JPH1028196A - Job state display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To immediately retrieve and display the state information of a job desired by a user without imposing any burden on the user. SOLUTION: At the time of accepting a job J for a composite equipment main body 10, a job managing part 2 obtains a present time managed by a time managing part 1, set the obtained present time as the job start request accepting time of the accepted job J, and stores the set job start request accepting time as one of job state information in a job state information storing part 3. When time data as the job start request accepting time from a retrieval instructing part 4a in a displaying/instructing part 4 are inputted to a display control part 6 as a retrieval key, and display control part 6 retrieves the job state information string part 3 based on the job start request accepting time, and displays the retrieved result at the displaying/instructing part 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a job status for displaying the execution status of a plurality of jobs corresponding to various functions of a general job processing apparatus or a multifunction peripheral having various functions such as copy / facsimile / printer functions. The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly to a job status display device capable of searching and displaying a job execution status using a job start request reception time as a search key.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional facsimile machine or a multifunction machine having various functions such as a copy / facsimile / printer function, when the processing status or the processing result of a plurality of accepted jobs is known, a predetermined instruction is input. The processing statuses or processing results of the plurality of jobs are displayed in a list on the display unit.

However, in this list display, it is difficult to identify necessary information and it takes time to find necessary information. For example, in a facsimile apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-156772, a personal management number is required. And the destination telephone number, and display and output the corresponding transmission result from the call history, so that only the necessary transmission result can be searched and displayed at an arbitrary time.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 2-219344 discloses that a predetermined communication parameter used for communication is stored in a memory in association with predetermined identification data, and a predetermined communication parameter corresponding to the input of the identification data is stored. When read out from the memory and used, the identification data that is not associated with the communication parameter or the identification data that is already associated with the communication parameter is searched according to a predetermined condition, and the searched communication parameter is used. A communication device that displays and outputs the data and simplifies the process of registering the identification data and the communication parameter or using the registration is described.

[0005]

However, in a conventional facsimile machine or a multifunction machine having various functions such as a copy / facsimile / printer function, a user ID is required.
Searching and displaying necessary information using the identification data already registered by the user's registration processing such as,
There is a problem that it is necessary to register identification data for searching in advance according to a user's instruction.

On the other hand, time data can be used as identification data for searching. This absolute time data is automatically set every time a job processing request is made or every time a process is executed, and it is not necessary for the user to perform registration. Therefore, the absolute time data is appropriate as identification data for search. .

However, when a job state is searched, for example, by specifying a search range using the time data, the execution start time of a normal job is used, and the search result is displayed on the display unit. However, there is a problem that information on the job status to be obtained may not be easily obtained.

That is, there is a gap between the execution time of a job roughly recognized by a user and the execution time of a job identified by a facsimile machine or a multifunction peripheral. Simply input the execution time of a job roughly recognized by the user as a search key. However, depending on the execution status of a plurality of jobs, the job status has not been processed yet, and information on a desired job status may not be displayed immediately.

In addition, since the multifunction peripheral has various functions such as a copy / facsimile / printer function,
Since jobs of these various functions are executed in a complicated manner under predetermined scheduling, there is a possibility that even if time data is simply input as a search key, the job status information of various functions is displayed in a mixed state. There is also a problem that the user cannot easily recognize the job status information of the desired function category.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a job status display device capable of immediately retrieving, displaying, and outputting job status information desired by a user without burdening the user. With the goal.

[0011]

Means for Solving the Problems A first aspect of the present invention is a copy / copy
In a job status display device for displaying an execution status of a plurality of jobs for the various functions of a multifunction peripheral having various functions such as a facsimile / printer function, the plurality of jobs including a job start request reception time of the plurality of jobs are provided. A storage unit for storing information about the execution state of the job, a display request for the reception time of the job start request is received, and information about the execution state of the job including at least the reception time of the job start request is retrieved from the storage unit. Display control means for displaying.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a job status display device for displaying the execution status of a plurality of jobs in a job processing device which receives a plurality of various jobs and processes the various jobs. Storage means for storing information on the execution states of the plurality of jobs including a start request reception time; accepting a display request for the job start request reception time; and executing a job including at least the job start request reception time from the storage means Display control means for searching for information related to the state and displaying the search result.

[0013] In a third aspect based on the first or second aspect, the time management means for managing the current time, and the present time is acquired from the time management means when the plurality of jobs are received. And a control unit for storing the job start request reception time of the job in the storage unit.

In a fourth aspect based on the first to third aspects, the apparatus further comprises a plurality of search keys using at least the job start request reception time and other categories as search items, and the display control means includes: When a plurality of search items in which the job start request reception time and the other category are combined are selected, information on the execution state of the job corresponding to the search item is searched from the storage unit, and a search result is displayed. It is characterized by the following.

In a fifth aspect based on the fourth aspect, the display control means performs color display in a color corresponding to each of the other categories.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a multifunction peripheral according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, this multifunction peripheral is
Under the control of the job execution management unit 2, there is provided a multifunction peripheral main body 10 which performs various kinds of jobs J such as copy / facsimile / printer by performing predetermined scheduling. The multifunction peripheral body 10 has a copy function, a facsimile function, and a printer function that operate in response to various jobs J. The copy function is a function of a so-called digital copying machine, and is a function of printing a document image obtained by scanning with a scanner or the like. The facsimile function is a function of transmitting and receiving a document image obtained by scanning with a scanner or the like. The printer function is a function for printing literally, and is shared by the operations of the copy function and the facsimile function. Of course, the MFP main body 10 is connected to another computer or the like via a communication interface (not shown), and can perform copying, facsimile, and printing on a document image or the like input from the other computer, and also has a copy function, A document image or the like obtained by the facsimile function can be transmitted to another computer.

The job execution management unit 1 manages the job execution status of various jobs J processed by the multifunction peripheral body 10 based on the time of the time management unit 1 that manages the time.

The job status information storage unit 3 stores the job status information of various jobs J processed by the multifunction peripheral 10 under the management of the job execution management unit 2.

The display / instruction unit 4 is a display / operation touch panel realized by an LCD or the like, and has a search instruction unit 4a as a search key.

The input unit 5 is realized by numeric keys or the like, and inputs numerical data and the like.

The display control unit 6 controls the entire display of the display / instruction unit 4, searches the job status information storage unit 3 based on the search instruction input from the search instruction unit 4a, and stores the search result. It is displayed on the display / instruction unit 4.

Here, the contents of the job status information stored in the job status information storage unit 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2A shows the contents of the job status information whose job category is "facsimile", and for each facsimile job, "job type" indicating whether facsimile storage, transmission, reception, or reception printing; “Destination number” indicates the destination number for transmission, “Destination number / source number” indicating the source number for reception, “transmission / reception number”, and “job start request reception date and time”. Job status information corresponding to each item of “department ID” to be executed and “processing status” indicating completion, execution, execution waiting, or execution reservation is stored.

FIG. 2B shows the contents of the job status information whose job category is "copy". For each copy job, "job type", "copy number", and "job start request reception date and time" are shown. , "Department ID", and "processing status" are stored.

The job category "print"
Although the "print" function is usually used together with the copy function or facsimile function,
Each function is built into the copy function or facsimile function. Of course, “print” may be stored as an independent job category.

Further, the "job start request reception date and time" is always stored for both "facsimile" and "copy" jobs. Of course, other items may be additionally set as necessary. For example, if the job execution start date and time, the job execution time, and the job execution completion date and time are stored, the execution progress of the job can be confirmed later.

Next, the procedure of registering the job status information including the job start request reception date and time in the job status information storage unit 3 by the job execution management unit 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In FIG. 3, the job execution management unit 3 receives a job start request such as a copy start instruction, a facsimile transmission start instruction, or a facsimile reception instruction issued by the user (step 101).
The current time is acquired from the time management unit 1 (step 10
2). Thereafter, the job execution management unit 3 proceeds to step 102
Is stored in the job status information storage unit 3 together with the other job status information shown in FIG. 2 as the job activation request date and time of the job for which the job activation is requested (step 103). And accepts the next job start request. As a result, the job status information of the job for which the job activation request has been made is sequentially registered in the job status information storage unit 3, and the job execution management unit 2 subsequently registers the job status information of the registered job status information in accordance with a change in the job status. Perform processing to update the contents.

Here, an outline of a user's search instruction at the time of searching for the job status information shown in FIG. 2 and the display content of the display / instruction unit 4 accompanying the search instruction will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 4, first, when a job status display (not shown) displayed on the screen of the display / instruction section 2 is instructed, a search key input screen shown in FIG. 4A is displayed. This search key input screen has “time”, “destination number”, and “department ID” as search keys.

When the "time" search key is selected from the search keys, a pop-up screen corresponding to "time" shown in FIG. 4B is displayed. The pop-up screen has an input field for specifying the date and an input field for specifying the time. In the input field for specifying the date, the date of the current day is set in advance as a default. Changes are possible. When the date specification is acceptable, the user specifies and inputs time data corresponding to the job start request reception date and time of the job to be searched in the time specification input field using the numeric keypad and the cursor movement key of the input unit 5. In FIG. 4B, the date is specified as “April 19, 1996” and the time is specified from “13:30” to “14:30”.

Thereafter, when "close" is selected, the pop-up screen is closed, and the specified date and time range are set as shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), a list of job status information of the job for which a job activation request has been issued is displayed. The job status information displayed in FIG. 4C is a list displayed based on the job status information shown in FIG. In other words, the display of the job status information by the designation of the time data indicates the result of the search based on the job start request reception time. Therefore, the user knows the approximate job start request reception time without knowing the job execution time, and thus can immediately obtain the job status information of the desired job to be searched.

When only the date is specified,
A list of all the job status information of the job having the specified date is displayed. If all the job status information cannot be displayed in the display area, the user can scroll using the cursor movement keys of the input unit.

In the case where only one of the search ranges is specified without specifying the time specification range,
A list of the job status information of the jobs belonging to within 30 minutes before and after the designated time is displayed. The search range when only one of the search ranges is designated can be set on a setting screen (not shown). For example, “XX” of “before and after XX minutes” can be set, and here, “30 minutes before and after” is preset.

Further, when the "cancel" key on the search key input screen is designated, all the job status information stored in the job status information storage unit 3 is displayed in a list.

Here, the procedure of the job status information search processing by the display control unit 6 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. Accept from 4 (Step 201)
Then, the display control section 6 causes the display / instruction section 4 to display a search key input screen shown in FIG.
2). Further, when an instruction input of a search key in the search key input screen is received (step 203), it is determined whether or not the input of the search key is a "time" instruction (step 204). In this case, it is further determined whether the instruction is a "destination number" instruction (step 206).
If the instruction is not the "destination number" instruction, it is further determined whether the instruction is the "department ID" instruction (step 208). If the instruction is “time” in step 204,
After the pop-up screen of the time input screen shown in (b) is displayed (step 205), if the instruction is "destination number" in step 206, the pop-up screen of the destination number input screen is displayed (step 207). , Step 2
If the instruction is a "department ID" instruction in 08, a pop-up screen of a division ID input screen is displayed (step 209).
Thereafter, the process proceeds to step 210. Step 208
If the instruction is not a "department ID" instruction, the process proceeds to step 210.

Thereafter, it is determined in step 210 whether or not a search key has been designated. If the search key has been designated, the job status information storage unit 3 further stores the corresponding job status by the designated search key. Information is searched (step 211). Then, a list of the job status information is created based on the search result (step 212), and the created list is displayed in the display area of the display / instruction unit 4 (step 214), and the process ends.

On the other hand, if the search key is not specified in step 210, for example, if the "cancel" key is specified, a list of all job status information is created from the job status information storage unit 3 (step 213). ), The created list is displayed in the display area in the display / instruction unit 4 (step 214), and this processing ends.

Here, if the search key is a "time" instruction in step 204, the search in step 211
As described above, the search is performed using the job start request reception time.

When a plurality of search keys are specified, job status information of a job that satisfies these combinations may be searched.

Next, an application example of the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the first application example, the list display of the job status information is colored and displayed using different colors for each job category.

For example, FIG. 6 shows an example of a display screen in which different colors are displayed for each job category, and a "facsimile" job and a "copy" job are displayed using different colors.

In the second application example, the list display of the job status information is colored and displayed using a different color for each job processing status.

For example, FIG. 7 shows an example of a display screen in which a different color is displayed for each processing status of a job, and the processing status of “completed” and execution of “transmitting” or “printing” and the like are shown. The processing status is classified into the processing status in the middle and the processing status waiting for execution such as “waiting for transmission” or “reservation”, and different colors are displayed for each classification.

In the first application example and the second application example, the display control unit 6 performs the display control under the instruction of the display / instruction unit 4, for example, as shown in the first application example. The color display for each job category can be changed to the color display for each job processing status shown in the second application example. In order to change the color display, for example, an instruction button such as “job category” and “processing status” is provided on the display screen, and the display control unit 6 Sorting may be performed based on the already created list, and displayed using the corresponding colors. Therefore, by additionally providing an instruction button of “transmission / reception”, it is possible to classify into “transmission” jobs and “reception” jobs, and to perform color display according to this classification. Furthermore, it is also possible to color-code for each area code of the destination number or more than a predetermined number. That is, color display can be performed for each category.

Thus, the user can more easily recognize the contents of the displayed job status information.

Of course, when color display is not performed for each job category or the like, as shown in FIG.
Job status information is displayed in time order within the specified time range.

When the job status information is displayed in this time sequence, different colors can be displayed, for example, every 10 minutes.

In the above-described embodiment, the present invention has been described as a job status display device in a multifunction peripheral. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a general job processing device that receives a plurality of jobs and processes the jobs is also applicable. Can be applied.

[0052]

As described in detail above, the first aspect of the present invention is to display the execution status of a plurality of jobs for various functions of a multifunction peripheral having various functions such as copy / facsimile / printer functions. Wherein the storage unit stores information on the execution state of the plurality of jobs including the job start request reception time of the plurality of jobs, the display control unit receives a display request of the job start request reception time, and at least from the storage unit Information about the execution state of the job including the job start request reception time is searched and the search result is displayed, so that the search target is less likely to be displaced during the search, and the desired search target is displayed. This has the advantage that the number of searches until the search can be reduced. That is, since the job start request reception time most intuitive to the user is used as the search key, a desired search target can be immediately searched and displayed.

The second invention has the same advantages as the first invention over a general job processing apparatus.

In the third invention, the current time is acquired when the plurality of jobs are received, and the current time is set as the job start request reception time of the job. There is an advantage that data can be used as a search key.

According to a fourth aspect, the apparatus further comprises a plurality of search keys using at least the job start request reception time and other categories as search items, and the display control means determines whether the job start request reception time and the other category are different. When a plurality of search items in combination with a category are selected, information on the execution state of the job corresponding to the search item is searched from the storage unit, and a search result is displayed. Can be specified.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the display control means performs color-coded display in a color corresponding to each of the other categories, so that there is an advantage that the user can more easily recognize the search display result.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a multifunction peripheral according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing contents of job status information stored in a job status information storage unit 3;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a registration processing procedure of job status information including a job start request reception date and time in a job status information storage unit by a job execution management unit;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of a user's search instruction at the time of searching for job status information and the display content of the display / instruction unit 4 accompanying the search instruction.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a job status information search process performed by a display control unit 6;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen in which different colors are displayed for each job category.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen in which different colors are displayed for each processing status of a job.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 time management unit 2 job execution management unit 3 job status information storage unit 4 display / instruction unit 4a search instructing unit 5 input unit 6
... Display control unit 10 ... Multifunction machine body J ... Job

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor, Tsutomu Nagata 134, Kobe-cho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama-shi, Yokohama 13F Yokohama Xerox East Tower 13F Inside Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Tetsuya Kobayashi 134, Kobe-cho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Yokohama Business Park East Tower 13F Inside Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A job status display device for displaying the execution status of a plurality of jobs corresponding to various functions of a multifunction peripheral having various functions such as a copy / facsimile / printer function, wherein a job start request of the plurality of jobs is received. Storage means for storing information relating to the execution states of the plurality of jobs including time, information for displaying the job activation request reception time, and information relating to the execution state of the job including at least the job activation request reception time from the storage means And a display control means for displaying a search result. 2. A job status display device which receives a plurality of various jobs and displays the execution status of the plurality of jobs in a job processing apparatus which processes the various jobs, a job start request reception time of the plurality of jobs A storage unit for storing information on the execution states of the plurality of jobs, including: a display request for the reception time of the job start request, and receiving information about the execution state of the job including at least the reception time of the job start request from the storage unit. A job status display device, comprising: display control means for performing a search and displaying a search result. 3. A time management unit that manages a current time, and when the plurality of jobs are received, obtains a current time from the time management unit, and stores the current time as the job start request reception time of the job. 3. The job status display device according to claim 1, further comprising control means for storing the job status in the means. 4. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of search keys using at least the job start request reception time and another category as search items, wherein the display control means combines the job start request reception time with the other category. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of search items are selected, information relating to an execution state of the job corresponding to the search items is searched from the storage unit, and a search result is displayed. Job status display device. 5. The job status display device according to claim 4, wherein said display control means displays the color in a color corresponding to each of said other categories.