JP2001103227A - Information output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain high-speed processing when a rotation processing circuit is available and to execute a rotated print without awaiting the processing even when the rotation processing circuit is not available. SOLUTION: A personal computer discriminates whether or not the rotation processing circuit of a multi-function device is available in a step S13 depending on status information acquired in a step S11, and when the rotation processing circuit is available, angle information is sent in a step S14, and data not subjected to rotation processing are sent in a step S15. When the rotation processing circuit is not available, the data subjected to rotation processing by a printer driver are transmitted to the multi-function device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information output device,
In particular, a multi-function device that is electrically (wired / wireless) connected to an information processing device such as a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a “PC”) having printer driver software and has a digital copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function, and the like. And an information output device including:

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A facsimile apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-205587 [B41J 5/30, 2/44: G06T 1/00: H].
04N 1/40], for example, in a facsimile machine on the transmission side, the longitudinal direction (297 mm) of an A4 document is set in the main scanning direction and the A4 lateral direction (210 mm) is set in the sub-scanning direction. In the case where the data is read and transmitted as a main scanning A3 width by a scanner, the receiving capability of a general facsimile apparatus is only up to the B4 width, so that the read image is rotated by 90 degrees or 270 degrees and transmitted. It is known to have a rotation processing means.

In a printer device, for example, when a document created in A4 landscape on a personal computer is printed on A4 portrait paper, the document is rotated by application software on the personal computer used to create the document. Rotate with printer driver software on PC.
A method of rotating by a rotation processing unit on the printer device side is known.

[0004]

In a multi-function device having a digital copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function, and the like, for example, when the rotation processing of a print image is performed using the rotation processing means of the apparatus, the facsimile function is not used. When the first rotation processing means is used for the above reason, the print engine on the apparatus side
Despite being unused, printout cannot be performed immediately after starting printing from a personal computer, which is inconvenient. In particular, in addition to print requests from personal computers,
The psychological discomfort when the print request from the personal computer is not accepted by the apparatus side even though there is no request for the printout operation is large. When the number of facsimile transmissions requiring rotation processing is large, the user's inconvenience is even greater.

In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to prepare two rotation processing units in the multi-function device, but if this is done, the hardware of the device becomes complicated. Also, in principle, an image of one page is 90 degrees or 27 degrees.
In order to perform the rotation processing of 0 degrees or 180 degrees, an image page memory for storing one page of bitmap data is required. At the same time, when rotation transmission by facsimile as described above is necessary, For facsimile transmission, an image page memory for storing one page of bitmap data is required, and a total of two pages of page memory are required, leading to an increase in hardware cost.

On the other hand, when the print image rotation processing is performed by printer driver software or application software, the above-mentioned problem does not occur. However, since the rotation processing is performed by software on a personal computer, the number of prints is large. In this case, the processing speed is remarkably slow as compared with the case where the rotation processing is performed by a dedicated rotation processing unit prepared on the apparatus side. Further, in this case, there is a problem that the rotation processing time largely depends on the processing speed of the personal computer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a multi-function device which is more inexpensive and easy to use in rotation processing.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a multi-function device having a first rotation processing means having a digital copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function and the like, and rotating an image according to a designated rotation angle. An information output device connected to a personal computer having a two-turn processing means, wherein the personal computer is a mutual communication means capable of mutually communicating information between the multifunction device and the personal computer, and status information obtained from the multifunction device through the mutual communication means. First determining means for determining whether the first rotation processing means can be used based on the image, and an image without rotation when rotation of the image is necessary and the first determination means determines that the first rotation processing means can be used. First data transmitting means for transmitting data to the multi-function device, and rotation of the image The by necessity a and first determination means 1
An information output apparatus comprising: a second data transmission unit that transmits image data rotated by the second rotation processing unit to the multifunction device when it is determined that the rotation processing unit cannot be used.

[0009]

The multifunction device is provided with first rotation processing means for rotating image data at high speed in accordance with a designated rotation angle of, for example, 90 degrees / 270 degrees / 180 degrees / 0 degrees. The personal computer has printer driver software (hereinafter referred to as "printer driver") incorporated therein.
And a second rotation processing means for rotating the image. This printer driver provides an intercommunication means between the personal computer and the multi-function device, and provides information on the paper that can be printed from the multi-function device and the first information.
Information such as whether the rotation processing unit is in use or unused is taken in as status information. In the personal computer, the first determining means determines whether the first rotation processing means is available based on the status information. When the rotation of the image data is necessary and the first rotation processing means can be used, the first data transmission means transmits the image data without rotation to the multi-function device. Therefore, the first rotation processing means of the multifunction device performs rotation processing on the image data from the personal computer, and provides the rotation to the print engine.

However, when rotation is necessary and the first rotation processing means is unavailable, the second data transmission means sends the image data rotated by the second rotation processing means to the multifunction device. Therefore, in the multifunction device, the rotated image data is printed as it is by the print engine.

When the image data from the personal computer is rotated by the first rotation processing means, the first data transmission means transmits angle information to be rotated to the multi-function device by the first rotation processing means. Can be printed by rotating the print data according to the designated angle.

Further, by providing the multi-function device with the message display means, it is possible to inform the user that the direction of the document needs to be changed because the first rotation processing means cannot be used.

[0013]

According to the present invention, when the first rotation processing means of the multifunction device can be used, image data from a personal computer can be printed at a high speed by using the first rotation processing means. When the processing means is not available, it can be rotated using the second rotation processing means of the printer driver.

[0014] Further, by providing a display means in the multifunction device, it is possible to prompt the user to change the direction of the document to be transmitted and to transmit the document. Therefore, the multifunction device is low in cost and excellent in operability for the user. Can be provided.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An information output device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 includes a multi-function device 11, which comprises a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD and an optical system. The scanner 12 includes a scanner 12 that scans a document (not shown) and reads a document image. The scanner 12 is used, for example, when using a digital copy function and a facsimile function. The analog image signal output from the scanner 12, that is, the CCD, is input to the image processing circuit 14. As is well known, the image processing circuit 14 includes an A / D converter (not shown), converts an input image signal into image data, and further performs shading correction and binarization on the image data. And outputs bitmap data. The scanner 12 outputs a synchronization signal CCD-
The signal HSYNC is output and supplied to the image processing circuit 14 and to the DDMAC circuit 16. Therefore, the image processing circuit 14 outputs image data in synchronization with the synchronization signal CCD-HSYNC, and the DDMAC circuit 16 controls DMA transfer of the DRAM 18 in synchronization with the synchronization signal.

The DDMAC circuit 16 controls the writing of data to the DRAM 18 and the reading of data therefrom, that is, the control when data transfer is performed by the DMA (Direct Memory Access) method, and includes five DMA channels (DDMA1-DDMA5). ) Can be controlled.

The bit map data from the image processing circuit 14 is input to a first line memory 20 or a page memory 22 which is formed in a part of the DRAM 18. The first line memory 20 has an area capable of storing, for example, 64 lines of bitmap data.
Under the control of the C circuit 16, it receives bitmap data from the image processing circuit 14. The page memory 22 has an area capable of storing bitmap data for one page, and performs a rotation process (for example, 90 degrees or 27 degrees) on image data.
(0 °) is required, the bitmap data is received from the image processing circuit 14 under the control of the DDMAC circuit 16.

The first line memory 20 and page memory 22 have the same DR as a later-described code memory 44.
It is formed in AM16. The transfer of image data from the image processing circuit 14 to the DRAM 18 is controlled by the DDMA 1.

The rotation processing circuit 24 is a first rotation processing means, and is a circuit for performing rotation processing on bitmap data read from the first line memory 20 or the page memory 22 in accordance with the DDMA2. Specifically, it is shown in FIG. That is, the rotation processing circuit 24
It has two buffer groups 26 and 28 that receive bitmap data W_DATA from DRAM 16, and each buffer group 26 and 28 has 16 (16 words) buffers A0-A15 and B0-B15 each having a 16-bit width. including. Each buffer A0 in the buffer group 26
The bitmap data written to and read from -A15 is provided to the first reordering circuit 30. Similarly, the bitmap data from each of the buffers B0 to B15 of the buffer group 28 is supplied to the second rearrangement circuit 32. The outputs of the two rearrangement circuits 30 and 32 are selectively output by the selector 34 and output as read data R_DATA.

The rotation processing circuit 24 is, for example, RO
The control circuit 36 includes an M decoder, and the control circuit 36 supplies write signals WE_A0-WE_A15 and W to each of the buffers A0-A15 and B0-B15.
E_B0-WE_B15 are supplied, and a selection signal S is supplied to the selector 34. Control circuit 36
Further includes a request signal REQ for a DMA transfer described later.
_DDMA2 and REQ_SDMA1, and an acknowledge signal ACK for the DMA request.
_DDMA2 and ACK_SDMA1 are received. The control circuit 36 outputs the above-mentioned write signal and selection signal at a predetermined timing in response to the DMA request signal and the acknowledge signal.

That is, when a rotation process of 90 degrees or 270 degrees is required, the rotation processing circuit 24 controls the writing and reading of the data in the two buffer groups 26 and 28, so that the image on the page memory 22 is controlled. The image data is output as if the data were scanned in the direction shown in FIG.

Returning to FIG. 1, the read data R_DATA from the rotation processing circuit 24 is given to the second line memory 38 under the control of the SDMAC circuit 40 (SDMA1). As the second line memory 38, for example, a single-board SRAM having a width of 65536 (64 KW) × 16 bits is used, and the main scanning direction is composed of 512 words. Image data for a line can be stored. Also, one block is configured as 16 lines,
As shown in FIG. 4, the second line memory 38 stores a total of eight blocks of image data.

The SDMAC circuit 40 has a synchronization signal PRINT-HSY from a print engine 48 (described later).
The SRAM, that is, the second line memory 38 is synchronized with the NC.
Is controlled. That is, the SDMAC circuit 4
0 controls the writing of data to the SRAM 38 and the reading of data therefrom by the DMA method, and includes three DMA channels (SDMA1-SDM).
A3) can be controlled.

The bitmap data (image data) stored in the second line memory 38 is in accordance with SDMA3.
It is provided to the facsimile encoding circuit 42 where the MM
It is R-coded. The MMR-encoded image data is sequentially stored in the code memory 44 included in the DRAM 16 according to the DDMA3. The bitmap data stored in the second line memory 38 is further supplied to a print video I / F circuit 46, that is, a print engine 48 in accordance with SDMA2. Note that the encoding processing time of one line of the facsimile encoding circuit 42 is determined by the scanner 1
2 is set so that the time is one cycle or less of the synchronization signal CCD-HSYNC. This is to prevent the encoding line from overtaking the image data line.

The print video I / F circuit 46 receives the video map data in a bit-parallel manner in accordance with SDMA2, converts the data into a parallel-serial format, and supplies the data to the print engine 48 as bit-serial data.

On the other hand, the multifunction device 11
When the printer function is used, print data (code data) from the personal computer 50 is transmitted to the printer interface 52.
Given to. As is well known, the personal computer 50 includes a printer driver 51.
Although not shown, a rotation processing unit serving as a second rotation processing unit is included. The printer interface 52 includes an IEEE1284 I / F 54 which is a connection means or an intercommunication means between the personal computer 50 and the multi-function device 11, and the personal computer 50 determines what kind of paper can be printed through the I / F 54, and a rotation processing circuit. Status information such as whether 24 is available is obtained.

The print data sent from the personal computer 50 to the I / F 54 is, for example, run-length compressed (uncompressed) data, and the code data is stored in the code memory 56. The code data stored in the code memory 56 is decoded by the decoding circuit 58, and is stored as bitmap data in the page memory 22 when the rotation processing by the rotation processing circuit 24 is necessary in accordance with DDMA3 by the DDMAC circuit 16. When the rotation processing is not required, the data is transferred to the third line memory 60. Third
The image data stored in the line memory 60 is a DDMA
According to 5, the video print I / F circuit 46, that is, the print engine 48 is provided.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, the multifunction device 11 includes a microcomputer or a processor, as is well known, and controls the overall operation shown in FIG. 5 described later.

First, in the case of facsimile transmission, the microcomputer (not shown) of the multi-function device 11
The original is read by the scanner 12 as shown in the first step S1. Image data from the scanner 12 undergoes predetermined digital signal processing by the image processing circuit 14. In addition, the microcomputer determines whether it is necessary to rotate the image data in the next step S2 in consideration of the document insertion direction and the like.

When the image rotation processing is not required, the bitmap data from the image processing circuit 14 is stored in the first line memory 20 according to the DDMA1. DMA
The C circuit 16 outputs a synchronization signal CC output from the scanner 12.
To receive the D-HSYNC, the bitmap data is input to the first line memory 20 line by line in synchronization with the synchronization signal CCD-HSYNC. The image data stored in the first line memory 20 is sent to the facsimile encoding circuit 42 according to DDMA4 and subjected to MMR encoding, and the encoded data is stored in the code memory 44 according to DDMA3 (step S5).

At this time, the hardware is automatically controlled so that DDMA4 does not overtake DDMA1. By performing the overtaking control by hardware, in software, the maximum number of transfer words that can be set in the DDMA 4 and the maximum number of lines that can be set in the number of coding lines of the facsimile coding circuit 42 are set in advance. After the image reading by the scanner 12 is completed,
By writing "0" to the transfer word number of the DMA4 and "0" to the number of processing lines of the encoding circuit 42, the encoding process can be easily terminated without burdening software.

Next, when rotation processing is necessary, the microcomputer
In the next step S3, it is determined whether the rotation processing circuit 24 is available. That is, it is determined whether or not the rotation processing circuit 24 is occupied by the personal computer 50 at that time.

When the rotation processing is necessary and the rotation processing circuit 24 is usable, the microcomputer causes the rotation processing circuit 24 to execute the rotation processing in step S4.
When the image is rotated by 90 degrees, the image data from the scanner 12, that is, the image processing circuit 14, is output from the synchronization signal CCD-H
In synchronization with SYNC, the page memory 22
Is input to The binary bitmap data for one page stored in the page memory 22 is converted by the DDMA2 into
The page memory 4 is read by scanning as shown in FIG. 3A, and the bitmap data read from the page memory 22 is transferred to the rotation processing circuit 24.

As described above with reference to FIG. 2, the rotation processing circuit 24 has two buffer groups 26 and 28 each having a 16-bit width × 16 words. As shown in FIG. 6, the bitmap data is rearranged, and the rearranged bitmap data is sequentially stored in the second line memory 38 by the SDMA 1 as shown in FIG.

The bitmap data stored in the second line memory 38 is encoded by the facsimile encoding circuit 42 according to SDMA3. At this time, by automatically passing each other by hardware,
Encoding processing by the facsimile encoding circuit 42 (specifically, SDM controlled by the SDMAC circuit 40)
A3) is a write to the second line memory 38 (specifically, an SDMA controlled by the SDMAC circuit 40).
1) is prevented, and writing (SDMA1) to the second line memory 38 is performed by encoding (SDMA1).
Prevent 3) from overtaking. That is, considering the rotation at 90 degrees or 270 degrees, the second line memory 3
8 is divided into eight blocks of 16 lines as shown in FIG. 4, and the upper three bits of the address to the second line memory 38 are used as pointer addresses to these eight blocks.
Overtaking control is realized by this pointer address.

By performing the overtaking control by hardware, in software, the number of lines for one page is previously stored in SDMA3, and the number of lines for one page is also stored in the number of coding lines of the facsimile coding circuit 42. If it is set, it is only necessary to wait for the encoding process, so that the load on the software can be reduced. The maximum number of lines that can be set is set, and after the image reading by the scanner 12 is completed, “0” is written to the number of transfer words of the DDMA 4 and “0” is written to the number of processing lines of the encoding circuit 42, respectively. , The encoding process can be easily terminated.

When the rotation process is necessary and the image is rotated by 270 degrees, the page memory 2 is rotated as shown in FIG.
2 is different from that in the case of 90 degrees, and the subsequent processing is the same as in the case of 90 degrees rotation.

In the case where the rotation is necessary but the rotation processing circuit 24 cannot be used, the facsimile processing has been awaited as it is in the prior art. In this embodiment, however, in the step S6 of FIG. Using the display device 11 (not shown), a warning message such as "Please change the direction of the original" is displayed. This prompts the user to change the direction of the original and transmit the original. This allows the user to execute facsimile transmission even while the personal computer 50 is using the rotation processing circuit 24.

Next, the operation when printing the print data from the personal computer 50 using the print engine of the multi-function device 11 will be described with reference to FIG.

In the first step S11 of FIG. 7, the personal computer 50 transmits the multifunction device 1 through the IEEE interface 54 of the printer interface 52.
The status information is fetched from one microcomputer. This status information includes information indicating whether the rotation processing circuit 24 is in use, in addition to information such as the type of paper that can be printed.

Then, the personal computer 50 executes the next step S
At 12, it is determined whether a rotation process is necessary for printing the print data. This can be determined by referring to the paper direction and the like set in the printer properties.

If the rotation process is not required, the personal computer 50
The printer driver 51 transmits the print data to the third line memory 60 via the interface 52 without performing the rotation processing as shown in step S15. The print data stored in the third line memory 60 is applied to the print video I / F 46, that is, the print engine 48 according to the DDMA 5, and is printed out.

When the rotation process is necessary, the personal computer 50
In step S13, the multi-function device 1 refers to the status information previously fetched in step S11.
It is determined whether one rotation processing circuit 24 is available.

When the rotation processing circuit 24 is available, the printer driver 51 of the personal computer 50 transmits the necessary rotation angle (90/90) through the printer interface 52.
270 degrees) to the multifunction device 11 in step S14, and print data that has not been rotated in step S15. The non-rotation data is stored in the page memory 2 according to the DDMA3.
2 and sent to the rotation processing circuit 24 according to DDMA2. The subsequent rotation processing is the same as described above, and a description thereof will be omitted. As described above, if the rotation processing circuit 24 of the multifunction device 11 is vacant, the rotation processing is performed on the multifunction device 11 side instead of the rotation processing on the personal computer 50 side. Can be executed.

When the print data of the personal computer 50 is rotated by the rotation processing circuit 24, the print data after the rotation processing is stored in the second line memory 38. For example, when the data of six lines is stored, the SDMA2 is stored.
To the print video I / F circuit 46. At this time, hardware control is performed automatically so that SDMA2 does not overtake DDMA1.

When the rotation is necessary but the rotation processing circuit 24 cannot be used, the printer driver 51
After the print data is rotated, the rotated data is sent to the third line memory 60.

When data is sent from the third line memory 60 to the print video I / F 46, the decoding time for one line of the printer decoding circuit 58 of the printer interface 52 is determined by the synchronization signal PRIN of the print engine 48.
T-HSYNC, a synchronizing signal CCD of the scanner 12
-Within one cycle of HSYNC, DDM
It can be guaranteed that A5 does not overtake DDMA3.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an information output device including a multifunction device and a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a rotation processing circuit in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative view two-dimensionally showing a scanning order (an address generation order) on a page memory in a case of performing a rotation process of 90 degrees or 270 degrees in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view showing a method of storing data in a second line memory at the time of rotating 90 degrees or 270 degrees in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation when facsimile transmission is performed using a facsimile function of the multifunction device in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an illustrative view showing a processing method of a rearrangement circuit unit in the rotation processing circuit of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation when printing data from a personal computer using the printer function of the multifunction device in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Multifunction apparatus 12 ... Scanner 14 ... Image processing circuit 16 ... DDMAC circuit 18 ... DRAM 20 ... 1st line memory 22 ... Page memory 24 ... Rotation processing circuit 38 ... 2nd line memory 40 ... SDMAC circuit 42 ... QM coder 44 , 56 ... code memory 46 ... print video I / F circuit 48 ... print engine 50 ... personal computer 52 ... printer memory 54 ... IEEE1248 I / F 58 ... printer decoding circuit 60 ... third line memory

Continuation of the front page F term (reference) 2C061 AP03 AP04 HH05 HJ06 HK11 HN15 5B021 AA01 AA02 AA05 BB02 DD03 EE01 LB06 5B057 AA11 CC01 CD04 CH12 DA07 DA15 DA16 DC08 5C062 AA02 AA05 AA15 AB21 AB20 AB21 AB AA24 BA02 BA03 BA04 CA02

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A multifunction device having a digital copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function and the like and having a first rotation processing means for rotating an image according to a designated rotation angle, and a personal computer having a second rotation processing means. An information output device connected, wherein the personal computer is based on status information acquired from the multifunction device through the mutual communication means capable of mutually communicating information between the multifunction device and the personal computer. First determining means for determining whether or not the first rotation processing means is available; image without rotation when rotation of the image is necessary and the first determining means determines that the first rotation processing means can be used; First data transmission means for transmitting data to the multifunction device, A second data transmission unit for transmitting image data rotated by the second rotation processing unit to the multi-function device when the first rotation processing unit determines that the image rotation is necessary and the first rotation processing unit cannot be used; An information output device comprising: 2. The information output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first data transmission means transmits angle information to be rotated by said first rotation processing means to said multi-function device. 3. The multi-function device scans a document and outputs image data. 2. An image data output unit, a second determination unit that determines whether the image data needs to be rotated, and a first rotation processing unit. 3rd to determine if is available
When the determination unit and the second determination unit determine that rotation is necessary, and when the third determination unit determines that the first rotation processing unit cannot be used, the user is prompted to change the direction of the document. 3. The information output device according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit for displaying a message.