JPH1128841A - Portable printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To receive characters accumulated in such external instruments as personal computers and word processors through wire communication and to print the received content by providing a receiving means for receiving print data provided from the outside and storing them in a memory means to a portable printer. SOLUTION: When transmission processing is started, character data are stored in a transmitting and receiving memory 4 and transmission displaying is performed by a displaying lamp 14 and the character data are transmitted to an external office instrument through a transmitting and receiving interface 2 to complete a flow. After an operator completes receiving processing, a printing window 8 is fitted to a specified position of a recording medium 17 and a printing switch 13 is turned on to start printing processing and when the printing switch is off, the character data are stored in a printing memory 5. In addition, displaying of receiving is performed by a displaying lamp 14 and by moving a case 1 held by an operator in the printing direction, a timing roller 9 is rotated to detect the moving speed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hand-held printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Stationary printers and copiers are inconvenient in that they cannot print easily on notebooks, notebooks, or parts of them, due to limitations on print media. In view of this, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-45968 and the like have proposed a hand-held small printer.

The above-mentioned hand-held printer has a built-in optical character reading means and a printing means in a hand-held case large enough to be held by one hand, and has a reading surface corresponding to the character reading means on one surface of the case. A window is provided, and a printing window corresponding to the printing means is provided on the other surface of the case.

[0004]

The above-described printer prints only the contents read by the optical character reading means. Characters stored in external devices such as personal computers and word processors which are widely used today are widely used. , Graphics, etc.
Represent with letters. ) Cannot be read and printed.

Accordingly, the first object of the present invention is to provide a hand-held printer capable of receiving characters stored in an external device such as a personal computer or a word processor through wired or wireless communication and printing the received contents. Subject.

[0006] The above-mentioned conventional hand-held printer is
The reading window side of the hand-held case is brought into contact with the document surface, and the document is read by moving it at an appropriate speed. Is to be printed.
The character to be printed is a character image as read, that is, a copy. For this reason, there is an inconvenience that the original character cannot be printed after being subjected to various conversions.

Therefore, the present invention recognizes a read character image and stores it as print data.
A second object is to enable various printings.

Further, in the above-mentioned conventional hand-held printer, since the read character contents are not displayed outside, the operator sometimes forgets what he / she has read. There is.

Therefore, a third object of the present invention is to make it possible to recognize the read character content from outside.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the first object, the present invention relates to a hand-held case, a memory for printing data, a printing means for printing based on the printing data, and the printing means. And a control means for receiving the print data supplied from the outside and storing the print data in the memory means in a hand-held printer in which the print data is printed on a required recording medium by the print means. This is a configuration having means (claim 1).

It is possible to adopt a configuration having a transmission means for transmitting the character data stored in the memory means to an external device (claim 2).

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hand-held printer in which a character image reading means and a printing means and a control means common to both of these means are incorporated in a hand-held case. A recognizing means for recognizing a character image read by a character image reading means as a character, and a memory means for storing the recognized character as print data, and storing the print data in a required recording medium by the printing means. (A third aspect).

In addition, a configuration having a transmission means for transmitting the character data stored in the memory means to an external device (claim 4), or receiving character data given from the outside and storing it in the memory means A configuration having a receiving means can be adopted (claim 5).

Further, in order to achieve the third object, the present invention relates to a reading window hole opposed to the character image reading means in the hand-held case, and a printing window hole opposed to the printing means. And a monitor screen, wherein the control means displays the print data on the monitor screen.

In any of the above configurations, it is possible to adopt a configuration in which the control means is provided with a print conversion means for converting the print mode into enlargement, reduction, vertical writing, horizontal writing, and the like. ).

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The first embodiment shown in FIGS.
A transmission / reception interface 2 is provided inside a rectangular case 1 large enough to be gripped by one hand, and a control board 6 on which a controller 3, a transmission / reception memory 4, and a print memory 5 are mounted is housed. A detection window 7 is provided on the bottom of case 1.
And a print window 8. A timing roller 9 faces the detection window 7, and a print head 10 faces the print window 7.

A receiving switch 1 is provided on the upper surface of the case 1.
1, a transmission switch 12, a print switch 13, and a display lamp 14 are provided.
Is provided. The display lamp 14 is composed of, for example, two-color LEDs of red and green. The red LED emits light in response to a reception signal from the controller 3 and blinks in response to a transmission signal. The green LED emits light in response to the print signal. The print conversion switch 15 is used to enlarge, reduce, write vertically
It is composed of a plurality of switches according to the content of conversion such as horizontal writing.

The transmission / reception interface 2 is selected according to a data communication method with an external office equipment having a printing function such as a personal computer or a word processor. For example,
A standardized interface such as IrDA is used for the infrared communication system, and RS232C is used for the wired communication system.

The print head 10 has a print area for at least one character. As a printing method, various printing methods such as an ink jet method can be adopted in addition to a thermal transfer method using the ink ribbon 16.

The timing roller 9 rotates in contact with a recording medium 17 such as a notebook or a notebook in accordance with the movement of the case 1, and has timing marks 18 at regular intervals on its outer peripheral surface. A detector 19 is installed near the timing roller 9, detects the timing mark 18 with the detector 19, converts the timing mark 18 into a pulse signal, and
To enter. Controller 3 detects the moving speed of case 1 based on the input pulse signal.

The controller 3 has a microprocessor, and controls transmission and reception of character data and printing based on a built-in program. The contents of the control will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 2 and the flowcharts of FIGS.

FIG. 3 shows the main flow. When the main flow is started, the memory is cleared (step 1), and when the receiving switch 11 is turned on, the receiving process is performed (steps 2 and 3), and the transmission is performed. When the switch 12 is turned on, reception processing is performed (steps 4 and 5), and the print switch 13 is turned on. When character data is present, printing processing is performed (steps 6, 7, and 8). When there is no character data, the fact that there is no character data is displayed by an appropriate method using a lamp, a buzzer, a screen, or the like, to alert the operator.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart of the above-described reception processing. When the reception processing is started, the display lamp 14 is started.
And character data is received from an external office device via the transmission / reception interface 2 (step 1), the character data is stored in the transmission / reception memory 4 (step 2), and the flow is terminated.

FIG. 4B is a flowchart of the above-mentioned transmission processing.
Character data (step 1) and display lamp 14
(Step 2), the character data is transmitted to the external office equipment via the transmission / reception interface 2 (step 3), and the flow ends.

FIG. 4C is a flowchart of the above-mentioned printing process.
The print window 8 is aligned with the predetermined position of
When N is set, the printing process is started. Print conversion switch 1
If 5 is OFF (step 1), the character data is stored in the print memory 5 (step 2). Indicator lamp 1
4, the timing roller 9 is rotated to detect the moving speed by moving the case 1 held by the operator's hand 21 in the printing direction (see the arrow in FIG. 1) (step 3). ).

The controller 3 controls the print timing of the print head 10 at a speed corresponding to the moving speed of the case 1, and prints one character at a time at a constant interval (step 4). When the operator stops the case 1 for a certain period of time (for example, 2 seconds) upon completion of printing (step 5), the flow ends. When the print conversion switch 15 is turned on, required print conversion is performed according to the contents (enlargement, reduction, etc.) (step 6).

In the above embodiment, the transmission function and the print conversion function may be omitted.

Next, the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 has both a character reading function and a printing function, and like the first embodiment, can be operated with one hand. A transmission / reception interface 2 is provided inside a rectangular case 1 that can be gripped, and a one-dimensional image sensor 22 (see FIG. 6), an A / D converter 23, a read memory 24, an identification unit 25, an identification memory 26, print memory 2
7. The control board 6 on which the transmission / reception memory 28 and the controller 3 are mounted is housed.

The detection window 7 and the reading window 29 are provided on the bottom of the case 1.
A print window 8 is provided, a timing roller 9 faces the detection window 7, a lens system 31 faces the reading window 29, and a print head 10 faces the print window 8, respectively.

A screen 33 of a monitor 32 is provided on the upper surface of the case 1. A reading switch 34, a receiving switch 11, a printing switch 13, a display lamp 35 are provided near the screen 33, if necessary. A print conversion switch 15 similar to that described above is provided.

The display lamp 35 is made up of LEDs of two colors, red and green, like the display lamp 14 of the first embodiment. The red LED is turned on by a read signal from the controller 3, and blinks by a transmission signal. I do. The green LED is turned on by the print signal and blinks by the received signal.

The character reading function includes a light source 36, a lens system 3
1. An optical character reading device including an image sensor 22, an A / D converter 23, a reading memory 24, an identification unit 25, an identification memory 26, a controller 3, a timing roller 9, and a detector 19.

The printing functions include a print memory 27, a controller 3, a print head 10, a timing roller 9, a detector 1
9. The controller 3, the timing roller 9 and the detector 19 are shared with the above-described character reading function.
The print head 10 is the same as that of the first embodiment.

The transmission / reception function is constituted by the transmission / reception memory 28 and the transmission / reception interface 2. The transmission / reception interface 2 in this case is also the same as in the first embodiment.

The controller 3 has a microprocessor and controls character reading, printing and transmission / reception based on a built-in program. The control will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 6 and the flowcharts of FIGS.

FIG. 7 shows the main flow. When the main flow is started, the memory is cleared (step 1), and when the read switch 34 is turned on, the reading process is performed (steps 2 and 3), and the reception is performed. Switch 11 is ON
Then, a reception process is performed (steps 4 and 5). When the transmission switch 12 is turned on and character data exists, transmission processing is performed (steps 6, 7, 8). When the print switch 13 is turned on and character data is present, a printing process is performed (steps 10, 11, and 13).

The processing when there is no data in steps 9 and 13 is the same as that in the first embodiment.

FIG. 8A is a flowchart of the reading process. When the operator sets the reading window 29 of the case 1 to a predetermined position of the document 37 and turns on the reading switch 34 to start reading, a display lamp is displayed. 35 red LEDs
Is turned on (read display), the light source 34 is also turned on, and the moving speed of the case 1 based on the rotation of the timing roller 9 is detected (step 1).

The original 3 illuminated by the light source 36
Since the character image on 7 is formed on the image sensor 22 through the lens system 31, the image sensor 22 is scanned and a character image is read (step 2). By making the reading cycle in this case correspond to the moving speed of Case 1, it is possible to input an accurate image without expansion and contraction while avoiding redundant reading and skipping.

The read analog signal is input to the A / D converter 23 to be digitized and binarized based on a predetermined threshold (step 3). The binarized read data is stored in the read memory 24 (step 4).

Character identification is performed based on the data stored in the reading memory 24 (step 5), and the character data obtained by the identification is stored in the identification memory 26 and displayed on the screen 33 of the monitor 32 (step 6). Upon completion of reading, the operator holds Case 1 for a certain period of time (for example, 2 seconds).
When the above operation is stopped (step 7), the reading process ends. However, the contents of the identification memory 26 and the display on the screen 33 of the monitor 32 are stored at the end of the print processing or the transmission processing or until rewritten by the next input.

FIG. 8B is a flowchart of the above-described print processing. When the print window 8 is aligned with a required position of the recording medium 17 and the print switch 13 is turned on to start the print processing, the print conversion switch 15 is turned on. When it is OFF (step 1), the character data of the identification memory 26 is stored in the print memory 27 (step 2), and the display is performed by the display lamp 35 and the character based on the character data is displayed on the screen 33 of the monitor 32. And the moving speed of case 1 is detected (step 3). Printing is performed by controlling the print head 10 in accordance with the moving speed described above (step 4).
(Seconds), the reading process ends (step 5).

When the print conversion switch 15 is turned on as in the case of the first embodiment, the contents of the print conversion corresponding to the contents are performed (step 6).

In addition, the flowchart of the receiving process for receiving and printing character data from the external device and the transmitting process for transmitting the character data of the identification memory to the external device are the same as those in the first embodiment (FIG. 4 (a)). ) And (b)), and a description thereof will be omitted.

In each of the above embodiments, the case 1 is moved by using the one-dimensional image sensor 22, and the image data is taken in at the timing of the timing roller 9. However, the case 1 is used by using the two-dimensional image sensor. A configuration may be adopted in which image data is captured without being moved.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, character data stored in an external device such as a personal computer or a word processor can be received and printed on an arbitrary portion of an arbitrary recording medium such as a notebook or a notebook. There is convenience (Claim 1), and the received character data can be transmitted to other external devices (Claim 2).

Further, the provision of the character recognizing means (claim 3) has the effects that the speed of the character marking is increased, and the enlargement / reduction of the printing and conversion of the vertical writing / horizontal writing are enabled.

Further, by providing the monitor screen (claim 6), it is possible to print while confirming the read content.

By providing the reading window and the printing window on the same surface of the case, it is convenient to print on an arbitrary portion of an arbitrary recording medium such as a notebook or a notebook on the same surface as the reading surface.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a first embodiment. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the above.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a main flow of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 (a) is a flowchart of the above-described reception process. (B) is a flowchart of the above-described transmission process. (C) is a flowchart of the above-described printing process.

5A is a perspective view of a second embodiment, and FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the above.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a main flow of the above.

FIG. 8A is a flowchart of a reading process according to the embodiment; FIG. 8B is a flowchart of a printing process according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case 2 Transmission / reception interface 3 Controller 4 Transmission / reception memory 5 Print memory 6 Control board 7 Detection window 8 Printing window 9 Timing roller 10 Print head 11 Receive switch 12 Send switch 13 Print switch 14 Display lamp 15 Print conversion switch 16 Ink ribbon 17 Recording Medium 18 Timing mark 19 Detector 21 Hand 22 Image sensor 23 A / D converter 24 Read memory 25 Identification unit 26 Identification memory 27 Print memory 28 Transmission / reception memory 29 Reading window 31 Lens system 32 Monitor 33 Screen 34 Reading switch 35 Display lamp 36 Light source 37 manuscript

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04N 1/21 H04N 1/04 A

Claims (7)

[Claims] In a hand-held printer, a hand-held case is provided with a memory means for character data, a printing means and a control means, and the printing means prints on a required recording medium based on the character data. A receiving means for receiving the character data provided from the printer and storing the received character data in the memory means. 2. The hand-held printer according to claim 1, further comprising transmitting means for transmitting the character data stored in said memory means to an external device. 3. A hand-held printer in which a character image reading means, a printing means, and a control means common to these two means are built in a hand-held case, the character image read by the character image reading means is recognized as a character. And a memory for storing the recognized characters as character data, and the printing means prints on a required recording medium based on the character data. 4. The hand-held printer according to claim 3, further comprising transmitting means for transmitting the character data stored in said memory means to an external device. 5. The hand-held printer according to claim 3, further comprising receiving means for receiving character data supplied from outside and storing the received character data in said memory means. 6. A reading window hole facing the character image reading means, a printing window hole facing the printing means, and a monitor screen are provided in the hand-held case, and the control means controls the character data based on the character data. 6. The hand-held printer according to claim 3, wherein characters are displayed on the monitor screen. 7. A printing method according to claim 7, wherein said control means enlarges / reduces a printing mode.
7. The hand-held printer according to claim 1, further comprising print conversion means for converting the image into vertical writing, horizontal writing, and the like.