JP3404689B2 - Copier management system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a copying machine management system capable of connecting a plurality of digital copying machines to a communication line and mutually transmitting and receiving image information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a facsimile apparatus has been put into practical use as a means for sending image information to a remote place. However, in a system such as a facsimile in which data is directly transmitted to the other party, when image information is to be sent to a large number of parties, it is necessary to perform transmission operations as many as the number of parties. On the other hand, a digital copying machine has been developed as a copying machine, and it is easy to send and receive by converting the image information of a document into a digital signal. Copiers are enlarged / reduced compared to facsimile machines.
Since it has many functions such as double-sided copying function, if a copier management system that can connect multiple digital copiers and send and receive image information to each other is established, many functions will be provided to each other. It can be used effectively.
In view of such a fact, the applicant of the present invention is composed of a plurality of digital copying machines connected to a communication line and one server, and the plurality of copying machines connected to the communication line regularly access the server. Then, a copier management system that takes in the received information of itself is proposed as Japanese Patent Application No. 8-197167.

[0003]

In the copying machine management system described above, the functions of the copying machine of the transmission destination (reception side) are simply used, and the copying machine of the transmission destination is copied. The upper limit is the realization of the functions provided by, and no further functions can be realized.

The present invention has been made in view of the above facts, and its main technical problem is to utilize the functions of the copying machine on the transmitting side and the functions of the copying machine on the receiving side in combination. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a copying machine management system capable of realizing a capacity beyond the function of each copying machine.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above main technical problems, a copying machine management system comprising a plurality of digital copying machines connected to a communication line and one server. The server includes an image file directory for storing image data transmitted from each digital copying machine and a document header file storing processing information about the image data, and for each digital copying machine. A client directory including a reception header management file storing management data relating to image data to be created and received and a function list file storing function data included in the copying machine is provided, and the digital copying is performed. The machine includes an image scanner unit for scanning a document to be transmitted, a transmission partner designating unit for designating a transmission partner, and An input unit having a processing function designating unit for designating a processing function of a document to be received, a memory unit for storing image data to be received, a printing unit for printing the received image data, and a control unit, The control unit includes a function assignment setting unit that determines an assignment ratio for performing the processing function designated by the processing function designation unit by the transmitting side and the receiving side, and at the time of transmission, the processing function designation unit If the processing function is designated by the means, the sharing ratio of the processing function designated by the function sharing setting means is set,
The image data scanned by the image scanner unit is subjected to a predetermined functional process set by the processing function designating unit and shared by the transmitting side, and the image data subjected to the predetermined functional process is processed into the image file of the server. Writing to the image file of the directory, writing to the document header file the predetermined processing function assigned by the receiving side set by the function assignment setting means, and receiving the client directory of the sending party designated by the sending party designating means. Management data relating to the image data is written in the header management file, and upon reception, the reception header management file in the client directory of the server is periodically accessed to check whether there is image data to be received, and receive the data. If there is image data, the image file The directory is accessed to store the corresponding image data stored in the image file in the memory unit, and the image data stored in the memory unit is printed after performing the functional processing written in the document header file. A copier management system is provided which is characterized by issuing a print command to the printing unit.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a copying machine management system in which the function allotment setting means sets the allotment ratio of the processing functions so that the image data sent from the transmitting side is minimized.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of a copying machine management system constructed according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the illustrated embodiment, each unit in an organization such as a company or a government office
An example of a copying machine management system in which a plurality of copying machines are connected by a so-called LAN (local area network) connecting the sections with a communication line will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a copying machine management system constructed according to the present invention. The copier management system includes a plurality of digital copiers (DPPCs) 2, which are arranged in respective departments / sections connected to a LAN as a communication line.
.. and one server 4.

The server 4 is composed of, for example, a personal computer and is installed in a predetermined department of the organization. This server 4 has a management directory as described below. As shown in FIG. 2, the management directory is a client list file that stores the departments of the registered copying machines 2, ... And the clients created for each registered department of the copying machines 2 ,. A directory and an image file directory for storing image data and the like transmitted from each copying machine 2 ,.

The client directory is provided for each copying machine, that is, for each department to which each copying machine is installed, and has a transmission header management file, a reception header management file, and a function list file. The transmission header management file stores transmission information from the corresponding copying machine, such as the total number of transmission header files, the document header file name, the transmission date, the transmission time, and the transmission destination bit. Note that the document header file name is automatically given a number obtained from a serial number file described later. The received header management file contains the total number of received documents (image information) received from other copying machines, the document header file name,
Reception management information such as the number of copies, the number of pages already output, and the output progress of the received document is stored. The function list file has the functions of the corresponding copying machine, that is, the maximum copyable size, the resolution, the image data compression method, the minimum zoom value,
Functions such as maximum zoom value, original mode, double-sided mode, sorter, composite mode, movement, binding margin, date and time insertion, character insertion, and numbering that the corresponding copying machine has are stored.

The image file directory includes a plurality of document header files, a plurality of image files, and a serial number file. The document header file is created each time it is sent, and the management information and processing information of the image file is sent in units of documents sent from each copying machine, that is, the total number of documents sent from each copying machine (specified. Number of recipients) and total number of pages, number of pages to be written, specified magnification, binding position, binding width, original mode, date insertion, finisher, double-sided copying, image file name (1 to 1
n) and the like are stored. The image file name is automatically given a number obtained from a serial number file described later. The image file stores full-size actual data of transmission information. The image file is created page by page. Therefore, when there are a plurality of originals in one transmission, the number of image files corresponding to the number of originals is created. Then, the number obtained from the serial number file described later is automatically attached to the image file as the image file name. The serial number file manages the serial number used as the next document header file name and image file name.

Next, each of the copying machines 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The copying machine 2 is composed of a digital copying machine, and has an image scanner section 21 for reading an original.
An image processor unit (IPU) 22 and a printing unit 2
3, a control unit 24, a memory unit 25, a network unit 26, an operation unit 27, and a display unit 28.

The image scanner unit 21 includes an automatic document feeder for feeding a document to be copied or transmitted by the copying machine 2, an image pickup unit composed of a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) line image sensor, and an image processing unit. Is scanned relative to the document to read the document image line by line in the document conveying direction (row direction of the document), and the read data is subjected to predetermined image processing as a digital signal, and then the image processor unit (IPU)
Output to 22

The image processor unit (IPU) 22 is
The image data input from the image scanner unit 21 is subjected to gradation processing, and when it is copied as it is, it is output to the printing unit 23. Further, the image processor unit (IPU) 22 is
When the image data input from the image scanner unit 21 is transmitted to another copying machine, the image data subjected to gradation processing is output to the control unit 24.

In the illustrated embodiment, the printing unit 23 outputs a modulation signal generated based on the image information read by the image scanner unit 21 and the constituent data of the image information transmitted from another copying machine. A laser optical unit that converts and outputs the laser light, a developing unit that visualizes the latent image of the print image formed by the laser light emitted from the laser optical unit, and the visualized print image on the recording paper. The laser printer includes a transfer unit that transfers and forms an image and a fixing unit that fixes the print image transferred and formed on a recording sheet.

The control unit 24 has a central processing unit (CPU) 241, which performs arithmetic processing according to a predetermined processing program, a ROM (Read Only) storing processing programs for executing the copying function and the transmission / reception function, and various processing data. M
emory) 242, a RAM (Random Access Mem) for temporarily storing the processing result etc. calculated according to the above processing program
ory) 243 and the processing function designated by the processing function setting means to be described later, when the transmitting side or the receiving side cannot process the processing function independently, the transmitting side and the receiving side share the processing function and execute the processing function. A function sharing setting means 244 for setting a sharing ratio is built in. The function sharing setting means 244 basically sets the processing function sharing ratio based on the communication load. For example, in two copying machines equipped with a reduction / enlargement function of 50% to 200%, 30
If you want to obtain a 0% enlarged image, the maximum of 20
By sharing 0% and 150% on the transmitting side, the communication load can be minimized. On the other hand, 3
If you want to obtain a 0% reduced image, the minimum of 50
%, And 60% on the receiving side, the communication load can be minimized. That is, when the enlargement function is executed, the function processing share of the calling side is reduced as much as possible, and when the reduction function is executed, the function process share of the sending side is increased as much as possible, so that The amount of image data sent from the server to the server and the image data sent from the server to the receiver can be minimized, and the communication load can be minimized. This control unit 24
After temporarily storing the image data input from the image processor unit (IPU) 22 in the memory unit 25, the functional processing shared by the transmitting side is executed and output to the network unit 26. In addition, after temporarily storing the image data received via the network unit 26 in the memory unit 25, the specified functional processing is performed and the image data is output to the printing unit 23.

The memory unit 25 temporarily stores image data, and is a RAM (Random Acce) built in the control unit 24.
ss Memory) 243 may be used.

The network unit 26 includes a control unit 24.
The image data input from the server is transmitted to the server 4 via the LAN. Also, the image data received from the server 4 via the LAN is sent to the control unit 24.

The operation unit 27 is provided with various input keys such as a transmission partner setting key as a transmission partner setting means, a processing function setting key as a processing function setting means, a transmission start key, and a ten-key pad. Input copy conditions such as
Instructions such as start / stop of copying and start / stop of transmission are set and input to the control unit 24.

The display unit 28 includes an LCD, an LED, etc.,
Display copy conditions and current operation.
The display unit 28 also displays the contents of the function list of another copying machine.

Each of the copying machines 2 and the server 4 constituting the copying machine management system in the illustrated embodiment is configured as described above, and the transmission and reception operations of each copying machine will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. The description will be made also with reference to the flowchart.

First, the control section 24 in the copying machine on the transmission side.
The transmission operation will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. When transmitting the image information, the operator performs a transmitting operation (step S0). That is, when the operator sets a document to be transmitted to the automatic document conveying section of the image scanner section 21, starts communication with the server 4, and inputs a transmission partner (reception side) from the transmission partner designating means of the operation section 27, The control unit 24 searches the function list file in the client directory corresponding to the server 4 itself (sending side) and the transmission partner (receiving side), and temporarily stores the corresponding data in the RAM 243 (step S1). Next, the control unit 24 calculates a function possessed by the transmitting side and the receiving side and a function processable range when the both functions are combined, and displays this on the display unit 28 as shown in FIG. 6, for example ( Step S2). Display unit 28
When the function processable range is displayed on the screen, when the operator looks at it and the function to be processed is specified by the processing function specifying means of the operation unit 27 (step S3), the processing function specified by the processing function setting means is selected. When the transmitting side or the receiving side cannot process the processing by itself, the function sharing setting means 244 calculates and sets a sharing ratio for the transmitting side and the receiving side to share and execute the processing function (step S4). . At this time, the function allocation setting means 244 basically sets the function processing allocation ratio based on the communication load as described above. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when both the transmitting side and the receiving side have a zoom function of 50% to 200%, reduction / enlargement of 25% to 400% is possible. When the processing function designating means of the operation unit 27 designates the expansion function of 350% in this range, the function assignment setting means 244 assigns 200% of the maximum functionality on the receiving side in order to minimize the communication load. , The transmission side is set to share 175%. Then, the control unit 24 checks whether or not the operator has pressed the transmission start key of the operation unit 27 (ON) (step S5), waits if the transmission start key is not ON, and turns on the transmission start key. If so, the image scanner unit 21 is instructed to start reading the original (step S
6). The image scanner unit 21 starts the reading of the original document based on a command to start reading the original document from the control unit 24, performs predetermined image processing for each page in which the read data is read, and then outputs the digital signal as the image processor unit. (IPU) 22. When used as a copying machine, the image processor unit (IPU) 22 outputs the image data input from the image scanner unit 21 to the printing unit 23 as it is. When the image processor unit (IPU) 22 needs to be edited, the image processor unit 22 performs a predetermined editing process on the image data and outputs the image data to the printing unit 23. When transmitting to another copying machine, the image processor unit (IPU) 22 has the image scanner unit 21.
The image data input from is output to the control unit 24.

As described above, the control unit 24 that has input the copying conditions and the image data creates an image file for each page based on the image data input from the image processor unit (IPU) 22, and stores the image file in the memory unit. It is temporarily stored in 25 (step S7). It should be noted that in the present embodiment, in step S4, the transmission side 17
Since the function processing share of 5% is set, the image processor unit (IPU) 2 is used when creating an image file.
A 175% enlargement / zoom function process is executed on the image data input from 2. Next, the control unit 24 proceeds to step S
In step 8, the image data subjected to the 175% enlargement / zoom function process is copied from the network unit 26 to the image file in the image file directory of the server 4 via the LAN. The control unit 24 deletes the image data temporarily stored in the memory unit 25 after copying the image file to the image file directory of the server 4. Then, in step S9, the control unit 24 uses the management information and processing functions input from the operation unit 27 in step S0, the function allocation ratio set in step S4, and the data read by the image scanner unit 21. A document header file is created based on it, and written in the document header file in the image file directory of the server 4. In this embodiment, since 200% of the functional processing is set on the receiving side in step S4, 200% enlargement / zoom function processing is written as the processing function to be written in the document header file. Next, the control unit 24 proceeds to step S10 to write the transmission information in the transmission header management file of the transmission side client directory, and further proceeds to step S11 to write the reception management information in the reception header management file of the reception side client directory. Write. In this way, the transmitting operation of the transmitting copying machine is completed.

Next, the receiving operation of the copying machine on the receiving side will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
Each copying machine periodically communicates with the server 4 to check its own client directory. The control unit 24 of each copying machine accesses its own client directory of the server 4, checks the total number of received documents in the received header management file, and confirms whether or not there is received data (step P1), and then receives the received data. If there is no data, step P
After proceeding to step 2, the presence or absence of received data is checked again after a lapse of a predetermined time. If there is received data in step P1, the control section 24 proceeds to step P3 to obtain the document header file name from its own received header management file. When the document header file name to be received is obtained in this way, the control unit 24 proceeds to step P4 to access the image file directory and obtain the corresponding image file from the document header file name. There is one image file in the image file directory for each page. Then, the control unit 24 proceeds to step P
5, the image data of the corresponding image file name is fetched and temporarily stored in the memory unit 25. Next, the control section 24 proceeds to Step P6 to execute the functional processing of the image data stored in the memory section 25 based on the processing function written in the document header file. It should be noted that in this embodiment, the reception side 20
Since the functional processing share of 0% is set, the control unit 24
Edits the image data captured from the image file by enlarging and zooming by 200%. When the processing function is not written in the document header file, the control unit 24 shifts to step P7 without performing the functional processing on the image data captured from the image file. Then, in step P7, the control section 24 instructs the printing section 23 to print based on the image data edited in step P6. When the printing unit 23 prints out the corresponding image data, the control unit 24 subtracts "1" from the total number of received documents in the reception header management file, deletes the corresponding management information, and distributes the total number of document header files. "1"
If the number is negative and the total number of distributions becomes zero (0) (in the case of the last recipient of the designated transmission partner), the corresponding image file is deleted. In this way, the receiving operation of the receiving copying machine is completed.

[0025]

Since the copying machine management system according to the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following operational effects.

That is, according to the present invention, the control unit equipped in each copying machine connected to the communication line executes the processing function designated by the processing function designating unit by the transmitting side and the receiving side. It is provided with a function sharing setting means for determining a sharing ratio for performing, and if the processing function is designated by the processing function designating means at the time of transmission, the sharing rate of the processing function designated by the function sharing setting means is set, Since the designated processing function is divided between the sending side and the receiving side and executed, the functions of the copying machine on the sending side and the functions of the copying machine on the receiving side are used in combination. As a result, it is possible to realize a capacity higher than the function of each copying machine.

Further, according to the present invention, the function allocation setting means sets the allocation ratio of the processing functions so that the image data sent from the transmitting side is minimized, so that the communication load required for transmission and reception is reduced. The communication time can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a copying machine management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a management directory included in a server that constitutes the copying machine management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a copying machine that constitutes a copying machine management system according to the present invention.

4 is a flowchart showing a transmission operation of a control unit of the copying machine shown in FIG.

5 is a flowchart showing a receiving operation of a control unit of the copying machine shown in FIG.

6 is a diagram showing an example of a functional processable range displayed on a display unit of the copying machine shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

2: Digital copier 4: Server 21: Image scanner section 22: Image processor unit (IPU) 23: Printing section 24: Control unit 25: Memory section 26: Network unit 27: Operation unit 28: Display

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-8-174956 (JP, A) JP-A-6-233040 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00-1/00 108

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A copying machine management system comprising a plurality of digital copying machines connected to a communication line and one server, wherein the server stores image data transmitted from each digital copying machine. An image file directory including an image file and a document header file that stores processing information related to the image data, a reception header management file that stores management data related to image data that is created and received for each digital copying machine, and the copying machine. The digital copying machine includes an image scanner unit for scanning an original to be transmitted and a transmission for designating a transmission partner. An input section provided with a partner designation means and a processing function designation means for designating a processing function of a document to be transmitted, The control unit includes a memory unit for storing image data to be received, a printing unit for printing the received image data, and a control unit, and the control unit provides the processing function designated by the processing function designation unit to the transmission side and the reception side. It is equipped with a function allocation setting means for deciding the allocation ratio to be shared and executed by the processing function. If the processing function is specified by the processing function specifying means at the time of transmission, the processing function specified by the function allocation setting means. Of the image data scanned by the image scanner unit, a predetermined functional process that is set by the processing function designating unit and shared by the transmission side is executed, and the image data subjected to the predetermined functional process is set. Is written in the image file in the image file directory of the server, and the predetermined processing function shared by the receiving side set by the function sharing setting means is Write to the write header file, write management data relating to the image data to the receive header management file of the client directory of the transmission partner designated by the transmission destination designating means, and periodically receive the management data of the client directory of the server. The reception header management file is accessed to check whether or not there is image data to be received. If there is image data to be received, the image file directory is accessed to find the corresponding image data stored in the image file. Is stored in the memory unit, and the image data stored in the memory unit is instructed to print after executing the functional processing written in the document header file. Machine management system. 2. The copying machine management system according to claim 1, wherein the function allotment setting means sets the allotment ratio of the processing functions so that the image data sent from the transmitting side is minimized.