PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15935124
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2019-09
Patent Classification: ["399", "015000"]

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment includes an image acquisition unit, a heating unit, a presence-or-absence-of-an-image determination unit, an image formation unit, a determination unit, and a heating control unit. The image acquisition unit reads an image on a sheet. The heating unit heats the sheet. Based on the image that is read by the image acquisition unit, the presence-or-absence-of-an-image determination unit determines whether the image is printed on the sheet. The image formation unit forms the image on the sheet using a decolorable toner that is decolorized by heating the sheet to a prescribed temperature and a non-decolorable toner that is not decolorized although the sheet is heated. The determination unit determines whether to supply power to the heating unit, depending on an instruction which the decolorable toner is decolorized and on determination by the presence-or-absence-of-an-image determination unit whether the image is printed on the sheet.

Claim (Index 19):
A decolorization apparatus comprising:\n an image acquisition unit configured to optically read an image on a sheet; a heating unit configured to heat the sheet; a presence-or-absence-of-an-image determination unit configured to determine whether or not the image is printed on the sheet, based on the image that is read by the image acquisition unit; an image formation unit configured to form the image on the sheet using one or both of a decolorable toner that is decolorized by heating the sheet to a prescribed temperature or above and a non-decolorable toner that is not decolorized although the sheet is heated to the prescribed temperature or above; a determination unit configured to determine whether or not to supply power for heating the sheet to the heating unit, depending on determination of whether or not an instruction for the sheet to be heated by the heating unit to a temperature at which the decolorable toner is decolorized is input and additionally on determination by the presence-or-absence-of-an-image determination unit of whether or not the image is printed on the sheet; a heating control unit configured to control the heating unit based on the determination by the determination unit; and an image position acquisition unit configured to acquire information indicating a position of the image that is printed on the sheet, on the sheet, based on the image on the sheet that is read by the image acquisition unit, wherein the heating unit includes a plurality of heat source units, wherein the heating control unit individually controls the heat source unit, wherein the determination unit determines individual operation of the heat source unit, based on the information indicating the position that is acquired by the image position acquisition unit, wherein the heating control unit individually controls the heat source units based on the determination by the determination unit, wherein if the density of a color of the image that is printed on the sheet is low, the determination unit determines that the heat source unit is operated in such a manner that an amount of heat that is small when compared with a case where the density is high is provided to the sheet, and wherein the heating control unit individually controls the heat source unit based on the determination by the determination unit.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 3.24
- Patent Class: 399.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14482554', '15069965', '14718380', '15364058', '13493059']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8134229453531943
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4758407847358054
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7796647292914554
- Mean Citation Score: 229.325942
- Max Citation Score: 239.62762
- Similarity Product: 193.8195273403907

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test