Patent ID: 6982815

Claim:
An image reading apparatus comprising: a document glass which supports a document at a predetermined reading-out position; a document conveying mechanism which conveys the document past the reading-out position; a scanning/reading-out mechanism moved along the document glass to scan the document set to the reading-out position and read out an image from the document; only one drive source which drives the document conveying mechanism and scanning/reading-out mechanism; switching means which allows a drive force from the drive source to be transmitted to any one of the document conveying mechanism and scanning/reading-out mechanism and selective switching to be made between their drive force transmission paths; and control means which operates the image reading apparatus in a first mode for operating the scanning/reading-out mechanism to allow the scanning of the document set to the reading-out position and the reading of an image out of the document or in a second mode for stopping the scanning/reading-out mechanism to a predetermined position and operating the document conveying mechanism to allow the scanning of the document and the reading of the image out of the document; wherein a first unit and a second unit are provided, the first unit including said document conveying mechanism and the second unit being separated from the first unit, having the scanning/reading-out mechanism and including said drive source and said control means, wherein said image reading apparatus further comprises: at least one sensor which detects the document in the first unit, wherein each sensor is connected to said control means by a corresponding optical fiber cable not exposed on the outer sides the first and second units wherein each of the corresponding fiber cables includes a first optical fiber cable disposed within the first unit and a second optical fiber cable disposed within the second unit, wherein the first and optical fiber cables are attached to each other.