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EP-4266660-B1 - INSPECTION APPARATUS, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SAME, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

EP4266660B1EP 4266660 B1EP4266660 B1EP 4266660B1EP-4266660-B1

Inventors

  • KOBAYASHI, MASATO

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20230323

Claims (16)

  1. An inspection apparatus (110) comprising: data obtaining means (305) for obtaining image data of inspection target printed material read by an image reading means; displaying means (320) for displaying a settings screen on a display unit of the inspection apparatus or an external apparatus, said settings screen including a scanned image (604) of the inspection target printed material; setting means (602, 623, 700) for setting a predetermined region (605, 801-810) in the scanned image of the inspection target printed material as an inspection region via the settings screen, and for setting, via the setting screens and with respect to the inspection region, an inspection setting relating to reference data for checking data formed on the inspection target printed material and read by the data obtaining means, deriving means (302, 305) for deriving reference data defined by a predetermined rule according to a setting content of the inspection setting set by the setting means, and for associating the derived reference data with the inspection region set by the setting means, wherein the reference data are numerical values that increase or decrease within a page or across pages of the printed material according to the predetermined rule, and detecting means (302, 305) for detecting a defect in the inspection target printed material by comparing the image data read by the data obtaining means from a region in the inspection target printed material corresponding to the inspection region set by the setting means and the corresponding derived reference data associated with that inspection region.
  2. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data defined by the predetermined rule corresponds to numerical values of sequential numbers increasing or decreasing across pages of the inspection target printed material.
  3. The inspection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for setting an ascending order or descending order setting, a starting number, an offset indicating an increase or decrease in a numerical value, and a number of digits of a numerical value as inspection settings for the numerical values of the sequential number, via the settings screen.
  4. The inspection apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for setting an interval indicating an increase or decrease in a numerical value for each predetermined page of the printed material as the inspection settings for the numerical values of the sequential numbers, via the settings screen.
  5. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for setting a repeat number for the sequential numbers as the inspection settings for the numerical values of the sequential numbers, via the settings screen.
  6. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for setting whether or not to exclude the inspection region from being an inspection target if blank as the inspection settings for the numerical values of the sequential numbers, via the settings screen.
  7. The inspection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for setting, for the number of digits that can be set via the settings screen, a portion of digits of numerical values formed in the inspection region.
  8. The inspection apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the settings means is adapted to display the portion of digits of the number of digits that can be set on the settings screen, and to display numerical values of other digits grayed out.
  9. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for applying setting content set for one inspection region to other inspection regions via the settings screen.
  10. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the settings means is adapted to allow for setting an orientation of a character in a region set as the inspection region via the settings screen.
  11. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the inspection apparatus is connected to an image forming apparatus that outputs a printed material, and wherein the inspection apparatus further comprises: outputting means (302, 305) for outputting the inspection result to the image forming apparatus, and stopping means (302, 305) for stopping printing from being performed when the image forming apparatus receives the inspection result indicating detection of a defect.
  12. The inspection apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the inspection apparatus is further connected to a finisher that executes post-processing on a printed material, and the inspection apparatus further comprises: outputting means (302, 305) for outputting the inspection result to the finisher, and dividing means (302, 305) for, in the finisher, dividing and outputting normal printed materials and printed materials with a defect.
  13. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 12, wherein the image data defined by the predetermined rule included in the inspection region corresponds to numerical values derived using a predetermined function, and the settings means is adapted to allow for setting, via the settings screen, an initial value and how said numerical values increase or decrease from the initial value according to the predetermined function.
  14. The inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 13, wherein the image data defined by the predetermined rule included in the inspection region corresponds to date and time information indicating a date and/or a time.
  15. A control method for an inspection apparatus comprising: obtaining (S501) image data of inspection target printed material read by an image reading means; displaying a settings screen on a display unit of the inspection apparatus or an external apparatus, said settings screen including a scanned image (604) of the inspection target printed material; setting (S512) a predetermined region (605, 801-810) in the scanned image of the inspection target printed material as an inspection region via the settings screen, and setting (S403), via the settings screen and with respect to the inspection region, an inspection setting relating to reference data for checking data formed on the inspection target printed material and read by the data obtaining; deriving (S513) reference data defined by a predetermined rule according to a setting content of the inspection setting set in the setting, and associating the derived reference data with the inspection region set by the setting, wherein the reference data are numerical values that increase or decrease within a page or across pages of the printed material according to the predetermined rule; and detecting (S903) a defect in the inspection target printed material by comparing the image data read in the data obtaining from a region in the inspection target printed material corresponding to the inspection region set by the setting and the corresponding derived reference data associated with that inspection region.
  16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to execute the steps of the control method according to claim 15.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus, a method for controlling the same, and a storage medium. Description of the Related Art The inspection of printed materials has typically been carried out manually. However recently, apparatuses that automatically perform an inspection as part of the post-processing of printer are being used. Such inspection apparatuses register correct image data in advance. Thereafter, the submitted image data is printed out on a sheet by an image forming apparatus, and the data printed out on the sheet is read by a sensor provided in the inspection apparatus. The image data read by the sensor is compared to the correct image data initially registered to detect a defect in the printed material. Hereinafter, an inspection to detect a defect in the design portion of the printed material is referred to as printed image inspection. Also, together with printed image inspection, an inspection of a variable region portion (variable data), such as a character string or barcode, found in variable printing is performed. Examples include a data readability inspection for checking whether or not a character string or barcode can be read and a data check inspection for checking the reading result of a character string or barcode with the correct result. Hereinafter, data readability inspections and data check inspections are referred to as data inspections. In data inspections, because the user is Optical Character Reading (OCR), character font, i.e., data including character shape images and character codes associated together, must be generated. Note that the process of generating a character font is referred to as character shape registration. Also, sequential number inspection is one type of data inspection. Sequential number inspection includes inspecting data including numerical values, such as IDs, page numbers, dates, and the like, that are sequentially listed on a page or across pages of an inspection target image. The technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2020-67732 and US 2020/128135 A1 are related to data inspection in variable printing and includes generating a plurality of correct images by combining inspection regions with always fixed content and variable inspection regions with changing content. Inspection of the variable inspection regions is performed using reference data generated manually in advance and stored in a database. However, the known technique described above has the following problems. For example, in the data inspection according to the known technique described above, manually generating and registering the reference data (check inspection data) requires a large amount of effort when there is a large amount of data to be inspected. Also, there is a problem that mistakes tend to be made when manually generating the reference data. US 2021/374926 A1 relates to a system for checking labels after they have been made to confirm that they are correct and sufficiently defect-free. JP 2021/111873 A relates to an image inspection system with an image inspection unit which performs image inspection on the basis of region setting information in which an inspection target region to be a target of image inspection or an inspection exclusion region not to be a target of image inspection is set as an inspection related region. JP 2022/050129 A relates to an image forming apparatus with an inspection unit for inspecting whether an image formation failure has occurred by comparing an image read by a reading unit with a reference image registered in advance, which executes the inspection in a first inspection mode or a second inspection mode. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention enables realization of a system for suitably generating check inspection data for inspection. The present invention in its first aspect provides an inspection apparatus as specified in claims 1-14. The present invention in its second aspect provides a control method as specified in claim 15. The present invention in its third aspect provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as specified in claim 16. Further features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration including an inspection apparatus according to an embodiment.FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of an image forming apparatus 100 according to an embodiment.FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of an inspection apparatus 110 according to an embodiment.FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the entire inspection processing according to an embodiment.FIG. 5 is a flowchart of detailed settings in an inspection method according to an embodiment.FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an UI screen of inspection s