NL2021565B1

NL2021565B1 - Local User Interface

Info

Publication number: NL2021565B1
Application number: NL2021565A
Authority: NL
Inventors: Barthelemy Vincent
Original assignee: Canon Production Printing Holding Bv
Priority date: 2018-09-05
Filing date: 2018-09-05
Publication date: 2020-04-30

Abstract

A local user interface (14, 16) for a substrate processing apparatus (10, 12), the user interface comprising a display device (18) and a display controller (20) that determines contents to be displayed on the display device, characterized in that a proximity sensor (22) is provided for detecting whether or not an operator (24) is present within a given neighborhood (26) of the substrate processing apparatus (10, 12) and the display controller (20) is configured to change the contents to be displayed in accordance with a detection result of the proximity sensor (22).

Description

Local User Interface

The invention relates to a local user interface for a substrate processing apparatus, the user interface comprising a display device and a display controller that determines contents to be displayed on the display device.

More particularly, the invention relates to a local user interface for a media processing apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a finisher or the like. The interface is “local” in the sense that its display device is mounted on or integrated in the body of the apparatus for interaction with a user or operator who is present at the apparatus.

The display device has among others the purpose to provide information that an operator needs for managing the operation of the apparatus, including activities such as unloading printed copies from an output tray, replenishing a supply of consumables such as ink or toner or media sheets, attending to paper jams or other error conditions of the apparatus, editing a print queue or, if there is a plurality of printers, selecting a printer for the execution of a new print job.

Typically, the contents displayed on a screen of the display device comprise a print queue in the form of a table wherein each print job is identified by a job title and/or a thumbnail and which includes related particulars such as the owner of the print job, an estimate for the expected time of completion of the job, identification of an output tray and the like.

When a plurality of relatively bulky apparatus, e.g. wide format printers, are installed in a print shop, it is not possible for an operator to be present at two or more apparatus at the same time, so that there may be periods when an apparatus is unattended. It may therefore be useful to provide additional remote user interfaces permitting an operator to monitor the status of a plurality of apparatus from a central observation desk. Even then, however, the apparatus may sometimes be unattended, for example when the operator has to leave the observation desk in order to attend to local activities at a certain printer.

In such a situation, it may be more convenient to have a mobile user interface, e.g. in the form of an app on a smartphone that the user can carry along and that is configured for wireless communication with the controllers of the various printers. Then, an alert

P4046NL00 function may be implemented for alerting the operator in case that a printer needs the particular attention of the operator. However, when the operator is busy with some activities at a printer, e.g. fixing a paper jam, it is disturbing to respond to an alert on the mobile user interface, because the operator needs at least one free hand for opening the app. Another drawback is that the display screen on the mobile device has only a relatively small size.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a local user interface that is more versatile to an operator.

In order to achieve this object, in a user interface according to the invention, a proximity sensor is provided for detecting whether or not an operator is present within a given neighborhood of the substrate processing apparatus, and the display controller is configured to change the contents to be displayed in accordance with a detection result of the proximity sensor.

In a normal display mode, the screen of the user interface shows a relatively large number of items of information which can however be distinguished only when the user or operator is present near the screen. If the operator is located further away from the screen, the detailed information is no longer distinguishable and becomes useless. The proximity sensor is capable of detecting such a situation and causing the display controller to switch to another display mode, which will be designated as “presentation mode” hereinafter, and which shows less detailed information, but on an enlarged scale so that it is still discernable from a certain distance.

The contents displayed in the presentation mode will of course be limited to the most relevant information. Thus, when the operator walks past a number of printers in the print shop, she or he can see at a glance whether all printers are operating properly or whether a particular printer has a problem and needs intervention of the operator. Then, when the operator approaches that printer, her or his presence will be detected by the proximity sensor and the display switches automatically to the normal mode or proximity mode showing more details of the status of the printer and allowing the operator to identify and fix the problem.

More specific optional features of the invention are indicated in the dependent claims.

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The display controller may be configured to switch from a proximity mode to a presentation mode when the proximity sensor detects that the distance from the operator to the display device is larger than a given limit distance.

The display controller may also be configured to switch between three or more different display modes dependent upon the distance of the operator from the display device. The minimum size of display items to be displayed on the display device may be dependent upon the distance detected by the proximity sensor, so that it is assured that the display items are discernable from the detected distance.

The proximity sensor may be configured to detect a direction from the display device to the operator, and the “neighborhood” may be limited to a range of directions from which the display device is visible.

In another embodiment the neighborhood is just a detection range of the proximity sensor. The proximity sensor may just give a binary signal of presence or non-presence of the operator. Such a proximity sensor is rather cheap and may be mounted on any type of printer.

The proximity sensor may be an optical sensor, e.g. a camera, and may be configured to detect humans. This embodiment is based on the plausible assumption that any human detected in proximity of the apparatus is an operator. In practice, of course, a human who approaches the apparatus does not necessarily have to be an operator and might as well be a normal user, for example. But even in that case will it be adequate to switch to the proximity mode.

In another embodiment, the operator may be identified by a wearable device such as an RFID tag or a near field communication (NFC) device, and the proximity sensor may be configured to communicate with and/or locate that device. In jet another embodiment, the operator may carry a mobile device (smartphone) having a positioning system (based for example on GPS or triangulation) and the proximity sensor may be configured to communicate with that device and receive positioning information from the device. In the latter embodiments, the device carried by the operator may also be utilized for identifying the operator, so that the contents to be displayed can

P4046NL00 automatically be adapted to the identity of the detected operator. Then, if there are two or more operators, each of them may customize the user interface according to his or her preferences.

Embodiment examples will now be described in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a printing system comprising printers with user interfaces according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is an example of an item to be displayed on a user interface; and

Fig. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating essential steps to be performed by a display controller of the user interface.

Fig. 1 shows a print shop with two printers 10, 12 which constitute representative examples of media processing apparatus or, more generally, substrate processing apparatus. It is noted that the invention is not limited to media processing but may be applied also to other types of substrate processing apparatus such as machine tools or the like.

The printer 10 has a local user interface 14, and the printer 12 has a local user interface

16. Both interfaces comprise a display device 18 in the form of a screen controlled by a display controller 20. Further, each of the user interfaces 14, 16 has a proximity sensor 22 configured to detect the presence of an operator 24 within a certain neighborhood 26 around the printer 10 and 12, respectively.

The proximity sensor 22 may be formed by a camera and suitable image processing software capable of recognizing a human body. Any human body detected by the proximity sensor will then be considered as an operator. The proximity sensor may issue a logic signal indicating whether or not the operator 24 is present within the neighborhood 26. In the example shown, the neighborhood 26 of each printer is constituted by a rectangular area on the floor in front of and on both sides of the printer (but not on the back side from which the screen of the user interface would not be visible).

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In another embodiment, the proximity sensor 22 may be an NFC device or another wireless communication device capable of detecting a mobile device 28 (e.g. a smartphone or NFC tag) which the operator 24 wears on her or his body. In that case, the proximity sensor 22 may be configured to detect the direction and the distance at which the mobile device 28 is located.

In case of the printer 10, the proximity sensor 22 has sent a signal to the display controller 20 indicating that the operator 24 has been detected in the neighborhood 26. In response to that signal, the display controller 20 has switched to a proximity mode which is a normal or default display mode of the user interface 14. In the example shown, the screen of the user interface 14 shows a command bar 30 displaying touch screen buttons permitting the operator 24 to enter commands. Further, the screen displays a table 32 which represents a print queue, i.e. a list of print jobs waiting to be processed. Each print job is identified by a thumbnail 34 of the first page to be printed, and information relating to the print job is displayed in the rest of the corresponding line in the table 32.

In case of the printer 12, the proximity sensor 22 does not detect the presence of the operator 24 in the corresponding neighborhood 26, and a corresponding signal of the proximity sensor has caused the display controller 20 to switch to a presentation mode in which different contents are shown on the screen of the user interface 16. In particular, the command bar 30 has been removed from the screen, because there is nobody to touch the command buttons, so that the command bar would be useless. Similarly, in the presentation mode, all display items have been deleted that are so small that they would not be recognized by a person remote from the printer 12, i.e. located outside of its neighborhood 26. In the example shown this means that the entire print queue has been deleted as well. Instead, the screen of the user interface 16 only shows, on a greatly enlarged scale, the thumbnail 34 of the one print job that is presently being processed by the printer 12. Further, the screen shows, in large characters that are readable from outside the neighborhood 26, a percentage value “72%” indicating the portion of the print job that has been completed already.

Thus, while the operator 24 is busy with some task to be performed on the user interface 14 of the printer 10, she may briefly glance at the user interface 16 of the printer 12 in order to check from a distance whether everything is ok with that printer

P4046NL00 and how long it will take until the printed copies of the print job running on the printer 12 have to be unloaded.

When the operator 24 walks over to the printer 12, he or she will be detected as soon as he or she enters the neighborhood 26 of the printer 12, and the user interface 16 will automatically switch to the proximity mode, so that the operator can gather detailed information on the running print job and on the other print jobs in the print queue. Meanwhile, the user interface 14 of the printer 10 will switch to the presentation mode.

The user interfaces in the presentation mode may also be used for displaying alerts that are perceptible from a distance and are possibly accompanied by an acoustic signal, when an intervention of the operator at the printer is required, for example because a supply of blank copy sheets becomes exhausted or because an error (paper jam) has occurred. In that case, the user interface may show an alert sign 36 an example of which has been shown in Fig. 2. The urgency of the alert may be encoded in colors of the sign 36, e.g. yellow for urgent and red for very urgent. On the other hand, an area in green color may indicate that no intermediate intervention of the operator is needed. For example, the percentage value shown on the user interface 16 may be displayed in green color to indicate that everything is ok. As an alternative, the enlarged thumbnail 34 may be framed by a green frame.

It will be observed that the number of display modes of the user interfaces 14 and 16 is not limited to two. There may be three or more display modes each of which is associated with a neighborhood 26 from a series of nested neighborhoods with increasing size.

Fig. 3 shows an example of a routine to be performed by the display controller 20 in an embodiment in which the proximity sensor 22 is capable of detecting the distance from the display screen to the operator, and three different display modes are provided.

In step S1, it is checked whether the proximity sensor has detected an operator (or any person at all). The proximity sensor may notify the display controller when a proximity status changes, i.e. when an operator enters the proximity of the printer, or when an operator leaves the proximity of the sensor, or when a distance from the operator to the printer is changed. If that is not the case (N), the display controller switches to the

P4046NL00 presentation mode in step S2.

If an operator has been detected in step S1 (Y), it is checked in step S3 whether the distance from the operator to the display device of the user interface is smaller than a certain value, e.g. 3 m. If that is the case (Y), the display controller 20 switches to the normal mode or proximity mode in step S4.

If it is found in step S3 that the distance to the operator is larger than 3 m (N), the display controller switches to intermediate mode in step S5. In that mode, the number of items displayed on the screen will be larger than in the presentation mode but smaller than in the normal mode, and the minimum size of each item will be so large that it can still be recognized from a distance of at least 3 m.

In yet another embodiment, there may be no predefined display modes at all. Instead, all display items that would be displayed or displayable in the normal mode or proximity mode are sorted by decreasing priority. The proximity sensor 22 measures the distance D from the operator to the user interface, and the display controller 20 scales all display items by a factor that depends upon the measured distance D, so that the items can be recognized by a viewer from the distance D. The scaling will have the consequence that not all display items fit into the area of the screen, and items with the lowest priorities are deleted until the remaining items fit into the screen. The command bar 30 may be removed when the operator is not near the display device of the user interface.

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Embodiments

1. A local user interface (14, 16) for a substrate processing apparatus (10, 12), the user interface comprising a display device (18) and a display controller (20) that determines contents to be displayed on the display device, characterized in that a proximity sensor (22) is provided for detecting whether or not an operator (24) is present within a given neighborhood (26) of the substrate processing apparatus (10, 12) and the display controller (20) is configured to change the contents to be displayed in accordance with a detection result of the proximity sensor (22).

2. The user interface according to claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor (22) includes a camera.

3. The user interface according to claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor (22) includes a wireless communication device.

4. The user interface according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the display controller (20) is configured to select between a plurality of pre-defined display modes, the selection being dependent upon the detection result.

5. The user interface according to claim 4, wherein the display modes comprise a presentation mode in which all items that are displayed have a minimum size large enough to be recognizable for a human from outside the neighborhood (26).

6. The user interface according to claim 5, wherein the display items displayable in the presentation mode comprise an alert sign (36).

Claims

A local user interface (14, 16) for a substrate processing device (10, 12), which user interface includes a display device (18) as well as a display controller (20) which determines content to be displayed on the display device, characterized in that that a proximity sensor (22) is provided to detect whether or not an operator (24) is present within a particular environment (26) of the substrate processing device (10, 12), and that the display controller (20) is configured with in view of changing the content to be displayed in accordance with a detection result of the proximity sensor (22).

The user interface of claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor (22) comprises a camera.

The user interface of claim 1, wherein the proximity sensor (22) includes a wireless communication device.

The user interface of any of the preceding claims, wherein the display controller (20) is configured to select between a plurality of predetermined display modes, which selection depends on the detection result.

The user interface of claim 4, wherein the display modes include a presentation mode in which all items displayed are of minimum size, large enough to be recognizable to a human outside of the environment (26).

The user interface of claim 5, wherein the display items to be displayed in the presentation mode include an alarm signal (36).