JP2007106030A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer having the advantage of communication between the printer and a mobile terminal. <P>SOLUTION: The printer has a means for storing printing circumstance set information and machine information, a means for obtaining machine information of a connected machine, a means for comparing with the printing circumstance set information stored in the machine information and selecting the printing circumstance set information, and a printing means for printing according to the printing circumstance set information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of printing by directly transmitting data from a portable terminal.

  Conventionally, as a data printing method from a large-scale system such as a PDA, a cellular phone, a digital camera, or a portable terminal that does not have abundant resources, various data stored in the portable terminal are directly transmitted to the printing device, and the efficiency Printing devices that perform printing frequently are on the market. In such a printing apparatus, the data received from the host is analyzed and formatted into the size of the printing medium according to the printing environment setting information stored in various printing apparatuses using the font and image processing unit inside the printing apparatus. Save format data is printed directly. As a method for changing the printing environment setting information, there is a method for changing the printing environment setting information by a key operation provided in the printing apparatus. In addition, communication from other devices such as a PC, or a method for changing the setting by directly sending printing environment setting information from a mobile terminal has been devised, and by sending the setting information in a predetermined data format, The settings are updated.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of an input screen of a tool related to setting. The print environment setting information includes a print file, print quality, print medium type, print medium size, borderless print setting, print layout, and language. Various types of information such as information settings and time difference settings are included, and printing is possible according to settings set by the user.

  As a data communication method, communication is possible using wireless communication means such as IrDA communication or wired communication means such as USB communication. Data transmission protocol standards such as IrDA Object Exchange Protocol (IrOBEX) have been published as protocols for transmitting object data through these communication means.

As a method for managing setting information for each partner, a method is disclosed in which a plurality of printing environment setting information is provided and printing is performed by changing the setting using a connected user ID (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Further, as a method for changing the format in printing from a portable terminal, a method for analyzing the type of print data and performing printing with a set format has been disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 2).
JP-A-5-221072 (page 8, FIG. 4) JP 2004-74669 A (page 9, FIG. 3)

  However, if the setting for the mobile terminal that does not include the printing environment setting unit is not set by another device such as a PC, or printing is performed from the mobile terminal that has the printing environment setting unit but is not set. In this case, printing is performed using specific print environment setting information.

  The present invention takes such points into consideration, and an object thereof is to provide a printing apparatus that is highly convenient in communication between the printing apparatus and a portable terminal.

  In order to solve such a problem, the printing apparatus stores a printing environment setting information and device information, a device for acquiring device information of the connected device, and a printing environment setting stored by the device information. Means for selecting print environment setting information in comparison with the information, and printing means for performing printing based on the print environment setting information.

  According to the present invention, even when printing from a device that does not have printing environment setting information for ID information in the printing apparatus, it is possible to perform printing with optimum printing environment setting information.

Example 1
Embodiments in which the present invention is applied to a printing apparatus will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a configuration of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a printing apparatus 1 having a communication unit. 1, the printing apparatus 1 includes a print control unit 105, a CPU 101, a flash ROM 103, a RAM 104, a wireless communication I / F control unit 102, a baseband unit 106, an RF unit 107, and an antenna 108. The flash ROM 103 stores a program for causing the CPU 101 to control the printing apparatus 1, various operation tables, print setting information, and the like. The object of this embodiment can also be achieved by simultaneously providing a non-volatile memory such as a ROM and an EEPROM or a storage memory such as a hard disk without using a Flash ROM. The RAM 104 stores and uses various variables, control tables, temporarily used data, transmission / reception buffers for packet reception, and the like.

  The signal received through the antenna 108 is demodulated by the RF unit 107 and output to the baseband unit 106. The baseband unit 106 performs a demodulated data error correction process, outputs normally received data according to the processing result to the wireless communication I / F control unit 102, and retransmits data in which an error is found Make a request. Furthermore, the authentication request and encryption processing are performed on the counterpart device according to the security mode setting. Various controls, event processing, and data communication methods between the baseband unit 106 and the wireless communication I / F control unit 102 are transmitted and received in packet units along the host controller interface defined by the communication standard.

  The HCI data transmitted from the wireless communication I / F control unit 102 is transferred to the baseband unit 106, added with an error correction code or the like to the output data, converted into a predetermined data format, and output to the RF unit 107. The RF unit 107 modulates the output data and transmits the data to another wireless communication device via the antenna 108.

  The wireless communication I / F control unit 102 analyzes packet data received through the baseband unit 106, and performs link connection negotiation, service search response, connection negotiation in each protocol layer, data transfer, control transfer, flow control, etc. Perform control processing.

  Similarly, the mobile terminal 2 on the connection partner side also includes a CPU 201, a wireless communication I / F control unit 202, a ROM 203, a RAM 204, and an antenna 205, and is connected to the printing apparatus 1 through the wireless communication I / F control unit 202 by wireless communication. And printing is performed by directly transmitting various data held by the mobile terminal 2. The portable terminal 2 includes an application that can set printing environment information, and the printing environment information can be set by the application.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the input screen of the print environment setting application. A file to be printed is selected by this application, and the print quality, paper type, paper size, borderless setting, print layout, print language setting, time difference are displayed. Various settings are possible. When the setting is completed and the transmission button is pressed, the wireless communication I / F control unit 202 of the portable terminal 2 is controlled to communicate with the printing apparatus 1 and the setting items are converted into a predetermined printing environment setting information data format. Printing becomes possible.

  Next, the flow of communication processing from print environment information setting processing to print data transmission from the mobile terminal 2 to the printing apparatus 1 will be described in detail with reference to the sequence chart of FIG.

  First, a link connection request is made from the portable terminal 2 (S301). As parameters of the link connection request, XXX information that can determine the device ID information based on the device-specific address, ClassOfDevice information that can determine the device type, and module manufacturer can be confirmed. CompID information is included and transmitted. XXX is composed of 6 bytes, and information on a manufacturer to which an address is assigned can be determined by a part of the information. The printing apparatus 1 returns a positive response to the connection request as a response (S302), and the link connection is established. Next, in order to establish a channel for transmitting data, a data channel connection request is transmitted from the portable terminal 2 (S303), and the printing apparatus 1 acknowledges (S304) a communication channel for transmitting data is established. To do. Next, the printing environment setting information converted into a predetermined format is transmitted to the printing apparatus 1 through the data communication channel (S305). When reception confirmation is received from the printing apparatus 1 (S306), the setting is completed. Next, an object file to be printed is transmitted from the portable terminal 2 (S307), and the printing apparatus 1 transmits a reception confirmation (S308). The printing apparatus 1 prints the received data in a format according to the set print setting. In the communication process, the communication process ends after a disconnection request (S309) and a disconnection response (S310) for each of the link connection and the data channel connection.

  Next, a process for storing printing environment information in the printing apparatus 1 will be described. FIG. 5 shows a configuration example of the printing environment setting information stored in the printing apparatus. The device ID information includes ID information that can be individually determined by the device, such as XXX information. The model information indicating the type of device includes information such as ClassOfDevice information that can determine the outline of the device. The manufacturer information includes manufacturer information extracted from XXX. The connection history information includes the number of times the device is connected, the frequency, etc., and the information is updated every time the connection is made. The printing environment setting information includes information regarding the received printing environment, and the printing apparatus 1 stores and saves all the information for each device ID.

  In the printing apparatus 1 that has received the printing environment information, the parameters received at the time of link connection are stored, and the stored and saved setting information is searched by using the XXX information that is the ID information of the connected device. If the same XXX information exists in the stored device ID information, the setting is completed by updating and saving the saved printing environment setting information and connection history information. If there is no matching device ID information, a new storage area is provided and all the setting information is stored and saved according to the received parameters and printing environment setting information.

  Next, the processing of the printing environment information in the printing apparatus when only the object data for printing is transmitted without transmitting the printing environment information from the portable terminal will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for setting a printing environment of received print data. When a print format associated with printing is selected (S201), it is first checked whether information that matches the device ID information such as XXX is stored (S202). If there is matching ID information, the printing environment setting is adopted (S203), and the setting process is terminated (S211). As a result of searching the ID information (S202), if the ID information does not match, it is checked whether the model information based on the class of device information of the connected device and the stored model information exist (S204). If there is matching model information, the printing environment setting is adopted (S205), and the setting is terminated (S211). If there are a plurality of pieces of information including matching model information, the printing environment setting is selected from the connection history information in the model information with the matching model information having a high priority (S205). If information that matches the model information is not stored, it is checked whether information that matches the manufacturer information is stored (S208). If information that matches the manufacturer information of the connected device is stored, the printing environment setting is adopted (S207), and the setting is terminated (S211). If there is a plurality of pieces of information that match the manufacturer information, the printing environment setting is selected from the connection history information based on the information with high priority (S207). If there is no information that matches all the information, the printing apparatus 1 can set whether to perform printing with the set default setting or to give priority to the latest set information. The configuration is such that the latest information is prioritized. If the information exists, the latest setting information is set (S209), and the setting process is terminated (S211). If the default value is set, the default value is set (S210), and the setting process is terminated (S211).

  Even when the device ID information connected in this way does not match and is not stored, the optimum print environment setting can be made by the model information, manufacturer information, connection history information, and the like. In the processing in the case where the device ID information does not match, it is possible to obtain the effect of the present invention even if priority is given to each piece of information and judgment is made in a different order from the present embodiment.

(Example 2)
Next, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a printing apparatus capable of communication by IrDA communication will be described in detail.

  When printing is performed from a portable terminal, which is an external device, to the printing apparatus using IrDA communication, the portable terminal performs a station discovery process at the beginning of connection to check whether there is a communicable device. In the station discovery process, an XID command is transmitted from a mobile terminal which is a primary station, and a device capable of communication is confirmed by waiting for an XID response from a partner device. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents transmitted by the XID command. In the XID command, the format identifier, the transmission source device address, the destination device address, the discovery flag, the number of slots, the version, and the discovery information are included only in the final frame, and transmission is performed. FIG. 7 shows the contents of the discovery information, which includes a service hint, a character code, and a device name. In this service hint information, the type of device and the protocol information to be installed are bit-defined, and it is possible to obtain model information. In addition, device ID information can be obtained from the device name.

  Based on these pieces of information acquired by the station discovery process at the time of connection, printing for a device with matching ID information is performed by setting the print environment information in the same manner as the determination described in FIG. 2 of the first embodiment when printing via IrDA. Even when there is no environment information, it is possible to set the print environment information by determining the priority based on the model information or the protocol information.

It is a figure which shows the outline of the whole structure of embodiment described in an Example. It is a flowchart demonstrated in an Example. It is a sequence chart demonstrated in an Example. It is a figure demonstrated in an Example. It is a figure demonstrated in an Example. It is a figure demonstrated in an Example. It is a figure demonstrated in an Example.

Explanation of symbols

1 Printing device 2 Mobile terminal 101 CPU
102 Wireless communication I / F control unit 103 Flash ROM
104 RAM
105 Printer Control Unit 106 Baseband Unit 107 RF Unit 108 Antenna 201 CPU
202 Wireless communication I / F control unit 203 ROM
204 RAM
205 Antenna

Claims (5)

  Data receiving means for receiving received data through communication with an external device, storage means for associating and storing device information including print setting information and ID information for the device to be connected, and device information of the external device when connected to the external device Printing corresponding to ID information of a connected external device in a printing apparatus comprising: information acquisition means for acquiring information; and printing means capable of printing using print setting information corresponding to stored ID information of the external device A printing apparatus that prints using print setting information stored by device information other than ID information when it is determined that the setting information does not exist.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the device information is provided, and the print setting information is determined by providing respective priority levels and weight values.   2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising attribute information acquisition means for acquiring attribute information of an external device as the device information.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a manufacturer information acquisition unit configured to acquire manufacturer information of an external device as the device information.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising connection history information as the device information, wherein the connection history information is updated upon connection from the device.

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