JP3363809B2 - Image recording device to which an image reading device is connected - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus to which an image reading apparatus is connected. The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus to which an image reading apparatus that automatically selects and executes recording of a document of the connected image reading apparatus is connected. 2. Description of the Related Art There are many image recording apparatuses of a multi-function type in which a reading function, a copying function, a facsimile function, a printer function and the like are provided in one apparatus. Among such image recording apparatuses, there is an image recording apparatus in which a cordless and portable image reading apparatus called a hand scanner separate from the image recording apparatus can be used. Such an image reading device is sold separately as an optional device, and can be used by adding it to an image recording device as needed by a user, or as a device that also serves as a reading unit of the image recording device main body. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a type that is detachable, is integrally configured when mounted, and is sold as one. Since all of them can be used in a free state away from the image recording apparatus main body, they are extremely useful and are often used, for example, for reading thick bound documents such as books, magazines, and notebooks. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional image recording apparatus and an image reading apparatus connectable to the image recording apparatus.
1 'is an image recording device, 2' is an image reading device (hereinafter referred to as a hand scanner), and 3 is a communication code for connecting the image recording device 1 'and the hand scanner 2'. The image recording apparatus 1 'is a multi-type image recording apparatus having a copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function, and the like. For this purpose, an operation panel 1a on which various operation buttons are arranged on the upper surface of a main body; A liquid crystal display section 1b for displaying the contents set in the above, a document placing section 1c for placing a document to be read, and a recording paper cassette placing section 1 for placing a recording paper cassette (not shown).
d is provided. Further, a copy execution button 1e which is pressed when copying a document placed on the document placing portion 1c of the image recording apparatus 1 'is arranged. [0005] On the front side of the main body of the image recording apparatus 1 ', a document discharge section 1f for discharging the read document and a recording sheet discharge section 1g for discharging the copied recording paper are formed. Further, an input terminal 1h of a communication code for connecting the hand scanner 2 'is provided at a lower portion of the front side of the main body of the image recording apparatus 1'. [0006] The hand scanner 2 'reads and stores data by scanning the original, and after the reading is completed, connects the image recording apparatus 1' and the hand scanner 2 'with the communication code 3, and stores the stored read data. Is recorded (copied) by the image recording apparatus 1 '. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional hand scanner 2 ', in which 2a is a start / stop switch,
A mode setting switch 2b has three setting modes, a reading mode Ma, an erasing mode Mb, and an output mode Mc. 2c is an output terminal unit. When reading an image, slide the mode setting switch 2b to set the reading mode Ma, and press the start / stop switch 2a to move the hand scanner 2 'on the document in the direction of the arrow. Read image information. To end reading, the start / stop switch 2a is pressed again. The document thus read is temporarily stored in a memory in the hand scanner 2 '. To copy the read original, the hand scanner 2 'is connected from its output terminal 2c to the input terminal 1h of the image recording apparatus 1' via the communication code 3 and the mode of the hand scanner 2 'is set. Setting switch 2b
Is set to output mode Mc, then start / stop
Press the switch 2a. This type of image recording apparatus has a copy function of recording an original printed on a cut sheet, for example, and therefore, has a function of copying the image to the main body of the image recording apparatus. It has an execute button. For this reason, when the user uses the hand scanner together with the image recording apparatus, the user can operate the copy execution button on the image recording apparatus main body or use the mode setting switch and start / stop of the hand scanner when copying a predetermined document. -It is necessary to always keep in mind which of the switch operations should be performed, and to use the switches properly, which causes a problem that the operation is troublesome and troublesome. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a method of copying a document of an image recording apparatus and a hand scanner according to the presence or absence of a document of the image recording apparatus and the presence or absence of connection between the image recording apparatus and the image reading apparatus. An image recording apparatus to which an image reading apparatus which simplifies a copying operation by automatically selecting a copy of an original is connected. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image reading apparatus which reads an original in a state separated from the image recording apparatus and records image information of the read original, and is connectable. A document placed on a document placing portion provided in the image recording device is transferred to an image recording portion provided in the image recording device.
In an image recording device that can be read by
Means for instructing recording of a document, means for detecting the presence or absence of a document in the document placing section, means for detecting the presence or absence of connection between the image recording device and the image reading device, and stored in the image reading device. Means for detecting the presence or absence of image information, and when the recording of the document is instructed by the document recording instructing means, the presence or absence of the document in the document mounting portion,
The presence or absence of the connection of the image reading device with the image recording device, and the determination of the presence or absence of the image information stored in the image reading device,
An image recording apparatus to which an image reading apparatus is connected, wherein recording of an original placed on the image recording apparatus or recording of an original read by the image reading apparatus is performed. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an image recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an image recording apparatus;
It is the same as FIG. 5 except that a document sensor is mounted inside the not-shown portion, and the same components as those in FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a hand scanner to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 2 denotes a hand scanner.
The same components as those described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. FIG. 3A is a block diagram showing the internal structure of an image recording apparatus for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.
Reference numeral 0 denotes a facsimile unit, 30 denotes a printer unit, and 40 denotes an interface unit. The facsimile unit 20 and the printer unit 30 can mutually transmit signals and data by the interface unit 40. Is connected to the input terminal 1h. The facsimile unit 20 is controlled by a facsimile control circuit 21.
Image reading unit 22, modem 23, NCU (network controller) 2
4, decoder encoder 25, CPU 26, ROM 27, RA
M28 and the like. The modem 23 transmits and receives image data to and from a facsimile machine (not shown) via a network such as an NCU 24 or a telephone line. NCU2
Reference numeral 4 performs operations such as transmitting a dial signal to the telephone network or responding to a call signal from the telephone network.
The decoder encoder 25 encodes the image data read by the image reading unit 22 or the hand scanner 2 for transmission to the other party facsimile, or decodes the encoded image data sent from the other party facsimile. . The ROM 27 is a memory that stores a program for selecting a copy of the image data read by the reading unit 45 of the hand scanner 2 and other programs necessary for control. The RAM 28 is a memory for temporarily storing received data from the other party's facsimile, image data read by the image reading unit 22, and various data calculated by the CPU 26.
Then, the CPU 26 executes the hand scanner 2 having a copy function in accordance with the program stored in the ROM 27.
And selectively controls the copying of the image data read by the facsimile unit 20, and other controls of the facsimile unit 20 as a whole. The facsimile control circuit 21 further includes an operation panel 1
a and the original sensor 29 are connected. The printer unit 30 includes a printer control circuit 3 for controlling a printer 37 and the like to realize a printer function.
1. Character generation circuit (CG) 32, input / output circuit (I / O)
33, a CPU 34, a ROM 35, a RAM 36, and a printer 37. A character generation circuit (CG) 32 converts character code data input from a personal computer (not shown) into image data. Input / output circuit (I /
O) 33 transmits / receives data to / from a personal computer (not shown) via this circuit. CPU
The 34 controls the printer unit 30 according to the printer control program stored in the ROM 35, and various data calculated at this time are temporarily stored in the RAM 36. The RAM 36 stores data sent from the personal computer and image data input from the hand scanner 2. As the printer 37, a so-called laser printer of an electrophotographic system, an inkjet printer, or the like is used. The interface 40 is connected to an input terminal 1h for inputting image data from the hand scanner 2. When the hand scanner 2 is connected to the input terminal 1h by the communication code 3, the CPU 26 detects a signal from the input terminal 1h and recognizes that the hand scanner 2 is connected. FIG. 3B is a block diagram showing the internal structure of a hand scanner for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 2 denotes a hand scanner, 2d denotes an operation switch, 2a
Are the same start / stop switches as in FIG.
1 is an input / output circuit (I / O), 42 is a CPU, 43 is an RO
M and 44 are encoders, 45 is a reading unit, and 46 is a RAM. When the user travels on the document while grasping the hand scanner 2, the reading unit 45 reads image information from the document. The read image information is stored in the RAM 46, and is stored in the RAM 43 according to a program stored in the ROM 43.
When U42 operates, it is transmitted to the image recording apparatus 1 via the input / output circuit (I / O) 41 and copied and output. For this purpose, the hand scanner 2 has an output terminal 2
c to the image recording apparatus 1 via the communication code 3. The image recording apparatus 1 is provided with a copy execution button 1e in order to perform the copy function of the apparatus main body. The hand scanner 2 also has the operation switch 2d corresponding to the copy execution button and the start /
The user is provided with the stop switch 2a, and there are a plurality of button or switch operations to realize the same function, so that the user cannot completely eliminate the complexity of the operation.
According to the present invention, the copy function of the image recording apparatus 1 and the hand scanner The second copy function is separated. That is, when the copy execution button 1e of the image recording apparatus 1 is pressed by the copy execution button 1e of the image recording apparatus 1, whether or not there is a document in the image recording apparatus 1 and whether or not the hand scanner 2 Is automatically selected based on whether or not is connected, and whether or not there is read data in the hand scanner 2. The copy of the document of the image recording apparatus 1 and the copy of the document of the hand scanner 2 are automatically selected.
This automatic selection simplifies the copy operation. Further, the output (copy) mode is eliminated from the mode setting switch 2b in the conventional hand scanner 2 '. That is, in the hand scanner 2 of the present embodiment, the output of the mode setting switch 2b in the conventional hand scanner 2' is eliminated. The mode Mc (FIG. 6) is eliminated, and the operation switch 2d is operated to the erase position Mb for a predetermined time (for example, 2 seconds) only when it is necessary to erase the image information in the RAM 46 read by the hand scanner. The operation of the hand scanner 2 is further simplified. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a copy operation. Copy execution button 1e of image recording apparatus 1
When is pressed, in FIG. 4, it is detected whether or not a document exists in the document placing portion 1c of the image recording apparatus (S1).
Depending on whether or not there is a document (S2), if there is a document (S2
YES), the original is copied (S3), and if there is no original (NO in S2), it is detected whether or not the hand scanner is connected to the image recording apparatus (S4). If the connection is not established (NO in S5), a reject sound is sounded (S5).
7) If the connection is made (YES in S5), it is further detected whether or not there is read data in the hand scanner, and if there is no read data (NO in S6), a reject sound is sounded (S6).
7) If there is read data (YES in S6), the read data is copied (S8). As described above, according to the image recording apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the recording of the original placed on the main body of the image recording apparatus and the recording of the original read by the image reading apparatus are automatically selected and executed. Therefore, the copy execution button 1e of the image recording apparatus 1
With only a simple operation of pressing, there is no troublesome operation. For example, when there is a large number of documents read by the image reading device and there is a document that needs to be copied immediately, the document is placed on the document placement unit 1c.
And press the copy execution button 1e, the interrupt copy can be performed with a very simple operation without changing any device settings and without erroneously erasing the original image read by the hand scanner. it can. Note that in the flowchart of FIG.
Although the original placed on the original placing portion 1c of the image recording apparatus is preferentially copied, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, in the flowchart of FIG. 4, the check of the presence or absence of a document is performed before the check of the connection of the hand scanner, but by reversing the check,
It is also possible to preferentially copy a document image read by a hand scanner. In this operation, the document sensor 29 detects whether or not a document is present on the document table 1c. This document sensor is composed of a photo-interrupter and a photo-coupler which rotate the end of the paper on which the document is described by an optical method, for example, the photo-interrupter rotates by the front end of the document. Is achieved by a configuration that detects Whether the hand scanner 2 is connected to the image recording apparatus 1 is detected by detecting a voltage change of the input terminal 1h of the image recording apparatus 1. In the above description, the type in which the image recording device and the image reading device are connected by a communication code has been described. However, the same applies to the type in which the image reading device is incorporated in the image recording device and is integrally handled. Can be applied to According to the first aspect of the present invention, the copy operation is simplified in the image recording apparatus to which the image reading apparatus is connected. In addition, since the copy of the document on the document placement unit of the image recording device is prioritized, for example, when there is a large number of documents read by the image reading device and there is a document that needs to be copied immediately, By simply setting the original on the original mounting portion and operating the copy execution button, interrupt copying can be performed without changing any device settings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an image recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an internal configuration of an image recording apparatus and an image reading apparatus for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a hand scanner to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a copy operation according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional image recording apparatus and an image reading apparatus connectable to the image recording apparatus. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional hand scanner. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image recording apparatus, 1a ... Operation panel, 1b ... Liquid crystal display section, 1c ... Document placement section, 1d ... Recording paper cassette placement section, 1e ... Copy execution button, 1f ... Document ejection section, 1g
... Recording paper discharge section, 1h ... Input terminal section, 2 and 2 '... Image reading device (hand scanner), 2a ... Start / Stop switch, 2b ... Mode setting switch, 2c ...
Output terminal part, 2d ... operation switch, 3 ... communication code,
20: facsimile unit, 21: facsimile control circuit,
Reference numeral 22: image reading unit, 23: modem, 24: NCU (network control device), 25: decoder encoder, 26: CPU, 27 ...
ROM, 28 RAM, 29 document sensor, 30 printer unit, 31 printer control circuit, 32 character generation circuit (CG), 33 input / output circuit (I / O), 34 CP
U, 35: ROM, 36: RAM, 37: Printer, 4
0: interface, 41: input / output circuit (I / O),
42 CPU, 43 ROM, 44 encoder, 45
... Reading unit, 46 ... RAM

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00 H04N 1/04-1/207

Claims (1)

(57) [Claim 1] An image reading device that reads a document in a state separated from the image recording device and stores the read document is connectable, and is provided in the image recording device. The original placed on the original placing section is scanned by the image recording device.
An image recording device that can be read by an image reading unit; a unit that instructs recording of a document; a unit that detects presence or absence of a document in the document placing unit; and a connection between the image recording device and the image reading device. Means for detecting the presence or absence of a document read by the image reading device, and means for detecting the presence or absence of a document read by the image reading device. Detecting whether or not the image reading device is connected to the image recording device, and detecting whether or not image information is stored in the image reading device. An image characterized by detecting the presence or absence of a document read by the image reading device when there is no document on the mounting portion and connecting to the image reading device, and recording the document when there is the document. Image recording apparatus winding devices are connected.