JP2001238024A - Job executing device and job executing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a job executing device capable of deciding a job for chang ing optionally set job contents information, thereby changing the decided job contents information by an input system different from the input system in which the decided job contents information is inputted. SOLUTION: The job for changing the job contents information inputted by a job contents information inputting means for inputting a plurality of jobs is decided, and change information for changing at least one part of the decided job contents information is inputted from the input system different from the job contents information inputting means, then the job contents information is changed according to the inputted change information, thus the job is executed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a job execution device and a job execution method for inputting job content information indicating the content of a job for image information and executing a job for image information in accordance with the job content information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There has been known a job execution apparatus which inputs job content information indicating the content of a job corresponding to image information and executes a job corresponding to the image information in accordance with the job content information. For example, in a copying machine, a facsimile, etc., a separator of a document is clarified using a separator sheet or the like,
The control of the separation is instructed by an input device such as a control panel or the operation instruction information of the job corresponding to the mark printed on the separator sheet has already been input to the machine. Some perform routine jobs. A job processing apparatus using this type of paper user interface is disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 4,757,348.

[0003]

However, for example, as shown in US Pat. No. 4,757,348, when job content information is inputted using a job control sheet, the job content information such as the paper size and the number of sheets is required. To change only a copy, a new job control sheet has to be created. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a job execution device that determines a job whose arbitrarily set job content information is to be changed, and that can change the job content information of the determined job from an input system different from the input system that has input the job content information. It is to provide a job execution method.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job execution apparatus for inputting a plurality of pieces of job content information indicating the content of a job to be executed on image information. Means for inputting job content information, determining means for determining a job to change the job content information input by the job content information input means, and a change for changing at least a part of the job content information of the job determined by the determining means Change information input means for inputting information from an input system different from the job content information input means, change means for changing job content information in accordance with the change information input by the change information input means, and change information changed by the change means. A job execution unit for executing a job of image information to be executed according to the job content information. That. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, there is provided specific information input means for inputting specific information for specifying a job whose job content information is to be changed, and the determining means is provided for the specific information input by the specific information input means. Is determined from the job. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the change information input means and the specific information input means are the same input system. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image information inputting means for inputting image information, and the job executing means executes a job for the image information input by the image information inputting means. And According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, the job content information input means and the image information input means are the same input system, and both the job content information and the image information are input. And
7. A job execution device according to claim 6, wherein when executing a job on image information, operation instruction information input means for inputting operation instruction information indicating the operation content of the own machine for a plurality of jobs, and operation instruction information. Determining means for determining a job for changing the operation instruction information input by the input means, and changing information for changing at least a part of the operation instruction information of the job determined by the determining means different from the operation instruction information input means; Change information input means input from an input system, change means for changing operation instruction information according to the change information input by the change information input means, and operation execution for operating the own machine according to the operation instruction information changed by the change means Means. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job execution method, wherein job content information indicating the content of a job to be executed for image information is input for a plurality of jobs, and a job for changing the input job content information is determined. Input the change information for changing at least a part of the job content information of the input job from an input system different from the job content information input means, change the job content information according to the input change information, and change the job content. According to the information, the job of the image information as the execution target of the job content information is executed. A job execution method according to claim 8, wherein when executing a job on image information, operation instruction information indicating the operation content of the own machine is input for a plurality of jobs;
A job for changing the input operation instruction information is determined, and the change information for changing at least a part of the operation instruction information of the determined job is input from an input system different from the operation instruction information input unit, and is input. The operation instruction information is changed according to the change information, and the own machine is operated according to the changed operation instruction information.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a job for changing the job content information input by the job content information input means is determined, and the change information for changing at least a part of the job content information of the determined job is different from the job content information input means. Input from the input system, change the job content information according to the input change information, and execute the job.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of an image processing apparatus using a paper user interface. C
The PU 1 executes a control program stored in the ROM 2, performs image processing on the basis of input image information from various input devices to create output image information, and then outputs the output image information to the recording unit (I
OT) 50 or another image processing apparatus through a network LAN or a fax through a telephone line. In the present embodiment, the input image information includes at least machine operation instruction information and image information of a document defined in the job control sheet, and further includes user ID information. The output image information includes output image information of a changed job control sheet in addition to output image information of a document. The input devices are a user interface (UI) 20 such as a control panel, a keyboard, and a mouse of the machine, and an automatic document feeder (ADF)
An image reading unit (IIT) 40 for reading a job control sheet set to 0 and a bundle of originals (hereinafter, referred to as a batch) and other image processing devices (other than the image processing unit connected to the apparatus via a network line or a telephone line) (Not shown).

The input image information of the job control sheet is taken into the drawing memory 9 and the job sheet recognizing section 16 via the multiplexer 14, the interfaces 4 and 5, and the job sheet recognizing section 16 detects the detection mark of the job control sheet. Then, the CPU 1 is interrupted. The CPU 1 activates the graphic controller 8 to recognize the job control sheet in the drawing memory 9. As a result, information from the sheet detection mark such as the document setting direction and the attributes of the job such as the paper size, the number of sheets, and the destination are recognized, and the attribute information of the determined job is stored in the backup RAM together with the ID information of the job.
6 and a memory card 7.

When the output of the job control sheet has been previously instructed by the operator, the CPU 1 instructs the graphic controller 8 to draw according to the attributes of the job. The graphic controller 8 draws a new job control sheet on the drawing memory 9 using the font ROM 10 as needed. The generated image pattern is stored on the hard disk 12 as needed as image data. Disk controller 11
Is used to compress image data generated by the apparatus or image data sent from another image processing apparatus by the compression / expansion unit 13 and store it in the hard disk 12.
2 is decompressed by the compression / decompression unit 13 and sent to the data bus. Reference numeral 3 denotes a serial I / O for performing input / output for each bit through a single signal line, and reference numeral 15 denotes a gate.

A user interface 20, such as a control panel or a keyboard, has a function of inputting correction or additional information when changing the attribute of a recognized job. Some attributes can be changed. Partial change of the attribute of the job is permitted at any time by the above operation before the job is executed. Job control sheet 100
As shown in FIG. 2, sheet detection marks 101 (ad) having different sheet attributes are arranged at the four corners, and an entry column 10 for checking job attributes is provided inside these marks.
Job control specifying unit 102 (a, b,
..) And an ID writing unit 104 for writing a programmable ID.

Each mark has an attribute indicating a scanning direction,
For example, information such as a vertical forward direction, a vertical reverse direction, a horizontal forward direction, and a horizontal reverse direction is provided. For example, if the vertical direction is “0”, the horizontal direction is “1”, the forward direction is “0”, and the reverse direction is “1”, the attribute of the sheet detection mark can be represented by 2 bits. That is, the sheet direction is “00” in the vertical direction, “01” in the vertical direction, “10” in the horizontal direction, and “11” in the horizontal direction. FIG. 4 shows an example of the attribute as barcode information. Barcode attribute is CLK (1) for detection synchronization, STX
After the bit, as the attribute (2) of the sheet detection mark, the first bit indicates the vertical and horizontal directions of the sheet, the next bit indicates the forward and reverse directions of the sheet, followed by the sheet size information (3) and the sheet number of the job control sheet Information (4) and parity (5) are assigned. By providing such an attribute, the attribute of the sheet detection mark and the paper size of the job control sheet can be identified by the first 10 bits, so that it is possible to know what size of the job control sheet was scanned from which direction. it can. The job control sheet designating unit 102 includes image coordinate origins 104a necessary for recognizing the sheet.
104b is arranged.

Next, the operation of the job control sheet will be described. In the check box of the job control sheet, for example, fill or X
The job control sheet is checked with the mark, and the job control sheet is superimposed on the document as shown in FIG. When this bundle of documents is set on a document feeder (ADF), the documents are sent from a job control sheet to an image reading unit (IIT). The image reading unit converts an image of a document or a job control sheet into an electric signal, that is, input image information. This input image information is recorded in the drawing memory through the multiplexer, and a mark detection / recognition process is executed from the input image information.

FIG. 5 shows a processing flow for recognizing a job control sheet. When scanning is started (step 100), the sheet detection mark 101
The detection of the sampling guide line is checked (step 101). Barcode information including the parity check shown in FIG. 4, that is, sheet detection mark information is detected (step 102) according to these guidelines (step 102), and the mark information detected for each guideline is stored (step 103). Then, it is determined whether or not the detected mark information is within the area of the sheet detection mark in the sub-scanning direction (step 104). YES at step 104
In the case of (1), the accumulated code information is averaged (step 1).
05), threshold processing of the averaged mark is performed (step 106), and coding is completed.

Next, it is determined whether or not the detected attribute is meaningful (step 107).
That is, if a fatal error has occurred, an error process is performed (step 108). If the attribute is significant, the origin is detected using the attribute (vertical / horizontal, forward / reverse, paper size) (step 109). When the detection of the origin is completed by an origin detection routine described later, the LUT is searched from the sheet number of the job control sheet (step 1).
10). Next, a job content is searched from the LUT based on the origin by a job content recognition processing routine described later (step 111). After the determined job content is registered (step 112), it is transferred to the system controller that controls the operation of the apparatus (step 113).

In the above-described sheet recognition flow, by providing the processing of steps 105 and 106, it is possible to suppress a decrease in recognition accuracy due to contamination of the sheet detection mark. FIG. 6 shows a processing flow for detecting the origin (diagonal point) based on the attribute of the detected sheet detection mark. Here, as the detection method, as shown in FIG. 8, the origin area 105a and the diagonal point area 105b are set as a relatively narrow range including the origin 104a or the diagonal point 104b, and only within this area. To find the origin or diagonal point. Sheet detection mark 1
When the attributes such as the reading direction and the size of the job control sheet 100 are known from 01, the origin and diagonal point areas 105a and 105b to be searched are set based on these attributes, and the search in these areas is started (step 200). You. Search for the origin from the data obtained in the setting area (step 20)
1) is performed. In this step 201, if the origin is found, the search for the diagonal point area starts (step 203).
Is done. A diagonal point search (step 204) is performed from the data obtained by this search in the same manner as the origin search. If a diagonal point is found in step 204, the origin coordinates are registered (step 206). Step 201 above,
When the origin and the diagonal point are not found in the search area in 204, error processing 202 and 205 are performed. The coordinates indicate absolute coordinates on the memory.

In the origin detection method of this embodiment, the search range is specified to be narrower than that in which the entire job control sheet is detected, so that the search time can be reduced. FIG.
Shows a processing flow for recognizing job contents. The area of the user check column 103 is the origin 104a
Are stored in the LUT in relative coordinates from the LUT. The search of the user area 106 shown in FIG. 8 (step 300) is started based on the relative coordinates and the origin coordinates. Next, it is determined whether or not there is an area to be searched (step 301). When there is no more user area to be searched, the process ends. On the other hand, if there is a searched user area, it is determined whether any mark 107 checked by the user has been detected in the area (step 302).

As shown in the figure, a facsimile is transmitted as a machine operation instruction.
If there is a check in the user area for specifying the job, the job content corresponding to the user area, that is, F
The AX job is searched from the LUT (step 303), and the job content is registered (step 304). Further, in the case of the user area searched in step 302, for example, in the case of a copy job, it is determined that there is no check, or after the job content is registered in step 304, the search start of the next user area is instructed (step 305). Next, a description will be given of changes such as modification and addition of job contents. still,
An input device for instructing change information will be described using a control panel (not shown). Therefore, in order to realize this function, the control panel is provided with four function switches of correction, addition, ID, and registration.

FIG. 9 shows a processing flow for changing a job content in the paper user interface. The document is set on the ADF 30 with the job control sheet overlapped (step 400), and the information of the job control sheet is read by the image reading unit 40. Then, after inputting ID information from the control panel (step 401), a correction or additional key is selected (step 402). Next, the user inputs correction or additional information of the job contents (hereinafter, referred to as change information) (step 403). When the end of the input of this information is determined (step 404), a registration key is input (step 405) to register the change information (step 406). On the other hand, if the input has not been completed, the process returns to step 402 to perform the same operation as described above. Then, the change of the job content recognized based on the ID information is executed by the processing flow shown in FIG. That is, CPU1
When the ID information is obtained from the recognizing unit, it is determined whether or not a job content change operation has been performed on the control panel (step 500). If a change operation has been performed, machine operation instruction information defined in the job control sheet is stored in the system RAM 6 (step 50).
1) Yes. Next, when it is additional information, it is added to the information in the system RAM 6 (step 502). In the case of the correction information, the information is overwritten on the information in the system RAM 6 (step 503).

By the way, in a plurality of batch processes, by assigning an ID to each job control sheet, it is possible to input this ID and instruct to change the job content for each sheet. The job thus changed is read from the job control sheet sent by the automatic document feeder, and after recognizing the job content, is matched with the input information from the input device. At this time, priority is given to the input from the control panel or the like for the correction information, and the logical sum (OR) of the two for the additional information.

In this embodiment, the input information of the paper user interface is added by a control panel or the like.
Although the correction is performed, the input information from the control panel or the like may be changed by the paper user interface. In a system including two or more image processing apparatuses, mutual input information can be changed through a line. As for the job control sheet, it is also possible to output the job control sheet after checking the job contents specified by the control panel or the like.

[0020]

According to the present invention, a job to change the job content information input by the job content information input means is determined, and the change information for changing at least a part of the job content information of the determined job is determined. Since the job can be executed by inputting from a different input system than the job content information input means and changing the job content information according to the input change information, the operator can change the job content more conveniently and easily. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of an image processing apparatus using a paper user interface according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a job control sheet.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating batch processing.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating barcode information as an example of a sheet detection mark.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a processing flow for recognizing a job control sheet.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an origin detection routine.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a job content recognition routine.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a search area.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a processing flow for registering change information such as correction and addition.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a processing flow based on change information.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CPU, 4 network IF, 5 facsimile IF, 8 graphic controller, 9 drawing memory, 11 disk controller, 13 compression / decompression unit,
100 Job control sheet, 110 manuscript

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A job content information input unit for inputting job content information indicating the content of a job executed for image information for a plurality of jobs, and changing the job content information input by the job content information input unit. Determining means for determining a job, change information input means for inputting change information for changing at least a part of job content information of the job determined by the determining means from an input system different from the job content information input means, A change unit that changes the job content information according to the change information input by the change information input unit; and a job of the image information to be executed by the job content information according to the job content information changed by the change unit. And a job execution means for executing the job execution. 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: inputting specific information for specifying a job whose job content information is to be changed, wherein said determining means determines a job from the specific information input by said specific information input means. The job execution device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The job execution apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said change information input means and said specific information input means are of the same input system. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising image information input means for inputting image information, wherein said job executing means executes a job for the image information input by said image information input means. Job execution device. 5. The job content information input unit and the image information input unit are the same input system, and the job content information and the image information are input together. Job execution device as described. 6. When executing a job for image information,
Operation instruction information input means for inputting operation instruction information indicating the operation content of the own machine for a plurality of jobs; determining means for determining a job for changing the operation instruction information input by the operation instruction information input means; Change information input means for inputting change information for changing at least a part of the operation instruction information of the job determined by the above from an input system different from the operation instruction information input means; and a change input by the change information input means. A job execution apparatus comprising: a change unit that changes the operation instruction information according to information; and an operation execution unit that operates the own machine according to the operation instruction information changed by the change unit. 7. A plurality of job contents information indicating the contents of a job to be executed with respect to image information are input, a job whose input job content information is to be changed is determined, and job content information of the determined job is determined. Inputting change information for changing at least a part of the job information from an input system different from the job content information input means, changing the job content information according to the input change information, and changing the job content information according to the changed job content information. A job of image information to be executed. 8. When executing a job for image information,
Operation instruction information indicating the operation content of the own machine is input for a plurality of jobs, a job to change the input operation instruction information is determined, and change information for changing at least a part of the operation instruction information of the determined job is changed. A job execution method characterized by inputting from an input system different from the operation instruction information input means, changing the operation instruction information according to the input change information, and operating the own machine according to the changed operation instruction information.