Aug. 4, 1970 R. J. VARSON ETAL 3,522,434
PHOTOCELL AND CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR AN AUTOMATIC PAGE TURNER
Filed Nov. 12, 1968 5 Sheets-Sheet 1

24

VACUUM
SOURCE

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INVENTORS
Robert I Varson
Robert L. Johnson
Aannef

ATTORNEY


Aug. 4, 1970 R. J. VARSON ET AL 3,522,434
PHOTOCELL AND CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR AN AUTOMATIC PAGE TURNER
Filed Nov. 12, 1968 5 Sheets-Sheet 2

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SOURCE 3



United States Patent Office

3,522,434
Patented Aug. 4, 1970

1

3,522,434
PHOTOCELL AND CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR AN
AUTOMATIC PAGE TURNER
Robert J. Varson, Washington, D.C., and Robert L. John-
son, Waldorf, Md., assignors to the United States of
America _as represented by the Secretary of Commerce
Filed Nov. 12, 1968, Ser. No. 774,734
Int. Cl. GO9E 11/08; HO1j 39/12

US. Cl. 250—208 11 Claims

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A circuit is described for testing the operation of a
page turner and for controlling the turner and a related
camera. A vacuum head, positioned on a revolving arm,
turns the pages of a bound volume and a brush flattens
each turned page. When a page is not tuned or the
arm is reset, the camera remains inoperative. When more
than one page is turned or a page is turned but not
flattened, the turner is inactivated. The turner is stopped
after a spot on a predetermined page is sensed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

invention may be used to coordinate the opera-
tion of a camera and an automatic page turner, and to
test and control the operation of the turner, whereby the
pages in a bound volume can be automatically turned,
flattened and photographed in sequence.

One type of tuner that may be controlled by the
present invention is described in copending application
Ser. No. 715,343, entitled “Automatic Sheet Turner
Using Rotating Vacuum Head,” which was filed on Mar.
22, 1968 by Anthony A. Berlinsky et al. and was issued
on Dec. 23, 1969, as U.S, Pat. No. 3,484,970, In the co-
pending application, a vacuum head is rotated around its
longitudinal axis and is also revolved in a selected plane
on the end of a revolving arm. As the head engages the
edge of a page of a booklet held flat on a vacuum table,
the page is attracted to the head. As the head continues to
rotate the page is turned. A brush sweeps the turned page
to flatten it against the table.

‘The control circuit, described here, monitors and con-
trols the operation of the page turner so that when more
than one page is tuned, or a page is turned but not
flattened, the tumer is stopped. The circuit includes an
interlock between the camera and page turner so that
when a page is not turned or the arm is reset, the camera
is not operated. The circuit responds to a spot on a se-
lected page to stop the turner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, a control cir-
cuit is provided for an automatic page turner. Under
normal operating conditions, the pages of a bound vol-
ume are turned automatically, flattened, and photo-
graphed in sequence. When a single page is turned dur-
ing a cycle of operation, the control circuit actuates a
camera to photograph the turned page. If more than
one page is turned, or if a page has been turned but
not flattened, the circuit inactivates the page turner. When
a page is not turned or the turner is inactivated and then
reset, the control circuit prevents operation of the camera
during the cycle of operation. When a spot on a prede-
termined page is sensed, the turner is stopped.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a pictorial representing the cooperation of
some of the elements of the present invention with a
camera and an automatic page turner;

FIG, 2 illustrates the cooperation of some of the com-

10

4a

55

60

05

70

2

ponents in the present invention with components in the
copending application;

FIG. 3 shows a vacuum head and two of the photocells
used in the control circuit in FIGS. 4A and 4B;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram that represents the assembly
of FIGS. 4A and 4B;

FIGS. 4A and 4B comprise an embodiment of the con-
trol circuit in the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a timing chart used in explaining the opera
tion of the cams shown in FIG, 2; and

FIG. 6 is a sequence chart used in explaining the test
operations of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED
EMBODIMENT

When switch 13 in FIG. 2 is closed, AC power source
14 energizes motor 15 to drive shaft 16. If drive clutch
20 is engaged and brake 21 released, shaft 18 will be
driven through shafts 12, 19 and gear reduction boxes
11, 17. Shaft 18 in turn drives the mechanism in auto-
matic page turer 22 (FIG. 1) which causes arm 39
(FIG. 3) to revolve in a selected plane. Vacuum head 42
is rotatably mounted on arm 39 by means of bearings
47.

When arm 39 is revolved in its selected plane, head 42
rotates around its longitudinal axis. The output of vacu-
um source 27 (FIG. 1) is applied to the head during a
time interval that starts prior to the time that the head
engages an edge of the top page of booklet 23 and ex-
tends to the time after the head passes over the center of
the booklet. Thus, as the head engages a corner of the
top page of booklet 23, which is held flat on table 24 by
vacuum source 27, the page is attracted to the head and
turned. After the page has been turned, it is flattened
by brush 80, which revolves with arm 39,

Page turner 22 employs two vacuum heads 42, posi-
tioned 180° apart, on the arm 39 as illustrated sche-
matically in FIG. 6. One of the heads is represented in
FIG. 1 and shown in greater detail in FIG. 3.

‘The details of page turner 22 (which operate arm 39,
heads 42, and brush 80) are shown in the copending
application. Switch 13, source 14, motor 15, shafts 16,
418 and gear reduction box 17 are also shown in the latter
application.

Brushes 29, 30 and 31 are in contact with rings 33, 34
and 35, respectively, on commutator 36 in FIG. 2. The
commutator is mounted on shaft 37 which is connected
to shaft 18 by means of coupling unit 38, The brushes
are mounted in a fixed position on vacuum stand 32 (not
shown) in the copending application.

As represented in FIG. 4A, photocells 44 and 45 are
connected through rings 33, 34 and brushes 29, 30 as
the input of amplifier 46, and relay K121 forms the out-
put of 46. Likewise, photocells 49 and 50 are connected
through rings 34, 35 and brushes 30, 31 as the input to
amplifier 51, while relay K123 forms the output of 51.

Relays K121 and K123 are dark operated. More spe-
cifically, when a certain level of light, e.g. the light from
a source passing through a single sheet of paper, falls
‘on photocell 44 the resistance of the photocell is such
that amplifier 46 operates relay K121. Further, when
another level of light, e.g. the light from the same source
passing through two or more sheets of the same type of
paper, falls on photocell 49, amplifier 51 operates relay
K123,

Photocells 44 and 49 are positioned on a support mem-
ber 54 (FIG. 3) connected to peeler 48 by conventional
means (not shown). If a plane is drawn through the cen-
ter of vacuum head 42 and parallel to the surface of
table 24, the faces of the photocells are positioned in
another plane making a 45° angle with the former one.
Photocells 45 and 50 are located in the same manner as