JPS59127016A - Picture information reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a read speed without varying the scanning speed of a light beam by making plural light beam from a light beam generating means incident to an optical deflector, and forming plural scanning lines on a recording medium when they move by one scanning angle of the deflector. CONSTITUTION:The deflector 9 makes an X-directional deflection scan on a storage-type fluorescent material plate 10. The deflector 9 uses commonly a galvano mirror or rotary polygon mirror which rotates at a constant period as shown by an arrow and makes the scan. Light emitted by the fluorescent material plate 10 is guided to and photodetected by a photodetector 12 through a light convergent conductor 11. A picture signal from the detector 12 is converted by a current-voltage converter 13a into a voltage level, which is sampled and held by a sample holding circuit 13b with a clock CL1 and converted into the timing digital signal of a clock CL2 by an A/D converter 13c; and an electronic computer 13d performs necessary processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image information reading device that improves the reading speed of image information without changing the scanning speed of a laser beam.

It can also be applied to reading images on general originals (as recording media), but in this case, a stimulable phosphor that stores radiation image information is scanned with excitation light to emit light, and the emitted light is focused. 2. Description of the Related Art A radiation image information reading device is known that collects light with a photoconductive material and guides it to a photodetector to obtain an image signal, and this radiation image reading device will be described. In this type of reading device, a full-intensity excitation light beam is deflected by an optical deflector such as a rotating polygon mirror or a galvano mirror, and is irradiated with X-rays in an imagewise manner to generate information-forming cumulated fluorescence. The body surface is scanned in the main scanning direction and irradiated with a laser beam, which emits light (
For example, it reads image information that has been stimulated (for example, stimulated luminescence). In order to increase the reading speed, it is necessary to increase the deflection speed of the deflector, but since there is a limit to that speed, it has been difficult to increase the reading speed that much.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to increase the reading speed of radiographic image information by forming a plurality of scanning lines for each deflection scan while maintaining the deflection speed of the deflector as before. This is what I did.

The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an image reading device according to the present invention, and lenses and the like provided at various locations on the optical path are omitted. 1 and 2 are laser oscillators that generate laser beams L, , L2, and 3 and 4 are laser beams L, , and L2, respectively.
7.8 is an optical modulator that modulates L2; 5 and 6 are optical modulators that transmit only the modulated laser beam; The deflector 9 deflects and scans the two beams in the X direction on a stimulable phosphor plate 10 that moves in the direction of the white arrow. For scanning, a galvanometer mirror or rotating polygon mirror that rotates at a constant period as shown by the arrow is widely used.

FIG. 2 (()Id) is a schematic enlarged view of the irradiation state of a plurality of scanning beams in order to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and shows pixels (unit reading area) on the stimulable phosphor plate 10. It shows the relationship between G and the scanning line of the laser beam (the beam spot is indicated by a circle on page 34), and n
The laser beam L scans on the line, and the laser beam L2 scans on the n+1 line. When a laser beam is scanned on the phosphor plate 10 to excite the phosphor to emit light, the light emission amount Dn of the n line is shown in FIG. ), then
The total amount of light emitted is shown in the same figure). Returning to Figure 1 again, the light emitted from the phosphor plate 0 is transmitted to the light converging conductor 111C.
The light is guided to the photodetector 12 and photoelectrically detected. In this case, the optical modulator 3.4 is turned on and off alternately, the laser beam LH+Lt is turned on and off, and two sampling apertures A and B ( (not shown) is opened and closed as shown in Fig. 2 (E) and (F). As a result, the signal processing circuit 13 has n
A signal as shown in FIG. 2(G) is obtained as a line image signal, and a signal as shown in FIG. 2(A) is obtained as an n+1 line image signal.

The subsequent image signal processing is no different from the previous processing.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the signal processing circuit 13, and the photodetector 12
The image signal outputted from
sampled and held by clock CL1 at
The A/D converter 13c converts the clock CL2 into a timing digital signal, which is then subjected to necessary processing by the electronic computer 13d.

The above embodiment is an example in which two laser beams are used to excite and emit light for two lines of pixels in one scan, but as shown in FIG. The pixels may be arranged in a straight line, or the pixels may be arranged in an equilateral triangular arrangement as shown in FIG. 5, and a plurality of different lines may be scanned in a time-division manner for high-speed reading. In this way, the reading speed is further improved.

In FIG. 6, unlike the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the laser beam L generated from one laser oscillator is divided into a plurality of laser beams having different deflection angles in a time-sharing manner by a deflection means 15 such as an acousto-optic element. The deflector 6 scans different lines on the stimulable phosphor plate 17, and the emitted light is sent to the photodetector 19 by the condensing conductor 18.
to conduct photoelectric conversion. The image signal output from the photoelectric converter 19 is amplified by the amplifier 20 and then sent to the image processing circuit 2.
Image processing is performed by 1.

Although the above embodiment has been exemplified with respect to a reading device for radiation image information stored on a stimulable phosphor plate, the present invention can also be applied to an ordinary document reading device, and the reading speed can be improved.

As explained above, the present invention provides an image information reading device that scans an image information recording medium by deflecting a light beam with an optical deflector and obtains an image signal based on the emitted light or reflected light from the recording medium. A light beam generating means for generating a plurality of light beams is provided, the plurality of light beams from the light beam generating means are made incident on the optical deflector, and when the deflector is moved by one scanning angle, the light beams are projected onto the recording medium. Since a plurality of scanning lines are formed, the reading speed can be improved without changing the scanning speed of the light beam, and high-speed reading becomes possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 3 is an example of a signal processing circuit used in the image information reading device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 and FIG. FIG. 5 is another example of the scanning mode of the laser beam, and FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the image information reading device according to the present invention. 1.2... Laser oscillator, 3, 4... Optical modulator, 5
．． 6...Slit, 7,8...Mirror, 9.16.
...fil direction R1t.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A light beam that generates a plurality of light beams in an image information reading device that scans an image information recording medium by deflecting the light beam with an optical deflector and obtains an image signal based on the emitted light and reflected light from the recording medium. A generating means is provided, a plurality of light beams from the light beam generating means are incident on the optical deflector, and a plurality of scanning lines are formed on the recording medium by rotating the deflector by one scanning angle. An image information reading device comprising: