JP2003032409A - Image data processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that a conventional whiteboard device is not sufficient for transmitting information since only a recording part is provided to record an image on a whiteboard on recording paper as a recording function. SOLUTION: The image on the whiteboard is read and stored on an image data storage medium. Besides, the whiteboard is equipped with a surface writing part for writing the image on the whiteboard on the basis of image data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data processing system, and more particularly to an image data processing system using a whiteboard.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A whiteboard has a large screen in which images can be freely written / erased and has a large screen. Therefore, it is a convenient information transmission means for exchanging data, opinions and intentions among a plurality of people. Is used as. Further, a whiteboard device having a recording means for recording an image written on a whiteboard on a paper and storing the contents of discussions and discussions at meetings, conclusions and the like is widespread.

[0003]

Since the conventional whiteboard device has no recording means other than the recording means for recording an image on paper, a variety of image data storage media other than paper are in widespread use today. The whiteboard device is not functioning sufficiently and is becoming an insufficient means for transmitting information.

For example, there are the following inconveniences. (1) When the data written on the whiteboard is stored in a magnetic storage medium or a semiconductor storage medium, the information recorded on the paper is converted into character data using a personal computer or the like, or the device is converted using a scanner. It is necessary to perform processing such as conversion to image data that can be handled. (2) When using a whiteboard to convey information to the other party, it is necessary to read it from an information source and write it on the whiteboard by hand, but writing by hand is slow and lacks accuracy. Not necessarily appropriate. (3) When transmitting information to the other party using the whiteboard, the communicator spends time and energy on the work of writing the information on the whiteboard and erasing the previous information in order to write new information. And the transmission of information is neglected.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the conventional whiteboard device, and incorporates the whiteboard into the image information processing system of the present day which makes it possible to make full use of the image information in various forms. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an image information processing system useful for transmitting information by increasing the utility value of the board.

[0006]

The above-mentioned objects of the present invention are achieved by the following inventions.

1. A whiteboard on which an image can be written / erased, a whiteboard device including a board surface reading unit that reads an image on the whiteboard to generate image data, and a first communication unit, and a document image is read to generate image data An image reading unit, a printing unit for forming an image on a recording sheet, and image data generated by the whiteboard device, the image data storing medium capable of storing at least one screen of image data of the whiteboard; An image forming apparatus including an image processing unit having a second communication unit connected to the first communication unit, generating an image data by reading an image formed on the whiteboard, and the generated image An image data processing system characterized in that data is stored in the image data storage medium.

2. A whiteboard on which an image can be written / erased, a whiteboard device including a board writing unit that writes an image on the whiteboard based on image data, and a first communication unit, and a document image is read to generate image data. A document reading unit, a printing unit that forms an image on a recording sheet, and an image data storage medium that is image data generated by the whiteboard device and that can store at least image data for one screen of the whiteboard. ,
An image forming apparatus having an image processing unit having a second communication unit connected to the first communication unit, and the board writing unit based on image data stored in the image data storage medium. An image data processing system, wherein an image is formed on the whiteboard according to the above.

3. The whiteboard device includes a board writing unit that writes an image on the whiteboard based on image data, and the whiteboard writing unit writes the whiteboard based on the image data stored in the image data storage medium. 3. The image data processing system as described in 2 above, wherein an image is formed on the image data processing system.

4. The image processing unit has a registration unit that registers image data generated by the document reading unit or image data transmitted from an external device in the image data storage medium. The image data processing system according to item.

5. 5. The image data processing system according to 4, wherein the registration unit takes in image data from another first image data storage medium other than the image data storage medium and registers the image data in the image data storage medium.

6. 6. The image data processing system according to 4 or 5, wherein the registration unit registers image data in the image forming apparatus in a removable second image data storage medium other than the image data storage medium. .

7. 7. The image data processing system according to any one of 1 to 6 above, wherein the printing unit records the image data generated by the board surface reading unit on a recording sheet.

8. The image data storage medium is a RAM,
Flash ROM, hard disk, memory card,
8. The image data processing system according to any one of 1 to 7 above, which comprises a floppy (R) disk or a readable / writable compact disk.

9. The other first image data storage medium is
6. The image data processing system as described in 5 above, which comprises a detachable compact flash (R) card, a memory stick or a floppy (R) disk.

10. 7. The image data processing system according to 6, wherein the other removable second image data storage medium is a removable compact flash (R) card, memory stick or floppy (R) disk.

[0017]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a device configuration and a data flow of an image data processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A is an image forming apparatus, and the image processing unit 10
0, a document reading unit 104, a printing unit 105, and an operation / display unit 106.

The image processing section 100 is a section for processing, accumulating, and transmitting to the outside the image data generated in the image forming apparatus A and the image data taken into the image forming apparatus A from the outside. The image processing unit 100 has the configuration shown in FIG. 2, and the configuration and its function will be described later. The document reading unit 104 has an automatic document feeder and a reading unit including an optical system for reading an image of a document conveyed by the automatic document feeder and an image sensor, and reads an image of the document OR to generate image data.

The printing unit 105 is a device that forms an image on recording paper based on image data by an electrophotographic method and outputs a printed matter PM, for example, an arbitrary printing method other than the electrophotographic method, such as an ink jet method or a thermal method. A printing section using technology can be used.

B is a whiteboard device, and the control unit 2
00, whiteboard 201, board surface reading unit 205, board surface writing unit 206, and operation unit 210.

The control unit 200 processes the image data generated in the whiteboard device B or the image data fetched from the outside, and transmits the image data to the outside. Control unit 2
00 has the configuration shown in FIG. 2, which will be described later. The board surface reading unit 205 has, for example, a sensor array including 2048 sensors, and scans the whiteboard 201 to generate binary image data. The board surface reading unit 205 includes a color sensor, reads a color image, and generates color image data. The board writing unit 206 is a writing unit that writes an image on the whiteboard 201. For example, the image is written on the whiteboard 201 by an inkjet method using a water-based ink. The board writing unit 206 can write a color image.

The board surface reading unit 205 and the board surface writing unit 206 are both of a type that moves to scan the whiteboard 201 or a fixed type. The whiteboard 201 is fixed when the board reading unit 205 and the board writing unit 206 are movable, and the whiteboard 2 is fixed when these are fixed.
01 moves.

In the image data processing system according to this embodiment, the board surface reading unit 205 reads an image written on the whiteboard 201 to generate image data, and transmits it to the image forming apparatus A as data D1. In the image forming apparatus A, processing, storage, recording, etc. are performed.

The whiteboard 201 is written with a water-based ink using a writing instrument such as a felt-tip pen.
The written image can be erased. Therefore,
As a writing mode of the whiteboard 201, like a conventional whiteboard, a writing tool is used to write characters, patterns, images, etc., and the written image is erased, and the board writing unit 206 follows the image data. There is a mode to write characters, patterns, pictures, etc. By using both modes in combination, for example, the board writing unit 20
6 can be used to write a frame of a table or a fixed part of a document, and by manually supplementing the contents of the table or individual contents other than the fixed part, it is possible to create summarized information. It is also possible to use the board writing unit 206 to write a prepared question on the whiteboard 201 and write the answer by hand.

Further, when the conference is suspended, an intermediate record at the time of suspension is read by the board surface reading unit 205 to store image data, and the intermediate data is stored based on the image data stored at the time of restarting the conference. It is also possible to reproduce the record on the whiteboard 201 and use it for discussion, or add it to complete the record of the conference.

Like the conventional whiteboard device, the whiteboard device B is provided with a cleaning device for erasing the image on the whiteboard 201, and the image read by the board surface reading unit 205 is recorded on a recording paper. It is also possible to provide a recording unit for this. The above parts are bus BUS2
Connected by.

C is an external device such as a personal computer, workstation, server, etc., which generates and processes image data,
accumulate.

The image forming apparatus A is a whiteboard apparatus B.
Is connected to the external device C, and the data flow indicated by D1 to D5 is possible. D1 is data transmitted from the whiteboard device B to the image processing unit 100 of the image forming apparatus A, D2 is data transmitted from the image processing unit 100 to the board writing unit 206 of the whiteboard device B, and D3 is Data transmitted from the document reading unit 104 to the image processing unit 100, and D4 indicates data transmitted from the image processing unit 100 to the printing unit 105. D5 is the image processing unit 100
2 shows a bidirectional data flow between the external device C and the external device C.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the image information processing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

The image processing unit 100 uses C as a registration means.
The PU 101, the ROM 102, the memory 103 as an image data storage medium, the interface 107 for the document reading unit 104, the interface 108 for the printing unit 105,
It has an interface 109 as a second communication means for communicating with the whiteboard device B, an interface 110 as a communication means for communicating with the external device C, and an interface 111 for the operation / display unit 106.

The CPU 101 controls the entire image forming apparatus A, registers and reads image data. ROM 102
Is a read-only memory that stores programs and data. The memory 103 stores image data, and temporarily stores the data when processing various data including the image data. The memory 103 has a capacity capable of accumulating at least one screen of an image formed on the whiteboard 201.

As the memory 103, there are a memory fixedly installed in the image forming apparatus A and a memory removably installed. Specifically, RAM, flash ROM, hard disk, memory card, floppy (R) disk or readable / writable compact disk (CD) can be used as the image data storage medium. The operation / display unit 106 operates the whiteboard device B and displays the contents of communication with the whiteboard device B, in addition to the operation / display function of the conventional image forming apparatus. The above-mentioned units are connected by a bus BUS1.

The control unit 200 of the whiteboard device B is
CPU 202, ROM 203, RAM 204, interface 207 for board surface reading unit 205, board surface writing unit 20
6 has an interface 208, an interface 209 as a first communication unit for communicating with the image forming apparatus A, and an interface 211 for the operation unit 210.
The CPU 202 controls the entire whiteboard device B.
The ROM 203 stores control programs and data, and the RAM 204 temporarily stores data such as image data. The image forming apparatus A and the whiteboard apparatus B are connected by a bus BUS3.

An image is formed on the whiteboard 201 by hand writing or by the board writing unit 206. The formed image is read by the board surface reading unit 205, and the generated image data D1 is stored in the memory 103 of the image forming apparatus A. In transmitting the image data D1, the image data may be transmitted in real time.
A certain amount, preferably one screen, is accumulated in the RAM 204 and transmitted from the RAM 204 to the memory 103.

As described above, the memory 103 has a capacity of at least one screen, and the whiteboard device B
The image data D1 for one board surface transmitted from the device is stored.
In the memory 103, in addition to the image data D1 transmitted from the whiteboard device B, the image data D3 generated by the document reading in the document reading unit 104 and the image data D5 transmitted from the external device C are accumulated. The CPU 101 of the image forming apparatus A can perform various kinds of processing including synthesizing the image data D1, D3, and D5.

The image data in the memory 103 is printed by the printing unit 10.
5, is printed on a recording sheet, is output as a printed matter PM, and is also transmitted to and displayed on the external device C.

The image data in the memory 103 is also D
2 is transmitted to the whiteboard device B. The board writing unit 206 forms an image on the whiteboard 201 based on the sent image data D2.

The operation of the entire image information processing system is performed using the operation unit / display 106 of the image forming apparatus A. A list of image data stored in the memory 103 is displayed on the operation / display unit 106, and the operator selects image data to be transmitted to the whiteboard device B from the display contents of the operation / display unit 106, and the whiteboard is displayed. The operation of writing to 201 can be performed.

The image reading by the whiteboard device B can be performed from the operation / display unit 106 of the image forming device A or the operation unit 210 of the whiteboard device B.

The following image data processing is performed by the image data processing system shown in FIGS. (1) Processing of information created on whiteboard The image written on the whiteboard 201 by hand or by the board writing unit 206 is read by the board reading unit 205, and the generated image data is accumulated in the memory 103. From the accumulated image data, not only the image can be reproduced on the whiteboard 201 by the board writing unit 206, but also the image forming apparatus A performs a process such as editing, and the printing unit 105 records the image on recording paper. can do. Further, the image data processed by the image forming apparatus A can be stored in the memory 103. Furthermore, memory 1
If 03 is a removable memory, the memory 10
3 can be attached to another image data processing device to use the image data, and it is also possible to store the image data in the memory 103 in the other image data processing device and use it in the whiteboard device B. is there.

The above-mentioned reading, storage and whiteboard device B
CPU 101 performs handshaking of image data between
Done by. The CPU 101 is not only a registration means for storing and registering the image data in the memory 103 in this way, but also copies the data from the image data storage medium to another image data storage medium.

Further, it is possible to transmit the image data generated by the whiteboard device B to any external device via the image forming device A and the external device C, and the communication means such as the Internet. (2) Writing the image on the whiteboard The board surface writing unit 206 forms an image on the whiteboard 201 based on the image data stored in the memory 103 or the image data transmitted from the external device C. .

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an image processing unit in the image data processing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the image forming apparatus A has a memory 103.
Other image data storage medium E or F can be mounted. The CPU 101 as a registration unit reads the image data from the other mounted first image data storage medium E, copies it to the memory 103, reads the image data from the memory 103, and forms an image on the whiteboard 201. Further, the CPU 101 can read the image data from the memory 103 and register the image data in another mounted image data storage medium F.

As the image data storage media E and F, a compact flash (R) card, a memory stick, a floppy (R) disk, etc. can be used.

[0046]

According to the invention of claim 1, 3 or 4, the image on the whiteboard is stored as image data in the image data storage medium. Therefore, when the information created on the whiteboard is used, Since it is possible to easily perform not only reproduction but also modification, addition, and fusion with other information, the whiteboard device can be widely used as a means for transmitting information.

According to the second or third aspect of the present invention, an image based on the image data can be formed on the whiteboard, so that the information to be transmitted can be displayed on the whiteboard quickly and accurately. Therefore, accurate and speedy information transmission becomes possible. In addition, since you can use the whiteboard to write the frame of the table, the fixed part of the image information, the problem, etc. in the board writing section, and write the individual information and answers by hand, you can exchange information using the whiteboard in various ways. Be converted.

According to the invention of claim 5 or 6, the image data stored in the image data storage medium can be copied to another image data storage medium. It becomes possible to change and use.

According to the invention of claim 7, since the image on the whiteboard can be recorded on the recording paper by using the image forming apparatus, the gradation image and the color image can be obtained without complicating the structure of the whiteboard apparatus. As a result, the image on the whiteboard can be recorded, and the whiteboard can be used as a more advanced information transmission means.

Since various storage media can be used according to the invention of claim 8, 9 or 10, the information is stored in an appropriate form in accordance with the amount, purpose and nature of the information produced on the whiteboard. It will be possible to process and use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a device configuration and a data flow of an image data processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an image data processing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an image processing unit according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 image processing unit 101, 202 CPU 102, 203 ROM 103 memory 104 document reading unit 105 printing unit 106 operation / display unit 107, 108, 109, 110, 207, 208, 2
09, 210 Interface 200 Control unit 201 Whiteboard 204 RAM 205 Board reading unit 206 Board writing unit A Image forming device B Whiteboard device C External device D1 to D5 Data E, F Image data storage medium

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A whiteboard on which an image can be written / erased, a whiteboard device including a board surface reading unit that reads an image on the whiteboard and generates image data, and a first communication unit, and an original image is read. A document reading unit that generates image data,
An image data storage medium capable of storing at least one screen of the whiteboard, which is image data generated by a printing unit that forms an image on recording paper and the whiteboard device, and the first communication. An image forming apparatus having an image processing unit having a second communication unit connected to the image forming unit, the image forming unit reads the image formed on the whiteboard, generates image data, and generates the image data. An image data processing system characterized by accumulating in a data accumulating medium. 2. A whiteboard capable of writing / erasing an image, a whiteboard device having a board writing unit for writing an image on the whiteboard based on image data, and a first communication unit, and an original image read. A document reading unit that generates image data,
A printing unit that forms an image on a recording sheet; and an image data storage medium that stores image data generated by the whiteboard device, the image data being at least one screen of the whiteboard; An image forming apparatus including an image processing unit having a second communication unit connected to a communication unit, wherein the white surface is written by the board writing unit based on image data stored in the image data storage medium. An image data processing system characterized by forming an image on a board. 3. The whiteboard device includes a board surface writing unit that writes an image on the whiteboard based on image data, and the board surface writing unit writes the board surface based on the image data stored in the image data storage medium. The image data processing system according to claim 2, wherein an image is formed on the whiteboard by a unit. 4. The image processing unit has a registration unit for registering the image data generated by the document reading unit or the image data transmitted from an external device in the image data storage medium. The image data processing system according to any one of items 1 to 3. 5. The image according to claim 4, wherein the registration unit acquires image data from another first image data storage medium of the image data storage medium and registers the image data in the image data storage medium. Data processing system. 6. The registration means registers the image data in another removable second image data storage medium other than the image data storage medium in the image forming apparatus. The image data processing system described in. 7. The image data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit records the image data generated by the board surface reading unit on a recording sheet. 8. The image data storage medium comprises a RAM, a flash ROM, a hard disk, a memory card, a floppy (R) disk, or a readable / writable compact disk. The image data processing system according to item 1. 9. The image data processing system according to claim 5, wherein the other first image data storage medium comprises a removable compact flash (R) card, memory stick or floppy (R) disk. . 10. The image according to claim 6, wherein the other removable second image data storage medium comprises a removable compact flash (R) card, memory stick or floppy (R) disk. Data processing system.