JP2002331726A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the invasion of dust by providing a shutter in the opening of a printer. SOLUTION: The printer 10 comprises an insertion port 28, a discharge port 26 and an opening 32 for inserting or discharging a material P to be printed. The printer 10 also comprises shutters 36 and 38 to be automatically opened or closed by the attaching or detaching operation of an electronic still camera 100 in the ports 26 and 28. The printer 10 also comprises a shutter 50 provided in the opening 32 to be automatically opened or closed upon attaching or detaching of the cartridge 30 in the opening 32.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer detachable from an electronic still camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of digital technology in recent years, electronic still cameras that handle captured images as digital data have become widespread. The advantages of an electronic still camera are that the captured image can be checked immediately, unnecessary images can be easily erased, the captured image can be taken into a personal computer for free image processing, or a printer or electronic still connected to the personal computer. A printer directly connected to a camera is capable of printing on various printing materials, for example, a dedicated printing paper, a film, a sticker, or the like.

Recently, the functions required for printers compatible with electronic still cameras have also become diverse, and printers that are integrated with the electronic still cameras and are portable are also commercially available.

[0004]

However, the printer is generally provided with an opening for inserting and ejecting a printing medium, and dust or the like enters the inside of the printer from this opening, and the printing medium and the printer are not provided. If it adheres to the head, there is a risk that the printing accuracy will deteriorate or the head will be damaged. In particular, the use in outdoor dusty places increases the risk.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to prevent dust and the like from entering the inside of a printer.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A printer according to the present invention is detachable from an electronic still camera, and has an opening for inserting and ejecting a printing medium on which an image obtained by the electronic still camera is printed, and an electronic device. An opening / closing mechanism for closing the opening when the still camera is detached and opening the opening when the electronic still camera is mounted. Thus, when the electronic still camera is mounted, the opening is closed, and the intrusion of dust is prevented.

Specifically, the opening and closing mechanism of the printer includes a shutter for opening and closing an opening, a rail for guiding the shutter,
An urging means for positioning the shutter at the closed position, and a lever for positioning the shutter at the open position against the urging force of the urging means when the electronic still camera is mounted.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention together with an electronic still camera. The printer 10 includes a substantially rectangular parallelepiped case 12.
Is shorter than the horizontal length of the electronic still camera 100,
The vertical length is slightly larger than the vertical length of the electronic still camera 100. A groove 14 having the same vertical width as the bottom 100 a of the electronic still camera 100 is formed on the upper surface of the case 12, and the electronic still camera 100 is detachable in the groove 14.

More specifically, a male screw portion 16 projects from the center of the groove portion 14 of the printer 10. 102 can be screwed. The male screw portion 16 is connected to a fixed dial 18 on the side surface 12c via a plurality of gears (not shown) not shown. When the fixed dial 18 is rotated, the male screw portion 16 is placed in the groove portion 14 while rotating relatively. It advances and retreats in the axial direction within the female screw portion 102 of the electronic still camera. Thereby, the electronic still camera 1
00 is attached to and detached from the printer 10. A positioning pin 15 protrudes from one corner of the groove 14, and the positioning pin 15 is engaged with a pin hole 106 provided in the bottom surface 100a of the electronic still camera 100, so that the electronic still camera 100 It is mounted on the printer 10 in the orientation.

An image transfer jack 20 is provided on a side surface 12c of the case 12, and a terminal 22a of a cable 22 for electrically connecting the printer 10 to the electronic still camera 100.
Are inserted and connected. The other terminal 22b of the cable 22
Is inserted and connected to an image transfer jack 103 similarly provided on the side of the electronic still camera 100.

When the electronic still camera 100 is mounted on the printer 10 and both are connected by a cable, data of an image photographed by the electronic still camera 100 is transferred to the printer 10 and can be printed there. Printing is performed using the function keys 104 of the electronic still camera 100.
Is indicated by Image transfer jack 2 on side 12c
0, there is a D for connecting to a commercial power supply (not shown).
A C jack 24 is provided.

The front face 12a of the printer 10 is provided with a discharge port 26 for a printing medium, and the rear face 12b is provided with an insertion port 28 for a printing medium and an opening (reference numeral 32: see FIG. 2) for mounting a paper cartridge 30. Is provided. When the electronic still camera 100 is detached, the discharge port 26 and the insertion port 28 are closed by shutters 36 and 38, respectively. These shutters 36, 38 are respectively connected to arms 56, 58 whose tips project from the groove 14.

When the electronic still camera 100 is mounted in the groove 14 and the arms 56 and 58 are pressed into the inside of the case 12, the shutters 36 and 38 open the discharge port 26 and the insertion port 2 respectively.
8, the discharge port 26 and the insertion port 28 are opened. On the other hand, the electronic still camera 100 is
When the shutters 36 and 38 are removed from the
And covering the insertion opening 28, they are closed again.
As described above, when the printer 10 is not used, the discharge port 26 and the insertion port 28 are closed.
0 prevents dust from entering the interior of the printer 10
, Such as damage to the thermal head and the like, and malfunction of the electronic circuit, and a decrease in printing accuracy is also prevented.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the internal mechanism of the printer 10 in a simplified manner. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the electronic still camera 100 is mounted on the printer 10, and the electronic still camera 100 is indicated by a broken line.

The printer 10 includes a pair of rollers 60 for transporting the printing medium P inserted from the insertion port 28 or the cartridge 30 toward the discharge port 26, and a thermal head is provided between the roller 60 and the discharge port 26. 62 and a platen roller 64 opposed thereto. Thermal head 6
An ink ribbon 66 is supplied between the printing medium P and the printing medium P, and the ink ribbon 66 is thermally transferred to the surface of the printing medium P sequentially fed by the thermal head 62, thereby printing an image.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG.
The operation of the electronic still camera 100 will be described. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the printer 10 and the electronic still camera 100. The printer 10 and the electronic still camera 100 are provided with system controllers 70 and 120 for controlling the entire operation of each circuit.

When a release button 108 of the electronic still camera 100 is pressed, an optical subject image is formed on a light receiving surface of an image sensor, for example, a CCD 112 by a photographing lens system 110, where the image is photoelectrically converted under the control of a CCD driver 114. The video signal is output to the video signal processing circuit 116 as a video signal. The video signal undergoes predetermined image processing such as gamma processing and white balance processing in a video signal processing circuit 116 and is temporarily stored in an image memory 118. On the LCD monitor 126, shooting conditions such as shooting date and time, an error message output from the camera system controller 120, and the like are displayed.

When recording is instructed by operating the function key 104, the camera system controller 12
By 0, a video signal for one frame is read from the image memory 118, converted into data based on a predetermined compression format, for example, the JPEG method, and recorded in the image recording memory 122. When printing is instructed, a video signal for one frame is read out from the image memory 118 and is sent to the printer 1 via the interface circuit 124 and the cable 22.
Output to 0.

The female screw section 102 of the electronic still camera 100
And the male screw 16 of the printer 10 to be screwed into the
The camera system controller 120 also has a contact function for detecting that the electronic still camera 100 has been attached to the printer 10, and can issue a print instruction only when the attachment of the printer 10 is detected.

The printer 10 includes an electronic still camera 100
Generates print data based on one frame of video signal input from the
The data is stored in the buffer memory 74. Printed object detection sensor 6
3 is driven by the sensor driver 76 and the insertion port 28
Alternatively, the presence or absence of the printing medium P supplied from the cartridge 30 is detected. Further, the ribbon detection sensor 65 is driven by a sensor driver 76, and drives the ink ribbon 66.
Is detected. Printer system controller 7
A value of 0 permits the printing operation only when it is detected that the printing medium P and the ink ribbon 66 are present.

The printing operation includes rotating the motors 60 and 64 to convey the printing medium P to the thermal head 62 at a predetermined pitch, and printing the ink ribbon 66 on the thermal head 62 based on the print data. This is an operation of alternately repeating the operation of transferring the image to the body P. The motors 60 and 64 are driven by a motor driver 78, and the thermal head 62 is driven by a head driver 80.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an opening and closing mechanism for opening and closing the insertion slot 28 of the printer 10. Shutter 38
Is provided with an opening / closing plate portion 382 for opening and closing the insertion opening 28. The opening / closing plate portion 382 is provided in parallel with the back surface portion 12b of the case 12, and extends vertically along a pair of rails 42a and 42b provided at both ends. It is freely movable.

An arm 56 is provided at one edge of the opening / closing plate 382.
The arm engagement plate portion 384 that engages with the arm is integrally provided. The arm engaging plate 384 extends perpendicular to the opening / closing plate 382 and is substantially parallel to the inner wall surface 12 d of the case 12.
The arm engaging plate 384 is urged downward in the figure by a suitable urging member, for example, a coil spring 40. At this time, the opening / closing plate portion 382 is locked to the lower end surfaces thereof while being guided by the rails 42a and 42b, and is positioned at a closed position (shown by a solid line) for closing the insertion port 28.

The arm 58 is an L-shaped plate member provided in parallel with the arm engaging plate portion 384, and has a central portion 58.
In 2, it is rotatably fixed to the inner wall surface 12 d of the case 12. A groove 586 is formed at one end 584 of the arm 58 so as to slidably engage with an engagement pin 386 projecting from the arm engagement plate 384.

When the shutter 38 is positioned at the closed position, one end 584 of the arm 58 is positioned substantially horizontally, and at this time, the other end 588 is perpendicular to the one end 584.
Protrudes outside from an elongated hole 142 formed in the groove 14 of the case 12.

When the electronic still camera 100 is mounted in the groove 14, the other end 588 protruding from the elongated hole 142 is pushed by the bottom surface 100a of the electronic still camera 100 and retracts into the case 12, and the arm 58 is moved to one point. It is rotated counterclockwise to the position shown by the dashed line. At this time, the engaging pin 386 relatively moves while being guided by the groove 586, and the entire shutter 38 moves upward in the figure against the urging force of the coil spring 40 with the relative movement of the engaging pin 386. When the rotation of the arm 58 stops at the position indicated by the dashed line, the opening / closing plate 382 is positioned at the closed position indicated by the dashed line, that is, is retracted from the insertion port 28. With this, the insertion slot 2
8 is opened and the printing medium P (FIG. 2) can be inserted. On the other hand, when the electronic still camera 100 is removed, the coil spring 4
The shutter 38 automatically returns to the closed position by the urging force of 0, and the insertion port 28 is closed again.

As described above, the printer 10 of the present embodiment
Has an opening / closing mechanism (an arm 58, guide rails 42a and 42b, a coil spring 40) that automatically opens and closes the shutter 38 simply by attaching and detaching the electronic still camera 100. , An engagement pin 386 and a groove 586), so that the operator is not bothered by opening and closing the shutter 38. Although a similar opening / closing mechanism is provided at the discharge port 26, the description is omitted here.

As shown in FIG. 2, a plate-shaped shutter 50 whose upper end is rotatably fixed to the case 12 is provided inside the opening 32, and the shutter 50 closes the opening 32 by a torsion spring 52. Biased in the direction. When the cartridge 30 is pushed into the printer 10 through the opening 32, the shutter 50 moves to the retracted position shown in FIG. 2 against the urging force of the torsion spring 52. That is, when the cartridge 30 is not mounted, the opening 32 is closed, and when the cartridge 30 is mounted, the opening 32 is automatically opened. The cartridge 30 is fitted into the opening 32 without any gap, and intrusion of dust and the like from the opening 32 is prevented regardless of whether the cartridge 30 is mounted or not.

As described above, according to the printer 10 of the present embodiment, the shutters 38, 36 and 50 are provided at the openings for inserting or ejecting the printing medium P, that is, the insertion opening 28, the ejection opening 26 and the opening 32, respectively. With the provision, it is possible to prevent dust from entering from the openings 26, 28, and 50. When carrying the printer 10 with the electronic still camera 100, the printer 10 is exposed to a lot of dusty outside air. In such a case, the above-described effect can be exhibited. Furthermore, since the shutters 36 and 38 can be opened and closed only by attaching and detaching the electronic still camera 100, there is an advantage that operability is extremely good.

[0031]

As described above, when the printer of the present invention is not used, the opening can be closed by the shutter to prevent intrusion of dust and the like into the inside.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention together with an electronic still camera.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a simplified internal configuration of the printer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit configuration of a printer and an electronic still camera.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an opening and closing mechanism of the printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Printer 26 Discharge port 28 Insertion port 50 Opening / closing mechanism 100 Electronic still camera P Printed object

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C055 CC00 EE00 2C061 AP10 AQ04 BB00 CD08 CD10 CD14 5C022 AA13 AC03 AC13 AC32 AC42 AC78 AC80 5C052 AA17 AB04 CC11 DD02 GA02 GA05 GB06 GC05 GD03 GE00

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic still camera which is detachable from an electronic still camera,
An opening for inserting and ejecting a printing medium on which an image obtained by the electronic still camera is printed, and closing the opening when the electronic still camera is detached and closing the opening when the electronic still camera is mounted. A printer comprising an opening and closing mechanism. A shutter for opening and closing the opening, a rail for guiding the shutter, an urging means for positioning the shutter at a closed position, and an opening / closing mechanism for opening / closing the electronic still camera. 2. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising a lever for positioning a shutter at an open position against a biasing force of the biasing unit.