JP2018008388A - Display device and image formation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a user to repeatedly watch the desired operation guidance group out of the plurality of pieces of operation guidance with a simple operation.SOLUTION: An image formation apparatus 10 includes: a display unit 12; a touch panel 15 which is operated by a user; and a control unit 21 which causes the display unit 12 to display a plurality of pieces of operation guidance in the preset order and causes the display unit 12 to display a progress bar containing index images arranged in the order in association with each operation guidance. The control unit 21 extracts the respective pieces of operation guidance in association with the plurality of index images between the start position to the end position in the progress bar when the start position and end position are instructed to the progress bar by the touch operation, sequentially repeats the extracted pieces of operation guidance and causes the display unit 12 to display them.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a display device and an image forming apparatus that sequentially display a plurality of operation guidance, and more particularly to a technique for repeatedly displaying operation guidance required by a user.

  This type of display device is applied to, for example, an image forming apparatus. When maintenance of the image forming apparatus becomes necessary, a plurality of operation guidances for guiding the maintenance procedure are sequentially displayed. In addition, pause, fast forward, rewind, etc. can be instructed for the display of each operation guidance.

  Further, in Patent Document 1, when editing a moving image, a bar indicating the time axis of the moving image data is displayed, and the cut start position and the cut end position of the moving image data are designated on the bar, and the cut end position is determined from the cut start position. The portion of the video data corresponding to the time zone up to is extracted.

JP 2010-178010 A

  By the way, in the configuration in which a plurality of operation guidances are sequentially displayed as described above, in order to view any operation guidance required by the user, it is necessary to wait until this arbitrary operation guidance is displayed. Alternatively, in order to view any operation guidance, it is necessary to perform complicated operations such as instructing pause, fast-forward, rewind, etc. Also, to view the operation guidance repeatedly, it is necessary to repeat the complicated operations is there.

  Moreover, in the said patent document 1, although the part of moving image data is extracted by operation with respect to the bar which shows the time-axis of moving image data, the technique of this patent document 1 is the above among several operation guidances. It does not enable arbitrary operation guidance to be repeatedly viewed with a simple operation.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to make it possible to repeatedly view a desired operation guidance group from among a plurality of operation guidance by a simple operation.

  A display device according to one aspect of the present invention displays a display unit, an operation unit that detects a touch operation on the display unit by a user using a touch panel function, and a plurality of operation guidances in a preset order on the display unit. And a control unit that displays a progress bar on each of the images indicating the operation guidance and including the index images arranged in the order on the display unit, and the control unit is controlled by the operation unit. When an instruction of the start position and end position of the operation explanation is detected based on the detected touch operation on the progress bar, each corresponding to a plurality of index images from the specified start position to the end position. The operation guidance is extracted, and the extracted operation guidance is sequentially repeated as the operation description and displayed on the display unit. .

  An image forming apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes the display device and an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to repeatedly view an arbitrary operation guidance from among a plurality of operation guidance by a simple operation.

1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. It is a figure which shows the operation guidance currently displayed on the screen of the display part of an image forming apparatus, a progress bar, etc. It is a figure which shows the data table regarding the operation guidance currently displayed on the screen of a display part, and a progress bar. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure performed by the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an operation unit and a display unit of the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows other examples, such as operation guidance currently displayed on the screen of a display part, and a progress bar. It is a figure which shows slide operation with respect to the progress bar currently displayed on the screen of a display part. It is a figure which shows the modification of the progress bar currently displayed on the screen of a display part.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of an image forming apparatus to which a display device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment.

  The image forming apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment is an MFP (multifunction peripheral) having a plurality of functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. The image forming apparatus 10 includes a control unit 11, a display unit 12, an operation unit 14, a touch panel 15, an image reading unit 17, an image forming unit 18, and a storage unit 19. These components can transmit / receive data or signals to / from each other through a bus.

  The image reading unit 17 includes a scanner that optically reads a document, and generates image data indicating an image of the document.

  The image forming unit 18 uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum, exposes the surface of the photosensitive drum, forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum, and forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum. Is developed into a toner image, and the toner image (image) on the surface of the photosensitive drum is transferred to a recording paper and fixed. For example, an image indicated by the image data generated by the image reading unit 17 is printed on a recording sheet.

  The display unit 12 includes a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic EL (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display, and the like.

  A touch panel 15 is arranged on the screen of the display unit 12. The touch panel 15 is a so-called resistive film type or capacitive type touch panel, and detects a contact (touch) of a user's finger or the like with the touch position along with the touch position, and a detection signal indicating coordinates of the touch position. Is output to the control unit 21 and the like of the control unit 11 which will be described later. Accordingly, the touch panel 15 serves as an operation unit to which a user operation on the screen of the display unit 12 is input.

  The operation unit 14 includes a touch panel 15 and includes hard keys such as a determination key and a start key.

  The storage unit 19 is a large-capacity storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive).

  The control unit 11 includes a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The processor is, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), MCU, or ASIC. The control unit 11 functions as the control unit 21 that performs processing necessary for display control shown in the present embodiment by executing the control program stored in the storage unit 19 and the like on the processor. Note that the control unit 21 of the control unit 11 may be configured by a hardware circuit without depending on the operation based on the program.

  The control unit 21 also controls overall operation of the image forming apparatus 10. The control unit 21 receives a user operation on the touch panel 15 based on the detection signal output from the touch panel 15. In addition, the control unit 21 receives an instruction from the user that is input based on the pressing of a hard key on the operation unit 14 by the user.

  Further, the control unit 21 controls the display unit 12 to perform processing necessary for the display control. The control unit 21 displays an input screen for setting items necessary for the image forming process, an information input screen, an operation guidance for the image forming apparatus 10, and the like.

  Here, in the present embodiment, when maintenance of the image forming apparatus 10 becomes necessary, a plurality of operation guidances for guiding the maintenance procedure are sequentially displayed on the screen of the display unit 12 as operation descriptions. In the present embodiment, any operation guidance from among a plurality of operation guidance can be sequentially and repeatedly displayed with a simple operation.

  Next, a configuration and control for sequentially displaying such a plurality of operation guidance or repeatedly displaying any operation guidance will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation guidance displayed on the screen of the display unit 12. As shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 21 displays an operation guidance D on the screen of the display unit 12. The control unit 21 stores in advance a plurality of operation guidances A to J for displaying operation guidance for eliminating paper jams in the image forming apparatus 10. The operation guidance D is one of the plurality of operation guidances A to J. The control unit 21 displays these operation guidances A to J on the screen of the display unit 12 one by one in a prescribed order.

  The control unit 21 also displays a progress bar 31 on the lower part of the screen of the display unit 12. The progress bar 31 includes index images a to j sequentially arranged in association with the operation guidance A to J, and scale images (hereinafter simply referred to as scales) indicating the positions of the index images a to j. It is an image that contains. The index image is an image indicating each operation guidance. Each index image is arranged in the display order of A to J of a plurality of operation guidances. The index images a to j and the scales are arranged at equal intervals.

  Further, each index image a to j is associated with the titles Ta to Tj of the operation guidance A to J corresponding to the index images a to j by arrows. The user can know the outline of the operation guidance corresponding to the arbitrary index image by looking at the title associated with the arbitrary index image. Further, the control unit 21 sets a pointer 32 (an example of “an image showing progress” in the scope of claims) as a progress bar 31 at the position of the index image corresponding to the operation guidance being displayed on the screen of the display unit 12. It is displayed. Here, since the operation guidance D is being displayed, the control unit 21 displays the pointer 32 at the position of the index image d.

  Further, when the touch panel 15 detects a user's touch operation on the progress bar 31 on the screen of the display unit 12, the control unit 21 accepts designation of an arbitrary start position 34 and an arbitrary end position 35 in the progress bar 31. . When the control unit 21 sets the start position 34 and the end position 35 in accordance with the designation, the control unit 21 sets one or more corresponding to one or more index images displayed between the start position 34 and the end position 35. The operation guidance is extracted, and the extracted one or more operation guidances are sequentially and repeatedly displayed on the screen of the display unit 12.

  In addition, the control unit 21 displays an image indicating the pause key 33 on the screen of the display unit 12. When the pause key 33 is touched by the user and the touch operation is detected by the touch panel 15, the control unit 21 continues to display the operation guidance at the time of detecting the touch operation, and performs a plurality of operations. The sequential display of guidance stops. Further, when the pause key 33 is touched again, the control unit 21 starts again the sequential display of a plurality of operation guidance.

  FIG. 4 shows a data table 41 in which the index images a to j, the display positions of the index images a to j in the progress bar 31, the titles Ta to Tj, and the addresses of the operation guidance A to J are associated with each other. Yes. The data table 41 is stored in the storage unit 19 and is held by the control unit 21. The display positions of the index images a to j in the progress bar 31 are, for example, positions arranged in the order of display order from the left end of the progress bar 31. The addresses of the operation guidances A to J are the respective addresses in the storage unit 19 in which the operation guidances A to J are stored. Based on these addresses, the operation guidances A to J are stored in the storage unit 19. The operation guidance A to J can be sequentially displayed on the screen of the display unit 12.

  In this example, a plurality of operation guidances and data tables for clearing paper jams are given as examples. However, other types of maintenance such as “toner replacement” and “paper replenishment” are also provided. The operation guidance and data table are stored in the storage unit 19 and held by the control unit 21. For each type of maintenance, the control unit 21 retrieves a plurality of operation guidance from the storage unit 19 and sequentially displays them on the screen of the display unit 12, or displays a progress bar 31 including each index image corresponding to the plurality of operation guidances. indicate.

  Next, a processing procedure for sequentially displaying a plurality of operation guidances, extracting an arbitrary operation guidance and repeatedly displaying them will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, on the screen of the display unit 12 of the image forming apparatus 10, a plurality of touch keys 51a to 51h and the like associated with the respective functions are displayed as shown in FIG. Shall. In this state, when the user performs a touch operation on the touch key 51h corresponding to the maintenance, the touch operation on the touch key 51h is detected by the touch panel 15, and this touch operation is received by the control unit 21, and the control unit 21 performs the maintenance operation. A list (not shown) is displayed on the screen of the display unit 12 (step S101). For example, “toner replacement”, “paper replenishment”, “paper jam”, and the like are displayed as a maintenance list. When the user performs a touch operation on the display location of “paper jam”, the touch operation on the display location is detected by the touch panel 15, and this touch operation is received by the control unit 21. With reference to the table 41, the address of the operation guidance A for eliminating the paper jam is obtained, the operation guidance A is read from the storage unit 19, and the operation guidance A is displayed on the screen of the display unit 12 as shown in FIG. Display.

  Further, the control unit 21 refers to the data table 41 in FIG. 4, the index images a to j corresponding to the operation guidance A to J, the display positions of the index images a to j, and the titles Ta to Tj. The progress bar 31 including the index images a to j and the titles Ta to Tj are displayed on the screen of the display unit 12, and the pointer 32 is displayed at the position of the index image a corresponding to the operation guidance A (step S102).

  Furthermore, the control unit 21 starts timing from the time when the operation guidance A is displayed, and when a certain time (for example, 5 seconds) elapses, the control unit 21 switches the display of the operation guidance A to the operation guidance B and displays the progress bar 31. The pointer 32 is moved from the position of the index image a corresponding to the operation guidance A to the position of the index image b corresponding to the operation guidance B. Thereafter, every time a certain time elapses, the control unit 21 sequentially switches and displays the operation guidance C, D,..., And displays the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 for each index corresponding to the displayed operation guidance. The image is moved to the image position and displayed. The control unit 21 cyclically repeats the sequential display of all the operation guidances A to J and the sequential movement of the pointer 32 (step S103). When this display state continues, the user views all the operation guidance for clearing the paper jam in order.

  At this time, the user touches two positions on the progress bar 31 on the screen of the display unit 12, and the touch operation at the two positions is detected by the touch panel 15, and the touch operation at the two positions is detected by the control unit 21. If it is accepted (“Yes” in step S104), the control unit 21 selects the one closer to the left end of the progress bar 31 (the end on the start side, which is the left end in the case of FIG. 3) of these two positions. The start position 34 is set, and the other is set as the end position 35 (step S105). The control unit 21 displays the start position 34 and the end position 35 side by side in the order of display order from the left end of the progress bar 31, similarly to the index images included in the progress bar 31.

  Then, the control unit 21 refers to the data table 41 in FIG. 4 to detect the index image displayed between the start position 34 and the end position 35, and selects the operation guidance corresponding to the index image. The selected operation guidance is displayed on the screen of the display unit 12, and the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 is displayed at the position of the index image corresponding to the displayed operation guidance. At this time, if there are a plurality of index images between the start position 34 and the end position 35, the control unit 21 selects a plurality of operation guidance corresponding to each index image, and at regular intervals. The selected operation guidance is sequentially switched and displayed on the screen of the display unit 12. At the same time, the control unit 21 sequentially moves and displays the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 to the position of each index image indicating the displayed operation guidance. Then, the control unit 21 cyclically repeats the sequential display of the selected operation guidance and the sequential movement of the pointer 32. (Step S106)

  For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when a start position 34 and an end position 35 are set for the progress bar 31, four index images d, e, f, g between the start position 34 and the end position 35 are set. Therefore, the control unit 21 sequentially displays the operation guidance D, E, F, and G corresponding to these index images d, e, f, and g on the screen of the display unit 12. At the same time, the control unit 21 moves the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 to the positions of the respective index images d, e, f, and g to display them. Thereby, the sequential display of the operation guidance D, E, F, and G and the sequential movement of the pointer 32 are cyclically repeated.

  When only one position on the progress bar 31 is touched, the control unit 21 regards this position as the start position 34 and sets the end position 35 to the right end (end side end, FIG. 3). In the case of, set to the position of the right end). At this time, the control unit 21 detects a plurality of index images between the start position 34 and the end position 35, and sequentially switches the operation guidance corresponding to each detected index image to the screen of the display unit 12. At the same time, the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 is sequentially moved to the position of each index image, and this sequential display and sequential movement are cyclically repeated.

  In this state, when the touch panel 15 detects that the user touches and slides the start position 34 or the end position 35 in the progress bar 31 on the screen of the display unit 12 by the user, the control unit 21 accompanies this slide. The start position 34 or the end position 35 is moved and displayed. That is, when the slide operation for the start position 34 or the end position 35 is detected by the touch panel 15 and the control unit 21 receives this slide operation (“Yes” in step S107), the control unit 21 displays the screen on the display unit 12. Then, the start position 34 or the end position 35 is moved and displayed, and the start position 34 or the end position 35 is changed to the end position of the slide movement (step S105).

  In this case, the control unit 21 newly detects the index image between the start position 34 and the end position 35, selects the operation guidance corresponding to the detected index image with reference to the data table 41, and selects this selection. The displayed operation guidance is displayed on the screen of the display unit 12, and the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 is displayed at the position of the index image. Also at this time, if there are a plurality of index images between the start position 34 and the end position 35, the control unit 21 displays each operation guidance corresponding to each index image for every predetermined time on the display unit 12. In addition, the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 is sequentially moved to the position of each index image corresponding to the displayed operation guidance, and this sequential display and sequential movement are cyclically repeated. (Step S106).

  Further, the slide operation at the start position 34 or the end position 35 is not detected by the touch panel 15 (“No” in step S107), and the touch operation of the pause key 33 is not detected by the touch panel 15 (“No” in step S108). Further, the touch operation of the close key 36 on the screen of the display unit 12 is not detected by the touch panel 15 (“No” in step S110), and the touch operation to the pause key 33 is detected by the touch panel 15, and this touch operation is controlled. When the unit 21 accepts (“Yes” in step S108), the control unit 21 maintains the display of the operation guidance and the position of the pointer 32 at the time of detecting the touch operation, and continues to display the operation guidance. The display and the sequential movement of the pointer 32 are stopped (step S109).

  In addition, the slide operation at the start position 34 or the end position 35 is not detected (“No” in step S107), and the touch operation of the pause key 33 is not detected by the touch panel 15 (“No” in step S108). The touch operation of the close key 36 on the screen 12 is not detected (“No” in step S110), and the touch operation of the pause key 33 is detected again by the touch panel 15, and the control unit 21 performs this touch operation again. If accepted ("Yes" in step S108), the control unit 21 resumes the sequential display of the operation guidance and the sequential movement of the pointer 32 (step S109).

  Further, the slide operation at the start position 34 or the end position 35 is not detected by the touch panel 15 (“No” in step S107), and the touch operation of the pause key 33 is not detected by the touch panel 15 (“No” in step S108). When the touch operation of the close key 36 is detected by the touch panel 15 and the control unit 21 accepts this touch operation (“Yes” in step S110), the display of the operation guidance and the progress bar 31 is stopped, and FIG. Terminate the process.

Thus, in this embodiment, according to the change of the start position 34 and the end position 35, each operation guidance corresponding to the plurality of index images from the start position 34 to the end position 35 is repeatedly displayed. Therefore, the user can easily change the operation guidance to be displayed repeatedly in sequence, and the operation guidance group can be viewed repeatedly with a simple operation, and the maintenance method of the image forming apparatus 10 can be quickly performed. Become able to understand.
<Modification 1>

According to the above-described embodiment, the touch panel 15 can detect the indication of the start position 34 and the end position 35 by the touch operation on the progress bar 31 performed separately with one finger. Even if the user simultaneously performs a touch operation for designating the start position 34 and the end position 35 using a finger, the touch panel 15 detects the touch position. Therefore, according to the above embodiment, the user can set the start position 34 and the end position 35 simultaneously using two fingers.
<Modification 2>

  Instead of displaying the pointer 32 of the progress bar 31 at the display position of the index image corresponding to the operation guidance being displayed on the screen of the display unit 12, the display unit 12 starts from the left end of the progress bar 31 as shown in FIG. The control unit 21 displays an expansion / contraction bar 37 (an example of “an image showing progress” in the claims) that extends to the position of the index image corresponding to the operation guidance being displayed on the screen. Also good.

  Note that the configurations and processes of the above-described embodiments and modifications described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9 are merely examples of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention to the configurations and processes.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming apparatus 12 Display part 14 Operation part 15 Touch panel 17 Image reading part 18 Image forming part 19 Storage part 11 Control unit 21 Control part

Claims (5)

A display unit;
An operation unit for detecting a touch operation on the display unit by a user by a touch panel function;
A plurality of operation guidances are displayed on the display unit in a preset order, and a progress bar that is an image indicating each operation guidance and includes an index image arranged in the order is displayed on the display unit. A control unit,
When the control unit detects an instruction for a start position and an end position in the operation explanation based on a touch operation on the progress bar detected by the operation unit, the control unit performs a period from the instructed start position to the end position. A display device that extracts each operation guidance corresponding to the plurality of index images and sequentially repeats the extracted operation guidance as the operation description on the display unit.   The display device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit displays a title of each operation guidance in association with each index image.   The display device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit displays a pointer indicating an index image corresponding to the operation guidance being displayed on the display unit.   The said control part displays the image which shows the progress of the display about the said operation guidance from the said start position to the end position in the said progress bar. The display device described in 1. A display device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium.