Ink jet recording apparatus and method for detecting faulty discharge in ink jet recording apparatus

摘要

A faulty discharge detection technique to detect faulty discharge of nozzles in an ink jet recording apparatus includes recording a test pattern onto a recording medium so as to include at least two or more reference marks in the width direction of the recording medium, reading the test pattern by a scanner unit, determining whether or not there is a faulty discharge image from image data read in the test pattern reading, and calculating faulty discharge nozzle position to, in the event that there is a faulty discharge image in the image data, detect the reference marks and detect the position of nozzles in a faulty discharge state from the position of the faulty discharge image in the image data.

主权项

1. An image processing apparatus configured to print an image on a printing medium using a printing head having at least a first nozzle array in which a plurality of first nozzles for discharging first color ink is arrayed in an arraying direction and a second nozzle array in which a plurality of second nozzles for discharging second color ink which is different from the first color ink is arrayed in the arranging direction, the image processing apparatus comprising:
a first obtaining unit configured to obtain, based on a result of reading a test pattern comprising a pattern image printed on the printing medium by using the first nozzles and a first mark printed on the printing medium by using a part of the second nozzle, first information indicating the first mark and second information indicating a distance between the first mark indicated in the first information and a faulty region within the pattern image; a second obtaining unit configured to obtain third information indicating a part of first nozzles corresponding to the part of second nozzles used for printing the first mark based on the first information obtained by the first obtaining unit; and an identifying unit configured to identify, from among the first nozzles used for printing the pattern image, a first nozzle corresponding to the faulty region based on the second information obtained by the first obtaining unit and the third information obtained by the second obtaining unit.