JP2004310154A - Computer program, peripheral device, and application program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable an operator to easily determine the peripheral device which he/she is to access in order to fully meet the purpose of an icon. <P>SOLUTION: A computer program installed in a computer for driving a peripheral device requests icon image data showing the appearance of the peripheral device from an external device, and stores in a storage device the icon image data received according to this request. Further, the computer program causes the icon image data serving as an icon for starting the operation of the peripheral device to be displayed on a display device and starts the operation of the peripheral device on receiving an instruction to the icon displayed. The peripheral device has a storage means for storing the icon image showing its own appearance, a communication means for communicating with the computer, and a means for sending the icon image to the computer according to the request from the computer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an information processing system including a host computer and peripheral devices connected to the host computer, and more particularly to a computer program and a peripheral device operating on the host computer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
When an operator attempts to access a peripheral device such as a printer, scanner, or digital camera connected to a host computer, such as a personal computer with a graphical user interface, from the host computer, it is displayed on the display device of the host computer. An instruction (eg, mouse click) may be given to the displayed icon. Peripheral devices can be activated by instructions for such icons. In a printer which is a kind of peripheral device, an operation of starting printing of a document by moving an icon of a document to be printed and superimposing the icon on the icon of the printer is possible.
[0003]
Usually, as the icons for the peripheral devices displayed on the display device on the host computer, several fixed ones prepared in advance by basic software called an operating system running on the host computer are displayed. .
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
For example, FIG. 2 shows an example of icon display for a printing device such as a printer, which is an example of a peripheral device. Such a display can be seen in a printer folder in a control panel of a machine equipped with Microsoft Windows (registered trademark). The shape and appearance color of the actual printing device are unique to the model, but the icons do not reflect the features of the printing device, and the same icons are displayed regardless of the model. I have. In order for the operator to judge the model, the name of the printing device attached to the icon or the name set by the operator is used.
[0005]
Some icons indicating peripheral devices are displayed on the screen of the application program. FIG. 3 shows an example of a screen 30 including an icon menu displayed in a display window of an application such as a word processor. The icon menu includes an icon 31 for causing the printing apparatus to execute a printing process. This icon 31 is a fixed icon prepared by the application in advance regardless of the actual printing device, and the operator must know in advance which model the printing device to be subjected to print processing is. . Alternatively, before instructing the icon menu, it is necessary to execute another command menu to check the printing apparatus to be accessed.
[0006]
That is, in the graphical user interface, the icons for visually judging the processing and the type do not sufficiently satisfy the purpose.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to enable an operator to easily determine a peripheral device to be accessed so as to sufficiently satisfy the purpose of an icon. To provide a computer program, a peripheral device, and an application program.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A computer program according to the present invention is a computer program that is installed in a computer and drives a peripheral device. The computer program requests icon image data for an icon representing the appearance of the peripheral device to an external device, and responds to the request. Storing the received icon image data in a storage device, and displaying the icon image data stored in the storage device as an icon for activating the operation of the peripheral device on a display device of a computer; Activating the operation of the peripheral device in response to an instruction for the displayed icon.
[0009]
The external device in the present invention may be the peripheral device itself or a recording medium. A computer program for driving a peripheral device acquires image data for an icon representing the peripheral device from an external device, and uses the acquired image data on a display device of a computer as an icon for activating the operation of the peripheral device. .
[0010]
A peripheral device according to the present invention is a peripheral device connected to a computer, which stores a storage unit for storing an icon image representing its own appearance, a communication unit that communicates with the computer, and in response to a request from the computer. Means for transmitting the icon image to a computer. According to the present invention, a peripheral device itself holds icon image data representing its own appearance, and provides the icon image data when requested from outside (for example, a computer).
[0011]
The application program according to the present invention is an application program that is installed on a computer and receives an instruction for a peripheral device as one of instructions from a user. The application program is executed on a peripheral device connected to a computer on which the application program is executed. Requesting icon image data indicating the appearance; storing the icon image data received in response to the request; and displaying a peripheral image of the application program displayed on a display device of a computer in a graphical user interface screen. A step of replacing a device icon with an icon based on the icon image data, and a step of activating an operation of the peripheral device in response to an instruction for the replaced icon. To. The present invention receives a peripheral device icon on a graphical user interface screen of the application program displayed on a display device of a computer from the peripheral device and replaces the existing icon.
[0012]
The peripheral device is, for example, a printing device.
[0013]
According to the above configuration of the present invention, the user can easily determine the peripheral device to be accessed only by looking at the icon displayed on the display device.
[0014]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0015]
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a system according to the present embodiment. This system includes a host computer 100 that executes an OS, an application program, and the like, and a printer 200 that prints a document transmitted from the host computer 100 as an example of a peripheral device.
[0016]
The host computer 100 is composed of the following units. The CPU 1 controls each device connected to the system bus 3 based on a control program stored in a storage device such as an HDD 2 (hard disk drive) to control processing of an application, a printer driver, and the like. The RAM 4 is a memory that mainly provides a work area for the CPU 1. An OS as a system program, a device driver (including a printer driver), and the like reside on the RAM 4. The HDD 2 may be another storage medium, for example, a storage medium 5 such as an FD (flexible disk), a CD-ROM, and an MO. The input unit 6 is, specifically, a user command input device including a mouse, a keyboard, and the like, and accepts a command from a user directly or by inputting an instruction such as an icon or a button on various windows provided by a user interface. The display unit 7 includes a CRT display, a liquid crystal display and the like, and displays a user interface such as an OS, an application, and a printer driver. The communication unit 8 is connected to a printer via a parallel interface such as IEEE1284, a serial interface such as IEEE1394 or USB, or a network such as LAN, and sends and receives data to and from the printer.
[0017]
The configuration of the printer 200 is as follows. The CPU 11 executes a control program stored in the ROM 12 that provides the program, and controls access to each device connected to the system bus 13. The RAM 14 mainly provides a work area for the CPU 11. The capacity of the RAM 14 can be easily expanded by an optional RAM or the like. The ROM 12 stores control programs to be executed by the CPU 11, image data for icons, font data for printing, and the like. The operation unit 15 includes an LED, a liquid crystal display, operation buttons, and the like, receives input from a user, and displays information. The transport unit 16 controls the transport of printing paper inside the printer. The recording unit 17 is a unit that performs printing on printing paper by an arbitrary recording method such as an electrophotographic method or an inkjet method. The communication unit 18 is connected to a host computer via a parallel interface such as IEEE1284, a serial interface such as IEEE1394 or USB, or a network such as LAN, and transmits and receives data to and from the host computer.
[0018]
In the first embodiment of the present invention, the icons of the peripheral devices displayed on the conventional computer screen as shown in FIG. 2 are replaced with graphics representing the external appearance of the actual peripheral devices as shown in FIG. It is to be. The external appearance of the peripheral device includes at least the appearance shape information of the peripheral device.
[0019]
In the second embodiment of the present invention, the icon 31 of the peripheral device displayed on the conventional application screen as shown in FIG. 3 is replaced with the icon 40 of the actual appearance of the peripheral device as shown in FIG. Is to do so.
[0020]
FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are diagrams showing the procedure of two processing examples according to the first embodiment.
[0021]
The processing example in FIG. 6 is processing when the operating system (OS) installs a driver for a peripheral device in the computer. Usually, the driver is installed from a recording medium 5 (external storage device) such as a CD-ROM. The OS reads information necessary for installing the peripheral device driver to be installed from the recording medium 5 (S1), and performs a driver installation process (S2). After the normal driver installation, icon image data representing the appearance of the peripheral device is read from the external storage device (S3). After that, the icon image data is stored in a predetermined area of the HDD 2 (S4). Further, icon image data is registered as an icon of the peripheral device displayed on the control panel or the like (S5). For example, in an OS such as Windows, this can be performed by rewriting a database called a registry that centrally manages all setting information on computers from hardware to applications. Thereby, for example, an icon representing the appearance of the peripheral device as shown in FIG. 4A is displayed on the display screen of the computer. The user can determine the type of the peripheral device only from the appearance. The same icon can be used for shortcuts that can be displayed anywhere on the screen.
[0022]
In an information processing system in which a plurality of peripheral devices of the same model are connected, in order to distinguish individual peripheral devices, as shown in FIG. 4B, a plurality of peripheral devices having the same appearance but different numbers or colors are used. May be prepared so that the user can select one of them.
[0023]
In the processing example of FIG. 7, the icon of the peripheral device is switched from the existing uniform one to the one corresponding to the peripheral device in accordance with a user's instruction from the driver once installed in the computer. For example, when the user designates an instruction button 81 for instructing an icon change provided on the setting screen 80 of the peripheral device as shown in FIG. 8 (S11), the driver transmits the peripheral device (the printer in this example) via the communication unit. ) Is requested (S12). (Alternatively, the icon image data may be read from an external storage device such as a CD-ROM as described above.) In response to this request, the printer returns the icon image data (S13). The driver receives the icon image data and makes an icon switching request to the OS (S14). In response, the OS stores the image data for the icon in a predetermined storage area such as the HDD 2 (S15), and switches the icon (S16). The image data for the icon is updated as the icon of the peripheral device displayed on the control panel or the like. This can be done by rewriting the registry in Windows as described above.
[0024]
Next, a second embodiment in which the icons of the peripheral devices used on the application display screen as described in FIG. 3 are changed to correspond to the actual peripheral devices will be described.
[0025]
FIG. 9 shows a procedure of a processing example according to the second embodiment. This is a process executed when, for example, in a case where the peripheral device is a printer, a printer to be used on a print screen for a print instruction from an application or a print setting as shown in FIG. 10 is switched. First, a driver for a specific peripheral device is started from the print screen 50 of the application (AP) (S21). This can be done by selecting from the pull-down menu 52 in the example of FIG. When the printer to be used is changed by such an operation, the corresponding driver is started. The driver requests icon image data from the peripheral device (S22), and the peripheral device returns icon image data in response to the request (S23). The driver receives the icon image data and gives it to the application (S24). The application switches the current icon of the peripheral device used on its own application screen to the received new icon (S25). Although the specific method of this switching differs depending on the application, it can be performed by the application itself switching the designation (for example, the icon file name) of the icon image data used on the application screen. As a result, the icon of the peripheral device is switched and displayed on the application screen 30 as shown in FIG. The user can determine the type of the peripheral device only from the appearance of the icon 40.
[0026]
Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, various modifications and changes other than those described above can be made.
[0027]
For example, the image data of the icon of the peripheral device of the present invention may be monochrome or color as long as the appearance is known. Although a printer has been mainly described as a peripheral device, the present invention is also applicable to other peripheral devices such as a scanner and a digital camera.
[0028]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, an icon is displayed for each peripheral device model using icon image data representing the actual appearance of the peripheral device, so that whether the peripheral device to be accessed is the target is determined. Can be determined at a glance. Therefore, it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation such as accidentally accessing a different peripheral device.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of icon display on a printing device such as a printer which is an example of a peripheral device of the system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen including an icon menu displayed in a display window of a conventional application such as a word processor.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an icon representing an external appearance of an actual peripheral device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen including icons representing the external appearance of an actual peripheral device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing processing when an operating system (OS) installs a driver of a peripheral device into a computer in the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a process when the driver switches the icon of the peripheral device from an existing uniform one to a corresponding peripheral device in the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a setting screen of a peripheral device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a procedure of a processing example according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print screen for a print instruction or a print setting from an application according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
31, 40, 41, 42, 43 ... icon, 100 ... host computer, 200 ... printer (printing device)

Claims (6)

A computer program installed on a computer to drive a peripheral device,
Requesting icon image data representing the appearance of the peripheral device to an external device,
Storing the icon image data received in response to the request in a storage device;
Displaying image data for an icon stored in the storage device as an icon for activating the operation of the peripheral device on a display device of a computer;
Activating the operation of the peripheral device in response to an instruction for the displayed icon;
A computer program characterized by comprising: The computer program according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral device is a printing device. A peripheral device connected to the computer,
Storage means for storing an icon image representing the appearance of the user;
Communication means for communicating with the computer;
Means for transmitting the icon image to a computer in response to a request from the computer,
A peripheral device comprising: The peripheral device according to claim 3, wherein the peripheral device is a printing device. An application program that is installed on a computer and receives an instruction for a peripheral device as one of instructions from a user,
Requesting icon image data indicating the appearance of a peripheral device connected to a computer on which the application program is executed;
Storing the icon image data received in response to the request;
Replacing peripheral device icons on the graphical user interface screen of the application program displayed on the display device of the computer with icons based on the icon image data;
Activating the operation of the peripheral device in response to an instruction for the replaced icon;
An application program comprising: The application program according to claim 5, wherein the peripheral device is a printing device.

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