Patent ID: 8810875

Claim:
An image reading apparatus, comprising: a tray on which a document is to be placed; a conveying mechanism for conveying a document placed on the document tray to a predetermined document reading position; a reader for reading an image of a document at the document reading position; a detector for detecting a sheet jam having occurred during the conveyance of a document by the conveying mechanism; an image processor for performing an image processing for removing document smear from an image read by the reader; a controller for controlling a document conveying operation by the conveying mechanism and a document reading operation by the reader; wherein: the controller stops the document conveying operation by the conveying mechanism and the document reading operation by the reader when the detector detects a sheet jam and performs a sheet jam recovery processing for causing the conveying mechanism to convey the document and causing the reader to read an image of the document if the detection of the sheet jam by the detector is cancelled because of the removal of the jammed document having caused the sheet jam and the document is placed on the document tray again after the detector detects the sheet jam; and the image processor performs the image processing on the image of the jammed document read by the reader during the sheet jam recovery processing, and wherein: if the reader has read a partial or entire image of the jammed document before the detector detects the sheet jam, the image processor: compares the partial or entire image of the jammed document read by the reader before the sheet jam and the image of the jammed document read by the reader during the sheet jam recovery processing after the sheet jam recovery processing by the controller; and performs the image processing if the both images differ and does not perform the image processing on the image of the jammed document if the both images are the same.