JPH05122472A - Image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inform the ending time of duplicate processing. etc., of image information accumulated in an image accumulation device by pre-reading. CONSTITUTION:An image processing device provided with an image accumulation means (5) in which the information of a pre-read original image is accumulated and which processes and outputs the information of the original image accumulated in the image accumulation means (5) by an image processing part (7) by reading sequentially is equipped with a processing time arithmetic means (7-3) which computes a time required for the processing and outputting the information of an accumulated original image and computes ending time to process and output the information of the accumulated original image from the required time, and the processing ending time is informed to an operator when the reading information and processing information of the original are inputted and a start instruction is inputted. Therefore, it is possible to exactly inform the ending time to the operator.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention has an image storage means for storing information of an original image, and information of an input original image which is not directly output is temporarily stored as information of a preread original image in the image storage means and then sequentially. The present invention relates to an image processing device that reads, processes, and outputs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image processing apparatus that reads an original image with an image reading apparatus and processes the image information by a designated processing method includes an apparatus for processing and outputting the read image information as it is in real time, and an image storage apparatus. There is a method in which the read image information is temporarily stored in the image storage device, and the stored image information is sequentially read, processed, and output.

As the image processing apparatus having the latter image storage apparatus, there is conventionally known an image processing apparatus such as a facsimile which stores image information of several kinds of original images in the image storage apparatus and sequentially transmits the image information. .. In addition, JP-A 1-26
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1966, some copying machines make it possible to read the next original even while copying a plurality of sheets.

Since the document having the image storage device as described above can read the original document in advance, the operator does not need to wait for the completion of copying the preceding document for inserting the subsequent document. It led to improvement of workability.

Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-72763, there is one that calculates and displays the number of documents that can be stored in a facsimile. In the above calculation, the remaining storage amount of the facsimile displayed in percent is converted and displayed, and the operator can accurately determine the number of documents that can be stored based on this information, which improves workability. It was

[0006]

However, in each of the conventional devices, the following original can be read (pre-reading) without waiting for the completion of the processing of the preceding original, but in this case, the operator There is a problem that the end time of the processing such as copying of the preread document is not known. For this reason, when the operator takes a copy of the pre-read original document to the copying machine, the process may not be completed yet, and there is an inconvenience that the process has to be carried out again in time.

Further, if the processing time is shorter than the processing time estimated by the operator, there is a problem that the copied material is accumulated in the discharge tray of the copying machine, which hinders the subsequent copying processing. There was a defect that the operator could not leave from near the machine and the workability was poor.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to notify the operator of the end time of processing such as copying of image information stored in the image storage device by prefetching.

[0009]

For this reason, the present invention has an image storage means for storing the information of the original image, and the information of the input original image which is not directly output is temporarily stored in the image storage means as the information of the preread original image. In an image processing apparatus for sequentially reading, processing, and outputting after accumulating, a required time for processing and outputting the information of each accumulated original image is calculated, and the information of the accumulated original image is calculated from the required time. The above problem is solved by providing processing time calculation means for calculating the end time of processing and outputting.

[0010]

In the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, in which the information of the input original image that is not directly output is temporarily stored in the image storing means as the information of the preread original image, and then sequentially read, processed and output, the storage is performed by the processing time calculating means. The time required for processing and outputting the information of each document image is calculated, and the end time for processing and outputting the information of the stored document image is calculated from the time required, so that the operator can obtain the accurate end time. Can be notified.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an image processing apparatus of the present invention, showing a configuration example applied to a copying machine.

In FIG. 1, a scanner (1) is a device for reading a document image and converting it into an electric signal, which is an ADF.
(2) is an automatic document feeder that can detect the document size by a sensor. The U / I (3) is a document processing information input section including an operation instruction section for instructing the operation of the copying machine and an operation display section for displaying the operation state. For example, a window / menu screen displayed on a CRT is used. Input the processing information of the manuscript. The printer unit (4) is an image output unit that records and outputs a document image processed according to the operation mode instructed by the operation instruction, and is, for example, a laser printer. The storage device (5) is a hard disk device that stores information of read original images of a plurality of sets, and temporarily stores information of an input original image that is not directly output as information of a preread original image. The information of the original image is sequentially read, processed, and output from the printer unit 4.

The external interface section (6) is a facsimile machine (6-1) connected to the copying machine of this embodiment by an electric communication line, a voice mail apparatus (6-2) and a LAN (6-3) such as Ethernet. ) Is an interface unit equipped with the functions required to communicate with.

The image processing unit (7) is provided with an editing unit (7-1) having an editing function for performing processing such as rotation and extraction on an image read by the scanner (1) and converted into an electric signal.
And an encoding / decoding section (7-1) for encoding / decompressing / decompressing an image, a processing time calculation section (7-3) for calculating an image processing time, and a process from image reading to image output. It is composed of a control unit (7-4).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the image processing section used in the image processing apparatus of the present invention. Hereinafter, referring to the block diagram of the image processing unit in FIG. 2, the editing unit (7-1),
The encoding / decoding section (7-2), the processing time calculation section (7-3), and the control section (7-4) will be described.

In the image processing section (7), the image data read by the scanner (1) is taken in from the IIT interface section (101), and once the page buffer (1
02). The accumulated image data is U / I
It is edited and processed by the information instructed from (3). Here, the editing information instructed by the U / I (3) is RS2.
It is obtained from the UART unit (105) via 32C.

The editing unit (7-1) includes a CPU unit (10
4), a page buffer unit (102), an image rotation processing unit (103), and an editing storage device (106). When editing is performed, the image rotation processing unit (103) rotates the image. When processed and edited such as extraction, arithmetic processing is performed by the CPU unit (104). When processing is performed across a plurality of pages, the page buffer unit (102) and the editing storage device (106) composed of a hard disk are used to perform the editing processing while sequentially extracting necessary data.

The edited image data is sent to the external interface unit (6) via the network interface unit (109) and to the printer unit (4) via the IOT interface unit (115).

The encoding / decoding section (7-2) is composed of a compression processing section (107) and a decompression processing section (108), and the image data taken in by the image processing section (7) is compressed by these. The processing unit (107) and the decompression processing unit (108) perform coding compression or decoding decompression processing.

The processing time calculation section (7-3) is composed of a CPU section (104) and a non-volatile memory section (110), and the calculation table used for calculation of the processing time is previously stored in the non-volatile memory section (110). ) Is stored in.
Then, in the CPU unit (104), when the operation instruction information from the U / I (3) is obtained from the UART unit (105) via the RS232C, and further the start instruction is obtained from the U / I (3), At that point, the calculation of the processing time is started using the operation instruction information and the calculation table stored in the non-volatile memory unit (110).

The control section (7-4) has a CPU section (104).
And counter section (111) and interrupt control section (112)
And a memory unit (113) for controlling the entire copying machine. Control signals to the scanner (1), U / I (3), printer unit (4) and external interface unit (6) are communicated via the UART unit (105).

Tables 1 and 2 show an example of the arithmetic table stored in the processing time arithmetic unit (7-3) for use in arithmetic of the processing time.
The processing time for each original size required for editing processing such as rotation and extraction is stored. Table 2 shows the processing time of the preread original image that has been stored in the storage device and has not been processed. Is stored for each image processing.

[0023] Next, the processing flow of the processing time calculation unit (7-3) of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First ADF
With the read document set in (2), press the U / I
From (3), after inputting the reading information of the originals on both sides and the processing information such as editing, and further setting the number of originals,
When the processing start instruction is input, the processing time calculation unit (7-3) receives the document size information detected by the ADF (2) and the original reading information and processing information input by the U / I (3). From the table information shown in Tables 1 and 2, the processing time Tr required for the processing is calculated based on the following equation (1). In this embodiment, the calculation start time of the processing end time Tr is the time when the start button on the U / I (3) is pressed.

Tr = K × Dsize × Dcnt × Ed + Tb (1) where K is a constant determined by the processing capacity of the image processing apparatus, Dsize is the document size, and Dcnt is the number of documents.
Ed is the processing time required for the editing processing obtained in Table 1, and Tb is the preprocessing time obtained in Table 2. The preprocessing time is the time required to complete the processing of the preread document image that has not been processed. The nth processing time of the preread processing is Ttrn, and the number of preread processing is When m is set, Tb is calculated by the following equation (2).

For example, in the example shown in Table 2, the pretreatment time is Given in. Further, when the same editing processing is performed on all the read originals, the equation (1) is used, but when the processing is performed for each arbitrary number of read originals, the following equation (3) is used.

[0026] The result calculated by the above calculation processing method is newly stored and updated in the preprocessing time table of Table 2.

The result calculated as above is U /
In the operation display section of I (3), for example, "end processing time about T
A message such as “r minutes later” is displayed. When the processing end time is displayed by time, the result obtained by adding the processing end time obtained by the calculation to the time when the start button is pressed is calculated as U / A message such as "end time xx hour xx minute" is displayed on the operation display unit of I (3).

As described above, in the present invention, since the processing time is calculated for each page of the original, the display contents of the processing time can be provided to the operator with a highly reliable processing end time. Therefore, by knowing the processing end time, the operator can be freed from the copying work of the original document until the processing end time and can engage in other work, which leads to improvement of the workability of the operator.

In the above-described embodiment, the operator is notified by displaying the calculated processing time result on the operation display unit of the U / I (3). Can be similarly applied to a facsimile device, a voice mail device, and an electronic mail. Further, although the present invention describes the method of calculating the processing time for the copying operation of the copying machine in the above-mentioned embodiment, the contents of the calculation table and the coefficient (K) of the calculation formula are also used in the facsimile apparatus and printer apparatus. The same can be applied by changing the value of. Further, the present invention can be similarly applied to a multifunction peripheral having a copying function with a facsimile device or a printer device by adding the contents of the calculation table and the calculation formula.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the time required for processing is calculated from the image information accumulated in the accumulating means and the operation mode, a highly reliable processing time can be obtained. Further, by providing a means for notifying the operator of the calculated processing result, the operator can know the processing end time including the preread document, so that the operator is not restrained until the processing end time, The work efficiency of can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an image processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a specific configuration example of an image processing unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a processing time calculation process.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Scanner, 2 ... ADF, 3 ... U / I, 4 ... Printer, 5 ... Storage device, 6 ... External interface unit 6 ..., 7
... Image processing unit, 7-1 ... Editing unit, 7-2 ... Encoding / decoding unit, 7-3 ... Processing time calculation unit, 7-4 ... Control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image storage unit for storing information of a document image, wherein information of an input document image that is not directly output is temporarily stored in the image storage unit as information of a read-ahead document image, and then sequentially read, processed and output. In the image processing apparatus, a process of calculating a time required to process and output the information of each of the stored document images, and a process of calculating an end time of processing and outputting the information of the stored document image from the required time. An image processing apparatus comprising a time calculation means.