JP2006139639A - Image reading/transfer driver program, recording medium, host device, and image reader - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To overwrite firmware stored in an image reader, without requiring a dedicated program to be installed. <P>SOLUTION: An image reading/transfer driver program causes an operation input interface module for control of an image reader storing the firmware to be incorporated and installed in a host. The program includes a first step for starting the operation input interface module in response to a start command from application software, a second step for displaying an operation input screen by means of the operation input interface module, and accepting a command to write the firmware in the image reader, and a third step for starting a firmware maintenance program after accepting the command to write, and sending to the image reader a prepared command to write the firmware. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image reading / transferring driver program, a recording medium storing the program, a host device, and an image reading device.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for connecting an image reading apparatus to a host device such as a personal computer, transferring image data read by the image reading apparatus to the host apparatus, and taking it in has been widely used.
In order to realize such a technique, an image reading / transfer driver program is stored in the host device, and firmware (image reading-only software) is stored in the image reading device. TWAIN drivers are well known.
When such a TWAIN driver is installed in the host device in advance and activated by an application program, an operation input interface module incorporated in the driver is activated, whereby an operation input screen is displayed on the screen of the host device. The user can transfer the read image to the host device by performing a necessary selection operation on the operation input screen.
JP-A-10-275223

  However, in the above technology, when updating firmware and its parameters, a service person or the like prepares firmware to be overwritten, and further installs a dedicated maintenance program on the host device side to instruct the image reading device to write. Therefore, it is necessary to install a dedicated maintenance program in the host device, and there is a problem in terms of cost.

  The present invention eliminates the trouble of installing a dedicated maintenance program on the host device side when updating firmware stored in the image reading device or changing firmware control parameters. To provide an image reading / transfer driver program that enables updating of firmware and change of parameters only by launching a transfer driver program and sending a firmware write command, a recording medium storing the program, and a host device It is aimed.

The image reading and transferring driver program according to claim 1 proposed to achieve the above object incorporates an operation input interface module for controlling an image reading apparatus storing firmware, and is installed in a host apparatus together with a firmware maintenance program. An image reading / transferring driver program
A first step of accepting an activation command from the application software and activating the operation input interface module; displaying an operation input screen by the operation input interface module; and writing firmware to the image reading apparatus And a third step of starting the firmware maintenance program after receiving the write instruction and sending a firmware write command prepared in advance to the image reading apparatus. Yes.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium in which the image reading / transferring driver program according to the first aspect, the firmware maintenance program, and an installer program for installing these programs on the host device can be stored and moved together. Yes.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, a host device includes a storage unit that stores the image transfer driver program according to the first aspect and a firmware maintenance program in advance.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a host apparatus in which an image reading / transferring driver program incorporating an operation input interface module for controlling an image reading apparatus storing firmware and a firmware maintenance program are installed and stored in advance. The startup command from the application software is received, the operation input interface module of the image reading and transfer driver program is started, the operation input screen is displayed, and the firmware writing instruction to the image reading apparatus is received through the operation input screen. Thereafter, a control unit is provided that sends a firmware write command to the image reading apparatus by activating a firmware maintenance program.

The image reading apparatus according to claim 5 is preinstalled with firmware and a writing / reading program for writing or reading the firmware,
When the firmware write command and the firmware to be written are received from the connected host device, the above-mentioned write / read program is started, the currently stored firmware is erased, and the received firmware is Control means for updating and storing is provided.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the operation input interface module is activated by the application software installed in the host device, the operation input screen is displayed, the firmware writing instruction to be overwritten is received, and the firmware writing is performed. Since the command is sent to the image reading apparatus, the image reading apparatus executes firmware overwriting.
For this reason, a dedicated maintenance program is not installed in the host device every time the firmware is updated or its parameters are changed, so that an apparent operation can be smoothly performed and labor can be saved.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, if the recording medium is set in the host device and the installation module is activated, the image reading / transferring driver program according to the first aspect can be installed together with the firmware maintenance program.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the image transfer driver program according to the first aspect and the firmware maintenance program are stored in advance, the effect of the first aspect can be exhibited.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the firmware write command is sent to the image reading apparatus by starting the firmware maintenance program after receiving the firmware writing instruction to the image reading apparatus through the operation input screen, and is stored in the image reading apparatus. When updating installed firmware or changing firmware control parameters, there is no need to install a dedicated maintenance program on the host device side. It is possible to update firmware and change parameters by simply sending a write command.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, when a firmware write command and firmware to be written are received from a connected host device, the write / read program is activated to erase the currently stored firmware, Since the control means for updating and storing the received firmware is provided, the firmware can be updated by receiving a write command from the host device.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
As the image reading / transferring driver program, for example, a TWAIN driver program can be applied.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a program stored in the storage unit of the host device of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the storage unit 24 such as a hard disk (described later) of the host device 2 has an image reading / transferring driver program 23, a firmware maintenance program 25, a firmware (program) 14B ′, and higher ranks of these programs. An application program 26 for performing image editing is stored, and the firmware program 14B ′ is prepared for updating. These programs are linked on software as will be described later.
Here, the image reading / transferring driver program 23 includes an operation input interface module 23A. When the operation input interface module 23A is activated by the application program 26, the operation input screen is displayed on the display operation unit of the host apparatus 2 or the like. A man-machine interface is configured to display and receive operator instructions such as image reading and transfer, resolution adjustment, and image reading area designation.

  FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of a system in which a host device and an image reading device are combined.

The host device 2 is connected to the image reading device 1 through a cable C such as a LAN.
In this example, the cables C are wired and connected, but the communication interfaces 18 and 27 may be configured by wireless interfaces and connected wirelessly.
Here, the host device 2 is composed of, for example, a personal computer, and includes at least a control unit 20, a CRT, a liquid crystal display, etc., a display operation unit 21, a RAM 22, a storage unit 24, and a communication interface 27. I have.

  The control unit 20 executes processing defined by the application 26 by the application 26 stored in the hard disk 24. When a predetermined image reading instruction is received by operating the display operation unit 21 during execution of the application 26, the image reading / transferring driver program 23 is activated and the operation input interface module 23A included in the program 23 is activated.

  Then, the operation input screen is displayed on the display operation unit 21 by the operation input interface module 23A.

  When the user selects writing on the operation input screen, the firmware maintenance program 25 is activated, and the program 25 sends a firmware program stored in advance to the image reading apparatus 1 together with a writing command.

  One image reading apparatus 1 is composed of peripheral devices having at least an image reading function, such as a scanner, a facsimile machine, and a facsimile multifunction machine, for example. In FIG. An NCU 11 connected to the line L, a modem 12, an image reading unit 13, a flash ROM 14, a RAM 15 for temporarily storing data for various processes, a printer 16, a display operation unit 17, and a communication interface 18 are provided.

  Here, on the flash ROM 14, based on a write instruction from the host device 2, the firmware 14 </ b> C for update transferred from the host device 2 is written, or the already stored firmware program 14 </ b> B is read, A writing / reading transfer program 14A for transferring to the host device 2 is stored together with a firmware program 14B for performing image reading / transferring.

  In such a configuration, when the above-described image reading / transferring driver program 23 stored in the host device 2 is activated by the higher-level application program 26, the operation input interface module 23A is activated, and the function of this module 23A causes the host to operate. Since an operation input screen (not shown) is displayed on the display operation unit 21 of the apparatus 2, the operator performs an image reading process by the image reading apparatus 2 by performing a selection operation on the operation input screen. When image transfer can be instructed and the host device 2 issues an image reading command to the image reading device 1, the image reading device 1 operates the firmware program 14B and operates the image reading unit 13 to execute the image reading. The read image is transferred to the host device 2 and taken into the host device 2. It made.

  Next, processing operations using the image reading driver program 23 and the firmware maintenance program 25 will be described with reference to the flowchart (100 to 109) in FIG.

  When the host device 2 starts up the application program 26 and starts the image reading / transferring driver program 23, the operation input interface module 23A starts up and an operation input screen (not shown) is displayed on the display operation unit 21 of the host device 2. .

  Therefore, when the operator selects this operation input screen and issues a write instruction to the image reading apparatus 1 for the newly prepared firmware 14C, the firmware maintenance program 25 is started and the hard disk 23 of the host apparatus 1 is preliminarily started. The firmware 14C stored in advance in the storage area is transferred to the RAM of the image reading apparatus 1, and at the same time, a write command is sent to the image reading apparatus 1.

  Then, the control unit 10 of the image reading apparatus 1 receives this, starts the writing / reading transfer program 14 </ b> A by transferring it to the RAM 15, and temporarily stores the firmware 14 </ b> C transferred from the host device 2 in the RAM 15.

  Then, the firmware 14C is written into the flash ROM 14 in accordance with the write / read transfer program 14A.

  On the other hand, when the write instruction selection operation is not performed on the operation input screen, other normal processing (such as sending an image reading / transfer command) is performed.

  In the above example, the firmware 14C uses what has been copied from another recording medium to the storage unit 24 of the host device 2, but the firmware received by the host device 2 through the communication network is written. You may do it.

In addition, the image reading / transferring driver program 23 may be configured to be able to read the firmware 14B from the image reading device 1 by a selection operation on the input operation screen. In this case, the operator performs a selection operation on the operation input screen. If the configuration is such that user authentication is confirmed before a transfer command is issued, the firmware 14B can be prevented from being read and analyzed by an unauthorized third party.
Further, the firmware maintenance program 25 may be used for partial repair and correction of the existing firmware 14B. In this case, a program for changing the setting data in the read firmware program 14B is separately provided. It should be installed in the host device 2.

  FIG. 4 shows a schematic configuration of a recording medium proposed simultaneously in claim 2.

  As the recording medium 28, a movable FD, a magnetic disk, a CD, or the like can be used.

  The recording medium 28 includes the image reading / transfer driver program 23 of the present invention, the firmware maintenance program 25, and the installer program 29 for installing these programs on the hard disk 28 of the host device 2 and the like. By reading the medium 28 with the reading device and installing it in the host device 2, the image reading / transfer driver program 23 and the firmware maintenance program 25 of the present invention can be installed at the same time, and there are the same advantages as described above.

The figure which shows the structural example of the program stored in the memory | storage part of the host apparatus of this invention The figure which shows an example of the system structure comprised by the host apparatus and the image reading apparatus. Flowchart for explaining the basic operation of the image reading and transferring driver program of the present invention It is a figure which shows the structural example of the program stored in the recording medium of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image reading apparatus 2 Host apparatus 14C Firmware program 20 Control part 23 Image reading transfer driver program 23A Operation input interface module 24 Memory | storage part 25 Firmware maintenance program 26 Application program 28 Recording medium 29 Installer program

Claims (5)

An image reading transfer driver program that incorporates an operation input interface module for controlling an image reading apparatus that stores firmware and is installed in a host device together with a firmware maintenance program,
A first step of accepting an activation command from the application software and activating the operation input interface module;
A second step of displaying an operation input screen by the operation input interface module and receiving an instruction to write firmware to the image reading apparatus;
An image reading / transferring driver program comprising at least a third step of starting the firmware maintenance program after receiving the writing instruction and sending a firmware writing command prepared in advance to the image reading apparatus.   A movable recording medium in which the image read / transfer driver program according to claim 1, the firmware maintenance program, and an installer program for installing these programs in the host device are stored together.   A host device comprising a storage unit that stores the image transfer driver program according to claim 1 and the firmware maintenance program in advance. A host device in which an image reading / transferring driver program incorporating an operation input interface module for controlling an image reading device storing firmware and a firmware maintenance program are installed,
Accepts a startup command from pre-stored application software, starts up the operation input interface module of the image reading and transferring driver program, displays an operation input screen, and displays firmware for the image reading device through the operation input screen. A host device comprising control means for sending a firmware write command to the image reading device by activating the firmware maintenance program after receiving the write instruction. Firmware and a writing / reading program for writing or reading this firmware are installed in advance.
When the firmware write command and the firmware to be written are received from the connected host device, the above-mentioned write / read program is started, the currently stored firmware is erased, and the received firmware is An image reading apparatus comprising control means for updating and storing.

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