JP2007188607A - Disk publisher - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent output disks from being pooled at its stock part when a disk publisher is stopped, while to prevent disks created by all users from remaining at the stock part unnecessarily when a plurality of users share the disk publisher. <P>SOLUTION: When a stop signal is inputted to the disk publisher 1, the disk publisher uses a disk number detecting device 5 to detect whether an output disk exists in the stock part 3 or not. When the output disk exists, it is informed to clients 9A to 9N and 10, preferably, a power source of the disk publisher is stopped after the prescribed waiting time Tw elapses. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a disk publisher.

A plurality of unrecorded disks (CD-R, DVD-R, etc.) are prepared in advance in the disk publisher, and the unrecorded disk is inserted into the information writing drive in response to a user command. Write digital information to the information recording surface. The disc for which the writing process has been completed is taken out from the drive and stocked. The series of operations described above are automatically performed.
Some disc publishers have a function of printing on the label side of the disc.
As described above, a plurality of information writing drives are installed in the disk publisher in accordance with the required disk processing throughput.
As described above, refer to Patent Document 1 as a conventional example of a disk publisher.
JP 2000-260172 A

Information written to an unrecorded disc by a disc publisher is valuable and has to be kept secret. Therefore, before stopping the disk publisher and ending the information writing operation on the unrecorded disk, it is necessary to take out the output (processed) disk from the disk publisher.
However, some users of the disk publisher may forget to take out the output disk before leaving the disk publisher after completing the work.
On the other hand, such a disk publisher is often shared by a plurality of users (clients) in a computer network. Therefore, when one user stops the disk publisher, there is a possibility that the output disk of another user is left in the stock section.
That is, according to the present invention, it is an object to be solved to prevent a disk that has already been output from staying in the stock section when the disk publisher is stopped. In particular, when a disk publisher is shared by a plurality of users, another problem to be solved is to prevent inadvertently leaving discs created by all users in the stock section.
For security reasons, it is prohibited to take out the output disk from the stopped disk publisher. Therefore, the creator of the disk that remains in the stock section must restart the disk publisher, which reduces work efficiency.
Therefore, another problem to be solved by the present invention is to improve the work efficiency of the disk publisher by preventing the output disk from remaining carelessly.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the first aspect thereof is defined as follows. That is,
A disk publisher that can be connected to a plurality of clients, and a detection device that detects the presence or absence of an output disk in the stock section,
A control device for confirming the detection result of the detection device when a stop signal is input, and notifying the user when there is an output disc in the stock unit, and thereafter performing a stop operation. A disc publisher featuring

According to the disk publisher configured as described above, if a disk that has already been output exists in the stock section when the stop signal is input, first, the user is notified of that fact. In other words, the stopped disk publisher is warned that the output disk is left unattended. Then, stop the disk publisher.
As a result of the notification, the creator of the disk including important information can take out the disk before the disk publisher stops. Also, the user who continues the disk creation work can cancel the stop of the disk publisher.

The second aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
In the disk publisher of the first aspect, the control device performs a stop operation after a predetermined time has elapsed from the notification.
According to the disk publisher configured as described above, a predetermined waiting time is set between the notification that the output disk remains in the stock unit and the disk publisher being turned off when the disk publisher is stopped. As a result, there is a time margin for taking out the disc remaining in the stock portion. Also, other users can use this waiting time to determine whether to continue their work, that is, whether to stop the disk publisher.

The third aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
In the disk publisher of the first or second aspect, the control device includes a server,
When there is an output disk in the stock unit, a first message is transmitted to the client connected to the server.
According to the disk publisher configured as described above, the notification is made in a message format, so that the content of the notification can be conveyed to the user more specifically and accurately.
In order to send a message, for example, a mail is sent to the client. In addition to mail, the message can be displayed in a pop-up format on the client computer screen.

The fourth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
In the disk publisher of the third aspect, after the server receives a confirmation message from the client that transmitted the first message, the control device performs a stop operation.
According to the disk publisher configured in this way, only the confirmation message that the client is allowed to stop during the predetermined waiting time with respect to the first message (stop confirmation with the output disk remaining). The disk publisher is stopped on condition that it has been received. When a stop disapproval message is received, stop the disk publisher stop.
As a result, an unexpected stop can be prevented in advance, and work efficiency is improved.

The fifth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
In the disc publisher of the third or fourth aspect, the storage device further includes a storage device that stores the output disc existing in the stock section and information specifying the creator thereof, and the server stores information stored in the storage device. The second message is transmitted to the client of the creator of the output disk.
According to the disk publisher configured as described above, the creator of the disk existing in the stock section is specified, and the second is to stop the disk remaining in the stock section only to the creator's client computer. A message is sent. Therefore, the second message is not transmitted to a user who does not stock the disc. As a result, it is possible to more accurately inform the user of the status of the disk publisher while omitting unnecessary information transmission.

The sixth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
In the disk publisher according to any one of the third to fifth aspects, the server transmits a third message to the client that is receiving and transmitting data.
According to the disk publisher configured as described above, the third message is transmitted to the client that is connected to the server and can transmit and receive data, that is, the client that is operating at this time. This third message is an urgent request to eject the disk,
This is because in this case, it is effective to transmit to the client in operation. This is because even if a message is sent to a suspended client, there is no disc creator (or user) there, so it is impossible to respond to an emergency.

The seventh aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
In the disk publisher according to any one of the third to sixth aspects, the server transmits a fourth message to the administrator's client.
According to the disk publisher configured as described above, by sending a specific fourth message to the administrator, the state of the stock unit can be reliably notified to the administrator. The contents of the fourth message include a list and number of creators of the discs staying in the stock section.

Hereafter, each element which comprises this invention is demonstrated.
The disc publisher includes a disc supply unit that holds an unrecorded disc (CD-R, DVD-R, etc.), a drive that records digital information on the information recording surface of the unrecorded disc, a stock unit that stores the recorded disc, and a disc The transport mechanism is provided. Furthermore, a label printing unit for printing on the label surface of the disc can be provided.
The number of discs existing in the stock part can be detected by monitoring the amount of discs inserted into the stock unit and the amount of discs exiting from the stock unit and taking the difference between the two.
The method of notification to the user when the output disc remains in the stock section is not limited to sending and receiving electronic information such as e-mail and pop-up screen display. It is also possible to adopt a physical method such as generating an alarm sound.
It is also possible to physically detect the presence of a disk in the stock section by setting an optical sensor or the like in the stock section.

By recording the processing request from the creator's client to the disk publisher and the history of taking out from the stock section, it is possible to specify the output disk and the creator existing in the stock section. As a result, the second message can be transmitted only to the creator of the disk staying in the stock section, and the removal request can be made.
When an emergency is required, a client that is connected to the disk publisher and can send and receive data (on-state client) is selected, and a retrieval request message (third message) can be transmitted only to the client. .
It is also possible to send the output disc and the creator existing in the stock section to the administrator as a fourth message.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on examples.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a disk publisher 1 according to the first embodiment.
This disc publisher 1 includes a stock portion 3 of a disc on which writing processing has been performed,
The number of disks present in the stock unit 3 is detected by the number detection device 5 to form a first control signal. This first control signal is sent to the server 7 incorporated in the disk publisher. The server 7 uses the users 9A to 9A of the disk publisher 1 in response to the first control signal.
A predetermined notification is sent to C.

The detailed configuration of the disk publisher 1 is shown in FIGS.
FIG. 2 shows the main body 20 of the disk publisher. The unrecorded disc CD is stacked and held in the disc supply unit 21, and the unrecorded disc CD is taken out by the transfer device 23. The transfer device 23 can attach and detach an unrecorded disc CD by a clamper 24. The unrecorded disc CD is inserted into any of the writing drives 25-1 to 25-3, and digital information is written on the information recording surface. The disc on which the writing process has been completed is taken out from the writing drive, inserted into the label printer 27, and printing is performed on the label surface.
The disc for which label printing has been completed is stacked on the stock unit 29. The stock unit 29 is provided with a lid 31 to prevent unauthorized removal of the disc after the writing process is completed.

The control system of the disk publisher is shown in FIG.
The control unit 40 includes a CPU and controls each element according to a control program stored in the program storage unit 51.
The user's ID card is passed through the card reader 41. Information stored in the ID card is read from the card reader 41 to identify the user. When a disc created by the specified user exists in the stock unit 29, the disc is taken out from the stock unit 29.
The lamp 45 is lit (or flashes) in response to the first control signal. Thus, when the number of created disks in the stock unit 29 exceeds the first threshold, the lamp 45 is turned on to notify all users that the amount of the created disks has increased.

Reference numeral 47 denotes a network interface, to which a client 10 composed of an administrator PC and clients 9A to 9N for creating disks are connected.
The storage unit 50 includes a program storage unit 51, and the program storage unit 51 includes a control unit 40.
A control program for operating the CPU is stored.
The threshold value storage unit 52 stores a first threshold value and a second threshold value. In this embodiment, 60% of the maximum number of sheets that can be stocked in the stock section 29 is adopted as the first threshold value. One sheet is adopted as the second threshold value.
The message storage unit 54 stores various messages to be transmitted to the client.

Next, the operation of the disk publisher of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In step 1, the number of created discs staying in the stock unit 29 is specified.
In this embodiment, as shown in Table 1, the disk creation and removal history is recorded and stored in the processing history storage unit 53.

In Table 1, the date and time taken out by the creator is also recorded. Further, whether or not the administrator has forcibly removed the disk from the stock unit 29 and the date and time when the administrator removed the disk are also recorded.
Then, the processing disk No. is calculated from the total number of processing disks (= processing disk No.).
. The number of disks remaining in the stock unit 29 is specified by subtracting the number of creators extracted (ΣY) and the number of managers extracted (ΣY). See the rightmost column of Table 1.

In step 3, the number m of the created disks existing in the stock unit 29 is compared with the first threshold value _MT1 . In this embodiment, since the disk capacity of the stock unit 29 is 50, the first control signal is generated when the remaining number of created disks in the stock unit 29 reaches 80% (= 40). . The threshold value can be arbitrarily set via the input unit 43.
The lamp 45 is turned on by this first control signal (step 5). Further, the first message corresponding to the first control signal is read from the message storage unit 54 and transmitted as mail to the clients 9A to 9N for the user (step 7). The first message requests all users to eject the created disc.

When a user who is a disc creator takes out a disc from the stock unit 29, the card reader 41 is caused to read a card capable of specifying the creator's ID. For example, when the creator A passes the ID card to the card reader 41 in Table 1, the control unit 40 refers to the relationship in Table 1 stored in the processing history storage unit 53, and the creator is A. Disk No. with both “N” taken out by the administrator and the administrator taken out To extract. The disk is counted from the top of the disk existing in the stock unit 29 as the remaining number “m” of the corresponding disk.
In this state, when a take-out confirmation command is input via the input unit 43, the lid 31 is opened and the transfer device 23 takes out the m-th disc from above.

(Second embodiment)
FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration of a disk publisher according to another embodiment. In FIG. 5, the same elements as those in FIG.
In this embodiment, an information storage device 8 is provided, and the information storage device 8 stores, for example, the relationship shown in Table 1 described above. From the relationship in Table 1, the creator of the created disc remaining in the stock section is specified. A second message is sent to the identified creator. On the other hand, the specified creator and the number thereof are transmitted to the manager as a fourth message. The administrator may be provided with the data in Table 1.

The operation of the disk publisher of the second embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 6, parts that perform the same operations as those in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals for convenience of explanation.
In step 11, the creator of the disk remaining in the stock unit 29 is specified with reference to the relationship of Table 1 stored in the processing history storage unit 53, and the remaining number for each creator is also counted. Then, a second message is transmitted in a mail format only to the creator specified in step 13, and a request for taking out the created disk is made. In the example of Table 1, the creator C has taken out all of the discs he has created from the stock unit 29, so the second message is not transmitted to the creator C.
In FIG. 6, the transmission of the first message (step 7) can be omitted.

At this time, by displaying the third message in a pop-up format on the screen of the client, the user can be informed of the urgency. When the pop-up display is adopted, the third message is transmitted only to the client that can send and receive data with the disk publisher (that is, the client in the on state).

In this embodiment, the fourth message in the mail format is transmitted to the administrator client 10 (step 15). The fourth message includes the creator of the disk staying in the stock unit 29 and the number of sheets created. As a result, the administrator can give instructions to the creator individually.

(Third embodiment)
The operation of the disk publisher in another embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The configuration of the disk publisher is the same as that shown in FIGS.
Also, in FIG. 7, steps showing the same operations as in FIG.
In FIG. 7, when the disk publisher is activated (step 20), the stock section 2
The number m of created discs existing in 9 is detected (step 1). This number m is compared with the number of disks in the stock unit 29 at the end of the previous time, and if they are different, an alarm message is sent to the administrator (step 23). If they match, the process proceeds to step 25. In step 25, the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 is executed.

When a stop command or the like is operated to stop the disk publisher and a stop command is input (step 27), in step 29, it is confirmed whether or not an output disk exists in the stock unit 29. When the disk exists in the stock unit 29, the number of remaining disks is stored in the processing history storage unit 53. Thereafter, a message notifying the existence of the disk remaining in the stock unit 29, that is, the unextracted disk is transmitted to all the clients 9A to 9N and 10 (step 31).
If the stop command is maintained while Tw time (for example, 5 minutes) elapses after the message is transmitted, the disk publisher is turned off (step 60). When the stop command is canceled during the waiting time Tw, the process returns to step 25, and the disk publisher can be operated in the normal mode. See steps 41, 43, and 45 above.
By setting the waiting time Tw, a margin time for taking out the disk from the stock portion can be obtained. Further, when the disk publisher cannot be taken out during the waiting time Tw, the stop operation itself of the disk publisher can be canceled. By preventing an unexpected stop, the work efficiency is greatly improved as compared to stopping the disk publisher and then starting it again.

(Fourth embodiment)
FIG. 8 shows the operation of the disk publisher of another embodiment. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the step which performs the same operation | movement as the flowchart of FIG. 7, and the description is abbreviate | omitted.
In this embodiment, when a stop non-permission message is returned from the client in step 47, the stop of the disk publisher is forcibly terminated and returned to the normal mode (step 25). It should be noted that the message indicating that the suspension is not permitted functions only during the waiting time Tw. When this waiting time Tw elapses, the disk publisher power is stopped unless the stop command itself is canceled in step 45. Will be.

In the above, it is preferable to identify the disk and its creator with reference to Table 1 and transmit the list to the administrator's client immediately before turning off the power while the unextracted disk exists in the stock unit 29. (Step 50). As a result, it is possible to manage the disks that remain in the stock unit 29 while the disk publisher is stopped.

The present invention is not limited to the description of the embodiments and examples of the invention described above.
Various modifications may be included in the present invention as long as those skilled in the art can easily conceive without departing from the description of the scope of claims.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a disk publisher according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view of the disc publisher main body. FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the control system of the disk publisher. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the disk publisher of the first embodiment. FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration of a disk publisher according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the disk publisher of the second embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the disk publisher according to the third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the disk publisher according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Distributor, 3,29 Stock section, 5 Number detection device, 7 Server, 9A, 9B, 9C User client, 10 Administrator client, 20
Disc publisher body, 21 disc supply unit, 23 transfer device,
29 Stock part, 40 Control part

Claims (7)

A disk publisher that can be connected to a plurality of clients, and a detection device that detects the presence or absence of an output disk in the stock section,
A control device for confirming the detection result of the detection device when a stop signal is input, and notifying the user when there is an output disc in the stock unit, and thereafter performing a stop operation. A disc publisher featuring The said control apparatus performs a stop operation | movement after progress for a predetermined time from notification.
Disk publisher listed in. The said control apparatus is provided with a server, and when the output disk exists in the said stock part, a 1st message is transmitted to the client connected to this server, The Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned. Disk publisher. 4. The disk publisher according to claim 3, wherein the control device performs a stop operation after the server receives a confirmation message from a client that has transmitted the first message. A storage device for storing output discs existing in the stock section and information for identifying the creator thereof;
5. The disk publisher according to claim 3, wherein the server refers to information stored in the storage device and transmits a second message to a client of the creator of the output disk. The disk publisher according to claim 3, wherein the server transmits a third message to a client that is receiving and transmitting data. The disk publisher according to claim 3, wherein the server transmits a fourth message to an administrator client.

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