JP7172633B2 - image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, and more particularly to a touch panel type operation panel.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to an increase in the number of functions displayed on an operation panel and the need to save space in the depth direction of the operation panel, the touch panel used for the operation panel tends to be larger and thinner.

In addition, some operation panels have a mechanism that allows the angle of inclination to be adjusted with a hinge or the like in order to ensure visibility for the user. When the touch panel is pressed with a force that does not rotate the hinge as in an input operation, the hinge itself does not rotate, but the operation panel tends to bend around the hinge as a fulcrum.

When the user releases his/her finger from the operation panel and waits the finger at a position near the surface of the touch panel to prepare for the next touch input, when the operation panel attempts to return from the bent state, A so-called double touch, in which the first touched position on the touch panel is touched again, may occur. The time between the first touch and the second touch in such a double press is longer than the general chattering time, and even if the chattering prevention process is performed, the key execution by the second touch is not possible. Since it is accepted, there is a risk that an operation not intended by the user may be mistakenly executed.

Therefore, in order to prevent an erroneous operation due to double pressing, those skilled in the art can consider a method of disabling touch detection for a certain period of time after the touch panel is touched. As a configuration for disabling such touch detection, Patent Document 1 discloses that when an important key is touched within a predetermined time after the touch panel screen transitions, the user is prompted to touch the important key. A configuration is disclosed in which a confirmation screen for confirming whether or not to do so is displayed, and touch detection is not accepted until the user touches the confirmation screen.

JP 2015-170331

However, in the above configuration, even if it is possible to prevent an erroneous operation due to double pressing, even if the important key is away from the touched position on the screen after the transition, touching the important key is not possible. In this case, it is not possible to quickly touch an important key away from the touched position.

The present invention prevents an erroneous operation due to double pressing, regardless of whether or not the key on the screen after the display content is changed by the touch is close to the touched position on the screen before the display content is changed. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus having a touch panel type operation unit that enables quick touch operation.

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention has an initial operation screen as a root screen, a plurality of operation screens are linked to the root screen in a tree form, and a key in any operation screen can be touched. An image forming apparatus having a touch panel type operation unit for transitioning to a target operation screen and performing a desired input, comprising: touch detection means for detecting a touch of an indicator on the touch panel; An information aggregating part that aggregates information indicating how the displayed contents are changed when any of the arranged keys are touched, and a key operation while any operation screen is displayed on the touch panel. a drawing control unit that changes the display content of the touch panel based on the aggregated information of the information aggregation unit; Determination means for determining whether the key touch should be performed, invalidation means for performing processing to invalidate the key touch when the determination result is affirmative, and key touch validation for accepting the key touch as valid when the determination result is negative. wherein the determination means is such that the change in the display content causes a screen transition, and the keys on the operation screen of the touch panel after the change in display content are the keys on the touch panel before the change in display content. If the operation screen does not overlap with a predetermined area including an area occupied by the key corresponding to the detected touch, it is determined that the key touch should not be temporarily invalidated, and the predetermined area is the detected area. The area occupied by the key corresponding to the second touch on the operation screen before the display content change is extended by a distance that the pointer can be displaced .

An image forming apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention uses an initial operation screen as a root screen, and a plurality of operation screens are linked to the root screen in a tree-like manner. an image forming apparatus having a touch panel type operation unit for performing a desired input, the image forming apparatus having touch detection means for detecting a touch by an indicator on the touch panel; An information aggregation part that aggregates information indicating how the display contents are changed when any key is touched, and when a key is operated while any operation screen is displayed on the touch panel. , a drawing control unit that changes the display content of the touch panel based on the aggregated information of the information aggregation unit; Determination means for determining whether or not, invalidation means for performing processing to invalidate a key touch when the determination result is affirmative, and key touch validation means for accepting a key touch as valid when the determination result is negative. wherein the change of the display content causes a screen transition, and the key on the operation screen of the touch panel after the change of the display content is the operation screen of the touch panel before the change of the display content. overlaps the predetermined area including the area occupied by the key corresponding to the detected touch, and if the overlapping key is touched without causing a change in key state or screen transition, the key touch is temporarily The predetermined area is an area obtained by extending the area occupied by the key corresponding to the detected touch on the operation screen before the display content change by a distance that the pointer can be displaced. It is characterized by

According to the above configuration, it is determined whether the key touch on the touch panel after the display content is changed should be temporarily disabled, and if it is determined that the key touch should not be disabled, the key touch is enabled. Therefore, it is possible to perform a quick touch operation while preventing an erroneous operation due to double pressing.

1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic control system of the MFP; FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic control system of the operation unit; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an information aggregation table storing display contents of a screen of a touch panel; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a transition to screen C when a “fax/scan” key is touched on screen A; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a transition to a screen E when a “paper” key is touched on the screen B; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a transition to screen B when a “copy” key is touched on screen A; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a transition to a screen G when a "direct input" key is touched on the screen F; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing how the state of the “destination a” key changes as in screen F when the “destination a” key is touched on screen C; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing how the character "y" is output to the display line of the screen H when the "y" key is touched on the screen H; FIG. 5 is a diagram showing part of a flowchart for explaining the flow of control for disabling touch and control for enabling touch; FIG. 11 shows the remaining portion of the flow chart describing the flow of touch disable control and touch enable control. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a transition to a screen J when a “color image quality adjustment” key is touched on the screen I;

[Embodiment 1]
[1] Image Forming Apparatus (1-1) Appearance of Image Forming Apparatus FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to as MFP or machine in the embodiments) according to an embodiment of the present invention. be.

The MFP 100 has a drawer-type paper feed cassette 140 in a plurality of stages in its lower portion, and a housing 130 containing an image forming section 10 for performing image forming processing is mounted in its upper portion.

A discharge tray 150 for recording paper is provided on the top of the housing 130 .

A document reading device 120 is mounted on a discharge tray 150 with a stacking space for a stack of recording papers.

In front of the right end of the document reading device 120, an operation unit 50 for instructing job conditions and the like rotates through a hinge 131 about the rotation axis of the hinge 131 in the direction of arrow P or in the direction of arrow Q, which is the opposite direction. Also, an operating portion 50 is attached so as to be angle-adjustable. A touch panel 51 is provided on the front surface of the operation unit 50, and various mechanical push buttons 53 are arranged around it.

(1-2) Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the electronic control system of the MFP 100. As shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the image forming section 10, the operating section 50, the image input section 26, and the body control section 30 are connected to each other through a bus 40 so as to be able to communicate with each other.

(1-2-1) Image Forming Section The image forming section 10 forms an image on recording paper by a well-known electrostatic copying method. That is, the image forming unit 13 mainly charges the surface of the photoreceptor with a uniform charge, optically modulates the image data, exposes the surface of the photoreceptor to form an electrostatic latent image, and applies toner to the latent image. Particles are supplied, visualized, and transferred onto the recording paper fed by the feeding unit 12 . After that, the toner image is fixed by heat-pressing the recording paper in the fixing section 14 . After fixing, the recording paper is discharged onto the discharge tray 150 .

(1-2-2) Image Input Section Image input section 26 includes document reading device 120 as well as memory interface (I/F) 27 and network (LAN) I/F 28 . The document reading device 120 uses an optical device to irradiate the document read by the ADF 110 or the document placed on the document table below it with light, and from the intensity distribution of the reflected light, characters, patterns, or photographs can be recognized. Read and convert to image data. The memory I/F 27 reads image data to be printed from an external storage device such as a USB memory or a hard disk drive (HDD) through a video input terminal such as a USB port or a memory card slot, or reads a document to those storage devices. The image data captured by the reading device 120 is written out. The LAN I/F 28 is wired or wirelessly connected to an external LAN, acquires image data to be printed from electronic equipment on the LAN, or sends image data captured by the document reading device 120 to the electronic equipment.

(1-2-3) Main Body Control Section Main body control section 30 is an electronic circuit mounted on one printed circuit board installed inside MFP 100 and includes CPU 31 , RAM 32 and ROM 33 . The CPU 31 reads necessary programs from the ROM 33 and instructs the image forming control section 11 to execute a print job. Upon receiving the instruction, the image formation control section 11 controls the feeding section 12, the image forming section 13, and the fixing section 14 to smoothly execute the print job. The RAM 32 is used as a work area for the CPU 31 and stores operation screens to be displayed on the touch panel.

(1-2-4) Operation Unit The operation unit 50 is an input device (UI) mounted on the MFP 100, and notifies the main body control unit 30 of the user's operation contents. The operation unit 50 includes a touch panel 51 , an operation control unit 52 and push buttons 53 .

[2] Configuration of operation unit (2-1) Touch panel FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the electronic control system of the operation unit 50. As shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the touch panel 51 includes a touch pad 4P that receives a user's touch operation, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) 4D that displays a screen according to the touch operation.

The touch pad 4P performs position detection by an electrostatic capacitance method, and has a structure in which transparent electrodes arranged in a matrix are sandwiched between two protective covers. The capacitance between the adjacent electrodes is constant, but when the touch pad 4P is touched by an indicator such as a user's finger or a touch pen held by the user, new static electricity is generated between the electrodes via the indicator. A capacitance is generated and the value of the capacitance changes. While the touch pad 4P is being pressed, the electrodes are scanned in the matrix direction to measure the capacitance between the electrodes, and the touch position is detected from the magnitude of the capacitance.

(2-2) Operation Control Unit The operation control unit 52 includes a CPU 521, an interface (I/F) 522, a touch detection unit 523, a key information table 524, an information aggregation table 525, a timer 526, and a display drive unit 527. . A touch detection unit 523 , a key information table 524 , an information aggregation table 525 , a timer 526 , a display drive unit 527 , a switch SW, and a push button 53 are connected to the I/F 522 .

The CPU 521 communicates with the CPU 31 of the main control unit 30 via the bus 40, and executes a subroutine (FIG. 11) in the main program of the CPU 31, which will be described later.

The touch detection unit 523 detects the touched position by measuring the capacitance between the electrodes of the touch pad 4P as described above.

The key information table 524 stores the correspondence between touch positions and key information, and by referring to this key information table 524 based on the touch positions, the corresponding key information can be obtained.

The information aggregation table 525 stores screen information and the like after the display content of the touch panel 51 is changed, which will be described later. When the CPU 521 designates the screen information after the display content is changed, the image data representing the screen after the display content is changed is transferred from the operation screen storage section in the RAM to the display driving section 527, for example.

The display driving section 527 adjusts the brightness of each pixel of the liquid crystal display 4D according to this image data. As a result, the screen of the touch panel 51 displays the screen after the display content is changed through the transparent electrode of the touch pad 4P.

A touch detection unit 523 for detecting a touch position is driven by a voltage source V (5 VDC), and driven/non-driven by ON/OFF switching of a switch SW according to an instruction from the CPU 521 via an interface (I/F) 522 . is configured to switch When the touch detection unit 523 is driven, the touched position on the liquid crystal display 4D can be detected, but when the touch detection unit 523 is not driven, the touched position on the liquid crystal display 4D cannot be detected. In this sense, the CPU 521 functions as invalidation means for invalidating a key touch and key touch validation means for accepting a valid key touch.

When the CPU 521 turns off the switch SW to deactivate the touch detection unit 523, the timer 526 measures the time from when the switch SW is turned off until when the switch SW is turned on again. The time to be measured is longer than the time from when the display content of the touch panel 51 is changed by the user's touch until the user touches the touch panel 51 again after the display content has been changed by double-pressing. ~2 seconds.

(2-2-1) Information Consolidation Table As shown in FIG. 4, the information consolidation table 525 includes an item 61 for "screen before change", an item 62 for "touch key", and an item for "screen after change". 63, item 64 about "change content", item 65 about "duplicate key", item 66 about "key state change by duplicate key touch", item 67 about "screen transition by duplicate key touch", item 67 about "touch It stores information about an item 68 about "key state change" and an item 69 about "touch detection". Lines (i) to (vi) correspond to the screens before and after the display content change shown in FIGS. 5 to 10 (the screen after the display content change is shown at the tip of the white arrow). The screens displayed on the touch panel 51 have a structure in which the initial operation screen is the root screen and a plurality of operation screens are associated with the root screen in a tree form. Although the information of all screens up to the leaf screen is aggregated, FIG. 4 shows an excerpt from it. Information related to the above items stored in the information aggregation table 525 will be described below.

An item 61 of "screen before change" and an item 63 of "screen after change" indicate screens before and after the display content of the touch panel 51 is changed. It shows a key to be touched when the screen before change is changed to the screen after change.

An item 64 of "content of change" indicates the content of change when the screen before change is changed to the screen after change, and the change content includes screen transition, key state change, and character input.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, when the "fax/scan" key 211 is touched on screen A before change, screen C after change is different from screen A before change. Say. In addition, in this specification, when comparing the screen before change and the screen after change, not only the case where the entire screen is different, It is also said that "transition" occurs when part of the screen is different, such as when the part surrounded by the dashed line 244 of G is changed.

For example, when the "destination a" key 251 is touched on the screen C before the change as shown in FIG. It means to change to a state that has been Note that the key state change is not limited to displaying the selection mark 253 on a part of the key as described above, and may be a state change such as highlighting of the entire key.

For character input, as in the input screen shown in FIG. 10, when the "y" key 261 is touched on the screen H before change, the character "y" is output to the display line 264 of the screen H after change. It means Here, the input screen is a kind of operation screen, and is a screen in which when a key is input, characters indicated by the key are output to a part of display lines of the screen. Also, ``When a key is entered, the character indicated by the key is output to the screen'' means that when the key is entered like the ``y'' key 261 on the screen H in FIG. y” is output, for example, a “left arrow” key 267, a “right arrow” key 268, and a “delete” key 269 can be used to move the cursor pointing to the character input position. Also, the case where the characters output to the display line 264 are deleted is also included.

An item 65 of "duplicate key" indicates whether or not there is a key on the screen after the change whose position overlaps with the key touched on the screen before the change. For example, if keys (“destination b” key 213, “destination c” key 214, “destination "f" key 215 and "destination g" key 216). Here, "overlapping" means not only the case where the entire area occupied by the key overlaps the area surrounded by the dashed line 212, but also only a part of the area surrounded by the dashed line 212 like the "destination g" key 216. Including cases of overlap. In the drawing, for ease of understanding, the dashed line 212 is shown slightly larger than the outer frame of the "fax/scan" key 211 on screen A before transition (dashed lines 222 and 232 in FIGS. 5 to 10 and 13). , 242, 252, 262, 272).

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, when the "copy" key 231 on the screen A is touched, the transition to the screen B is made. When there is no duplicate key in the occupied area (the area surrounded by the dashed line 232), it is determined that there is no duplicate key.

An item 66 of "key state change by duplicate key touch" indicates whether or not the key state is changed by touching the duplicate key. For example, when the "destination b" key 213, which is one of the duplicate keys on the screen C in FIG. 253 is set so that it can be seen that it has been selected. When there is such a key state change, it is assumed that there is a key state change due to duplicate key touches.

On the other hand, when the duplicate key is the "direct input" key 241 on the screen F shown in FIG. does not change. At this time, it is assumed that there is no key state change due to duplicate key touches.

An item 67 of "Screen Transition by Duplicate Key Touch" indicates whether or not the screen transitions by touching the duplicate key. For example, in FIG. 6, when the "paper" key 221 is touched on screen B before transition, the screen transitions to screen E. When the "paper" key 221 is touched again on this screen E, the screen transitions to screen B. is set to When the screen transitions by touching the duplicate key in this way, it is assumed that there is a screen transition due to the duplicate key touch.

On the other hand, the screen G after the transition shown in FIG. 8 is set so that the screen does not transition even if the "direct input" key 241, which is a redundant key, is touched. When the screen does not transition even if such a duplicate key is touched, it is assumed that there is no screen transition due to the duplicate key touch.

An item 68 of "touch key state change" indicates whether or not there is a state change of the touched key when there is no screen transition due to the touch of the key. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, when the "destination a" key 251 is changed from being unselected to being selected by the display of the selection mark 253, there is a touch key state change.

On the other hand, as in the input screen shown in FIG. 10, even if the "y" key 261 is touched on the screen H before the display contents are changed, the state of the touched "y" key 261 does not change. It is said that there is no

A “touch detection” item 69 indicates whether to disable or enable touch detection, which is determined by the information in the items 64 to 68 described above.

[3] Touch detection disable control and touch detection enable control 4 to 12 are used for explanation.

(3-1) Change of Display Contents from Initial Operation Screen FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a part of a flowchart for explaining the flow of control for disabling touch and control for enabling touch, and FIG. FIG. 11 shows the remaining portion of the flowchart describing the flow of control for disabling and enabling touch.

As shown in FIG. 11, when the CPU 521 starts executing the program, it displays an initial operation screen on the touch panel 51 (step S101), and waits for the user to touch the touch panel 51 (step 102).

When the touch panel 51 is touched (Yes in step S102), the touch detection unit 523 detects the touched position, refers to the information aggregation table 525 (step S103), and extracts key information corresponding to the touched position. is obtained, and information about the content of change in the display of the touch panel 51 is obtained according to the obtained key information (step S104). Note that when referring to the information aggregation table 525, not only the change content item 64 in one row (for example, row (i)), but also all the information in items 61 to 69 in one row are displayed by the operation control unit. 52 RAM (not shown). Then, the information of the corresponding item is acquired from this RAM. The information of items 61 to 69 stored in the RAM is overwritten when the next touch is performed and the information aggregation table 525 is referred to again.

If the content of change is screen transition (Yes in step S105), screen transition is executed (step S106), and it is determined whether or not there is a duplicate key in the screen after transition (step S107).

(3-1-1) When Duplicate Keys Do Not Exist When duplicate keys do not exist (No in step S107), the item of duplicate keys is set to "None" (see row (iii) in FIG. 4). In the case of screen B), if there is a touch operation on the touch panel 51, it is immediately accepted (step S112). If a touch operation has been performed (Yes in step S112) and the touch operation is the reset key (Yes in step S113), the reset is executed and the initial operation screen is displayed on the operation unit 50. FIG. When there is no duplicate key as described above, the touch detection item 69 in the row (iii) of FIG. 4 is set to "enable" to enable touch detection.

The reason for enabling touch detection is that even if the user touches the first touched position again by double-pressing, there is no key at the position touched again on the screen after the transition, and the double-pressing This is because an erroneous operation due to As a result, touch detection becomes effective immediately after screen transition, so the user can quickly perform operations.

In step S113, when the touch operation is a key other than the reset key, the information aggregation table 525 is referred to (step S103), and information on the change content is acquired (step S104).

(3-1-2) When there is a duplicate key If there is a duplicate key (Yes in step S107), it is determined whether or not the state of the duplicate key changes even if the duplicate key is touched (step S108). .

(3-1-2-1) Judgment by Status Change If there is a status change of the duplicate key (No in step S108), the switch SW is turned off (step S110). If there is a change in the state of the duplicated key in this way (for example, the "destination b" key 213 on the screen C after the transition in FIG. 5), the touch detection item 69 in the line (i) of FIG.
is "disabled" and disables touch detection.

The reason for disabling touch detection is as follows. That is, when the "destination b" key 213 on the screen C after the transition in FIG. However, if the user does not notice that the "destination b" key 213 has been selected, an unintended job may be executed.

When the switch SW is turned off, the timer 526 measures a preset time and notifies when the time elapses. Upon receiving this notification, the switch SW is turned on (step S111). . To prevent an erroneous operation due to the touch of a duplicate key even if the duplicate key is touched by pressing twice because touch detection is not accepted until the switch SW is turned ON again after the switch SW is turned OFF. can be done.

On the other hand, if there is no change in the state of the duplicate key in step S108, it is determined whether or not the screen changes even if the duplicate key is touched (step S109).

Note that there are various sizes and arrangements of keys on the screen. As at 216, there may be multiple duplicate keys. In the post-transition screen, if there are both duplicate keys whose state changes due to touch and duplicate keys whose state does not change due to touch, from the viewpoint of preventing erroneous operations due to double-press, No in step S108 (state change of duplicate keys does not occur). Yes).

(3-1-2-2) Judgment Based on Screen Transition If there is no screen transition even if the duplicate key is touched in step S109, any touch operation on the touch panel 51 is immediately accepted (step S112). When there is no screen transition even if the duplicate key is touched in this way (for example, when the "direct input" key 241 is touched on the screen G after the transition in FIG. 8), the line (iv) in FIG. The touch detection item 69 is
It is "enabled" and does not disable touch detection.

The reason for not disabling touch detection is that even if the user touches the duplicate key at the first touched position by double-pressing, the screen will not transition by touching this duplicate key. This is because an erroneous operation does not occur. As a result, touch detection becomes effective immediately after screen transition, so the user can quickly perform operations.

On the other hand, in step S109, if there is a transition of the screen when the duplicate key is touched, the switch SW is turned off (step S110). In the case where there is a transition of the screen by touching the duplicate key in this way (for example, when the "paper" key 221 is touched on the screen E after the transition in FIG. 6), the touch detection in the row (ii) in FIG. Item 69 is "disabled" to disable touch detection.

The reason for disabling touch detection is as follows. That is, when the "paper" key 221 on the post-transition screen E in FIG. However, the screen does not change at all. Therefore, even though the user has touched the correct key, the user has to touch the same key again, resulting in an increase in unnecessary operations. After the switch SW is turned off until the switch SW is turned on again (step S111), touch detection is not accepted. Therefore, it is possible to prevent unintended screen transitions.

In the screen after the transition, if there are both duplicate keys that cause the screen to transition when touched and duplicate keys that do not cause the screen to transition even if touched, No in step S108 from the viewpoint of preventing erroneous operations due to double-pressing. (There is screen transition).

(3-2) Change of display contents from screens other than the initial operation screen In screens other than the initial operation screen, the change contents of the display of the touch panel 51 may not be screen transitions. In this case (No in step 105), As shown in FIG. 12, it is determined whether or not there is a change in the state of the touched key (step S114).

(3-2-1) When the State of the Touch Key Changes If the state of the touched key changes (Yes in step S114), the state of the touched key is changed (step S115), and the switch SW is turned off. (Step S116). In this way, if there is a change in the state of the touched key (for example, if the "destination a" key 251 in FIG. 9 is touched), the touch detection item 69 in the row (v) in FIG. ” to disable touch detection.

The reason for disabling touch detection is as follows. That is, when the "destination a" key 251 in FIG. 9 is touched by pressing it twice, the selection of the "destination a" key 251 is canceled against the user's intention, and the user does not notice this. , the operation proceeds as it is, and it is necessary to select the "destination a" key 251 again when the mistake is noticed. Therefore, even though the user has touched the correct key, the user has to touch the same key again, resulting in an increase in unnecessary operations. After the switch SW is turned off until the switch SW is turned on again (step S117), touch detection is not accepted. Unintentional operation can be prevented.

After turning on the switch SW, the process waits for a touch operation to be performed on the touch panel 51 (step S112).

(3-2-2) Input Screen If there is no change in the state of the touched key (No in step S114), in other words, it means that a character input key has been touched on the input screen, and the touched key is After that, if there is a touch operation on the touch panel 51, it is immediately accepted (step S112).

In this way, when a character input key is touched on the input screen (for example, when the "y" key 261 in FIG. 10 is touched), the touch detection item 69 in the line (vi) of FIG. ,
"Enabled" to enable touch detection.

The reason for enabling touch detection is that when the user enters characters such as an ID, if touch detection is disabled, the time that the timer 526 measures each time from the input of a character to the input of the next character ( This is because the user has to wait for about 1 to 2 seconds to elapse, which reduces the operability for the user. From the viewpoint of preventing an erroneous operation due to double pressing, touch detection may be disabled when a character input key is touched on the input screen as described above.
[Embodiment 2]
In the above first embodiment, the configuration example in which whether or not there is a duplicate key on the screen after transition is determined based on whether or not the key on the screen after transition overlaps with the area occupied by the key touched before transition has been described. However, in the second embodiment, instead of this configuration, it is determined whether or not the key on the screen after the transition overlaps an area larger than the area occupied by the key touched before the transition. , which is different from the first embodiment. Hereinafter, in order to avoid duplication of description, the description of the same contents as in Embodiment 1 will be omitted, and the same reference numerals will be given to the same components.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing how screen I is changed to screen J when the "color image quality adjustment" key 271 is touched. As shown in the figure, on the screen J after the transition, there is no overlapping key in the area occupied by the "color image quality adjustment" key 273 (the area surrounded by the dashed line 272), but the "copy density" key 273 The dashed line 272 overlaps the area surrounded by the dashed-dotted line 274 which is extended with a constant distance L in both the vertical and horizontal directions. The fixed distance L is a distance that the pointer can shift between the first touch and the second touch in double pressing, and is about 5 mm to 10 mm.

In the second embodiment, a key that overlaps the area surrounded by the chain line 274 instead of the dashed line 272 (for example, the "copy density" key 273 in FIG. 13) is defined as a "duplicate key". The reason for this is as follows.

That is, the keys on the screen have a certain size, and since it is sufficient to touch the keys so as to fit within the size, in some cases, the vicinity of the outer edge of the key may be touched. In addition, in the double press, since the indicator such as the user's finger or the touch pen is separated from the touch panel 51 during the period from when the screen before the transition is touched until when the screen after the transition is touched, the indicator is removed from the touch panel 51. May move slightly. In this way, of the two presses, the first touch position is near the outer edge of the key, and the pointer moves between the first and second touches. This is because if the touch position is misaligned, there is a risk of touching a key that does not overlap with the area occupied by the first touched key.

In this way, by judging whether or not there is a duplicate key by determining whether or not it overlaps with an area larger than the area occupied by the key touched before the transition, the first and second touch positions are shifted. Even in such a case, an erroneous operation due to double pressing can be prevented with high accuracy.

<Modification>
Although the present invention has been described above based on the embodiments, the present invention is of course not limited to the above configuration, and the following modifications are conceivable.

(1) In Embodiments 1 and 2 described above, the configuration example in which the position detection of the touch pad 4P is performed by the capacitance method has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, any known system such as a resistive film system, an ultrasonic surface acoustic wave system, an optical system, or the like may be used.

(2) In Embodiments 1 and 2 above, a configuration example in which the key information table 524 and the information aggregation table 525 are included in the operation control unit 52 has been described. A configuration example stored in the RAM 32 is also conceivable.

(3) The configurations of the above embodiments and modifications may be combined as much as possible.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus having a touch panel type operation unit.

50 operation unit 51 touch panel 52 operation control unit 100 MFP
521 CPUs
522 I/F
523 touch detector 524 key information table 525 information aggregation table 526 timer 527 display driver SW switch

Claims (2)

An initial operation screen is used as a root screen, and a plurality of operation screens are linked to the root screen in a tree-like manner, and by touching a key in an arbitrary operation screen, a transition is made to the target operation screen, and a desired input is performed. An image forming apparatus having a touch panel type operation unit,
a touch detection means for detecting a touch by an indicator on the touch panel;
an information aggregating unit that aggregates information indicating how display contents are changed when which key arranged on each operation screen is touched;
a drawing control unit that changes display contents of the touch panel based on the aggregated information of the information aggregation unit when a key is operated while any operation screen is displayed on the touch panel;
determination means for determining whether or not to temporarily disable key touches on the operation screen after the change when the display content of the touch panel is changed;
Disabling means for performing a process of disabling a key touch when the determination result is affirmative;
key touch validating means for accepting a key touch as valid when the determination result is negative;
with
The determination means determines that the change in the display content causes screen transition, and the key on the operation screen of the touch panel after the change in display content is detected in the operation screen of the touch panel before the change in display content. determining that the key touch should not be temporarily invalidated if it does not overlap with the predetermined area including the area occupied by the key corresponding to the touch;
The predetermined area is an area obtained by extending the area occupied by the key corresponding to the detected touch on the operation screen before the display content is changed by a distance that the pointer can be displaced.
An image forming apparatus characterized by: An initial operation screen is used as a root screen, and a plurality of operation screens are linked to the root screen in a tree-like manner, and by touching a key in an arbitrary operation screen, a transition is made to the target operation screen, and a desired input is performed. An image forming apparatus having a touch panel type operation unit,
a touch detection means for detecting a touch by an indicator on the touch panel;
an information aggregating unit that aggregates information indicating how display contents are changed when which key arranged on each operation screen is touched;
a drawing control unit that changes display contents of the touch panel based on the aggregated information of the information aggregation unit when a key is operated while any operation screen is displayed on the touch panel;
determination means for determining whether or not to temporarily disable key touches on the operation screen after the change when the display content of the touch panel is changed;
Disabling means for performing a process of disabling a key touch when the determination result is affirmative;
key touch validating means for accepting a key touch as valid when the determination result is negative;
with
The determination means determines that the change in the display content causes screen transition, and the key on the operation screen of the touch panel after the change in display content is detected in the operation screen of the touch panel before the change in display content. Temporarily invalidates key touches when the specified area including the area occupied by the key corresponding to the touch is overlapped, and no change in key state or screen transition occurs even if the overlapped key is touched. determined that it should not
The predetermined area is an area obtained by extending the area occupied by the key corresponding to the detected touch on the operation screen before the display content is changed by a distance that the pointer can be displaced.
An image forming apparatus characterized by:

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