JPH0299339A - Data recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the density of image data and to shorten the recording time to character data by a method wherein a recording head part is inclined when the image data is judged to be inputted to perform high density recording through an output buffer and the character data is directly recorded when said data is judged to be inputted. CONSTITUTION:It is judged whether the data stored in an input buffer 3 is text data or image data. When said data is judged to be the image data, the contact of a switch 9 is changed to I on the output terminal side of an output buffer 6 and a solenoid actuator 15 is driven through a driver 14 to incline the head 11 of a head part 10 by a predetermined angle alpha around a rotary shaft in a main scanning direction. When text data is inputted, the initial set state is held as it is without performing any operation. In this initial setting state, the switch 9 is present at the contact connected to the bypass circuit of a line memory 5 and the head 11 is present at a position where an angle of rotation is zero, that is, in a usual state wherein nozzles are arranged vertically.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an information recording device that records information such as one character, one image, and one figure in a dot pattern.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in this type of device such as a liquid jet recording device, nozzles and the like have been made finer and the recording density has increased considerably. However, it is still not sufficient, and the lack of recording density can be compensated for by processing or correcting information using image processing technology, or by tilting the recording head in advance with respect to the main scanning direction (vertical direction). By doing so, recording density was improved.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional device as described above, in which the recording head is kept tilted at all times, the recording time becomes long due to the high density, so it is difficult to record characters with a relatively small amount of recorded information. The disadvantage is that it takes a long time even when printing.

The purpose of the tree invention was to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, to obtain high density image information such as photographs, and to record text information that does not require high density, but rather requires high speed. An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording device that can significantly reduce time.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the invention provides a discriminating means for discriminating whether input information is character information or image information, and a dot recording method in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged in a fixed direction. a recording head, an output buffer that converts input data according to the rotation angle of the recording head, and when the determining means determines that image information is input, rotates the recording head by a predetermined angle, and converts the input data to the input data. The first control means converts the data via the output buffer before transferring it to the recording head, and the determining means does not rotate the recording head and bypasses the output buffer when the determination means determines that the input is character information. and second control means for transferring the input information to the recording head.

[Function] According to the present invention, when it is determined that image information has been inputted, the recording head unit is activated by the determination means that determines whether the input information is text data (text data) or image information (image data such as a photograph). When it is determined that character information has been input, -
Similar to in-film recording, direct recording is performed without tilting the recording head and without the intervention of an output buffer, resulting in higher density of image information and a reduction in the recording time of character information. Significant shortening (speeding up) can be obtained.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In this figure, l is a central processing unit (CPU) corresponding to the discrimination means and control means of the tree invention, and the control procedure as shown in Fig. program) according to
The operation of each part is controlled via the bus 2. The bus 2 consists of a control bus for transmitting control instructions (commands), an address bus for transmitting addresses, and a data bus for transmitting various data.

3 is a large-capacity buffer that temporarily stores data sent from an external input device (not shown).

These input devices include a document reading device (reader) that reads a document, an image reading device (scanner) that reads images from drawings, photographic film, etc., a coordinate input device (e.g., a mouse) that inputs image data using coordinate information, and an image capturing device (e.g., a mouse). Video devices that input images via cameras (including still video devices)
, a personal computer, a word processor, etc., each having a keyboard for inputting character strings.

4 is the character information read out from the input buffer 3 (hereinafter,
This is an image processing unit that performs image processing such as necessary corrections, corrections, and processing on image information (hereinafter referred to as text data) or image information (hereinafter referred to as image data), and the image-processed information is converted into binary data (digital data). ) is output from the image processing unit 4.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a line memory for temporarily storing one line of binarized data subjected to image processing by the image processing section 4. Reference numeral 6 denotes an output buffer that converts both text data and image data read from the line memory 5 so that they can be easily output according to a recording format or the like.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a look-up table (hereinafter referred to as LIIT) for converting image data in accordance with the inclination since the recording head is tilted in the case of image data. The output buffer 6 performs a table lookup in the LOT 7 and transfers the data. 8 is a counter that outputs the read address of LIT 7. 9 is a changeover switch for bypassing the output buffer 6.

1O is a tiltable head portion, which is composed of a head 11 having a liquid jet nozzle, etc., and a driver 12 that drives an electrothermal transducer or an electromechanical transducer provided in head 11 with electricity according to input data. 13 is the head part I
This is a head rotation mechanism capable of rotating O by a predetermined angle α in a predetermined direction, and consists of a driver 14 that generates a drive current according to a control command from CI'U 1, and an electromagnetic actuator or motor 15 driven by the driver 14.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When data is transferred from an input device (not shown), the CPII 1 temporarily stores this data in the input buffer 3. At this time, the CPU 1 determines whether the data stored in the input buffer 3 is text data or image data (graphic data), depending on the type of input device or the density of the amount of recorded information per unit of the initially transferred data. or image data). When it is determined that it is image data (step S
1) In the next step S2, the contact of the switch 9 is switched to I on the output end side of the output buffer 76, and the electromagnetic actuator (or motor) 15 is driven via the driver 14, so that the head 11 of the head unit IO is illustrated. It is tilted with respect to the main scanning direction (vertical direction) by a predetermined angle α around the rotation axis (step S2). On the other hand, when it is not image data, that is, when text data is input, the process jumps from step S1 to step S3 without doing anything and leaves the initial setting state unchanged. In this initial setting state, switch 9
is located at the contact point T connected to the detour of the line memory 5, and the head 11 is in the zero rotation angle position, that is, in the normal state in which the nozzles are vertically aligned.

Therefore, for example, when text data is input, recording is performed at a normal dot density in consideration of the recording speed. Therefore, the head 11 is not rotated and the process proceeds to step S3.
The result of image processing the input data is temporarily stored in the line memory 5 in step S4. Now, set the dot density to 400DP.
I (Dot Per Inch), this line memory 5 is prepared with 16 trees, and in step S7, this 1
Data is output in parallel from six lines and input directly to the driver 12 without going through the output buffer 6. In this way, if the input data is determined to be text data, the process jumps from step 54b) to step S7, and in step S7, the image processing result is output directly onto the recording paper without going through the output buffer 6 for transfer/conversion. Therefore, recording can be performed at high speed.

On the other hand, if the input data is image data, high-definition recording should be considered. Therefore, as described above, in step S2, the head 11 is first rotated by 45 degrees in the case of graphic data, or 60 degrees in the case of image data, and then tilted. If the dot density when the head does not rotate is 400 DPI, then the dot density is 45
The density in the case of ° rotation is 560 DPI, which is twice as high as that of one frame, and 800 DPI, which is twice the density in the case of 60'' rotation, making it a fairly high-density recording device.The operation up to line memory 5 is the same as in the case of text data described above. However, in the case of image data, the data is output to the driver 12 via the output buffer 6, so next we will explain the configuration and operation of the output buffer 6 and LIIT 7 in detail with reference to Figures 3 and 4. explain.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the circuit configuration of the output buffer 6 of FIG. 1.

In this figure, DF(o+ +u~DF N61 in+
321 is a D flip-flop (hereinafter referred to as memory) constituting the output buffer 6. Vertically arranged memories DFNI Nl・DFC2)fth to DF+++・)(th is a memory that stores 16 line memories 5,
32 memories for one line are added in the horizontal direction, and the output buffer 6 is formed by a matrix of 16 memory elements in the vertical direction and (n+32) memory elements in the horizontal direction. Data for 16 trees are output in parallel from the line memory 5, and the column DFn+ (寞) of the input memory of the output buffer 6 is output.
- Input to the D terminal of DF (2) (1) to DF1161 +11. Also, at this time, from CPU 1 to counter 8
Since data of "OF" (hexadecimal number) is preset in
(hexadecimal number), and gate ANDO~AN
via D+s (:clock signal from PU 1 (
CLK signal), the lines are sequentially stored in the memory OF.

Thereafter, the counter 8 is preset with address data of "00" from CPU i. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the output "0001" of LIIT 7 is input to AND gates ANDO-AND,5, and only the data in the first column is shifted to the right. Next, the counted value of 8 is “01”
”, LIIT 7 becomes “0” as shown in Figure 4.
003" is output, and the data in the first and second columns are shifted to the right by 1. Similarly, from LOT 7, "F" is output in hexadecimal.
When the output of "FFF" is shifted, all the data in the 1st to 16th columns are shifted to the right.

Next, when the value of counter 8 becomes °'10'', LOT 7
"FFFE" is output from the output buffer 76, and only the data in the first column of the output buffer 76 is not shifted to the right. Thereafter, the value of the counter 8 advances in the same manner, and if the data of the output "IF" of the counter 8 is input to the LIIT 7 and the LOT 7 outputs "oooo", the data in all columns of the output buffer 6 is not shifted to the right.

Through the above operations, 16 lines of data are converted into the output cover 6 according to a pattern corresponding to the inclination of the head 11, and sequentially transferred to the driver 12 and recorded therein. Further, the next line is also performed in the same manner as described above.

In this way, when it is determined that the input data is image data, the head 11 is tilted and the output buffer 6 is used to convert the pattern into a pattern that matches the tilt, resulting in high-definition image output. It will be done.

FIG. 5 shows the above-mentioned recording head 11 rotated by 45 degrees.

Here, 20 is a large number of nozzles opened in the recording head 11.

FIG. 6 shows the state when printing a solid image by rotating the recording head 11 by 45 degrees.
The dots are ejected in the n-1)th and nth recording scans. As shown in this figure, for example, a 400DPI nozzle 2
If recording is done with head 11 which has 0, the dot spacing will be /7.
It becomes 560DPI.

FIG. 7 shows how the recording head is rotated by 60 degrees, and FIG. 8 shows how a solid image is printed.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, image information is inputted by a determining means that determines whether input information is character information (text data) or image information (image data such as a photograph). When it is determined that character information has been input, the recording head is tilted and high-density recording is performed through the output buffer, and when it is determined that character information has been input, the recording head is not tilted and output is performed, similar to the internal recording state. Since the image information is directly recorded without the intervention of a buffer, it is possible to obtain a higher density of image information and to significantly shorten (speed up) the recording time of character information.

Further, the present invention has the advantage that by adding a small number of additional parts, it can provide high functionality that can meet the demands for both high density and high speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operating procedure of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an example of the circuit configuration of the output buffer of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of the lookup table (LIIT) in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a front view showing the state of the recording head rotated by 45 degrees, and FIG. 6 is the recording head in FIG. 5. 7 is a front view showing the state of the recording head rotated by 60 degrees, and FIG. 8 is the state of the recording head of FIG. 7. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a situation when a solid image is recorded according to an embodiment of the present invention. 8... Counter, 9... Switch, ii... Head, 12... Driver, 14... Driver, 15... Actuator (or motor) 1... CPU. 3... Input buffer, 4... Image processing section, 5... Line memory, 6... Output buffer, 7... LIT. Figure LUT/) Gate ticket (hexadecimal representation) Figure 4 Figure 4, 11 verses Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) Discrimination means for determining whether input information is character information or image information; a dot recording type recording head in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged in a fixed direction; an output buffer for converting the input data by using the output buffer; a first control means for converting data via an output buffer; and when the determination means determines that the input is character information, the recording head is not rotated and the input information is bypassed through the output buffer. An information recording apparatus comprising: second control means for transferring data to the recording head.