document size, and a readable size that is a size of an area readable by the first reading apparatus.

A document size detecting apparatus includes a first acquisition unit, a second acquisition unit, and a detector. The first acquisition unit acquires a first image that is an image of an entire document as a reading target. The second acquisition unit acquires a second image that is an image of a part of the document read by a first reading apparatus. The detector detects a size of the document using a result of a matching process between the first image and the second image and a read size that is a size of the second image read by the first reading apparatus.

A printing apparatus comprises: a printer that includes a printing mechanism that performs printing on a printing medium, the printing mechanism being provided in a print area; a housing that includes an opening region for exposing the printing mechanism to outside; and a guiding mechanism that represents a position of the print area. The guiding mechanism is provided at a position directly above the print area and visible from outside. Accordingly, when a user performs printing on the printing medium using this printing apparatus, the user can easily grasp a position of the print area by means of the guiding mechanism, and therefore can print on a desired position on the printing medium.

There is provided a scanner that combines images read by a first sensor array and a second sensor array, in which the first sensor array and the second sensor array have read regions which are overlapped partially, and includes a combining section that combines a first read image read by the first sensor array and a second read image read by the second sensor array and a correction section that corrects an image after a combining based on a degree of displacement of a reading position of the document.

A reading module has a light source, an optical system imaging, as image light, reflected light of the light radiated from the light source to the document, and a sensor converting the image light imaged by the optical system into an electrical signal. The optical system has a mirror array in which reflection mirrors are coupled together in an array in the main scanning direction and an aperture stop portion having a first aperture adjusting the amount of image light reflected from a reflection mirror and a second aperture shielding stray light that enters the first aperture from an adjacent reflection mirror. The second aperture is arranged at such a position as to be able to shield stray light passing through a boundary between the reflection mirrors and the center of the first aperture when the mirror array contracts to the maximum extent in the main scanning direction.

A printing apparatus comprises: a printer that includes a printing mechanism that performs printing on a printing medium, the printing mechanism being provided in a print area; a housing that includes an opening region for exposing the printing mechanism to outside; and a guiding mechanism that represents a position of the print area. The guiding mechanism is provided at a position directly above the print area and visible from outside. Accordingly, when a user performs printing on the printing medium using this printing apparatus, the user can easily grasp a position of the print area by means of the guiding mechanism, and therefore can print on a desired position on the printing medium.

An image processing apparatus capable of performing pixel synthesis processing at high speed. Synthesis processing of a first object and a second object is performed for an area where the first object and the second object overlap each other. A first image formation processor stores first pixel data, which corresponds to the area, of pixel data of the first object, in a first communication memory and stores second pixel data, which corresponds to the area, of pixel data of the second object, in a second communication memory. A second image formation processor acquires the first and second pixel data from the first and second communication memories, respectively, and performs synthesis processing of the acquired first and second pixel data.

A method, and document scanner system, for correcting image values recorded by an optical document scanner with multiple color cameras arranged in a staggered configuration with overlap scan areas includes storing color correction values mapped to respective color index values, where a color correction value is computed from a color difference between a first color value and a second color value of the respective overlap sets, and correcting a third color value which is a color value from the second set of color image values by a color correction value which is looked up via a color index value determined from the third color value. Thereby color variations among staggered cameras are corrected.