JP2012244264A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device capable of utilizing an input from an illuminance sensor as an instruction related to various processes.SOLUTION: An image forming device that forms an image according to an input video signal, comprises: an illuminance sensor that outputs current corresponding to a light reception level; an operation key that receives a predetermined operation input; and a control unit that determines a predetermined instruction on the basis of a combination of a voltage value generated depending on a change in the current input from the illuminance sensor and an input obtained by operating the operation key, and causes the instruction to be executed.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including an illuminance sensor.

  Conventionally, an illuminance sensor that outputs a current according to a light reception level is known. The illuminance sensor includes a light receiving element that generates a current corresponding to the light reception level therein, and can detect the intensity of light. For this reason, a technique for executing processing according to the surrounding environment (illuminance) by providing the illuminance sensor as a non-contact type input unit is disclosed (for example, see Patent Documents 1-3).

  Moreover, what makes a product perform a predetermined | prescribed process is also disclosed by utilizing the input from an illumination intensity sensor as a part of operation input (for example, refer patent document 4). Specifically, the illuminance sensor is used as a non-contact type input unit by utilizing a change in the value of an electric signal input by shielding the illuminance sensor with a palm or the like.

JP-A-2005-302125 JP 2000-105671 A JP 2006-013938 A Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-015581

  Since the input from the illuminance sensor is in accordance with the light reception level, the mode of change is narrow and it is not suitable for use as a command for performing various processes. For example, in a product using a conventional illuminance sensor, although it is used for switching processing depending on the intensity of light, the input from the illuminance sensor is not used for other processing.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming apparatus that can use an input from an illuminance sensor as a command related to various processes.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, in an image forming apparatus that forms an image according to an input video signal, an illuminance sensor that outputs a current according to a light reception level, and an operation key that receives a predetermined operation input A control unit that determines a predetermined command based on a combination of a voltage value generated according to a change in current input from the illuminance sensor and an input obtained by operating the operation key, and executes the command. It is as composition to have.

  In the invention configured as described above, the image forming apparatus includes an illuminance sensor and an operation key. Here, the illuminance sensor is realized by a phototransistor, a photodiode, or a photo IC as an IC incorporating these. Further, the control unit determines a predetermined command based on a combination of a voltage value generated according to a change in current input from the illuminance sensor and an input obtained by operating the operation key, and causes each unit to execute the command. That is, in addition to the voltage value generated by the input from the illuminance sensor, it is possible to increase the types of commands that can be recognized by the control unit by combining the input obtained by operating the operation keys.

Here, any combination of the voltage change according to the input from the illuminance sensor and the input obtained by operating the operation key may be any, but as a suitable example of the present invention, the control unit, When a first input obtained by operating the operation key is received, a change in voltage corresponding to the input from the illuminance sensor may be determined as a predetermined command.
In the invention configured as described above, whether or not the control unit determines the voltage change according to the input from the illuminance sensor as a predetermined command depending on whether or not the first input from the operation key is accepted. Is switched. With the above configuration, the control unit can easily determine whether or not the input from the illuminance sensor corresponds to a predetermined command, so the input from the illuminance sensor is used more effectively. be able to.
Of course, when the illuminance sensor is originally used to measure the illuminance of the surrounding environment, etc., when the first input is not accepted, the control unit determines the input from the illuminance sensor according to the illuminance of the surrounding environment. It does not preclude judgment as a value.

In addition, as a preferred example when detecting a change in voltage value by the control unit as a predetermined command, the control unit receives the first input and then receives the first input compared to before receiving the first input. The period for determining the change in the voltage value according to the input from the illuminance sensor may be shortened.
In the invention configured as described above, in order to shorten the voltage change detection period only when a voltage changing according to an input from the illuminance sensor is recognized as a predetermined command, the illuminance sensor is caused by disturbance in normal times. It is possible to prevent the voltage change generated by the reaction from being determined as an instruction.

And as a suitable example when detecting the change of the voltage value by the control unit as a predetermined command, the control unit receives the first input, and then receives a command according to the input from the illuminance sensor It is good also as a structure which receives selection of the process which becomes and applies the command according to the input from the said illumination intensity sensor with respect to the selected process.
In the invention configured as described above, it is possible for the control unit to determine as a different command even if the input is the same, by receiving the selection of the processing to be the target of the command in advance. For this reason, it is possible to make the user easier to use the present invention by reducing the types of instructions.

Furthermore, as a preferred example of the command using the illuminance sensor, the command may be for adjusting the volume. As a preferred example of a command using an illuminance sensor, the command may be for switching channels.
In the invention configured as described above, it is possible to provide a new operation form in which the illuminance sensor is applied to a command that is frequently used such as volume adjustment and channel switching.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to use the input from the illuminance sensor as a command related to various processes.

4 is a block configuration diagram for explaining a configuration of the display device 10. FIG. It is a figure explaining the detection voltage which arises in the A / D conversion port of the control part 16 according to the input from the illumination intensity sensor. It is a flowchart explaining the process which the control part 16 performs. It is a flowchart which shows the process of step S4 as an example in detail. It is a figure which shows the OSD screen displayed on a screen by the process shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the OSD screen displayed on a screen by the process shown in FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order.
1. First embodiment:
2. Other embodiments:

1. First embodiment:
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, the display device 10 is described as an example of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram for explaining the configuration of the display device 10. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a detection voltage generated at the A / D conversion port of the control unit 16 in accordance with an input from the illuminance sensor 14. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining processing executed by the control unit 16.

  The display device 10 according to the present embodiment includes a tuner unit 12, an operation panel 13, an illuminance sensor 14, a signal processing unit 15, a control unit 16, an OSD unit 17, an image processing unit 18, and a display panel 19. And an audio processing unit 20 and a speaker 21.

  The tuner unit 12 is connected to the antenna 11 on the input side, and is connected to the signal processing unit 15 on the output side. Therefore, when the tuner unit 12 extracts a broadcast signal corresponding to the selected channel from the television broadcast signal received by the antenna 11, the tuner unit 12 outputs the extracted broadcast signal to the signal processing unit 15. The signal processing unit 15 is connected to the image processing unit 18 and the audio processing unit 20 on the output side, respectively, and extracts a video signal and an audio signal from the broadcast signal, and the image processing unit 18 and the audio processing unit 20 respectively. Output. The tuner unit 12 is connected to the control unit 16 and switches the broadcast signal channel to be extracted in response to a channel switching command from the control unit 16.

  The image processing unit 18 is connected to the display panel 19 on the output side, performs pixel number conversion processing, brightness correction, and the like on the video signal, and outputs the result to the display panel 19. The audio processing unit 20 is connected to the speaker 21 on the output side and to the control unit 16. Therefore, the audio processing unit 20 converts the audio signal from digital to analog, and then amplifies the analog signal according to the volume adjustment command instructed from the control unit 16 and outputs the amplified signal to the speaker 21.

  The display panel 19 performs digital / analog conversion on the video signal, and drives each pixel according to the converted analog signal to display the video. The display panel 19 according to the present embodiment is realized by a liquid crystal panel, and displays an image by changing the transmittance of light emitted from the backlight. Further, the display panel 19 performs dimming control by changing the light emission luminance of the backlight according to the dimming control command output from the control unit 16.

  The OSD unit 17 is connected to the image processing unit 18 and the control unit 16 and synthesizes an OSD image with a video signal processed by the image processing unit 18 in accordance with a command from the control unit 16. The OSD image is composed of a plurality of icons, and when the user selects each icon, the control unit 16 recognizes input of various commands.

  The operation panel 13 is connected to the control unit 16 and outputs an operation input signal to the control unit 16. The operation panel 13 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of push-type operation keys, and outputs an electric signal generated when the operation key is pressed to the control unit 16 as an operation input signal.

  The illuminance sensor 14 is connected to the A / D conversion port of the control unit 16 through a line L including a resistor, and the A / D conversion of the control unit 16 is performed by flowing a current corresponding to the amount of received light through the line L. A predetermined voltage (hereinafter also referred to as a detection voltage) is generated at the port (FIG. 2). In the present embodiment, the illuminance sensor 14 is realized by a phototransistor or a photodiode, and further a photo IC including the phototransistor or the photodiode.

  The control unit 16 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an EPROM (Erasable and Programmable ROM), and a RAM (Random Access Memory) (not shown), and refers to programs and various tables recorded in the EPROM. The integrated drive related to the display device 10 is controlled. In particular, in this embodiment, the control unit 16 executes dimming control using an input from the illuminance sensor 14 by executing the above-described program or the like, and controls the input from the illuminance sensor 14 by a control command (channel switching command, volume adjustment). Command), channel switching and volume adjustment are performed.

Hereinafter, processing executed by the control unit 16 will be described with reference to FIG.
In the process illustrated in FIG. 3, the control unit 16 switches whether to use the input from the illuminance sensor 14 for dimming control or other control command according to the operation input from the user. In this process, a channel switching command or a volume adjustment command will be described as an example of another control command, but the control command is not limited to this.

  When the user operates the operation panel 13 to make a predetermined input to the control unit 16, the control unit 16 receives this input (step S1), and whether the input operation input relates to dimming control. Then, it is determined whether the command relates to another control command. Therefore, when the operation input is related to another control command (first input) (step S2: YES), the control unit 16 detects the detected voltage generated at the A / D conversion port according to the input from the illuminance sensor 14. Is received as a channel switching command or a volume adjustment command.

  On the other hand, when the user does not perform the first input through the operation panel 13 (step S2: NO), the control unit 16 receives the input from the illuminance sensor 14 (step S6), and displays based on the received input value. Dimming control of the panel 19 is performed (step S7). That is, when the illuminance sensor 14 passes a current corresponding to the amount of received light through the line L, a predetermined detection voltage is generated at the A / D conversion port of the control unit 16. Since the value of the detection voltage is proportional to the light reception level of the illuminance sensor 14, the control unit 16 changes the light emission luminance of the backlight according to a value obtained by analog-digital conversion of the detection voltage. For example, when the control unit 16 determines that the ambient illuminance is dark by the input of the illuminance sensor 14, the light emission luminance of the backlight is lowered to improve the visibility of the display panel 19.

  When the first input is made to the control unit 16 (step S2: YES), the control unit 16 shortens the determination period of the high level / low level of the detection voltage generated according to the input from the illuminance sensor 14 ( Step S3). Hereinafter, such a period is described as the resolution of the detection voltage in the control unit 16 for convenience. The control unit 16 performs analog / digital conversion of the detection voltage generated at the A / D conversion port in response to the input from the illuminance sensor 14 into binary (on / off), as shown in FIG. 2A. When the resolution is 10 sec, the control unit 16 only determines the detection voltage to be at a high level even if the detection voltage changes within this period. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2B, the change in the detection voltage can be detected more easily by changing the resolution of the detection voltage to 1 sec. Before the first input is performed, it is necessary to prevent the illuminance sensor 14 from reacting to a sudden change in received light, but when the first input is performed, it is performed by a human palm. This is because it is necessary to react to sudden light shielding such as light shielding.

  And the control part 16 judges the detection voltage which changes according to the input from the illumination intensity sensor 14 as a control command (step S4). FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing in detail the process of step S4 as an example. 5 and 6 are diagrams showing OSD screens displayed on the screen by the processing shown in FIG.

  First, in step S <b> 41, the control unit 16 causes the OSD unit 17 to display a selection screen for selecting a target of a control command generated by the input of the illuminance sensor 14. Therefore, the OSD unit 17 displays on the display panel 19 an icon composed of character strings “channel switching” and “volume adjustment” (FIG. 5). And when a user selects any icon by the input from the illumination sensor 14, the control part 16 recognizes the process which concerns on the selected icon as an object process of the control command produced by the input of the illumination sensor 14. To do.

  Therefore, in step S <b> 42, the control unit 16 determines whether any icon has been selected according to the input from the illuminance sensor 14. In this embodiment, when the detection voltage changes to the low level once in a predetermined period, the control unit 16 determines that the “channel switching” icon is selected, and when the detection voltage changes to the low level twice, the control is performed. The unit 16 determines that the “volume adjustment” icon has been selected. That is, when the user shields the illuminance sensor 14 once with his / her palm (for example, the light shielding period is 2 sec), the control voltage is changed to “channel switching” because the detection voltage changes to low level once in the predetermined period T1. It is determined that the icon related to is selected. On the other hand, when the user shades the illuminance sensor 14 twice with the palm (the shading period is 2 sec, and the interval between the first shading and the second shading is 1 sec), the control unit 16 performs “volume adjustment”. It is determined that the icon is selected.

  Hereinafter, when the “volume adjustment” icon is selected (step S42: YES), in step S43, the control unit 16 causes the OSD unit 17 to display a screen corresponding to the volume adjustment (volume adjustment screen). In the volume adjustment screen shown in FIG. 6, a bar indicating the volume level (also referred to as a volume bar) is displayed at the bottom of the screen (FIG. 6A), and this volume bar increases or decreases according to the input from the illuminance sensor 14. Let the user visually recognize the increase and decrease in volume.

  Therefore, in step S44, when the user shades the illuminance sensor 14 a plurality of times, the volume bar increases according to the number of shades. That is, when the user intermittently blocks the illuminance sensor 14 three times (the light blocking time is set to 2 sec, and 1 sec is set for each light blocking time), the volume bar increases by 3 levels (FIG. 6B).

  Here, the switching between the increase and decrease of the volume bar may be performed, for example, by continuously blocking the illuminance sensor 14 for a predetermined time. In the present embodiment, the user switches between increasing and decreasing the volume bar by continuously shielding light from the illuminance sensor 14 for 4 seconds or more. That is, in this case, a low level detection signal of 4 sec or more is input to the A / D port of the control unit 16. Further, when the volume adjustment is finished, for example, it is very good that the control unit 16 determines that the volume adjustment is finished by not shielding the illuminance sensor 14 for a predetermined period (for example, 15 seconds or more).

  Similarly, when the “channel switching” icon is selected in step S42 (step S42: NO), in step S45, the control unit 16 controls the tuner unit 12 in accordance with the input from the illuminance sensor 14 to change the channel. Make the switch happen. For example, every time the control unit 16 detects a low level of the control command, the control unit 16 causes the tuner unit 12 to perform channel switching.

  Returning to FIG. 3, when an input to terminate the use of the input from the illuminance sensor 14 for the control command through the operation panel 13 (hereinafter also referred to as a second input) is input to the control unit 16 ( Step S5: YES), the control unit 16 returns to the initial state. That is, the control unit 16 returns the resolution with respect to the input from the illuminance sensor 14 to 10 sec or more (step S6). On the other hand, if the second input is not input to the control unit 16, the process returns to step S4 and the process is repeated.

As described above, in the present invention, the control unit 16 gives a predetermined command by a combination of a voltage value generated according to a change in the current input from the illuminance sensor 14 and an input obtained by operating the operation panel 13. Judgment is made and each unit executes the same instruction. Therefore, in addition to the voltage value generated by the input from the illuminance sensor 14, it is possible to increase the types of commands that can be recognized by the control unit 16 by combining the input obtained by operating the operation panel 13.

2. Other Embodiments A display device will be described as an example of the image forming apparatus, and other products may be used.
Using the input from the illuminance sensor as a volume adjustment command or a channel switching command is an example, and may be used for other commands.

Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. It goes without saying for those skilled in the art,
・ Applying mutually interchangeable members and configurations disclosed in the above embodiments by appropriately changing the combination thereof.− Although not disclosed in the above embodiments, it is a publicly known technique and the above embodiments. The members and configurations that can be mutually replaced with the members and configurations disclosed in the above are appropriately replaced, and the combination is changed and applied. It is an embodiment of the present invention that a person skilled in the art can appropriately replace the members and configurations that can be assumed as substitutes for the members and configurations disclosed in the above-described embodiments, and change the combinations and apply them. It is disclosed as.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Display apparatus, 11 ... Antenna, 12 ... Tuner part, 13 ... Operation panel, 14 ... Illuminance sensor, 15 ... Signal processing part, 16 ... Control part, 17 ... OSD part, 18 ... Image processing part, 19 ... Display panel 20 ... Audio processing unit

Claims (6)

In an image forming apparatus that forms an image according to an input video signal,
An illuminance sensor that outputs a current according to the light reception level;
An operation key for receiving a predetermined operation input;
A control unit that determines a predetermined command based on a combination of a voltage value generated according to a change in current input from the illuminance sensor and an input obtained by operating the operation key, and executes the command. An image forming apparatus.   2. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein when the first input obtained by operating the operation key is received, the control unit determines a change in voltage according to an input from the illuminance sensor as a predetermined command. The image forming apparatus described.   After the control unit has received the first input, a period for judging a change in voltage value according to the input from the illuminance sensor is shortened compared to before the first input is received. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.   After the control unit receives the first input, the control unit receives a selection of a process that is a target of a command according to an input from the illuminance sensor, and responds to the input from the illuminance sensor with respect to the selected process. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the command is applied.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the command is for adjusting a volume.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the command is for switching a channel.

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