JP7433824B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction peripheral, which is equipped with a wireless communication function capable of wirelessly communicating with a communication terminal.

In recent years, with the expansion of the use of communication terminals such as smartphones and tablet terminals for business purposes, image forming apparatuses are also required to have enhanced functions for linking with communication terminals. For this reason, there is a movement to improve the convenience of image forming apparatuses by equipping them with short-range wireless communication functions such as Bluetooth (registered trademark).

Bluetooth is a wireless communication method that uses the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) band like other communication methods such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark). Bluetooth Low Energy (hereinafter referred to as BLE) is a part of the Bluetooth standard, and is a close-range wireless communication method that achieves lower power consumption than conventional Bluetooth.

In particular, BLE is being applied to various functions by performing position control. Therefore, image forming apparatuses that are equipped with a BLE communication function and perform short-range wireless communication with a communication terminal are becoming popular. Patent Document 1 proposes a technique in which a communication terminal receives radio waves of BLE communication transmitted from an image forming apparatus, and detects the distance between the image forming apparatus and the communication terminal from the intensity of the radio waves.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2017-173189

As described above, in BLE, a method of specifying the distance between devices based on radio wave intensity is widely known and has been applied. Furthermore, with the version upgrade of the Bluetooth standard, the BLE communication function using Bluetooth 5.1 has added a function to detect the direction in which a device is located between devices by detecting the direction of arrival of radio waves, in addition to the conventional distance determination. ing. At this time, in order to detect the arrival direction of radio waves, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of antennas and detect differences in phase and time of radio waves transmitted and received between the plurality of antennas.

However, until now, an image forming apparatus having a plurality of antennas for detecting the arrival direction of radio waves has not been devised.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to improve the performance of an image forming apparatus by using a plurality of antennas for detecting the arrival direction of radio waves.

An image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus having an image forming means for forming an image on a sheet, and the image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body having the image forming means therein, and an image forming apparatus provided above the apparatus main body in the vertical direction. a reading device configured to read a document image, and an operation unit provided on the front side of the image forming device in front of the reading device in the front-rear direction and above the device main body in the vertical direction and operable by a user; a communication board having a plurality of antennas for detecting the direction of arrival of radio waves, the communication board having the plurality of antennas arranged along the horizontal direction, the communication board having a plurality of antennas disposed along the vertical direction; The image forming apparatus is characterized in that it is provided at a position above the image forming apparatus and on the front side in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus.

Further, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus that includes an image forming means for forming an image on a sheet, and includes a discharge roller for ejecting the sheet on which the image has been formed by the image forming means; A communication board that is provided on the front side in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus and has an operation section that can be operated by a user, and a plurality of antennas for detecting the arrival direction of radio waves, the plurality of antennas being arranged along the horizontal direction. a communication board on which is arranged, the communication board being provided at a position above the ejection roller in the vertical direction and on the front side of the image forming apparatus in the front-rear direction. .

According to the present invention, the performance of an image forming apparatus can be improved by using a plurality of antennas for detecting the arrival direction of radio waves.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus. The block diagram explaining a control part. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a BLE communication board. A schematic diagram showing a BLE communication board. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating direction detection using BLE. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the arrangement of BLE communication units. The figure which shows the exterior cover which covers a BLE communication unit. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating detection of a user's movement trajectory using BLE. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of returning from sleep using BLE communication. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of user authentication using BLE communication. The figure explaining arrangement of the BLE communication unit in other embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, etc. of the component parts described below are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only thereto, unless otherwise specified.

First, the image forming apparatus of this embodiment will be described using FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an image forming apparatus 50. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the image forming apparatus, in which (a) is a perspective view of the external appearance, (b) is a front view with the transport section 50b1 in a closed state, (c) is a side view, and (d) is a rear view. FIG. 5E is a front view of the transport section 50b1 in an open state.

The image forming apparatus 50 shown in FIG. 1 is an electrophotographic tandem full-color printer. The image forming apparatus 50 includes an apparatus main body 50a that includes an image forming section 500 serving as an image forming means, and a reading device 50b that reads an original image.

The reading device 50b has a transport section 50b1 that transports documents placed on a stacking tray one by one, and an internal reading unit (not shown) such as a CIS or CCD, and the reading unit transports documents from the transport section 50b1. It has a reading section 50b2 that reads an image of a document or a document placed on a document table glass (not shown). The conveyance section 50b1 is rotatable with respect to the reading section 50b2 by a hinge mechanism, and by opening the conveyance section 50b1 with respect to the reading section 50b2 as shown in FIG. 2(e), the user can It is possible to place an original on the illustrated original table glass.

The image forming device 50 forms an image on the recording material P based on image data sent from the reading device 50b, an external terminal such as a computer, a mobile communication terminal 53 such as a smartphone communicated by wireless communication, etc. I can do it.

In the case of this embodiment, the image forming apparatus 50 includes an image forming section 500 as an image forming means for forming an image on the recording material P within the apparatus main body 50a.

Note that the recording material P includes various types of sheet materials such as plain paper, cardboard, rough paper, textured paper, coated paper, glossy paper, photographic paper, plastic film, cloth, and the like.

Next, the image forming section 500 will be specifically explained. The image forming section 500 includes an image forming section 10 that can form yellow, magenta, cyan, and black images. The image forming section 10 includes image forming units 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d arranged along the circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt 58. Here, 1a is a unit that forms an image using yellow toner, 1b is a unit that forms an image using magenta toner, and 1c is a unit that forms an image using cyan toner. 1d is a unit that forms an image using black toner.

Image forming units 1a to 1d each include rotatable photosensitive drums a to d, chargers 80a to 80d, and developing devices 81a to 81d, respectively. The photosensitive drums a to d are charged by corresponding chargers 80 a to 80 d, and then exposed to laser light corresponding to image data emitted from a laser scanner 82 .

As a result, electrostatic latent images are formed on the surfaces of the photosensitive drums a to d in accordance with the image data. The electrostatic latent images formed on the photosensitive drums a to d are developed into toner images by developing units 81a to 81d using developer of each color.

Each toner image formed on the photosensitive drums a to d is transferred by applying a primary transfer bias to primary transfer rollers 2a to 2d, which are disposed on the inner peripheral side of the intermediate transfer belt 83 and facing each of the photosensitive drums a to d. As a result, the image is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 83 at each primary transfer nip portion N1.

The intermediate transfer belt 83 is stretched by an inner secondary transfer roller 84 , an outer secondary transfer roller 85 , and a tension roller 86 . The secondary transfer outer roller 85 is disposed at a position facing the secondary transfer inner roller 84 with the intermediate transfer belt 83 interposed therebetween, and is used for secondary transfer for secondarily transferring the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 83 onto the recording material P. A nip portion N2 is formed.

At the bottom of the image forming apparatus 50, a paper feed cassette 87 in which recording material P is placed is arranged. The recording materials P are fed one by one from the paper feed cassette 87 to the conveyance path 89 by a feed roller 88 . The recording material P supplied from the paper feed cassette 87 is sent to a pair of registration rollers 90 through a conveyance path 89 . Although only one paper feed cassette 87 is shown in FIG. 1, a configuration having multiple paper feed cassettes as shown in FIG. 2(a) may be used. Further, a configuration may be adopted in which a feeding device provided separately from the image forming apparatus 50 as an optional device is attached to the lower part of the image forming apparatus 50. Note that the paper feed cassette 87 is an example of a storage unit that stores sheets to be fed to the image forming section 500.

The registration roller 90 temporarily stops the conveyance of the recording material P to correct the skew of the recording material P, and then moves the recording material P in accordance with the timing of forming the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 83 in each of the image forming units 1a to 1d. The recording material P is conveyed to the secondary transfer nip portion N2.

Then, by applying a secondary transfer bias to the secondary transfer outer roller 85, the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 83 is secondarily transferred onto the recording material P at the secondary transfer nip portion N2. Thereafter, the recording material P is conveyed toward the fixing device 40. In the fixing device 40, the toner image is heated and pressurized and fixed onto the recording material P as the recording material P is conveyed while being nipped by a pair of rollers forming a fixing nip.

When forming a toner image on only one side of the recording material P, the recording material P that has passed through the fixing device 40 is discharged onto a discharge tray 92 by a pair of discharge rollers 91 . In this embodiment, the ejection roller pair 91 ejects the sheet from the right side to the left side in the left-right direction of the image forming apparatus 50 to the ejection tray 92 . When forming toner images on both sides of the recording material P, the recording material P that has passed through the fixing device 40 is switched back and transported toward the double-sided transport path 93 by a pair of discharge rollers 91 .

The recording material P sent to the double-sided conveyance path 93 is returned to the conveyance path 89 by a pair of conveyance rollers 94, and through the same process as when forming a toner image on one side, a toner image is also formed on the other side. . Then, the recording material P with toner images fixed on both sides thereof is discharged onto a discharge tray 92 by a pair of discharge rollers 91 .

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 50 includes an operation unit 400 into which a user can input operation instructions. In the case of this embodiment, the operation unit 400 includes a display unit 410 that can display various screens such as an input screen, which has soft keys (not shown) that imitate the shape of actual operators such as switches, buttons, or numeric keys. and an exterior cover 420.

When softkeys are displayed on the display unit 410, various functions assigned in advance to the softkeys are executed in response to a user's touch operation on the softkeys. That is, the display unit 410 is a touch panel type display that includes a display panel such as a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display, and a touch panel that can be touch-operated by the user.

By touching the soft keys displayed on the display unit 410, the user can input various data related to image formation and instruct the start and end of the image forming operation. Further, the display section 410 is surrounded by an exterior cover 420 so that the display surface is exposed.

As shown in FIG. 2(a), the operation unit 400 is provided on the front side (front side) of the device main body 50a where the user is positioned during operation. Here, when the side surface on which the operation unit 400 is provided is the front side, the left-right direction when the image forming apparatus 50 is viewed from the front side is the width direction of the image forming apparatus 50, and the direction from the front side to the back side is the front-back direction. It is. Moreover, the up-down direction in FIG. 2(a) is the vertical direction.

As shown in FIG. 2(a), on the front side of the apparatus main body 50a of the image forming apparatus 50, maintenance of the image forming section 500 (replacement of the image forming units 1a to 1d and a toner container (not shown), etc.) is carried out. A front cover 100 that is an exterior cover that is opened when accessing the image forming section 500 is provided. The front cover 100 can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus main body 50a by a hinge mechanism (not shown).

Note that the operating unit 400 is provided in the device main body 50a so that the angle and position can be adjusted in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction using, for example, a tilt mechanism or a vari-angle mechanism. Note that the operation unit 400 may be configured to be immovable with respect to the apparatus main body 50a as long as it can accept operations from the user. Further, in this embodiment, the operation unit 400 has a display unit 410 including a touch panel, but there are also configurations that have a display that does not include a touch panel, hard keys that can be operated by the user, etc. Other forms may be used as long as they are possible.

The image forming apparatus 50 includes a BLE communication unit 5 inside an exterior cover 65 that performs short-range wireless communication with a communication terminal 53 using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). The BLE communication unit 5 is provided in the form of a board module configured on a printed circuit board.

The exterior cover 65 is located above the paper discharge tray 92 in the vertical direction, and is a cover member that forms the appearance on the front side of the conveyance section 50b1 of the reading device 50b. Further, the exterior cover 65 is located above the ejection roller pair 91 in the vertical direction of the image forming apparatus 50, and constitutes the external appearance of the image forming apparatus 50 on the front side of the conveyance section 50b1 of the reading device 50b. Further, the exterior cover 65 constitutes the external appearance of the image forming apparatus 50 above the operation section 400 in the vertical direction of the image forming apparatus 50 .

In the case of this embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 performs communication according to the IEEE802.15 standard (so-called Bluetooth (registered trademark)). Specifically, wireless communication is performed using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), which has low power consumption and is part of the Bluetooth standard, and uses the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) band. Note that in this embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 supports the BLE communication method of Bluetooth 5.1, and supports the function of detecting the direction of the communication terminal 53 by BLE communication.

Further, in the present embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 is disposed in the transport section 50b1 which is on the front side of the reading device 50b of the image forming apparatus 50 and above the output tray 92, and is covered with the exterior cover 65. ing. Note that the front side of the reading device 50b is a position on the front side of the reading unit (not shown) housed inside the reading section 50b2, and a position on the front side of the support frame that is the metal frame of the reading device 50b. It's the location. Further, the front side of the reading device 50b is a position closer to the front side than the support frame that supports each component of the conveyance section 50b1 of the reading device 50b.

Further, the BLE communication unit 5 in the present embodiment is located at a position where it does not overlap with the operation unit 400 when the image forming apparatus 50 is viewed from the front side even when the operation unit 400 rotates with respect to the device main body 50a. It is set in.

A user who owns the communication terminal 53 often approaches the image forming apparatus 50 from the front side in order to operate the operation unit 400 of the image forming apparatus 50 . Although the details will be described later, in order to perform direction detection using BLE communication of Bluetooth 5.1, direct waves of wireless radio waves arriving in a straight line between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53 owned by the user must be detected. It is necessary to send and receive.

In this embodiment, by arranging the BLE communication unit 5 on the front side of the apparatus main body 50a of the image forming apparatus 50, in BLE communication with the communication terminal 53 owned by the user, the main body of the image forming apparatus 50, etc. It is possible to transmit and receive direct radio waves with sufficient radio wave strength without being affected by radio wave shielding or the like. For example, if the BLE communication unit 5 is placed on the back side of the image forming device 50, sufficient radio wave strength cannot be obtained because the radio waves are blocked by the units inside the image forming device 50 and the reading device 50b. There is a fear. However, in the present embodiment, by arranging the BLE communication unit 5 on the front side of the apparatus main body 50a of the image forming apparatus 50, it is possible to suppress radio waves from being blocked by the image forming apparatus 50 itself.

Further, by providing the BLE communication unit 5 near the operation unit 400 in the vertical direction, it is possible to more accurately detect a user carrying the communication terminal 53 who approaches the image forming apparatus 50 in order to operate the operation unit 400. can.

Further, the BLE communication unit 5 is arranged at a relatively high position in the image forming apparatus 50, called the transport section 50b1, which is near the operation section 400 and is above the operation section 400 in the vertical direction. Here, a relatively high position with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 is a position above the discharge tray 92 in the vertical direction and above the apparatus main body 50a. Here, the position above the discharge tray 92 in the vertical direction is a position above the entire sheet stacking surface of the discharge tray 92 in the vertical direction. Further, a relatively high position relative to the image forming apparatus 50 is a position above the discharge roller pair 91 in the vertical direction. In this way, by arranging the BLE communication unit 5 at a relatively high position in the device main body 50a, the influence of obstacles existing between the image forming device 50 and the communication terminal 53 can be avoided and the direct wave of wireless radio waves can be transmitted. can be transmitted and received with sufficient radio wave strength. Note that details regarding each configuration and arrangement relationship of the BLE communication unit 5 will be described later.

The image forming apparatus 50 includes a control section 300 that controls the operation of the image forming section 500, as shown in FIG. In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), the BLE communication unit 5 is arranged on the front side of the reading device 50b of the image forming apparatus 50, and ), the control unit 300 is arranged on the back side of the device main body 50a.

Therefore, the BLE communication unit 5 and the control section 300 are electrically connected by the cable 5a. The cable 5a passes through a cable guide 600 provided in the apparatus main body 50a and is routed inside the apparatus main body 50a from the front to the back, making it easy to wire the inside of the apparatus main body 50a. The aim is to improve workability during assembly and maintenance.

Note that, as shown in FIG. 2(e), the cable guide 600 is arranged so as to pass through the inside of the conveying section 50b1 and avoid the area 601. This is because in the transport section 50b1, various mechanisms such as rollers for separating, transporting, and ejecting documents are arranged in the area 601, and the cable guide 600 is arranged to avoid this. be. The cable 5a passes through the cable guide 600 and is routed from the front side of the transport section 50b1 to the back side of the apparatus main body 50a, which improves work efficiency when assembling and maintaining the image forming apparatus 50. Improvements are being made.

The control unit 300 will be explained using FIG. 3 while referring to FIG. 1. However, the control unit 300 is connected to various devices other than those shown in the drawings, such as various units that make up the image forming unit 500 such as the image forming unit 10, and drive sources (motors, power supplies, etc.) for operating these units. Ru.

The control unit 300 as a control unit controls various operations of the image forming unit 500 such as data communication and image formation, and includes, for example, a CPU 301 (Central Processing Unit) and a memory 302. The memory 302 includes ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like.

The memory 302 stores various programs for controlling the image forming apparatus 50 and various data such as connection setting data and authentication data for communicating between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53. Here, the memory 302 is an example of a storage unit that stores various data such as an ID list of users who can be authenticated.

The CPU 301 is capable of executing various programs stored in the memory 302, such as "communication control processing (program)" and "image forming job processing (program)" (not shown). The operation of the image forming apparatus 50 is controlled.

Note that the memory 302 can also temporarily store arithmetic processing results associated with the execution of various programs, terminal information and image data received from the communication terminal 53, etc.

A storage device 303, a display control unit 304, a BLE communication unit 5, and the like are connected to the control unit 300 via an input/output interface. Like the memory 302, the storage device 303 can store various programs and data, and can transmit and receive various programs and data to and from the memory 302.

The display control unit 304 performs various controls regarding the display unit 410, such as displaying various screens, soft keys, etc. on the display unit 410.

The BLE communication unit 5 performs wireless communication according to BLE with the communication terminal 53 and controls data input/output between the communication terminal 53 and the control unit 300 .

Examples of the communication terminal 53 include a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a notebook computer, and a digital camera. The communication terminal 53 has a BLE communication board (not shown) and is capable of wireless communication with the BLE communication unit 5 disposed in the image forming apparatus 50. Here, if the communication terminal 53 has a communication mode using BLE, for example, by turning on the mode setting, the device can perform wireless communication using BLE with another device having a BLE communication board. It is. Note that the device may be a device that can perform wireless communication using BLE without switching the communication mode.

The configuration of the above BLE communication unit 5 will be explained using FIGS. 4 and 5. As shown in FIG. 4, the BLE communication unit 5 includes a host I/F control section 31, a BLE baseband section 32, an RF control section 33, an RF switch 34, a BLE antenna 35, a BLE antenna 36, a BLE antenna 37, a BLE An antenna 38 is arranged on a common substrate 39.

Note that the host I/F control section 31, the BLE baseband section 32, the RF control section 33, and the RF switch 34 are formed as one IC chip in which their respective functions are integrated.

The host I/F control unit 31 inputs and outputs data to and from the control unit 300 (see FIG. 3) via a wired interface. Examples of the interface include an interface to which a cable 5a (see FIG. 2(b)) compatible with a serial communication method such as "USB (Universal Serial Bus)" can be connected.

The BLE baseband unit 32 performs baseband signal processing in order to perform digital signal processing in BLE communication.

The RF control unit 33 performs modulation and demodulation processing of radio waves for RF (Radio Frequency) communication when performing BLE communication with the communication terminal 53.

The RF switch 34 switches each of the connected BLE antennas, BLE antenna 35 , BLE antenna 36 , BLE antenna 37 , and BLE antenna 38 , and performs switching control for connecting to the RF control unit 33 . Here, it is assumed that the RF switch 34 has four contacts: a contact a, a contact b, a contact c, and a contact d.

The BLE antenna 35 is an antenna formed to perform wireless communication with the communication terminal 53. Note that the BLE antenna 35 is a pattern antenna wired in a pattern on the board 39 of the BLE communication unit 5, and the antenna characteristics are adjusted to perform BLE communication in the 2.4 GHz band.

BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 are antennas formed similarly to BLE antenna 35. The BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 are adjusted so as to obtain antenna characteristics equivalent to those of the BLE antenna 35, and these four BLE antennas having equivalent characteristics are uniformly arranged on the board 39. are arranged in

The BLE antenna 35 is connected to the contact a of the RF switch 34, and similarly, the BLE antenna 36, the BLE antenna 37, and the BLE antenna 38 are connected to the contacts b, c, and d of the RF switch 34, respectively.

That is, it is now possible to switch which BLE antenna out of the four BLE antennas, BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38, is connected to the RF control unit 33 using the RF switch 34. ing.

FIG. 5 shows the physical shape of the BLE communication unit 5. On the substrate 39 of the BLE communication unit 5, a BLE antenna 35, a BLE antenna 36, a BLE antenna 37, and a BLE antenna 38 are formed so as to be arranged in parallel on the plane of the substrate by pattern wiring.

The IC chip 41 has a BLE communication function, and as described above, realizes each function of the host I/F control section 31, BLE baseband section 32, RF control section 33, and RF switch 34 (see FIG. 4). It is.

The BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 are connected to the IC chip 41, and are electrically connected to each other corresponding to the contacts a, b, c, and d of the RF switch 34 described above. is connected to.

Further, on the board 39 of the BLE communication unit 5, a connector 42 to which a cable 5a (see FIG. 2(b)) can be connected is provided for interface connection with the control section 300. Furthermore, screw holes 43 are provided on the board 39 of the BLE communication unit 5. The screw hole 43 is electrically connected to the ground of the electric circuit on the board 39.

Generally, in a wireless communication board that uses radio waves in a high frequency band such as BLE, the maximum antenna characteristics can be exhibited by obtaining an electrically stable ground. Therefore, in this embodiment, the substrate 39 is replaced with a metal plate 61 (described later) that constitutes a part of the main body frame that constitutes the support frame that supports each unit of the image forming apparatus 50, which is an electrically stable ground. In addition, it is configured to be grounded by screwing through the screw hole 43. Furthermore, a through hole 44 is provided on the board 39 of the BLE communication unit 5. The through hole 44 is provided for positioning and fixing the BLE communication unit 5.

As explained above using FIGS. 4 and 5, in this embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 is equipped with four antennas, the BLE antenna 35, the BLE antenna 36, the BLE antenna 37, and the BLE antenna 38. ing. This is to perform direction detection according to the Bluetooth standard.

Therefore, using FIG. 6, an outline of a direction detection method using a plurality of antennas according to the Bluetooth standard will be explained. FIG. 6A shows a method in which a transmitting side with a single antenna transmits radio waves for BLE communication, and a receiving side with multiple antennas captures the radio waves and detects the direction.

As described above, in this embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 of the image forming apparatus 50 is equipped with a plurality of antennas, and in this system, the transmitting side corresponds to the communication terminal 53, and the receiving side corresponds to the image forming apparatus. It corresponds to 50.

In FIG. 6A, radio waves for BLE communication transmitted from a single antenna on the transmitting side reach the receiving side. Focusing on the two antennas, antenna 1 and antenna 2, on the receiving side, the distance that radio waves emitted from the transmitting side take to reach antenna 1 and the distance to reach antenna 2 are different. Therefore, a phase difference occurs between the radio waves reaching the antenna 1 and the radio waves reaching the antenna 2.

Here, it is assumed that the distance between antenna 1 and antenna 2 is d, the angle of arrival of the radio waves arriving at antenna 1 and antenna 2 is θ1, and the wavelength of the radio radio wave is λ.

If the above-mentioned phase difference at this time is ψ, the following relationship holds true.

ψ=(2πd*cos(θ1))/λ
Therefore, the arrival angle of the radio waves is as follows.

θ1=arccos((ψλ)/(2πd))
That is, according to the above, by using two antennas, antenna 1 and antenna 2 on the receiving side, it is possible to determine the arrival angle of the radio waves arriving at the receiving side. Thereby, the arrival direction of the radio waves can be detected. Note that, according to the above, since the phase difference is determined using the radio waves arriving at antenna 1 and antenna 2, antenna 1 and antenna 2 must have the same radio wave characteristics.

Furthermore, the radio waves received by antennas 1 and 2 must be direct waves that are emitted from the transmitting side and linearly arrive at the receiving side along the same propagation path. In this embodiment, four antennas, BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38, are arranged in the BLE communication unit 5 of the image forming apparatus 50 on the receiving side.

As described above in the description of FIG. 4, the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 have the same radio wave characteristics. These BLE antennas are switched by the RF switch 34, and the arrival angle of the radio waves is calculated based on the radio waves received by focusing on the two BLE antennas as described above.

Therefore, the image forming apparatus 50 can detect the direction of the communication terminal 53 as the arrival angle θ1 (direction of arrival) of the wireless radio waves using the BLE communication unit 5.

FIG. 6(b) shows a method in which a transmitting side with multiple antennas transmits radio waves for BLE communication, and a receiving side with a single antenna captures the radio waves and detects the direction.

As described above, in this embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 of the image forming apparatus 50 is equipped with a plurality of antennas, and in this system, the receiving side corresponds to the communication terminal 53, and the transmitting side corresponds to the image forming apparatus. It corresponds to 50.

In FIG. 6(b), the radio waves of BLE communication transmitted from the antenna on the transmitting side reach the receiving side. Here, on the transmitting side, antenna 1 and antenna 2 are sequentially switched to sequentially transmit radio waves.

Therefore, if we focus on the two antennas, Antenna 1 and Antenna 2, we can determine the distance for the radio waves emitted from antenna 1 on the transmitting side to reach the receiving side, and the distance the radio waves emitted from antenna 2 on the transmitting side will be. The distance it takes to reach the receiving side is different. Therefore, a phase difference occurs between the radio waves received from antenna 1 and the radio waves received from antenna 2 on the receiving side.

Here, the distance between antenna 1 and antenna 2 is d, the transmission angle of the radio waves transmitted from antenna 1 and antenna 2 is θ2, and the wavelength of the radio radio wave is λ. If the above-mentioned phase difference at this time is ψ, the following relationship holds true.

ψ=(2πd*cos(θ2))/λ
Therefore, the transmission angle of the radio wave is as follows.

θ2=arccos((ψλ)/(2πd))
That is, according to the above, by using two antennas, antenna 1 and antenna 2, on the transmitting side and receiving them with a single antenna on the receiving side, it is possible to determine the transmission angle of the radio waves on the transmitting side. .

Note that, according to the above, since the phase difference is determined using radio waves emitted from antennas 1 and 2, antennas 1 and 2 must have the same radio wave characteristics. Further, it is necessary that the waves are direct waves that are emitted from antennas 1 and 2 and arrive at a single antenna on the receiving side in a straight line along the same propagation path.

In this embodiment, four antennas, BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38, are arranged in the BLE communication unit 5 of the image forming apparatus 50 on the transmitting side. As described above, the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 have the same radio wave characteristics. These BLE antennas transmit radio waves while being switched by the RF switch 34.

On the other hand, the communication terminal 53 on the receiving side receives this and calculates the transmission angle of the radio waves by paying attention to the radio radio signals transmitted from the two BLE antennas. Therefore, in order for the communication terminal 53 to calculate the transmission angle of the radio waves described above, the distance d between the antennas 1 and 2 on the transmitting side and the wavelength λ of the radio waves are obtained in advance from the image forming device 50 on the transmitting side. It is necessary to keep it.

In this embodiment, information on the distance d and the wavelength λ is transmitted in advance from the image forming apparatus 50 to the communication terminal 53 through BLE communication. Further, the transmission angle of the radio waves calculated by the communication terminal 53 is transmitted to the image forming apparatus 50 by BLE communication after calculation.

Therefore, the image forming apparatus 50 can detect the direction of the terminal device 53 as the transmission angle θ2 (arrival direction) of the radio waves. As described above, by using the method shown in FIG. 6, the image forming apparatus 50 can detect the arrival direction of radio waves by using the BLE communication unit 5, and therefore can detect the position of the user who owns the communication terminal 53 in coordinates. can be captured.

In this embodiment, as described above with reference to FIG. 2(a), the BLE communication unit 5 is disposed in the transport section 50b1, which is the front part of the image forming apparatus 50 and is above the apparatus main body 50a in the vertical direction. There is.

Here, a method of fixing and arranging the BLE communication unit 5 on the transport section 50b1 of the reading device 50b will be described using FIG. 7. FIG. 7A is a diagram of the BLE communication unit 5 fixed to the transport section 50b1 of the reading device 50b, viewed from the front of the image forming apparatus 50 (the side where the operation section 400 is arranged). 5 viewed from the thickness direction of the substrate. Therefore, the horizontal direction in FIG. 7(a) is the horizontal direction in which the image forming apparatus 50 is installed. Further, FIG. 7(b) is a diagram of the image forming apparatus 50 viewed from above.

The metal sheet metal 61 is a part of the frame sheet metal that constitutes the support frame of the reading device 50b, as described above, and is a part of the frame sheet metal that constitutes the support frame of the transport section 50b1. Here, the metal sheet 61 may be a sheet metal that is integrally formed with the sheet metal that supports each unit of the transport section 50b1, or may be a sheet metal that is formed separately.

The metal sheet metal 61 forms a frame ground for the electric circuit in the reading device 50b, and is grounded via a ground line or the like.

The metal spacer 62 is made of a metal member, and is a spacer for fixing the BLE communication unit 5 to the metal sheet metal 61, and is fixed to the metal sheet metal 61.

The resin spacer 64 is made of a resin member made of plastic resin, and is a spacer for fixing the BLE communication unit 5 to the metal sheet metal 61, and is fixed to the metal sheet metal 61.

The screw 63 is a metal screw for fixing the BLE communication unit 5 to the metal spacer 62, and is fastened by a tap formed on the metal spacer 62 through the screw hole 43 provided in the BLE communication unit 5, and the BLE communication Fix unit 5. As described above, the screw hole 43 provided in the BLE communication unit 5 is connected to the ground of the electric circuit of the BLE communication unit 5.

Therefore, the ground of the electric circuit of the BLE communication unit 5 is connected to the metal sheet metal 61 through the metal spacer 62 and the screw 63, that is, connected to the frame ground of the electric circuit of the reading device 50b.

The resin spacer 64 is formed such that its tip passes through the through hole 44 of the BLE communication unit 5. Therefore, the resin spacer 64 prevents the BLE communication unit 5 from rotating around the metal spacer 62 when fixing the BLE communication unit 5 to the metal sheet metal 61.

The exterior cover 65 is an exterior component that is the exterior surface of the reading device 50b and surrounds the exterior surface of the conveyance section 50b1, and is made of plastic resin. The exterior cover 65 is arranged to cover the front surface of the BLE communication unit 5 with respect to the transport section 50b1. Therefore, the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 of the BLE communication unit 5 are covered with the exterior cover 65. Here, the exterior cover 65 is an example of a cover member that covers the BLE communication unit 5 fixed to the metal sheet metal 61.

As described above with reference to FIG. 7A, the BLE communication unit 5 is fixed to the metal sheet metal 61 via the metal spacer 62 and the resin spacer 64. At this time, the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 of the BLE communication unit 5 are arranged on the metal sheet metal 61 so as to be arranged in the horizontal direction on the installation surface of the image forming device 50, Fixed. Here, the metal spacer 62 is an example of a first support member, and the resin spacer 64 is an example of a second support member.

As described above using FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b), when performing direction detection between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53, two antennas are used. This is to detect the arrival angle and transmission angle of radio waves.

That is, in order to detect the direction between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53 existing on the horizontal plane where the image forming apparatus 50 is installed, the BLE antennas are arranged in the horizontal direction so that detection in all directions is wasted. You can do it without any problems.

Note that, as shown in FIG. 7B, the BLE communication unit 5 is spaced apart from the metal sheet metal 61 by a distance e using a metal spacer 62 and a resin spacer 64 so as to be parallel to the metal sheet metal 61. Fixed. At this time, the BLE communication unit 5 is fixed to the metal sheet metal 61 such that the distances of the BLE antennas 35 to 38 located on the plane of the board 39 to the metal sheet metal 61 are equal intervals.

This is to maintain a uniform distance between the BLE antennas 35 to 38 formed in the BLE communication unit 5 and the metal sheet metal 61, and to prevent differences in antenna characteristics of the BLE antennas 35 to 38 due to the metal sheet metal 61. It is.

This makes it possible for each antenna to transmit and receive radio waves under the same characteristic conditions, and in the aforementioned direction detection using radio waves, it is possible to correctly detect the phase difference of the radio waves between the antennas and accurately detect the target of communication. It becomes possible to calculate the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the exterior cover 65. As shown in FIG. 2A, the exterior cover 65 is an exterior component mounted on the front side of the transport section 50b1, and covers the BLE communication unit 5. Further, the exterior cover 65 is an exterior component that is attached to the front surface of the reading device 50b above the device main body 50a, and is fixed to the support frame of the conveyance section 50b1 of the reading device 50b with screws (not shown). .

FIG. 8(a) is a perspective view of the exterior cover 65 viewed from the inner surface 65a side. FIG. 8(b) is a plan view showing the detailed configuration of the inner surface 65a of the exterior cover 65. Here, in the exterior cover 65, the surface that is inside the image forming apparatus 50 and faces the inside of the reading device 50b when the exterior cover 65 is attached to the reading device 50b is defined as an inner surface 65a. In addition, in the exterior cover 65, when the exterior cover 65 is attached to the reading device 50b, the surface facing the support frame (metal sheet metal 61 and BLE communication unit 5) that is inside the image forming device 50 is the inside surface. 65a. The surface of the exterior cover 65 that forms the appearance of the image forming apparatus 50 is defined as an outer surface 65b.

Here, the exterior cover 65 is molded from resin. Generally, a cover member formed using a resin material has ribs, bosses, etc. formed on the inner surface 65a to ensure strength.

In the exterior cover 65 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8(b), ribs 66 and bosses 67 as reinforcing ribs are formed on the inner surface 65a. In this way, by reinforcing the ribs 66 and bosses 67, deformation of the cover itself is suppressed. In this embodiment, the exterior cover 65 has both the rib 66 and the boss 67, but the exterior cover 65 may be reinforced using either one of them.

However, even the inner surface 65a of the exterior cover 65 has a uniform surface in which the ribs 66 and bosses 67 are not formed in the region 68. That is, since the ribs 66 and the bosses 67 are provided in areas other than the area 68, the area 68 has less unevenness on the inner surface 65a of the exterior cover 65 than other areas.

In FIG. 2A, this area 68 is placed at a position that covers the portion where the BLE communication unit 5 is placed when the exterior cover 65 is attached to the reading device 50b. That is, the region 68 is a region on the inner surface 65a of the exterior cover 65 that faces the BLE communication unit 5, and a region that faces the BLE antennas 35 to 38.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7B, a region 68 of the exterior cover 65 that covers the BLE communication unit 5 is formed so that the thickness f of the molding material is uniform.

That is, there are no ribs or bosses in the area 68 of the exterior cover 65 that covers the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 of the BLE communication unit 5, and the wall thickness f is uniform. It is made by molding resin.

This is to keep the radio wave characteristics of the members disposed in front of the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 of the BLE communication unit 5 uniform.

That is, it is possible to avoid differences in the characteristics of the radio waves transmitted and received by the BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38 through the exterior cover 65, and to transmit the radio waves under the same characteristic conditions for each antenna. This is to enable sending and receiving.

Thereby, in detecting the direction of the communication terminal 53 using radio waves, it becomes possible to correctly detect the phase difference of the radio waves between the antennas and accurately calculate the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located.

In the embodiment described above, the BLE communication unit 5 has a configuration in which the BLE antenna 35, the BLE antenna 36, the BLE antenna 37, and the BLE antenna 38 are pattern antennas formed by a substrate pattern on the substrate 39 of the BLE communication unit 5. did. However, the gist of this embodiment is to arrange the BLE communication unit 5 having a plurality of antennas at a position on the front side of the image forming apparatus 50.

Therefore, these antennas may be arranged by mounting antenna parts (so-called chip antennas) on the substrate 39 with the same characteristics. In addition, it is not necessary to arrange these antennas on the board 39, but terminal connectors are provided at the antenna terminals a, b, c, and d of the IC chip 41, and an external antenna is connected with a coaxial cable or the like. These multiple antennas may be arranged in a fixed manner.

Moreover, in this embodiment, four antennas, BLE antenna 35, BLE antenna 36, BLE antenna 37, and BLE antenna 38, are provided.

However, as shown in Figure 6, if there are two or more antennas, the direction can be detected by switching between them; however, depending on the required direction detection accuracy, detection speed, etc., the number of antennas may be two or more. It can be changed as appropriate.

Below, based on the above description, a method for detecting the direction between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53 and specifying the user's movement trajectory will be described.

In the above description, FIG. 6(a) shows a direction detection method in which the communication terminal 53 is on the transmitting side and the image forming apparatus 50 is on the receiving side, and FIG. 6(b) shows a direction detection method in which the communication terminal 53 is on the receiving side and the image forming apparatus 50 is on the receiving side. We have explained the method of direction detection on the transmitting side.

As described above, in any of these methods, the image forming apparatus 50 can detect the direction of the communication terminal 53 using the BLE communication unit 5.

Therefore, in the following description, it is assumed that the image forming apparatus 50 detects the direction of the mobile communication terminal 53 using one of the above methods.

FIG. 9A shows an example in which a user carrying a communication terminal 53 is moving near the front of the image forming apparatus 50. In the following, the distance between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53 is detected based on the radio wave intensity detected by at least one of the plurality of antennas of the BLE communication unit 5, as in the conventional method. shall be taken as a thing.

First, when the user is at position A, the position of the communication terminal 53 relative to the image forming apparatus 50 is detected by the image forming apparatus 50 to be in the direction of the angle α. Further, the distance at that time is detected to be distance p.

After that, when the user approaches the image forming apparatus 50 and moves to position B, the position of the communication terminal 53 with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 is detected to be in the direction of the angle α. Also, the distance at that time is distance q.

That is, when a user carrying the communication terminal 53 approaches the image forming apparatus 50 by moving from position A to position B, the angle at which the communication terminal 53 is positioned with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 is α remains unchanged, and the distance of the communication terminal 53 to the image forming apparatus 50 approaches the distance q from the distance p.

On the other hand, FIG. 9B shows another example in which the user carrying the communication terminal 53 is moving near the front of the image forming apparatus 50.

First, the position of the communication terminal 53 when the user is at the position A is detected to be in the direction of the angle α with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 . Further, the distance at that time is detected to be distance p.

After that, when the user moves to a position C in front of the image forming apparatus 50 in the lateral direction, the position of the communication terminal 53 is detected to be at an angle β with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 . Further, the distance at that time is the distance r.

That is, if the user carrying the communication terminal 53 is not approaching the image forming apparatus 50, the angle at which the communication terminal 53 is positioned with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 changes arbitrarily from the angle α to the angle β. , the distance of the communication terminal 53 from the image forming apparatus 50 changes arbitrarily from the distance p to the distance q.

Therefore, the image forming apparatus 50 can be operated by the user who has the communication terminal 53 by detecting the angle indicating the direction of the communication terminal 53 and the distance from the communication terminal 53 to detect the movement trajectory. It is possible to specify whether the image forming apparatus 50 is approaching the image forming apparatus 50 or passing near the image forming apparatus 50.

Although FIG. 9 shows an example in which the user who has the communication terminal 53 is moving near the front of the image forming apparatus 50, if the user is within the communication area of the BLE communication unit 5, the user who has the communication terminal 53 is moving near the front of the image forming apparatus 50. It is also possible to detect users approaching from the side.

Next, using the flowchart in FIG. 10, the image forming apparatus 50 changes from the sleep state to the standby state by detecting the movement trajectory of the user carrying the communication terminal 53 described in FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b). The operation of returning to the state will be explained. Here, the standby state is a state in which the image forming apparatus 50 is activated and is capable of forming an image on a sheet by accepting an image forming job. Furthermore, the standby state is a state in which the current image can be read by the reading device 50b of the image forming apparatus 50 by receiving instructions from the user. In addition, the sleep state is a power-saving state with lower power consumption than the standby state, and is a state in which a predetermined power supply voltage is applied, and it is possible to transition to the standby state by performing a wake-up operation. state.

In S1001, the control unit 300 determines whether the BLE communication unit 5 has detected the communication terminal 53. Here, the method described in FIG. 6 is used to detect the communication terminal 53 based on the fact that the BLE communication unit 5 has received a radio wave.

If the communication terminal 53 is detected (S1001 YES), the process moves to S1002. In S1002, the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located detected in S1001 is detected using the method described in FIG. 9, and by detecting a change in the angle in which the communication terminal 53 is located, it is determined whether the direction is constant or not. Determine. That is, in S1002, by detecting the position of the communication terminal 53 at predetermined time intervals, it is detected whether the angle of the communication terminal 53 with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 is constant or has changed.

If the direction is constant (S1002 YES), the process moves to S1003. If the direction is not constant (S1002 NO), the process moves to S1001.

In S1003, the control unit 300 uses the BLE communication unit 5 to detect the distance to the communication terminal 53, and determines whether the distance is within a predetermined distance. That is, in S1003, the control unit 300 determines whether the communication terminal 53 has approached the image forming apparatus 50 to a certain distance.

If the distance to the communication terminal 53 is within the predetermined distance (S1003 YES), the process moves to S1004. If the distance to the communication terminal 53 is not within the predetermined distance (S1003 NO), the process moves to S1001.

In S1004, the control unit 300 performs sleep return processing to return each unit of the image forming apparatus 50 from the sleep state to the standby state.

Specifically, as the sleep return process, the control unit 300 causes the display control unit 304 to display an operation screen necessary for user operation on the display unit 410. That is, the control unit 300 performs control to transition the display screen of the display unit 410 to the activated state screen or control to turn on the display on the display unit 410 as sleep return processing. In addition, as a sleep return process, the control unit 300 controls the startup of each part of the apparatus main body 50a and the document reading device 50b that are in a sleep state to return to a state in which various functions can be operated. Here, the start-up control of each section is control for starting up a motor, etc., and performing a warm-up operation for performing an image forming operation or a reading operation, such as temperature control control for a fixing device.

In this manner, in FIG. 10, by detecting the direction and distance in which the communication terminal 53 is located, it is possible to accurately identify the user approaching to operate the image forming apparatus 50 and the user passing through the image forming apparatus 50. The sleep return process can be performed only when the user approaches the image forming apparatus 50.

Note that the configuration is such that the step S1003 is omitted and the sleep return process is performed by determining that the user is approaching the image forming apparatus 50 based on the fact that the communication terminal 53 is approaching from the same direction. There may be. This also allows the sleep return process to be performed only when a user approaches to operate the image forming apparatus 50.

Therefore, the image forming apparatus 50 can avoid unnecessary sleep recovery and achieve further power savings. Furthermore, since the direction and distance of the user approaching to operate the image forming apparatus 50 can be detected using the BLE communication unit 5, the timing of returning from sleep based on the user's position can be more accurately controlled. It becomes possible. Therefore, the image forming apparatus 50 can provide a stress-free sleep return to the user at high speed according to the user's movements, and can improve usability.

Regarding whether or not the direction determined in S1002 is constant, the direction may be determined to be constant if the angle is completely the same, but the direction may be determined to be constant if the change in angle is within a predetermined range. You may. For example, if the angle changes within ±20 degrees, it may be determined that the direction is constant.

Next, using the flowchart in FIG. 11, the image forming apparatus 50 performs user authentication by the method of identifying the movement trajectory of the user carrying the communication terminal 53 described in FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b). Explain the operation.

In S1101, the control unit 300 determines whether the BLE communication unit 5 has detected the communication terminal 53. Here, the method described in FIG. 6 is used to detect the communication terminal 53 based on the fact that the BLE communication unit 5 has received a radio wave.

If the communication terminal 53 is detected (S1101 YES), the process moves to S1102. In S1102, the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located detected in S1101 is detected, and by detecting a change in the angle in which the communication terminal 53 is located, it is determined whether the direction is constant. That is, in S1102, by detecting the position of the communication terminal 53 at predetermined time intervals, it is detected whether the angle of the communication terminal 53 with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 is constant or has changed.

If the direction is constant (S1102 YES), the process moves to S1103. If the direction is not constant (S1102 NO), the process moves to S1101.

In S1103, the control unit 300 uses the BLE communication unit 5 to detect the distance to the communication terminal 53, and determines whether the distance is within a predetermined distance. That is, in S1103, the control unit 300 determines whether the communication terminal 53 has approached the image forming apparatus 50 to a certain distance.

If the distance to the communication terminal 53 is within the predetermined distance (S1103 YES), the process moves to S1104. If the distance to the communication terminal 53 is not within the predetermined distance, the process moves to S1101.

In S1104, the control unit 300 uses the BLE communication unit 5 to perform user authentication processing through BLE communication with the communication terminal 53.

Here, a user ID associated with a user is registered in the communication terminal 53, and a list of IDs of users who can be authenticated is stored in advance in the storage device 303 of the image forming apparatus 50.

That is, the control unit 300 acquires the user ID linked to the communication terminal 53 through BLE communication with the communication terminal 53, compares this with the ID list of authenticated users in the storage device 303, and determines the ID. User authentication is performed depending on whether or not the list matches the acquired user ID.

Then, in S1105, the control unit 300 determines whether the mobile terminal 53 has been authenticated through the user authentication process in S1104.

If authenticated (S1105 YES), the process moves to S1106. If not authenticated, the process moves to S1101.

In S1106, the control unit 300 performs login processing for the authenticated user. Specifically, the control unit 300 causes the display control unit 304 to display an operation screen necessary for user operation on the display unit 410. At this time, the control unit 300 reads various settings of the authenticated user stored in the storage device 303 and displays a standby operation screen customized for the user on the display unit 410. Thereby, the authenticated user can log in to the image forming apparatus 50 and easily operate the image forming apparatus 50.

In FIG. 11, by detecting the direction and distance in which the communication terminal 53 is located, a user approaching to operate the image forming apparatus 50 and a user passing through the image forming apparatus 50 can be accurately identified. Login processing can be performed only when the user approaches the image forming apparatus 50.

Note that the configuration is such that the user authentication process is performed by omitting step S1103 by determining that the user is approaching the image forming apparatus 50 based on the fact that the communication terminal 53 is approaching from the same direction. There may be. This also allows the login process to be performed only when the user approaches to operate the image forming apparatus 50.

Therefore, unnecessary authentication and login processing for users passing through the image forming apparatus 50 can be suppressed. Furthermore, since the direction and distance of a user approaching to operate the image forming apparatus 50 can be detected, it is possible to more appropriately control the timing of authentication processing based on the user's position. Therefore, by performing the authentication and login processing when the user arrives at the image forming apparatus 50, the authentication and login processing can be performed quickly and stress-free for the user, thereby improving usability.

In the above-described embodiment, an example has been described in which the sleep return process and the user login process are performed by detecting the direction and distance in which the communication terminal 53 is located. However, it is also possible to perform both the sleep return process and the login process. You can. For example, a configuration may be adopted in which sleep return processing and user authentication processing are performed when the distance between communication terminal 53 and image forming device 50 approaching from the same direction becomes a predetermined distance.

Regarding whether the direction determined in S1102 is constant, the direction may be determined to be constant if the angle is completely the same, but the direction is determined to be constant if the change in angle is within a predetermined range. You may. For example, if the angle changes within ±20 degrees, it may be determined that the direction is constant.

In addition, in the embodiment described above, an example was shown in which only one communication terminal 53 approaches, but when a plurality of communication terminals 53 are detected within the communication area of the BLE communication unit 5, based on the data of the terminal Then, the direction and distance in which each communication terminal 53 is located may be detected. In this case, when any one of the plurality of communication terminals 53 approaches a predetermined distance from the same direction, a sleep return process or a user authentication process for the communication terminal 53 that approaches from the same direction by a predetermined distance is performed. Just go. Note that, if it is detected that two or more of the plurality of communication terminals 53 located within the communication area of the BLE communication unit 5 are approaching from the same direction, the communication terminal that approached the predetermined distance first The configuration may be such that user authentication processing is performed with the terminal 53. Note that as long as the control is performed using the plurality of BLE antennas 35 to 38 based on the direction and distance in which the communication terminal is located, the configuration may be such that control other than the sleep return process or the user authentication process is performed. In this way, by mounting a plurality of BLE antennas 35 to 38 on the image forming apparatus 50, it is possible to improve the performance of the image forming apparatus 50.

As described above, in this embodiment, the BLE communication unit 5 is arranged on the front side (front side) of the image forming apparatus 50. As a result, when performing BLE communication with the communication terminal 53 owned by the user, it is possible to prevent radio waves from being blocked by the device main body 50a, the reading device 50b, etc. of the image forming device 50, and to perform BLE communication using the BLE communication. The direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located can be detected satisfactorily. Furthermore, by arranging the BLE communication unit 5 near the operation unit 400, it is possible to more accurately detect a user carrying a communication terminal 53 approaching the image forming apparatus 50 in order to operate the operation unit 400. .

Further, the BLE communication unit 5 is arranged near the operation unit 400, above the apparatus main body 50a in the vertical direction, and at a relatively high position in the image forming apparatus 50. Further, the BLE communication unit 5 is arranged at a relatively high position in the image forming apparatus 50, which is above the ejection tray 92 and above the ejection roller pair 91 in the vertical direction. Thereby, direct waves of incoming wireless radio waves can be transmitted and received with sufficient radio wave intensity while avoiding the influence of obstacles existing between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53. Thereby, the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located can be detected satisfactorily.

Further, in the embodiment described above, a sensor is provided to detect that the transport unit 50b1 is in an open state with respect to the reading unit 50b2, and when the sensor detection result indicates that the transport unit 50b1 is in an open state, the BLE communication unit 5 A configuration may also be adopted in which the communication terminal 53 is not detected. In other words, the detection of the communication terminal 53 by the BLE communication unit 5 may be performed only when the transport section 50b1 is in the closed state.

According to such a configuration, the detection range of the BLE antennas 35 to 38 is not always constant due to the rotation angle of the conveyance unit 50b1 or installation error in the closed state, and thus incoming radio waves cannot be detected properly. can be suppressed. Thereby, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the detection accuracy of the position and direction of the communication terminal 53 due to the detection direction of the BLE antennas 35 to 38 changing depending on the angle of the open state of the transport section 50b1. Therefore, the influence of obstacles existing between the image forming apparatus 50 and the communication terminal 53 can be avoided, and direct waves of incoming radio waves can be transmitted and received with sufficient radio wave intensity. Thereby, the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located can be detected satisfactorily.

Next, another embodiment will be described using FIG. 12. FIG. 12 is an external perspective view of an image forming apparatus 50 showing another embodiment. Note that in other embodiments, the only difference from the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is the arrangement of the BLE communication unit 5, and the same components are given the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. Note that in FIG. 12, the substrate 39 and BLE antennas 35 to 38 constituting the BLE communication unit 5 are not shown, but are assumed to have the same configuration as in the embodiment described above.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, a BLE communication unit 5x or 5y is shown as another example in which the BLE communication unit 5 is arranged above the discharge roller pair 91 of the image forming apparatus 50 in the vertical direction.

The BLE communication unit 5x is arranged in front of the reading section 50b2 of the reading device 50b above the device main body 50a.

Further, the BLE communication unit 5x is fixed to a metal sheet metal 61 (not shown) that serves as a support frame for the reading section 50b1 of the reading device 50b. Then, the substrate 39 on which the BLE antennas 35 to 38 are mounted is covered by an exterior cover 65x forming the exterior on the front side of the reading section 50b1. At this time, a region 68x that faces the BLE antennas 35 to 38 and faces the BLE communication unit 5x has a uniform thickness without ribs or bosses, as in the configuration shown in FIG. shall be formed with. As a result, similar to the embodiments described above, it is possible to avoid differences in the characteristics of the radio waves transmitted and received by the BLE antennas 35 to 38, and to transmit and receive radio waves under the same characteristic conditions with each antenna. Therefore, in detecting the direction of the communication terminal 53 using radio waves, it is possible to correctly detect the phase difference of the radio waves between the antennas and accurately calculate the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located.

In this way, the BLE communication unit 5x is arranged at a position on the front side of the image forming apparatus 50 and above the discharge roller pair 91 in the vertical direction and above the apparatus main body 50a. Thereby, it is possible to suppress radio waves from being blocked by the apparatus main body 50a, the reading device 50b, etc. of the image forming apparatus 50, and it is possible to satisfactorily detect the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located using BLE communication. Furthermore, by arranging the BLE communication unit 5 near the operation unit 400, it is possible to more accurately detect a user carrying a communication terminal 53 approaching the image forming apparatus 50 in order to operate the operation unit 400. .

Moreover, at the position of the BLE communication unit 5x, it is fixed to the immovable reading device 50b2 instead of the rotatable conveyance unit 50b1. That is, in the arrangement of the BLE communication unit 5x, the BLE communication unit 5x is immobile. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the detection range of the BLE antennas 35 to 38 from always being constant due to the rotation angle of the conveyance unit 50b1 or installation error in the closed state, which makes it impossible to detect incoming radio waves properly. . With this configuration, incoming radio waves can be detected well, so the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located can be detected better.

Further, as another example shown in FIG. 12, the BLE communication unit 5y may be arranged on the front side of the operation unit 400 above the device main body 50a in the vertical direction. Here, the front side of the operation unit 400 is a portion of the operation unit 400 located closest to the front side of the image forming apparatus 50. Further, the front side of the operation unit 400 is a portion located on the front side of the display unit 410 such as a touch panel in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus 50.

The BLE communication unit 5y is fixed to a metal plate 61 that is part of a support frame (not shown) that supports the display section 410 and the like of the operation section 400, and is covered by an exterior cover 65y. Here, the exterior cover 65y is a region facing the BLE antennas 35 to 38 on the inner surface of the cover, and a region 68y facing the BLE communication unit 5y is formed with ribs, bosses, etc., similarly to the configuration shown in FIG. It shall be formed with a uniform thickness. As a result, similar to the embodiments described above, it is possible to avoid differences in the characteristics of the radio waves transmitted and received by the BLE antennas 35 to 38, and to transmit and receive radio waves under the same characteristic conditions with each antenna.

Furthermore, when the operation section 400 includes the BLE communication unit 5y, since the operation section 400 is located closer to the front side of the image forming apparatus 50 than the reading device 50b, the communication by the BLE communication unit 5 is closer to the front side of the image forming apparatus 50. It can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to suppress radio waves from being blocked by the apparatus main body 50a, the reading device 50b, etc. of the image forming apparatus 50, and it is possible to better detect the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located using BLE communication. Further, by arranging the BLE communication unit 5 in the operation section 400, it is possible to more accurately detect a user carrying a communication terminal 53 who approaches the image forming apparatus 50 in order to operate the operation section 400.

Note that when the BLE communication unit 5y is provided in the operation section 400, in order to further improve the detection accuracy of incoming radio waves by the plurality of antennas 35 to 38, it is necessary to have a configuration in which the operation section 400 does not rotate relative to the device main body 50a. good. Further, in the case of a configuration in which the operation unit 400 does not rotate with respect to the apparatus main body 50a and a display unit such as a touch panel is arranged so as to face the front side of the image forming apparatus 500, the front side of the operation unit 400 is , the surface on which the display section is placed. Therefore, in this case, the BLE communication unit may be provided on the same surface as the display section 400.

Further, even if the operation unit 400 is configured to be rotatable, it has a sensor that detects the rotation angle with respect to the device main body 50a, and based on the detection results of the sensor, the incoming radio waves are accurately detected by the plurality of antennas 35 to 38. The configuration may be such that the direction in which the communication terminal 53 is located is detected only when the angle is detectable.

In each of the embodiments described above, the ejection roller pair 91 ejects the sheet from the right side to the left side in the left-right direction of the image forming apparatus 50 to the ejection tray 92; The present embodiment may be applied to a configuration for discharging sheets. Further, the present invention may be applied to a configuration in which the sheet is discharged from the back side of the image forming apparatus 50 toward the front side by the pair of discharge rollers 91.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, a so-called in-body paper ejection structure is shown in which the ejection tray 92 is provided vertically below the reading device 50b and above the image forming section 500. It may also be applied to a configuration in which the output tray is provided outside the reading device 50b (outside the reading device 50b in the left-right direction). Note that the BLE communication unit 5 may be arranged as in this embodiment with respect to the image forming apparatus 50 to which a sheet processing apparatus (not shown) is connected on the downstream side in the sheet conveyance direction.

As described above, the performance of the image forming apparatus 50 can be improved by using the plurality of BLE antennas 35 to 38 for detecting the arrival direction of radio waves.

5 BLE communication unit 34 RF switch 35 BLE antenna 36 BLE antenna 37 BLE antenna 38 BLE antenna 39 Board 50 Image forming device 53 Communication terminal 61 Metal sheet 62 Metal spacer 64 Resin spacer 65 Exterior cover 92 Ejection tray 300 Control section 400 Operation section 500 Image forming section

Claims (20)

An image forming apparatus having an image forming means for forming an image on a sheet,
an apparatus main body having the image forming means therein;
a reading device that is provided above the device main body in a vertical direction and reads a document image;
an operation unit that is provided on the front side of the image forming apparatus in front of the reading device in the front-rear direction and above the apparatus main body in the vertical direction, and that can be operated by a user;
A communication board having a plurality of antennas for detecting the direction of arrival of radio waves, the plurality of antennas being arranged along a horizontal direction;
Equipped with
The communication board is provided at a position above the apparatus main body in the vertical direction and on the front side in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus.
An image forming apparatus characterized by: The plurality of antennas perform BLE communication according to the Bluetooth standard,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that: When radio waves output from a communication terminal are received by at least two of the plurality of antennas, the image is formed based on the direction in which the communication terminal is located, which is detected based on the direction of arrival of the radio waves received by the plurality of antennas. further comprising a control means for controlling the device;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The control means is capable of shifting the state of the image forming apparatus between an activated state in which the image forming means can form an image and a power saving state in which power consumption is lower than in the activated state,
The control means is configured to start the image forming apparatus from the power saving state when the communication terminal approaches from a certain direction and the position of the communication terminal with respect to the image forming apparatus is within a predetermined distance. move to the state,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that: The control means executes start-up control of the image forming means when transitioning the image forming apparatus from the power saving state to the start-up state.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that: Further comprising a storage means for storing an ID list of users who can be authenticated,
The control means is configured to control the ID list based on the ID list stored in the storage means when the communication terminal approaches from a certain direction and the position of the communication terminal with respect to the image forming apparatus is within a predetermined distance. and performing user authentication processing on the user ID of the communication terminal detected by at least one of the plurality of antennas.
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 5. The operation unit has a display unit that can display information regarding the image forming apparatus,
The control means causes a display screen of the display unit to transition to a screen in the startup state when the image forming apparatus is transferred from the power saving state to the startup state.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that: The operation unit includes a display unit capable of displaying information regarding the image forming apparatus, and the control unit controls the control unit when the user ID in the ID list stored in the storage unit matches the user ID of the communication terminal. , displaying an operation screen corresponding to the matched user ID on the display unit;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that: a support frame including a metal sheet metal and supporting the image forming means;
further comprising a cover member that configures the appearance of the image forming apparatus,
the communication board is fixed to the support frame and covered by the cover member;
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8. The cover member has reinforcing ribs for reinforcing the cover member in an area other than the area facing the communication board on the inner surface side facing the support frame.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 9. The communication board is fixed to the support frame such that each of the plurality of antennas is arranged at equal intervals with respect to the metal sheet metal of the support frame.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 or 10. a first support member made of a metal member;
further comprising a second support member made of a resin member,
the communication board is fixed to the support frame via the first support member and the second support member;
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 11. The communication board is provided above the operation unit in the vertical direction and at a position on the front side of the reading device.
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12. The reading device includes a reading section that reads a document image, and a transport section that transports the document to the reading section,
The communication board is provided on the front side of the transport section in the front-rear direction,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 13. The reading device includes a reading section that reads a document image, and a transport section that transports the document to the reading section,
The communication board is provided on the front side of the reading unit in the front-rear direction,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 13. The operation unit is provided above the device main body in the vertical direction,
The communication board is provided on the front side of the operation unit in the front-rear direction,
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12. An image forming apparatus having an internal image forming means for forming an image on a sheet,
a discharge roller that discharges the sheet on which an image has been formed by the image forming means;
an operation unit provided on the front side in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus and operable by a user;
A communication board having a plurality of antennas for detecting the arrival direction of radio waves, the communication board having the plurality of antennas arranged along the horizontal direction,
The communication board is provided at a position above the ejection roller in the vertical direction and on the front side in the front-rear direction of the image forming apparatus.
An image forming apparatus characterized by: When radio waves output from a communication terminal are received by at least two of the plurality of antennas, the image is formed based on the direction in which the communication terminal is located, which is detected based on the direction of arrival of the radio waves received by the plurality of antennas. further comprising a control means for controlling the device;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 17. The control means is capable of shifting the state of the image forming apparatus between an activated state in which the image forming means can form an image and a power saving state in which power consumption is lower than in the activated state,
The control means is configured to start the image forming apparatus from the power saving state when the communication terminal approaches from a certain direction and the position of the communication terminal with respect to the image forming apparatus is within a predetermined distance. move to the state,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 18. Further comprising a storage means for storing an ID list of users who can be authenticated,
The control means is configured to control the ID list based on the ID list stored in the storage means when the communication terminal approaches from a certain direction and the position of the communication terminal with respect to the image forming apparatus is within a predetermined distance. and performing user authentication processing on the user ID of the communication terminal detected by at least one of the plurality of antennas.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 18 or 19.

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