JP2009272933A - Image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the following problems: when automatically updating firmware of an image processing apparatus, clearing of setting data occurs and setting values may be lost; and much time and effort may be required for resetting cleared items. <P>SOLUTION: Before updating firmware, an image processing apparatus outputs a report print of setting values to be affected. Further, the report print is configured in such a way that setting values are scanned by a scanner and can be automatically restored. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus having a function of automatically updating firmware and a firmware update method.

  In general, the control firmware of an image processing apparatus typified by a copier or a printer is updated to a new version of the firmware in order to improve the function or correct software inconvenience. There are various methods for updating the firmware, but in a mode in which the user and the device vendor make a maintenance contract, such as a copying machine, a vendor service person generally performs the work. In this case, the service person visits the user with a PC or storage medium on which the updated firmware is recorded, and updates the firmware there.

  However, when the service person is dispatched and performs the update work on site, it takes a lot of time and effort for both the vendor and the user. For this reason, in a network connectable image processing apparatus, a new version of firmware is transferred from a remote server and automatically updated.

  When such automatic updating is performed, the serviceman's labor is omitted, but it becomes difficult for the user to understand what processing and updating are being performed. For this reason, a method has been devised that uses a printing function of a printer unit at the time of automatic updating, and reports the precautions associated with the automatic updating in advance to notify the user (for example, see Patent Document 1).

Alternatively, a method has been devised in which a firmware test is performed after update and the result is notified to the user by a report print (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2003-91427 A JP 2006-215907 A

  In copying machines and printers, various data such as adjustment values for individual devices and information registered by the user are set, and there are cases in which data clear is required as firmware is updated. When a service person works, data to be cleared in advance is backed up to an external device such as a PC, and is registered again in the device after updating the firmware. However, automatic updating cannot save data to such an external device, and data registered in the device is cleared. In the above-described conventional technique, although the user can be notified of the advance notice and the update result by report printing, data loss due to data clearing cannot be avoided. Further, even if the cleared data is reset, the service person or the user has to manually input one item at a time from the UI screen of the apparatus, which is a heavy burden. At the same time, the labor-saving merit obtained by automating firmware update was to be impaired.

A first invention for solving the above problems includes a printer engine for forming an image on a medium,
Multiple firmware configured to be updatable,
The firmware update processing unit manages the firmware update process,
When the firmware update processing unit updates the firmware, the firmware update processing content to be performed from now on, the procedure to be performed after the update processing, and the set value that is cleared along with the update are displayed on the printer engine. Execute the first report print using, and after the first report print, restart the firmware module or the entire system that needs to be restarted.
After the restart, the image processing apparatus is characterized in that the setting value printed on the first report print is read by a scanner and the setting value is automatically restored.

Furthermore, the second invention for solving the above-mentioned problem is
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the procedure to be performed when printing is a recovery procedure for a trouble caused by an update process.

Furthermore, a third invention for solving the above-mentioned problem is
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the procedure to be performed at the time of printing is a procedure for restoring a set value cleared by an update process.

  According to the present invention, even if data clear due to automatic updating of firmware occurs, it is possible to output setting values by report printing, and further to automatically restore using a scanner, avoiding data loss, and convenience of restoration Improved sex.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Overall configuration of image processing apparatus>
A configuration of an image processing apparatus suitable for applying this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The 1D color MFP includes a scanner unit, a laser exposure unit, a photosensitive drum, an image forming unit, a fixing unit, a paper feeding / conveying unit, and a printer control unit (not shown) that controls these units.

  The scanner unit is a step of creating image data by optically reading a document image by illuminating a document placed on a document table and converting the image into an electrical signal.

  The laser exposure unit causes a light beam such as a laser beam modulated according to the image data to enter a rotating polygon mirror (polygon mirror) that rotates at an equal angular velocity, and irradiates the photosensitive drum as reflected scanning light.

  The image forming unit rotates the photosensitive drum, charges it with a charger, develops the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum by the laser exposure unit with toner, and transfers the toner image to a sheet. At this time, an image is formed by executing a series of electrophotographic processes in which minute toner remaining on the photosensitive drum without being transferred is collected. At that time, each developing unit (developing station) having magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (Y), and black (K) toners is wound around a predetermined position of the transfer belt and rotated four times. ), And the above-described electrophotographic process is sequentially repeated. After four rotations, the sheet onto which the four color full-color toner images have been transferred leaves the transfer drum and is conveyed to the fixing unit.

  The fixing unit is configured by a combination of a roller and a belt, and includes a heat source such as a halogen heater, and melts and fixes the toner on the sheet on which the toner image is transferred by the image forming unit by heat and pressure.

  The sheet feeding / conveying unit has one or more sheet storages represented by sheet cassettes and paper decks, and selects one of a plurality of sheets stored in the sheet storage in response to an instruction from the printer control unit. Sheets are separated and conveyed to the image forming unit and fixing unit. The sheet is wound around the transfer drum of the image forming unit, and after four rotations, is conveyed to the fixing unit. During the four rotations, the above-described toner images of each color of YMCK are transferred to the sheet. Further, when forming an image on both sides of the sheet, control is performed so that the sheet that has passed through the fixing unit passes through a conveyance path for conveying the sheet to the image forming unit again.

  The printer control unit communicates with the MFP control unit that controls the entire MFP, executes control in accordance with the instruction, and also checks the status of each of the scanner, laser exposure, image forming, fixing, and paper feed / carrying units. While managing, give instructions to keep the whole in harmony and operate smoothly.

<Hardware configuration of image processing apparatus>
The hardware configuration of the image processing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

  A controller 2000 is connected to an image input device Scanner 2070 and an image output device Printer 2095. On the other hand, a LAN 2011 or a public line (WAN) 2051 is connected to input / output image information and device information. The CPU 2001 is a controller that controls the entire system. A RAM 2002 is a system work memory for operating the CPU 2002, and is also an image memory for temporarily storing image data. ROM 2003 is a boot ROM, which stores a system boot program. The HDD 2004 is a hard disk drive that stores system software and image data, and stores images read from a paper document for copying, FAX transmission, and document storage by the Scanner 2070 and print / transmission data transmitted from the driver.

  Reference numeral 2099 denotes a debug board composed of a high-speed nonvolatile memory for recording log information output during operation of the software unit.

  An operation unit I / F 2006 is an operation unit (UI) 2012 and an interface unit, and outputs image data to be displayed on the operation unit 2012 to the operation unit 2012. Also, it plays a role of transmitting information input from the operation unit 2012 by the system user to the CPU 2001. Network 2010 is connected to LAN 2011 to input / output information, and performs data communication with servers and client hosts on the network. A Modem 2050 is connected to the public line 2051 and inputs / outputs information. The above devices are arranged on the system bus 2007. Image Bus I / F2005 is a bus bridge that connects a system bus 2007 and an image bus 2008 that transfers image data at high speed, and converts the data structure. The image bus 2008 is configured by a PCI bus or IEEE1394. The following devices are arranged on the image bus 2008. A raster image processor (RIP) 2060 expands the PDL code into a bitmap image. A device I / F unit 2020 connects an image input / output device such as a scanner 2070 and a printer 2095 to the controller 2000, and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data. A scanner image processing unit 2080 corrects, processes, and edits input image data. The printer image processing unit performs printer correction, resolution conversion, and the like on the print output image data. The image rotation unit 2030 rotates image data. The image compression unit 2040 performs compression / expansion processing of JPEG for multi-valued image data and JBIG, MMR, and MH for binary image data.

  In addition, the details of the image processing of the UI, scanner unit, printer unit, and FAX unit are not directly related to the configuration of the present invention, and the description thereof will be omitted.

<Software configuration of image processing apparatus>
The software configuration of the image processing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the software block diagram of FIG.

  Next, the software configuration of the MFP 101 will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the controller software that controls the hardware and each function of the MFP 101. Reference numeral 1510 denotes a UI, that is, a user interface, and is a module that mediates with the device when the operator performs various operations and settings of the multifunction peripheral. This module transfers input information to various modules, which will be described later, according to operations and settings performed by the operator from the operation unit 2012, and requests processing or sets data. A software unit 1511 controls the network unit 2010 and realizes network communication. 1511 performs hardware control of the network unit 2010 and performs software communication control by various communication protocols, and exchanges input / output communication data with the controller API 1520. Reference numeral 1512 denotes a FAX control unit which controls communication hardware Modem 2050 and exchanges input / output data with the controller API 1520.

  1520 is a control part of the software interface (hereinafter abbreviated as software IF) of the controller part of this device. In accordance with the software IF specifications provided by 1520, the application realizes operations such as copying, printing, scanning, and faxing of this device. Although this application is not shown, the UI 1510 includes an in-device application for realizing functions of a single device such as copying, scanning, and FAX transmission / reception. A print driver and a FAX driver on the host 102 are applications for using this device function. The driver also generates data including device control and management information according to the software IF defined by the controller API 1520, and transmits the data to the device via the network. Those data are analyzed by the controller API 1520 and converted into device operation. The controller API 1520 handles the unit of operation as a job and performs corresponding device control.

  In the lower layer of the controller API1520, there is a job control unit that realizes operation in units of jobs corresponding to various functions. 1530 is a copy job, 1531 is a scan job, 1532 is a print job, and 1533 is a fax job. . Furthermore, these job modules are linked to a printer manager 1540, a scan manager 1541, and a fax manager that control hardware devices used in each job.

  A firmware update management unit 1534 automatically updates the firmware of the image processing apparatus. All of the software module groups constituting the controller described above can be updated in units. The firmware update management unit 1534 performs a firmware update process and a setting data report print process for a part or all of the above-described software modules. The firmware update process and report print operation will be described in detail later.

  FIG. 4 is an overall system diagram including the image processing apparatus of the present invention. The image processing apparatus of the present invention is connected via a network 410 to a distribution server 411 that holds and distributes update firmware. When the update firmware is registered in the distribution server, the distribution server 411 searches for an apparatus to be updated and transmits the update firmware. The image processing apparatus of the present invention receives the update firmware and stores it in the HDD.

  Next, firmware update, report printing, and data restoration operation will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a series of operations associated with firmware update.

  When firmware update of the image processing apparatus of the present invention is started, a new job input to the apparatus is prohibited at 501 and waits for the job being processed to end. When all the jobs being processed are completed, the presence / absence and range of the setting value affected by the current firmware update are determined in 502. This determination is made based on information sent from the distribution server 411 together with the update firmware and internal data information of the image processing apparatus itself. In 503, a report is printed before updating the firmware. The report print is composed of a first report print and a second report print.

  The first report print output is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, and the second report print output is shown in FIGS. In the first report print, a notification that firmware update is to be performed, its contents, and a measure in case of trouble are output. In the second report print, various setting data that is cleared under the influence of the firmware update specified in 502 is output. In this embodiment, the printing method is switched according to the characteristics of the data. One-version user data is the readable characters shown in FIG. 8, and the system data that the user does not need to know is the non-readable information shown in FIG. Print.

  Next, for the setting data that can be taken over at 504, the firmware update management unit 1534 performs data takeover processing in accordance with the new firmware. These transferable data are not printed on the second report print. In 505, the firmware update management unit 1534 performs update processing to the new firmware. At this time, the firmware update unit 1534 saves the current firmware in the HDD 2004 in preparation for trouble occurrence in the new firmware. When the firmware update is completed, the entire apparatus is restarted at 506. When the restart is successful and the update to the new firmware is successful at 507, the setting data clear status is confirmed at 508. This is performed by using information on setting data stored in advance before the system is restarted and an actual setting data matching check. If no clear occurs without affecting the setting data in 509, the third report output for outputting the processing result of the firmware update process is performed and the process is terminated.

  If the restart by the update firmware is not successful in 507, the processing flow of “A” is entered. In 531, the user confirms the first report print output in 503, and performs recovery measures based on the procedure for handling trouble. If the restart is successful due to the recovery measure in 532, the set value data check in 534 is performed, and then the flow returns to the flow of 508 and below. If the restart fails even after performing the recovery measures at 532, a serviceman call is notified as a fatal error.

  If data clear due to the update firmware has occurred at 509, the processing flow "B" is entered. In this case, the firmware update management unit 1534 detects data to be cleared in advance in 502, and has been printed out in the second report print in 503. If the user wants to reset the cleared data in 551, the second report print is scanned and read by the scanner 2070 in 552. The firmware update management unit 1534 analyzes the image read in 553 and converts it into a set value to automatically recognize the recovery data. In 554, the automatically recognized data is restored according to each data type, and the process ends.

  Thus, the firmware has been updated, and the restoration of the setting data that has been cleared is completed.

1 is a schematic drawing of an image processing apparatus of the present invention. It is a hardware block diagram of the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a controller software block diagram of the image processing apparatus of the present invention. 1 is an overall system diagram including an image processing apparatus of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the report print and data recovery work accompanying firmware update of this invention. It is a print sample of the cover part of the first report print of the present invention. It is a print sample of the user treatment procedure of the first report print of the present invention. It is a print sample of setting values printed in a readable manner in the second report print of the present invention. It is a print sample of the setting value printed non-readable of the second report print of the present invention.

Claims (3)

A printer engine that forms an image on the media;
Multiple firmware configured to be updatable,
The firmware update processing unit manages the firmware update process,
When the firmware update processing unit updates the firmware, the firmware update processing content to be performed from now on, the procedure to be performed after the update processing, and the set value that is cleared along with the update are stored in the printer engine. Use the first report print, and after the first report print, restart the firmware module or the entire system that needs to be restarted.
An image processing apparatus that, after restarting, reads a set value printed on the first report print with a scanner and automatically restores the set value.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the treatment procedure to be performed at the time of printing is a recovery procedure for a trouble caused by an update process.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the treatment procedure to be performed at the time of printing is a procedure for restoring the setting value cleared by the update process.

Images