JP3230984B2 - Image processing system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, for example, in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses such as digital copiers and a plurality of terminal apparatuses such as personal computers and word processors are communicably connected to a local area network. The present invention relates to an image processing system in which image data input from a scanner unit of one image forming apparatus or image data input from one terminal device is distributed and output by each printer unit of a plurality of image forming apparatuses.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, for example, an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine has a scanner section as image input means for inputting image data of a document, and forms and outputs image data on a sheet as a medium on which an image is to be formed. Printer unit as image forming means for performing image data read by a scanner unit or image data input from an external personal computer, word processor, or the like, and printed out on paper by the printer unit. It has become.

Further, in an environment where a plurality of image forming apparatuses are communicably connected to each other on a network, in order to process image data output from a client such as a personal computer or a word processor at high speed,
In some cases, image data is transferred to a vacant image forming apparatus and output processing is performed by checking the job queue of the image forming apparatus, that is, the degree of work congestion.

In this case, each time a job request is made, it is checked whether the image forming apparatus is processing a job or is idle. In a network environment, when allocating a job to an image forming apparatus, a vacant (idle) image forming apparatus or an apparatus having a short scheduled processing end time is selected using the scheduled processing end time as a parameter. Was.

[0005]

In the conventional method, it is assumed that one image forming apparatus is used even when the number of output sheets is large, and one job is not distributed to request processing. Therefore, even when there are many vacant image forming apparatuses, only one apparatus is used, and it cannot be said that the apparatus is used efficiently.

Further, in a network environment, when a job is assigned to an image forming apparatus, an image forming apparatus in an idle state or an apparatus having a short scheduled end processing time is selected by using a scheduled processing end time as a parameter. When an image forming apparatus located far from the place where the user serving as the client is located is selected and output, it may be time-consuming to go to get it.

Further, since the state of the image forming apparatus on the network is checked after a job request is made, a desired image forming apparatus cannot be selected immediately. In view of the above, for example, in the case where the number of output sheets is large in one call, the processing can be performed at a high speed by dispersing the processing to a plurality of image forming apparatuses. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing system capable of performing good distributed processing and improving user operability.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image processing system comprising: image input means for inputting image data;
A plurality of image forming apparatuses having image forming means for forming and outputting image data input by the image input means or image data input from the outside onto a medium on which an image is to be formed; A specific image forming apparatus, a terminal device that instructs the formation output of image data to the image forming medium, and a network in which the plurality of image forming devices and the terminal device are communicably connected to each other. The image forming capability of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
Storage means for storing information about, when an instruction to a plurality part output image data comprising a plurality of pages from the terminal device to the specific image forming apparatus among the plurality of image forming apparatus has been performed, the image The forming device is in sort mode
It is determined whether or not the storage unit is in the sort mode.
Refer to the information on image forming ability stored in
The image data can be stored in the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
Means for dividing the number of copies in accordance with the ratio of the image forming capabilities of the units, and the image data divided by the dividing means.
And a control unit for dividing the image data into respective image forming apparatuses and performing the formation output.

Further, the image processing system according to the present invention comprises an image input means for inputting image data, and image data inputted by the image input means or image data inputted from the outside. A plurality of image forming apparatuses having image forming means for forming and outputting on a medium,
A terminal device that instructs a specific image forming device among the plurality of image forming devices to output image data to be formed on an image forming medium, and the plurality of image forming devices and the terminal device can communicate with each other. Connected to a network, storage means for storing information on image forming capabilities of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, and the specific image forming apparatus among the plurality of image forming apparatuses from the terminal device. When an image data output instruction is given to the
If you are instructed to print on both sides,
Information on the image forming ability stored in the storage means
By referring to the image data
Depending on the ratio of the image forming capability of the image forming apparatus
Dividing means for dividing and before dividing by the dividing means
And control means for dividing the image data into respective image forming apparatuses to perform formation output.

Further, the image processing system according to the present invention comprises image input means for inputting image data, and
Image data input by the image input means, or
A plurality of image forming apparatus having an image forming means for forming output image data on an image forming medium supplied from the outside, for a particular image forming apparatus among the plurality of image forming apparatus, the image data A terminal device that instructs formation output on an image forming medium, a network in which the plurality of image forming devices and the terminal device are communicably connected to each other, and information about image forming capabilities of the plurality of image forming devices are stored. And a request for a job to output image data from the terminal device to the specific image forming device among the plurality of image forming devices.
And the current state of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
Status check means for checking
Check results and images stored in the storage means.
By referring to the information on the image forming ability,
Depending on the ratio of the image forming capabilities of multiple image forming
Job distribution to idle image forming devices
Means for allocating a job,
Job has been distributed and assigned by the
Processing of jobs assigned to each image forming device
First control means for controlling the execution of the job,
During distributed allocation of jobs by the
If the dollar state of the image forming apparatus changes to the busy state
A second control unit for canceling the distributed processing of the job .

[0011]

[0012]

[0013]

[0014]

[0015]

[0016]

[0017]

[0018]

[0019]

[0020]

[0021]

According to the present invention, processing is conventionally performed using one image forming apparatus even when the number of output sheets is large in one call, but the processing is distributed to a plurality of image forming apparatuses. Thus, high-speed processing can be performed. In addition, the status of another image forming apparatus is being processed (busy (B
USY) state or idle (idle (IDLE) state).
This eliminates the need to check the status of another image forming apparatus every time a request for processing is issued, thereby speeding up processing. Further, when selecting an image forming apparatus in an idle state, by using parameters such as the distance from the user and the processing speed of the image forming apparatus, efficient distributed processing can be performed and user operability is improved.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows a configuration of an image processing system according to the present embodiment, in which a multicast group is formed by a plurality of image forming apparatuses that perform distributed processing. That is, a plurality of image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, 4 such as digital copying machines and a plurality of terminal apparatuses 5, 6, 7, 8 such as personal computers and word processors can communicate with each other via a local area network (LAN, hereinafter referred to as “LAN”). (Abbreviated simply as a network) 9.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 (2, 3, 4). That is, the image forming apparatus 1
(2, 3, 4) are a main control unit 11 as control means for controlling the overall control, a LAN interface 12 connecting the main control unit 11 to the network 8, a timer 13 used for various time controls, Memory 14 for storing data tables and the like, image memory 1 for storing image data
5. Image processing unit 1 that performs various processes on image data
6. An optical scanner unit 17 as an image input unit for reading and inputting image data of a document, a scanner interface 18 for connecting the scanner unit 17 to an image processing unit 16, and an electronic unit as an image forming unit for forming and outputting image data. A printer unit 19 using a photographic process, a printer interface 20 for connecting the printer unit 19 to the image processing unit 16,
And a PPC control unit 21 for controlling print processing.
It is constituted by.

In such a configuration, in the image forming apparatus which receives a job and starts processing, the main control unit 11
Multicast is performed to the image forming apparatuses in the group via the N interface 12, and the fact is notified (busy signal transmission). Then, as soon as the process is completed, the image forming apparatus in the group is similarly multicasted to notify the effect (idle signal transmission). These pieces of information are held in a memory 14 in each of the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, and 4 as a table indicating the state of another image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. FIG. 3 shows an example of a table stored in the memory 14 of the image forming apparatus 2.

Thus, the image forming apparatuses in the group can always recognize whether they are busy or idle. In addition, in order to prevent the status of another image forming device from becoming unrecognizable, such as when the status of another image forming device changes during a failure, it is possible to multicast its own status at fixed time intervals It is. At this time, the time is shifted so that a collision does not occur, and the time is controlled by the set time of the timer 13.

Next, a specific operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 show an example of a sequence for performing a remote process, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a scheduling in a case where an image forming apparatus to be used in a request is not specified from a terminal device.

The terminal device is registered in a certain image forming apparatus, and sends a request to the image forming apparatus by default when making a request. In the memory 14 in the image forming apparatus, registered terminal devices are held in a table as shown in FIG. In addition, the memory 14 is set in advance with how many outputs to perform the distributed processing. FIG.
4 shows an example of a table stored in the memory 14 of the image forming apparatus 2.

For example, in FIG.
Is busy and the image forming apparatuses 2, 3, and 4 are idle. At this time, for example, when a job is called from the terminal device 5 and a request is sent to the image forming device 2, the request is received by the image forming device 2 and passed to the main control unit 11, and the image data is transferred to the image bus 22. And is stored in the image memory 15. The main control unit 11 refers to the table in FIG. 3 by referring to the memory 14 to determine whether there is an image forming apparatus in an idle state if the number of output copies of the request is equal to or greater than the set number of copies and is urgent. Confirm with.

Then, the main control unit 11 refers to the distance data in the table shown in FIG. Inquiry as to whether or not to perform distributed processing with No. 3. When the terminal device 5 responds to the inquiry with a yes (YES), the main controller 11 of the image forming apparatus 2 performs job scheduling. Here, the distance is included in the parameter because even if the image can be output at a high speed, it takes time to get the image if the distance from the output image forming apparatus to the user is large. is there. Therefore, distance data between the terminal device 5 and the image forming apparatus is registered in a table as shown in FIG. 3 and is referred to. Note that the distance data in FIG. 3 indicates a relative distance when a certain basic distance is set to “1”.

When the mode is the sort mode, the document is divided by the number of copies. In the case of division by the number of copies, all data of the document must be transferred to the image forming apparatus via the network 9, which leads to an increase in the load on the network 9 and an increase in data transmission time. I want to send it. In the case of sorting, since the document cannot be divided by the number of documents, it must be divided by the number of documents. In the case of a double-sided document, the document is divided by an even number.

The number of jobs to be allocated to the image forming apparatuses may be simply divided by the number of image forming apparatuses that perform the distributed processing. However, by considering the processing speed of the image forming apparatuses as a weighting parameter, the number of jobs can be increased. To make it reach the user's hand quickly. As shown in the table of FIG.
4, the image forming apparatus 2 performs scheduling so as to divide by the ratio of the processing speed by referring to the registered processing speed. In the table of FIG. 3, the processing speed indicates, for example, how many A4 size documents can be copied per minute.

When the scheduling is completed, the main controller 11 of the image forming apparatus 2 transmits the assigned job such as image data and mode to the image forming apparatus 3 to which the job has been assigned. Then, the main control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 3 replies to the image forming apparatus 2 that the job has been received, and the main control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 2 that has received the job indicates that the distributed processing has been started. Inform the terminal device 5.

If the terminal device 5 and the image forming apparatus 2 are communicating with each other or during the scheduling in the image forming apparatus 2, a job is input to the main control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 3, and the When the apparatus 3 changes to the busy state, the other image forming apparatuses 1, 2, and 4 are notified of the fact as described above, and the main control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 2 that has received the notification notifies the apparatus shown in FIG. In this way, the cancellation of the distributed processing is notified to the terminal device 5, and the job assigned to the image forming apparatus 3 is processed by the image forming apparatus 2 itself. When the terminal device 5 returns No (NO) to the distributed processing, the image forming apparatus 2 performs the independent processing as it is.

The print processing is controlled by the PPC control unit 21. The image data stored in the image memory 15 is sent to the printer unit 19 via the image processing unit 16 and the printer interface 20. The image is printed on paper by the printer unit 19. Then, the image forming apparatus 3 that has completed the print processing notifies the terminal device 5 of the end of the job.

By performing the above-described distributed processing, especially in the case of image data having a large number of print copies, the image data can be output quickly. Further, when there are three or more idle image forming apparatuses, it is possible to select three or more image forming apparatuses 2. Further, the user of the terminal device 5 can select the image forming apparatus in any manner in response to the inquiry from the image forming apparatus 2 about whether to perform the distributed processing.

When the number of copies is very large, it is sometimes faster to use three units even if it is a little distant and it takes time to pick up. The person who chooses the table may save the trouble of going to get it. Also, it is possible to set not to make all available but to always leave one available. By doing so, one can avoid being monopolized.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show the case where the terminal device 5 makes a request from the beginning by adding information such as a single process of the image forming device 2 or selecting the image forming device 2 and the image forming device 3. An example of the sequence is shown, which will be described below. In this case, compared to a case where the request does not include information on the selection of the image forming apparatus, the number of times of communication is reduced, and the processing time is shortened.

The image forming apparatus 2 performs scheduling in consideration of the condition included in the request and the state of the image forming apparatuses in the group by the main control unit 11, and allocates a job to each image forming apparatus. At this time, if the image forming apparatus specified in the request is busy and cannot be selected as requested, the terminal apparatus 5 is notified of which image forming apparatus is to be used, and the process starts. Subsequent processing is performed in the same manner as in the above-described example.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a sequence for performing processing when the state of the image forming apparatuses in the group is not recognized in advance (the table of FIG. 3 is not provided).
Hereinafter, this will be described.

For example, a job is called from terminal device 5 and a request is sent to image forming device 2. When the main control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 2 that has received the request is busy and requests processing to another image forming apparatus,
A state request is multicast to notify the current state to the image forming apparatuses 1, 3, and 4 in the group, and when the image forming apparatus is designated by the terminal device 5, the state request is sent to the designated image forming apparatus. Send.

Each of the image forming apparatuses 1, 3, and 4 having received the state request returns a busy signal to the image forming apparatus 2 if the state request is being processed, and returns an idle signal to the image forming apparatus 2 if the state request is free. Even in the busy state, if the scheduled end time is known, it is possible to reply with the information added. The scheduled end time is stored in the memory 14 for each job.

In the image forming apparatus 2, the main controller 11 schedules a job based on this response, and transmits the assigned job to another image forming apparatus. Upon receiving this, the image forming apparatus that enters the process notifies the image forming apparatus 2 of the acceptance, and the image forming apparatus 2 that has received the notification notifies the terminal device 5 that the distributed processing has been started as requested. .

If the request is not completely made as requested, the terminal device 5 determines which image forming apparatus to use.
And start processing. As described above, if the state of the image forming apparatus changes to busy during the scheduling, the job assigned to the image forming apparatus is processed by the image forming apparatus 2 itself. In addition, the terminal device 5 may designate in advance a processing mode such as performing a single process of the image forming apparatus 2 even if the request takes a long time, or an image forming apparatus to be selected, and transmit the information including the information. Is also possible.

In each of the above embodiments, even when the user directly uses the image forming apparatus instead of using the terminal device 5, it is possible to similarly select the distributed processing on the operation panel of the image forming apparatus. It is. In this case, the image data read by the scanner unit 17 is stored in the image memory 15 via the scanner interface 18 and the image processing unit 16. Then, the content of the request is input to the main control unit 11, and the distributed processing is performed in the same procedure as in the above-described embodiment.

It is also possible to prepare a dedicated controller (control device) in the group and manage the state of each image forming apparatus. That is, as shown by a broken line in FIG. 1, a controller 10 for managing the state of each of the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, and 4 is connected to the network 9, and the controller 10 has the tables of FIGS. Each of the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the group notifies the controller 10 of its own state as described above. In this case, since it is not necessary to have a table in the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, and 4, the load on the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, and 4 is reduced.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a sequence in the case where the dedicated controller 10 is prepared, which will be described below. For example, the terminal device 5 transmits a request to the controller 10. Controller 10
If the number of copies output by the request is equal to or larger than the set number and is urgent, it is confirmed by referring to the table of FIG.

If there is an image forming apparatus in an idle state, the controller 10 inquires of the terminal device 5 whether or not to perform the distributed processing. When the terminal device 5 replies yes to the question, the controller 10
Performs job scheduling and assignment in the same manner as described above. Next, the assigned job is transmitted to each of the image forming apparatuses, and each of the image forming apparatuses receiving the job returns the controller 10 that the job has been received. The controller 10 that has received this notifies the terminal device 5 that the distributed processing has been started and how the processing has been allocated. Each of the image forming apparatuses that have completed the process notifies the controller 10 of the end, and the controller 10 that has received the notification notifies the terminal device 5 of the end notification.

By preparing the controller 10 as described above, it becomes unnecessary for each of the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, 3, and 4 to perform job scheduling. The load is reduced.

[0050]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, for example, when the number of output sheets is large in one call, the processing can be performed at high speed by dispersing the processing to a plurality of image forming apparatuses. In addition, it is possible to provide an image processing system that can achieve high-speed processing, perform efficient distributed processing, and improve user operability.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of an image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of one data table stored in a memory of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of another data table stored in a memory of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a sequence for performing distributed processing.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of a sequence for performing a distributed process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating distributed processing.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another example of a sequence for performing a distributed process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another example of a sequence for performing the distributed processing.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of a sequence for performing a distributed process.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another example of a sequence for performing distributed processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2, 3, 4 ... image forming apparatus, 5, 6, 7, 8 ...
Terminal device, 9 local area network (network), 10 controller (control device), 11
... Main control unit (control means), 12 LAN interface, 14 memory, 15 image memory, 16 image processing unit, 17 scanner unit (image input means), 18
... Scanner interface 19 Printer section (image forming means) 20 Printer interface 21
... PPC control unit.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-7-152510 (JP, A) JP-A-2-278330 (JP, A) JP-A-5-73232 (JP, A) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/12

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image input unit for inputting image data, and an image forming unit for forming and outputting image data input by the image input unit or image data input from the outside onto an image forming medium A plurality of image forming apparatuses having a plurality of image forming apparatuses; a terminal device that instructs a specific one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses to form and output image data on an image forming medium; A network in which the forming device and the terminal device are communicably connected to each other ; a storage unit configured to store information relating to image forming capabilities of the plurality of image forming devices; For a specific image forming apparatus, image data consisting of multiple pages
When an instruction to output a plurality of copies is given, the image forming apparatus
Is in sort mode or not.
If any, the image forming capability stored in the storage means is
The image data by referring to the information
The number of copies depends on the ratio of the image forming capabilities of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
Dividing means for dividing the image data by the unit;
Control means for causing the image forming apparatus to divide and output the image forming apparatus . 2. An image input unit for inputting image data, and an image forming unit for forming and outputting image data input by the image input unit or image data input from the outside onto an image forming medium. A plurality of image forming apparatuses having a plurality of image forming apparatuses; a terminal device that instructs a specific one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses to form and output image data on an image forming medium; A network in which the forming device and the terminal device are communicably connected to each other ; a storage unit configured to store information relating to image forming capabilities of the plurality of image forming devices; When a specific image forming apparatus is instructed to output image data , the image data is printed on both sides and output.
Is specified in the storage means,
By referring to information on image forming capabilities
The image forming capability of the plurality of image forming apparatuses
A dividing unit that divides the image data in units of an even number of pages in accordance with the ratio of force, and the image data divided by the dividing unit.
Control means for causing the image forming apparatus to divide and output the image forming apparatus . 3. The image data is output after being double-sided printed.
Is not stored in the storage means.
By referring to information on the
And converting the image data into image formats of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the division is performed in accordance with the ratio of the forming abilities.
The image processing system described in the above . 4. An image input apparatus for inputting image data.
Force means and image data input by the image input means.
Data or externally input image data
Plurality having image forming means for forming and outputting on an image forming medium
An image forming apparatus; For a specific image forming apparatus among the plurality of image forming apparatuses,
On the other hand, the output of the image data to the image forming medium is specified.
A terminal device to be shown; The plurality of image forming apparatuses and the terminal device communicate with each other.
A reliable connected network, Information on the image forming capabilities of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
Storage means for storing, From the terminal device, the feature in the plurality of image forming apparatuses is used.
Output image data to a fixed image forming apparatus
Job request, the plurality of image forming apparatuses
Status checking means for checking the current status respectively
When, The check result of the state check means and the memory
Refer to the information about the image forming capability stored in the column.
The image forming capability of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.
The image forming apparatus that is currently idle according to the force ratio
Job distribution that distributes jobs to jobs
Hitting means, Jobs are distributed and assigned by this job distribution assignment means.
Assigned to each image forming device
Control means for controlling to perform the processing of When, Distributed allocation of jobs by the job distributed allocation means
The image forming apparatus in the idle state is busy
To change the distributed processing of the job.
Second control means, An image processing system comprising: