METHOD OF DETECTING OVERLAPPING SHEETS WITHIN A PAPER FEED MECHANISM, A DETECTOR FOR DETECTING OVERLAPPING SHEETS, A FEED MECHANISM INCLUDING SUCH A DETECTOR AND AN APPARATUS INCLUDING SUCH A DETECTOR

摘要

A paper feed detector is disclosed for detecting when a plurality of overlapping sheets of paper occur in a transport path intended to transport paper to a first region. The paper feed detector includes a light source and an image forming arrangement adapted to form an image having a spatially varying intensity; and an image detector. An optical path from the light source to the image detector passes through the transport path. The image detector is adapted to assess degradation of the image to make an assessment of the number of sheets within the transport path.