JP2009230305A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To wipe away the anxiety of a user to a threat to information security. <P>SOLUTION: A display control part 77 performs control to make a touch panel part 53 display progress circumstances related with the erasure of document data on a display picture with secular formats when document data as the object of erasure are generated among document data stored in a document storage part 73. Thus, it is possible for a user to recognize that the pertinent document data have been completely erased in a real time via a stage where the document data are being erased by viewing the progress circumstances related with the erasure of the document data displayed with the secular formats on the display picture, and visually and intelligibly expressed in a real time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus provided with a non-volatile storage means, and in particular, when erasing document data once stored in the storage means, presents the progress status in a visually easy-to-understand manner. It is related with the image forming apparatus which can wipe away a user's anxiety about the threat to information security by doing.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been provided an image forming apparatus called a so-called MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) having various functions such as copying, facsimile, scanner, and printer. Among such MFPs, those equipped with a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk for storing documents relating to digital data are widely used. The digital data stored in such a storage device includes confidential documents. Therefore, there is a strong social demand for appropriate management of such confidential documents.

  From such a viewpoint, after printing and transferring the image data, a technique for automatically erasing data stored in the storage device (see, for example, Patent Document 1), or confirming to the user that the erasure of data has been completed. A technique for notifying the system (see, for example, Patent Document 2) has been proposed.

  Further, the applicant of the present application has proposed a technique for displaying a message to that effect when storing image data or the like in a storage device (see Patent Document 3) from the viewpoint of increasing information security awareness among users.

However, in any of the above prior arts, if the result of data stored in the storage device is a confidential document, the confidential document may be exposed to a threat such as information leakage. Such a user's anxiety cannot be dispelled.
JP 2003-037719 A JP 2006-217093 A JP-A-2005-204241

  The problem to be solved is that, in the prior art, when the data once stored in the storage device is a confidential document, the user may be exposed to a threat such as information leakage. It was the point that I couldn't get rid of my anxiety.

  The present invention eliminates the user's anxiety about information security threats by erasing document data once stored in a storage device and presenting the progress status in real time in a visually easy-to-understand manner. In order to do so, a non-volatile storage means for storing document data, a display means for displaying various information on a display screen, and a display control means for performing display control of the display means are provided. In the image forming apparatus configured as described above, when the display control unit generates document data to be erased among the document data stored in the storage unit, the progress of the deletion of the document data The most important feature is that control is performed to display the situation over time on the display screen of the display means.

  In the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, when the document data to be deleted occurs among the document data stored in the storage unit, the display control unit displays the progress status related to deletion of the document data. Since the control is performed to display on the display screen of the display means in a time-dependent manner, the user is thus displayed on the display screen in a time-dependent manner, and is expressed visually and clearly in real time. By looking at the progress of erasing document data, it becomes possible to recognize in real time that the corresponding document data has been completely erased through the stage of being erased. It is possible to dispel the user's anxiety about the threat to

  Progress regarding erasure of document data when document data to be erased occurs among document data stored in the storage means for the purpose of dispelling the user's anxiety about threats to information security The situation is realized by display control means for performing control to display the situation on the display screen of the display means in a time-dependent manner.

  Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, a digital color copying machine will be described as an example of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

[Schematic configuration around the digital color copier]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the periphery of a digital color copying machine, and FIG. 2 is an external view of an operation panel unit mounted on the apparatus.

  The digital color copying machine can use various functions including print output, scanner, fax transmission, mail transmission, and data transmission, and is controlled by the main control unit 11 including a microcomputer and a dedicated hardware circuit. Is done. As an input / output device connected to the main control unit 11 and responsible for various functions, this machine includes a scanner unit 21, an image processing unit 31, an engine unit 41, an operation panel unit 51, a facsimile communication unit 61, and an HDD (hard disk drive) 63. And a network I / F (interface) unit 65.

  The main control unit 11 includes a scanner controller 13 that performs operation control for realizing a scanner function, a facsimile controller 15 that performs operation control for realizing a facsimile function, and a printer controller that performs operation control for realizing a printer function. 17 and a copy controller 19 for controlling the operation for realizing the copy function are incorporated, and the overall operation of the apparatus is controlled.

  The scanner unit 21 includes an image irradiation lamp 23 and a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor 25 constituting a scanner (not shown). The scanner unit 21 irradiates the document with the image irradiation lamp 23, receives the reflected light with the CCD sensor 25, reads an image from the document, and outputs image data corresponding to the read image to the image processing unit 31. .

  The image processing unit 31 includes a correction unit 33, an image processing unit 35, and an image memory 37. The image processing unit 31 processes the image data read by the scanner unit 21 with the correction unit 33 and the image processing unit 35 as necessary, and stores the processed image data in the image memory 37, the engine unit 41, Output to the facsimile communication unit 61 or the like. The correction unit 33 performs predetermined correction processing such as level correction and gamma correction on the image data read by the scanner unit 21. The image processing unit 35 performs various types of processing such as image data compression or expansion processing and enlargement or reduction processing.

  The engine unit 41 includes a sheet conveying unit 43 including a sheet feeding cassette and a sheet feeding roller (not illustrated), an image forming unit 45 including a photosensitive drum, an exposure device, a developing device, and the like (not illustrated), a transfer roller (not illustrated), and the like. And a fixing unit 49 including a fixing roller (not shown). The engine unit 41 stores image data read by the scanner unit 21, image data transmitted from a client PC (personal computer) or the like by a LAN (Local Area Network) via the network I / F unit 65, and a facsimile communication unit 61. The image is printed on a sheet using image data such as fax data received from an external facsimile machine. Specifically, the paper transport unit 43 transports the paper to the image forming unit 45, the image forming unit 45 forms a toner image corresponding to the image data, the transfer unit 47 transfers the toner image to the paper, The fixing unit 49 fixes the toner image on a sheet to form an image.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel unit 51 includes a touch panel unit 53 and an operation key unit 55. The operation panel unit 51 is used for a user to perform operations related to a scanner function, a facsimile function, a printer function, a copy function, and the like, and gives an operation command and the like by the user to the main control unit 11.

  The touch panel unit 53 (corresponding to the “display unit” of the present invention) is composed of a touch panel unit that combines a touch panel and a color LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and various operation screens, for example, when executing a copy function, Information related to the document size, copy size, number of copies, etc. is displayed, and operation buttons for inputting various operation commands when the user touches the corresponding part are displayed. Further, as will be described later, the touch panel unit 53 is used when displaying an animation of the progress related to the erasure when erasing the image relating to the document file stored in the document box.

  The operation key unit 55 includes a plurality of operation keys for receiving user operation inputs. For example, a key input operation of a required function can be performed from various functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. This is used when the user selectively executes, or when the user inputs a copy number or a copy execution command. The operation key unit 53 is used when an operation is designated for a document to be erased.

  The facsimile communication unit 61 includes an encoding / decoding unit (not shown), a modem unit (not shown), and an NCU (Network Control Unit) (not shown). The facsimile communication unit 61 transmits image data of a document read by the scanner unit 21 to a facsimile apparatus or the like via a telephone line, or receives image data transmitted from the facsimile apparatus or the like.

  An HDD (hard disk drive, corresponding to the “nonvolatile storage device” of the present invention) 63 has a storage area for a plurality of document boxes, and includes image data read by the scanner unit 21 and a network. Document data transferred from the client PC or the like via the I / F unit 65 is stored. Various data stored in the HDD are not only used inside the image forming apparatus, the program, and the recording medium, but also confirmed from the client PC or the like via the network I / F unit 65 if necessary, It is transferred to a predetermined folder such as a PC or FTP server.

  The network I / F unit 65 uses a network interface (10 / 100Base-TX) or the like, and controls transmission / reception of various data to / from a client PC connected via the LAN.

  Now, when erasing the document data once stored in the storage means, to present the progress status in real time and in an easy-to-understand manner, to eliminate the user's anxiety about threats to information security In addition, the main control unit 11 obtains, through the operation key unit 55, operation designation information related to transmission processing of an e-mail attached with image data, operation designation information related to a document box to be deleted, and the like. Acquired by the acquisition unit 71, a non-volatile document storage unit (corresponding to “nonvolatile storage unit” of the present invention) 73 in which an image relating to a document file is stored in document box units, and an operation information acquisition unit 71. Based on the specified operation designation information, when document data to be erased is generated, an aspect that changes over time for displaying the progress of the erasure of the document data An animation image generation unit 75 that generates the animation image of the image and a display control unit that performs control to display the animation image generated by the animation image generation unit 75 on the display screen of the touch panel unit 53 in a manner that changes over time ( Corresponds to the “display control means” of the present invention.) 77. The display control unit 77 has a time setting function for setting the frame advance time of an image related to animation display.

  Here, the animation display means that a plurality of different images are displayed one after another on the display screen. The animation display is performed based on a reduced image called a thumbnail, which is a small image data image. Instead of the thumbnail image, an image image that makes the user think about the progress status related to data erasure may be adopted as appropriate.

  The document storage unit 73 is an internal memory called a so-called cache memory, and can be omitted when configured integrally with the HDD 63.

[Operation of Image Forming Apparatus According to Embodiment of Present Invention]
Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows an operation flowchart of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 4 shows an example of a display screen related to an animation display expressing a progress situation related to data erasure.

  As shown in FIG. 3, after a document is set on an automatic document feeder (not shown) in the scanner unit 21, when an instruction to read the document is input to the user via the operation panel unit 51, the main control is performed. The unit 11 sends a document reading start signal to the scanner unit 21. In response to this, the scanner unit 21 starts reading a document (step 11).

  The image data read in step S11 is sent from the scanner unit 21 to the display control unit 77. In response to this, the display control unit 77 displays a preview of the image relating to the document (see step 12, FIG. 4 (1)). In the embodiment of the present invention, the following description will be given by giving an example in which the image data read in step S11 is attached to an e-mail and transmitted.

  Next, the operation information acquisition unit 71 monitors whether or not operation designation information related to the e-mail transmission process has been sent via the operation key unit 55 (steps S13 to S14). As a result of this monitoring, when the operation designation information related to the e-mail transmission process is acquired (“Yes” in step S13), the operation information acquisition unit 71 sends a message to that effect to the animation image generation unit 75. In response to this, the animation image generation unit 75 generates an animation image in a mode that changes over time for displaying the progress status related to the deletion of the document data, and displays the generated animation image as a display control unit 77. Send to

  Next, the display control unit 77 performs control to display the progress status related to the deletion of the corresponding document data on the display screen of the touch panel unit 53 in a manner that changes over time (step S15, FIG. 4 (2)). -Refer FIG. 4 (3)).

  As an aspect of displaying the progress status related to the erasure of document data, for example, an animation (moving image) display is performed so that the previewed image melts down with time and finally disappears completely. Aspects can be employed. Further, instead of the thumbnail image of the image data to be erased, an image that symbolizes data erasure may be employed. In addition to the meltdown over time, it is preferable to adopt a mode that reminds the user of “data erasure” such that the symbol image for data erasure gradually fades or disappears with smoke. it can.

[Effect of Example]
As described above, according to the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, the display control unit 77 detects when document data to be erased occurs among the document data stored in the document storage unit 73. Since the progress of the deletion of the document data is controlled to be displayed on the display screen of the touch panel unit 53 in a time-dependent manner, the user is thereby displayed on the display screen in a time-dependent manner, By observing the progress of erasing document data, which is expressed visually and clearly in real time, it is confirmed in real time that the corresponding document data has been completely erased through the stage of being erased. As a result of being able to recognize, the user's anxiety about the threat to information security can be dispelled.

[Others]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist of the invention read from the claims and the entire specification or the technical idea, and image formation accompanied by such changes The apparatus is also included in the scope of the technical scope of the present invention.

  That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, image data that has been read by the scanner unit 21 and attached to an e-mail and completed for transmission processing has been described as an example of document data to be erased. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to all document data to be deleted after any progress, as in the present embodiment.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram around an image forming apparatus (digital color copying machine) according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an external view of an operation panel unit mounted on the image forming apparatus. FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the image forming apparatus. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a display screen which concerns on the animation display expressing the progress condition which concerns on deletion of data.

Explanation of symbols

11 Main control unit 53 Touch panel unit (display means)
71 Operation Information Acquisition Unit 73 Document Storage Unit (Storage Unit)
75 Animation image generation unit 77 Display control unit (display control means)

Claims (2)

Image formation comprising nonvolatile storage means for storing document data, display means for displaying various information on a display screen, and display control means for controlling display of the display means A device,
The display control means includes
When document data to be deleted occurs among the document data stored in the storage means, the progress status related to the deletion of the document data is displayed on the display screen of the display means in a time-dependent manner. Do control,
An image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
The display control means includes
The progress status related to the deletion of the document data is controlled to be animated on the display screen of the display means.
An image forming apparatus.