JP2004262064A - Image formation system, image formation apparatus, device controller, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation system which can efficiently utilize functions possessed by the image formation apparatus side, and to provide an image formation apparatus, a device controller and a program. <P>SOLUTION: The image formation system has the image formation apparatus 1 with the device controller 14 for controlling a plurality of devices including a printer 12, and an external controller 4 which enables use of a plurality of devices from a personal computer 2. The image formation apparatus 1 and the external controller 4 are connected by a cable 17A capable of communicating at a high speed, and a printer exclusive cable 17B. The device controller 14 selects the cables 17A and 17B in accordance with an image formation mode, a communication data amount, a data format of communication data or the like. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming system, an image forming apparatus, a device controller, and a program to which an external controller that enables the functions of an image forming apparatus to be used from the outside can be used. The present invention relates to an image forming system, an image forming apparatus, a device controller, and a program that can be used.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image forming apparatuses have been required to be digitized and multi-functional (print, copy, scan, etc.). Therefore, an image forming system having a plurality of controllers suitable for the functions, for example, a controller for a copy service Thus, an image forming system with a plurality of controllers, such as a controller for a print service, sharing roles, has been realized (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0003]
In this configuration, the copy function is performed by the device controller, and the print function is performed by the external controller, and the functions provided by the multiple controllers are shared by switching data to the printer to be shared as appropriate using the switch circuit board. are doing.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-238041 A
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, according to the conventional image forming system, the print function normally executes the print function of the printer via only the external controller, but some functions need to operate the two controller controls in cooperation. It is. In such a case, communication of control data and internal data of a user interface necessary for realizing the print function via an external IF (hereinafter, referred to as “external print device communication processing”) is required. Since the external print device communication processing time is a device control communication circuit, the communication speed is slow, and a delay in the processing time may occur due to a data amount, a state, and the like (job, fault occurrence, and the like).
[0006]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming system, an image forming apparatus, a device controller, and a program that can efficiently use the functions of the image forming apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming system, an image forming apparatus, a device controller, and a program capable of performing high-speed print output processing of management data of a plurality of devices.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an image forming system including: an image forming apparatus including a device controller that controls a plurality of devices including a printer; and an external controller configured to enable at least the printer to be used from an external device. , The image forming apparatus and the external controller are connected by first and second communication lines having different communication formats.
According to this configuration, high-speed communication becomes possible by selecting the first and second communication lines according to the image forming mode, the amount of communication data, the data format of the communication data, and the like.
[0008]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this image forming system, an external controller 4 is connected to the image forming apparatus 1, and the external controller 4 is connected to a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as “PC”) 2 via a network 3. In the figure, 18A indicates image data in a scan mode described later, and 18B indicates image data in a print mode described later.
[0009]
The image forming apparatus 1 includes a user interface (UI) 10 having a user's operation screen, a scanner 11 for optically reading an image from a document, a printer 12 for printing image data on paper, and an external controller 4 connected to an Ethernet cable. (Local network) 17A, which controls the UI 10, the scanner 11, the printer 12, and the external controller 4 and executes a copy job in parallel with the device controller 14 for Y (Yellow), M (Magenta), and C ( Cyan) and K (black) image data are connected to the external controller 4 and the device controller 14 by printer-dedicated cables 17B and 17C, respectively, to cut off signals between the printer 12, the external controller 4 and the device controller 14. E is schematically constituted by a switch circuit 15 for performing, with a copy mode, scan mode, print mode, the image forming mode such as a report output mode.
[0010]
Here, the “copy mode” is a mode in which image data read by the scanner 11 is output to the printer 12, and the “scan mode” is a mode in which image data read by the scanner 11 is transferred to a designated file server on the PC 2 side. The "print mode" is a mode in which image data output from the external controller 4 is output to the printer 12, and the "report output mode" is system data such as print job data and failure data is output to the printer 12. Mode.
[0011]
The external controller 4 creates image data based on the job transmitted from the PC 2 via the network 3 and provides a print service by exclusive control with the device controller 14 by the external controller control IF. A scan job is controlled by a network IF via an Ethernet cable (local network) 17A to provide a scan service.
[0012]
Upon receiving a print job, the printer 12 receives image data, sequentially analyzes control commands, performs an image output operation, and prints out an image on paper.
[0013]
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the device controller 14. The device controller 14 includes a memory 140, an HDD 141, a scan control unit 142, a user interface (UI) control unit 143, an external controller control unit 144, a printer control unit 145, a system control unit 146, a network control unit 147. Each of the control units 142 to 147 is realized by a control program.
[0014]
The UI control unit 143 displays system status and information necessary for job processing on the operation panel of the UI 10 to guide the user.
[0015]
The external controller control unit 144 receives an IF command from the external controller 4 when executing a print job, and executes the print job in accordance with an image input / output sequence for the printer 12. Further, when system data is requested from the external controller 4, system data inside the device controller 14 or system data inside the scanner 11 and the printer 12 are acquired by communication, and format conversion is performed by data conversion means.
[0016]
The printer control unit 145 performs IF control with the printer 12 mainly when executing a copy job, and executes the copy job in accordance with an image input / output sequence for the printer 12.
[0017]
The system control unit 146 arbitrates a plurality of jobs such as a print job and a copy job as the core of the system, and utilizes the resources of the system.
[0018]
The network control unit 147 monitors the presence or absence of a failure in the local network due to the Ethernet cable 17A and the amount of communication data output to the Ethernet cable 17A. For example, when the device management information is small or a failure has occurred in the local network. In some cases, a report can be output via the printer-dedicated cable 17C, the switch circuit 15, and the printer-dedicated cable 17B.
[0019]
Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described.
[0020]
(1) Copy Mode When the operator operates the operation screen of the user interface 10 to select a copy mode and the scanner 11 reads image data from a document, the image data is temporarily stored in a page memory (not shown) in the device controller 14. After being stored, it is compressed, transferred to the system memory 140 in RGBK parallel, and further transferred to the HDD 141. Next, the compressed data is read from the HDD 141, decompressed, output to the printer 12 via the printer dedicated cable 17C under the control of the printer control unit 145, and the image data is printed out on paper.
[0021]
(2) Scan Mode When the operator operates the operation screen of the user interface 10 to select a scan mode and the scanner 11 reads image data from a document, the image data is temporarily stored in a page memory (not shown) in the device controller 14. After being stored, it is transferred to the system memory 140 without being compressed, is compressed in the system memory 140 in a predetermined image format, for example, JPEG (Joint Photograph Experts Group), and is further transferred to the HDD 141. When the operator operates the PC 2 to specify a compressed image in the HDD 141, the compressed image is read into the system memory 140, and is converted into a predetermined file format, for example, TIFF (TagImage File Format) on the system memory 140. The image file is transferred from there to a file server on the PC 2 side via the Ethernet cable 17A, the external controller 4 and the network 3 using a predetermined communication protocol, for example, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) under the supervision of the network control unit 142. Is done.
[0022]
(3) Print Mode When the operator operates the PC 2 to select the print mode and sends the target image data to the external controller 4 via the network 2, the external controller 4 notifies the device controller 14 of the external print job. . The device controller 14 processes the external print job as a job in the device controller 14, and restricts a printer use job activated by the device controller 14. The external controller 4 converts the image data into YMCK parallel data and outputs the converted data to the printer 12 via the printer dedicated cable 17B. The image data output from the external controller 4 is printed out on paper by the printer 12.
[0023]
(4) Report Output Mode When the operator operates the operation screen of the user interface 10 and selects the report output mode, the device controller 14 stores the data held by the device controller 14 and the data collected from the user interface 10, the scanner 11 and the printer 12. Then, device management data for report output is generated from this and sent to the external controller 4 via the Ethernet cable 17A. The external controller 4 creates a report output job based on the device management data, generates a report image that can be output by the printer 12 from the device management data, and sends the report image together with the report output job via the printer dedicated cable 17B. And outputs the report image to a paper sheet. The device management data includes an output job log, failure data, status data, device configuration data, billing data, version data, and the like.
[0024]
According to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(A) Since the Ethernet cable 17A or the printer dedicated cable 17B is selected according to the image forming mode, the amount of communication data, the data format of the communication data, and the like, high-speed communication becomes possible, and as a result, the functions of the image forming apparatus 1 are provided. Can be used efficiently.
(B) Since information having a large transfer load such as a job log can be transmitted through the Ethernet cable 17A which is a high-speed communication line, a support service can be provided without depending on the device control IF.
(C) A print service such as a report can be provided even when a failure occurs in a communication line such as a local network.
[0025]
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, the report output mode may be selected from a PC or the like. Alternatively, the communication data may be converted into an SMTP format that can be communicated by TCP / IP and output to the Ethernet cable 17A. The external controller control unit 144 controls the switch circuit 15 to select the other usable printer-dedicated cables 17B and 17C when the network control unit 147 detects communication interruption or an error of the Ethernet cable 17A. Is also good. Further, when a failure occurs in the Ethernet cable 17A or the printer-dedicated cables 17B, 17C, the usable cable 17A, 17B, 17C may be displayed on the operation screen of the user interface 10.
[0026]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, high-speed communication is enabled by selecting the first and second communication lines according to the image forming mode, the amount of communication data, the data format of communication data, and the like. The functions of the image forming apparatus can be used efficiently.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a device controller according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Personal computer 3 Network 4 External controller 10 User interface (UI)
11 Scanner 12 Printer 14 Device Controller 15 Switch Circuit 17A Ethernet Cable 17B, 17C Printer-dedicated Cable 18A, 18B Image Data 140 Memory 141 HDD
142 scan controller 143 UI controller 144 external controller controller 145 printer controller 146 system controller 147 network controller

Claims (17)

An image forming apparatus including a device controller that controls a plurality of devices including a printer,
An image forming system having at least an external controller that enables use of the printer from an external device,
The image forming system, wherein the image forming apparatus and the external controller are connected by first and second communication lines having different communication formats. The first communication line is an Ethernet cable capable of high-speed communication,
2. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the second communication line is a dedicated cable for transmitting YMCK image data in parallel to the printer. The second communication line is connected to a switch circuit that performs line switching between the device controller and the external controller and the printer,
The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the switch circuit is detachably provided on the image forming apparatus side or the external controller side. 2. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the device controller includes a selection unit that selects the first or second communication line according to an image forming mode. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the device controller includes a selection unit that selects the first or second communication line according to a communication data amount. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the device controller includes a selection unit that selects the first and second communication lines according to a data format of communication data. The device controller comprises:
Storage means for storing management data relating to the plurality of devices;
Selecting means for selecting the first and second communication lines;
Converting means for converting communication data into a data format corresponding to the first and second communication lines;
Monitoring means for monitoring communication data transmitted to the external controller by the data conversion means,
Display means for displaying information;
Control means for controlling the selection means to select a communication line capable of high-speed communication based on the data amount of the management data, the data amount of the conversion means, or the data amount of the monitoring means. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein: The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein the management data includes at least one of print job data for report output, failure data, status data, device configuration data, billing data, and version data. The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein the storage device includes at least one of a volatile memory, a nonvolatile memory, and an HDD. 8. The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein the conversion unit converts the data into an SMTP format in which at least one of them can communicate with TCP / IP. The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the conversion units converts the data into a device-specific format. The control means controls the selection means so as to select the other usable communication line when the monitoring means detects a communication interruption or an error of the first or second communication line. The image forming system according to claim 7. The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein the display unit displays a usable communication line among the first and second communication lines. 8. The image forming system according to claim 7, wherein the control unit controls the selection unit according to whether or not a data amount of the conversion unit exceeds a maximum packet of about one packet. An image forming apparatus having a device controller for controlling a plurality of devices including a printer, and an external controller for enabling use of at least the printer from an external device is connected.
The image forming apparatus and the external controller are connected by first and second communication lines having different communication formats,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external controller includes a selection unit that selects the first and second communication lines according to an image forming mode, a communication data amount, or a data format of the communication data. A device controller that controls a plurality of devices including a printer and is connected to an external controller that enables at least the use of the printer from an external device.
The device controller and the external controller are connected by first and second communication lines having different communication formats,
A device controller comprising: a selection unit that selects the first and second communication lines according to an image forming mode, a communication data amount, or a data format of communication data. A program for causing a computer to function as selection means for selecting first and second communication lines having different communication formats connected to a device controller according to an image forming mode, a communication data amount, or a data format of communication data.

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