Sheet Reusability Determination Using Area-Specific Erasure Thresholds
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional erasing apparatuses determine sheets with defective parts as unsuitable for reuse, limiting the reuse rate of sheets with incomplete erasure or stains, especially in areas that do not significantly affect readability.
Innovation Solution
An erasing apparatus with a controller and memory that differentiates threshold values for each image area, determining the sheet's reusability based on erasing quality and area type, allowing sheets with minor defects in non-critical areas to be reused, while ensuring critical areas meet higher erasure standards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a uniform threshold value is used for the entire sheet to determine reusability, then the quality standard for reuse is maintained, but the reuse rate of sheets decreases due to rejecting sheets with minor defects in non-critical areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by dividing the sheet into multiple areas (first area with important information and second area with less important information) and assigning different threshold values to each area. This allows the system to maintain high quality standards for critical regions while being more lenient in non-critical regions, thereby increasing the overall reuse rate without compromising essential quality requirements.
2Reliability
If sheets with defective parts are determined as unsuitable for reuse, then the quality control is strict, but the number of reusable sheets decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sheet into different areas based on the importance of information contained in each region. By segmenting the evaluation criteria into area-specific threshold values, the system can accept sheets that would otherwise be rejected under a uniform strict standard, thus increasing the quantity of reusable sheets while maintaining appropriate quality control for each segment.
3Device complexity
If a single threshold value is applied to all areas, then the determination process is simple, but the optimization of sheet utilization is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic threshold determination approach where the threshold value varies depending on the specific area being evaluated. Instead of a static uniform threshold, the system dynamically selects appropriate threshold values based on the area classification (first area or second area), enabling optimized sheet utilization while maintaining a relatively simple determination process.
Data Source
AI summary
A determination apparatus comprises a memory and a controller. The memory stores the area data of a plurality of areas divided in a specific form. The controller acquires a scanned image after an erasing processing is carried out for a sheet on which the specific form is printed, determines the state of the sheet subjected to the erasing processing by differing a threshold value for each image area associated with the area data and determines whether or not the sheet is reusable based on the result of the determination.