PURPOSE: To reduce in size a whole device and to improve the reading accuracy of an original by disposing a photoelectric converter at a position which receives the reflected light of a light radiated to the original through a photoconductive passage, and providing two polarizing layers in which polarizing directions are optically displaced.

CONSTITUTION: An illumination light radiated from an illumination light source 9 is linearly polarized by a second polarizing layer 8 to be incident into a photoconductive passage 7. The light incident into the passage 7 is absorbed by a first polarizing layer 6 without transmitting from the layer 6 of the lower face of the passage 7 downward due to the layer 6 in which its polarizing direction is optically displaced at 90°. On the other hand, the light illuminated to an original 11 through the upper face of the passage directly above the vicinity of a photoconductive layer 3 of the light incident into the passage 7 is disordered in its linear polarization when it is reflected and scattered on the surface of the original 11. Thus, the reflected and scattered light passed through the passage 7 upon reflection on the original 11 can transmit the layer 6 and arrive at the layer 3 through a transparent electrode 4.