Patent ID: 8422895
Filing Date: 2013-04-16
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a carrier element that carries developers; an image forming unit that transfers the developers to the carrier element; a patch mark generation unit that controls the image forming unit to generate, an irradiation unit, that irradiates light onto the carrier element; a specular reflected light detection unit that detects the light irradiated onto the carrier element by the irradiation unit and specularly-reflected by the carrier element or the patch marks, wherein a diffuse reflected light detection unit that detects the light irradiated onto the carrier element by the irradiation unit and diffusely-reflected by the carrier element or the patch marks, wherein a correction unit that corrects at least one of the values detected by the specular reflected light detection unit and the values detected by the diffuse reflected light detection unit using a correction value; a correction condition determination unit that determines the correction value for the correction unit according to a difference between the first specular detected value and the second specular detected value and a difference between the first diffuse detected value and the second diffuse detected value; and a density calculation unit that calculates a density of the third patch mark based on the third specular detected value and the third diffuse detected value, which have been corrected by the correction unit using the correction value determined by the correction condition determination unit, wherein the image forming unit determines image forming conditions based on the density calculated by the density calculation unit and forms an image.