These and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the appended drawings, and thus are not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention, and wherein:
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The scope of the invention is not limited to examples shown in the drawings.
One embodiment of an image data recording apparatus of the invention is an image forming system which embodies the image data recording apparatus of the invention.
First, an example of the image forming system will be explained, and then an example of the image data recording apparatus will be explained.
As shown in
The CPU 11 reads out a system program, a variety of processing programs, and a variety of application programs, which are stored in the storage section 12, expands these programs to the internal memory 13, and controls operations of the respective sections of the image forming apparatus 1 in a centralizing manner in accordance with the expanded programs.
The storage section 12 is composed of a semiconductor nonvolatile memory and the like, and prestores the system program ready for the image forming apparatus 1, the variety of processing programs including a write control processing program, the variety of application programs including write software, a variety of pieces of data for use in these programs, and the like. Moreover, the storage section 12 stores MAC addresses as apparatus identification information about the respective apparatuses connected to the communication network N.
The internal memory 13 becomes a temporal storage area for the programs read out from the storage section 12, input or output data, parameters, and the like, in a variety of processing executed and controlled by the CPU 11.
In this embodiment, the internal memory 13 forms a read restriction setting area 131 for storing information indicating whether or not to put a restriction on reading image data to be written into a CD or a DVD, the information being inputted from a read restriction setting screen (not shown) of the operation display section 14, and for storing the MAC addresses of permitted apparatuses which are permitted to read the image data in the case of putting the restriction on reading. Moreover, the internal memory 13 forms an image name area 132 for storing a name of the image data, which is inputted from an image name setting screen (not shown) of the operation display section 14. Furthermore, the internal memory 13 forms a memory management area 133 for storing information for managing the areas of the internal memory 13 (information indicating a start address, an end address and an area size for each continuous area formed on the internal memory 13 and indicating whether or not the area concerned is currently used). Still further, the internal memory 13 forms a write list area 134 for storing a write list 134a to be described later.
The operation display section 14 is composed of a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like. The operation display section 14 displays, on a screen, a variety of setting screens, a state of an image, operation situations of the respective functions, and the like in accordance with instructions of display signals from the CPU 11. On the screen of the LCD, a touch panel of a pressure sensitive type (resistive film type), in which transparent electrodes are arranged in a matrix, is composed, and the touch panel detects a current value of an XY coordinate of a point depressed by a finger, a touch pen, or the like, and as an operation signal, outputs a detected position signal to the CPU 11.
The scanner section 15 is composed of an auto document feeder (ADF), and a scanner.
The ADF includes a document tray for mounting original documents thereon, and conveys the documents mounted on the document tray to a document read position on contact glass of the scanner one by one. Then, when the documents are finished being read by the scanner, the ADF conveys and discharges the documents to a document ejection tray.
The scanner projects light onto the documents mounted on the document read position on the contact glass, forms images from reflected light of the projected light by a charge coupled device (CCD), and subjects the images to photoelectric conversion. In such a way, the scanner reads the images of the documents, converts the read images into digital image data by an A/D converter, and outputs the digital image data to the internal memory 13.
The external I/F 16 is an interface for connecting the CD/DVD drive 161 to the image forming apparatus 1, and performing data input/output therebetween.
The CD/DVD drive 161 is composed so as to be capable of mounting an optical recording medium such as a CD and a DVD thereonto and unmounting the optical recording medium therefrom. The CD/DVD drive 161 writes the data onto the mounted optical recording medium, and reads the data from the optical recording medium. Specifically, the CD/DVD drive 161 has a function as a write section. Note that, though the optical recording medium is described as the CD or the DVD in this embodiment, the optical recording medium is not limited to this.
The communication section 17 is composed by including a communication interface such as a network interface card (NIC) and a modulator-demodulator (MODEM), and mutually performs data transmission/reception with an external equipment connected to the communication network N.
The printer section 18 is a printer engine including a conveyor device of recording sheets, a photosensitive drum, an electricity charging device, a laser unit, a development device, a transfer/separation device, a cleaning device, and a fixing device. The printer section 18 forms images corresponding to the image data on the recording sheets by an electrophotographic process, and outputs the images.
The host computer 2 transmits the printing target image data to the image forming apparatus 1.
In a construction of the above-described image forming system 100, the image data recording apparatus includes the CPU 11, the storage section 12, the internal memory 13, scanner section 15, external I/F 16, and the CD/DVD drive 161 which are included in the above described image forming apparatus 1.
Next, an operation of the image data recording apparatus according to the embodiment will be described. Note that the operation display section 14 is subsidiarily used in a following operation.
When the disc is mounted onto the CD/DVD drive 161, a file system of the mounted disc is referred to, and it is judged whether the mounted disc is the CD or the DVD. When it is judged that the mounted disc is the CD or the DVD (Step S1: YES), it is judged whether or not a state of the mounted disc is blank. When it is judged that the state is blank (Step S2: YES), the processing proceeds to a disc write mode as an operation mode of writing the data into the disc, where processing in the disc write mode is executed (Step S3).
When it is judged that the state of the mounted disc is not blank (Step S2: NO), it is judged whether or not a file recorded in the mounted disc is an image format file. When it is judged that the file is the image format file (Step S4: YES), the processing proceeds to a disc read mode as an operation mode of reading the data from the disc, where processing in the disc read mode is executed (Step S5). Here, the image format file refers to a file with a data structure shown in
Meanwhile, when it is judged in Step S1 that the mounted disc is not the CD or the DVD (Step S1: NO), or when it is judged in Step S4 that the file recorded in the mounted disc is not the image format file (Step S4: NO), an error message to the effect that the disc is unusable is displayed on the operation display section 14 (Step S6), and this processing is ended.
Next, an operation in the disc write mode will be described.
First, the write software is read out from the storage section 12 into the internal memory 13, and is activated (Step S11). Subsequently, on the operation display section 14, the read restriction setting screen for putting a restriction on reading for the image data to be written into the disc is displayed, and the restriction on reading is set in response to the input from the operation display section 14 (Step S12). On the read restriction setting screen, though not shown, there are displayed a selection button as to whether or not to put the restriction on reading the image data to be written into the disc, and a permitted apparatus selection column for selecting the apparatuses (permitted apparatuses) which are permitted to read the image data in the case of putting the restriction on reading. In the permitted apparatus selection column, a list of the respective apparatuses (image forming apparatus 1, host computer 2, and the like) connected to the communication network N is displayed. In a state where a selection button to instruct the putting of the restriction on reading is selected, it becomes possible to select, from the list, the apparatus that is permitted to read the image data. When the selections as to whether or not to put the restriction on reading and of the permitted apparatuses in the case of putting the restriction on reading are inputted by depression operations on the read restriction setting screen, inputted contents (information as to whether or not to put the restriction on reading, and the MAC addresses of the permitted apparatuses in the case of putting the restriction on reading) are set in the read restriction setting area 131 of the internal memory 13.
Subsequently, the image name setting screen (not shown) for setting an image name of the image data to be written into the disc as image identification information is displayed on the operation display section 14, and contents inputted on this screen are set in the image name area 132 of the internal memory 13 (Step S13).
Subsequently, depression of a write start button (start button) from the operation display section 14 is awaited. When a batch of documents to be written into the mounted disc are set on the document tray, and the write start button is depressed (Step S14: YES), a write list registration processing shown in
First, one (1) is set in a counter n (Step S101), and an n-th document is read by the scanner section 15 (Step S102). Subsequently, the memory management area 133 is referred to, and it is judged whether or not there is a space area in the internal memory 13 (Step S103). When it is judged that there is no space area in the internal memory 13 (Step S103: NO), it is awaited that the memory is cleared by another processing to form the space area in the internal memory 13. When it is judged that there is a space area in the internal memory 13 (Step S103: YES), the processing proceeds to Step S104. Here, the judgment as to whether or not there is a space area in the memory is executed based on whether or not there are one or more continuous space areas in the internal memory 13, and an area size of the space area does not matter.
In Step S104, one of the continuous space areas of the internal memory 13 is decided as a transfer destination, and image data of the n-th document read in the scanner section 15 is transferred to the space area of the transfer destination, and is stored there (Step S104). Here, when the area size of the space area as the transfer destination is smaller than a size of the image data of the n-th document, image data of an amount of the area size of the transfer destination is transferred from the scanner section 15, and is stored in the space area. When the image data is stored in the internal memory 13, state information in the memory management area 133, which is for the memory area used for storing the image data, is changed to “in use” and registered (Step S105). Then, the start address and area size of the used memory area are acquired from the memory management area 133 (Step S106), the image name is acquired from the image name area 132, and further, a date of generating the image data is acquired from a system clock (Step S107), and the start address, the area size, the image name, and such a generation date, which are thus acquired, are registered as memory area information into the write list 134a (see
After the registration into the write list 134a, it is judged whether or not the transfer of the entire image data of the n-th document from the scanner section 15 is completed. When it is judged that the registration is not ended (Step S109: NO), the processing returns to Step S103, from which the processing of Steps S103 to S108 is repeatedly executed. Specifically, when the size of the continuous space area of the internal memory 13 is larger than the size of the image data read by the scanner section 15, the entire image data of the n-th document is transferred to one space area, and is stored there. Then, the start address, the area size, the image name and the generation date for the area concerned are registered in the write list 134a. When the area size of the continuous space area in the internal memory 13 is less than the area size for the image data to be transferred, the processing for transferring the data to one of the space areas and registering a result of the transfer into the write list is repeatedly executed until the storage of the entire image data is completed. Note that, with regard to the image name, the image name set by a user in Step S13 of
When it is judged that the transfer of the entire image data of the n-th document from the scanner section 15 is completed (Step S109: YES), it is judged whether or not there is a document to be read next. When it is judged that there is such a document to be read next (Step S110: YES), the counter n is incremented by one (1) (Step S111), and the processing returns to Step S102. When it is judged that there is no document to be read next (Step S110: NO), this processing is ended.
Returning to
When the pointer does not reach the end of the list, and it is possible to refer to the contents of the list elements (Step S17: NO), the area in the internal memory 13, in which the image data to be written is stored, is specified based on the start addresses and the area sizes, which are included in the list elements referred to in the write list 134a, and the image data in the specified area is written into the mounted disc by the CD/DVD drive 161 driven by the write software (Step S18). After this writing, the area in-the internal memory 13 is cleared, and the state information in the memory management area 133, which relates to the area concerned, is changed to “space area” (Step S19). Then, the pointer is moved to the next list element (Step S20), and the processing returns to Step S16. Note that, in the write software, when the data in the area in the internal memory 13 is written into the disc, the start address of the area into which the image data is written is held in the disc. Specifically, also in the disc, the image data is managed per area section in which the image data is stored in the internal memory 13.
Meanwhile, in Step S17, when the pointer reaches the end of the write list 134a, and there is no list element to be referred to next (Step S17: YES), a dialogue to inquire whether such writing to the disc is to be ended or to be continued is displayed on the operation display section 14. When an operation for instructing to continue the writing is inputted from the dialogue (Step S21: NO), the processing returns to Step S13, from which the processing of Steps S13 to S20 is executed for a batch of the documents, which is newly mounted on the document tray. When an operation indicating the end of the writing is inputted from the dialogue (Step S21: YES), the processing proceeds to Step S22.
In Step S22, TAG (data information) is written into the disc by the write software (Step S22). The TAG (data information) is separation information indicating that attribute information regarding the written data is written subsequently to this TAG.
After the writing of the TAG (data information), there are acquired the contents of the respective list elements (memory area information) of the write list 134a, and the start addresses, which is held by the soft ware, of the respective areas on the disc where the image data is written. Then, subsequently to the TAG (data information), the data information about each of the areas on the disc, which is formed of the start address on the disc, a data size, the image name, and the generation date is written into the disc by the write software (Step S23). Subsequently, the read restriction setting area 131 is referred to. When the restriction on reading is not set (Step S24: NO), this processing is ended. When the restriction on reading is set (Step S24: YES), TAG (permitted apparatus list) is written into the disc (Step S25). The TAG (permitted apparatus list) is information indicating that the MAC addresses of the permitted apparatuses which are permitted to read the image data is written subsequently to the TAG.
After the writing of the TAG (permitted apparatus list), the MAC addresses of the permitted apparatuses thus set are sequentially written into the disc (Step S26), and this processing is ended. After the write control processing is ended, the contents of the read restriction setting area 131, the image name area 132, the memory management area 133, and the write list area 134 are cleared. Moreover, the write software is also ended.
The data written into the disc as the CD or the DVD by the above-described processing is managed as one file (the image format file) on the disc. This is realized in such a manner that, at the end of an execution of the write software, a file name (for example, image name, generation date, and the like which are set first) and a predetermined identifier indicating that the data is an image format file are imparted to a series of the data written into the disc this time by the write software, and that such a pair of the file name and the identifier is written into the file system of the disc.
The above description is the operations in the disc write mode.
Next, operations in the disc read mode will be described.
First, data with a fixed size (size of the TAG (data information); here, 8 bytes) is read out from the image format file on the disc into the internal memory 13 (Step S31), and it is judged whether or not the read data coincides with the TAG (data information) (Step S32). When it is judged that the read data does not coincide with the TAG (data information) (Step S32: NO), the processing proceeds to Step S34. When it is judged that the read data coincides with the TAG (data information) (Step S32: YES), the start address on the disc in which the read data is stored is stored as the start address of the TAG (data information) in a predetermined area of the internal memory 13 (Step S33), and the processing proceeds to Step S34.
In Step S34, it is judged whether or not the read data coincides with the TAG (permitted apparatus list) (Step S34). When it is judged that the read data does not coincide with the TAG (permitted apparatus list) (Step S34: NO), the processing proceeds to Step S36. When it is judged that the read data coincides with the TAG (permitted apparatus list) (Step S34: YES), the start address on the disc in which the read data is stored is stored as the start address of the TAG (permitted apparatus list) in a predetermined area of the internal memory 13 (Step S35), and the processing proceeds to Step S36.
In Step S36, it is judged whether or not the processing reaches the end of the file (EOF). When it is judged that the processing does not reach the EOF (Step S36: NO), the processing returns to Step S31, from which the processing of Steps S31 to S35 is repeatedly executed. When it is judged that the processing reaches the EOF (Step S36: YES), it is judged whether or not the data of the permitted apparatus list is present based on whether or not the start address of the TAG (permitted apparatus list) is stored in the predetermined area of the internal memory 13. When it is judged that the data of the permitted apparatus list is not present (Step S37: NO), image read processing shown in
In the image read processing, first, data to the TAG (data information) on the disc (that is, data stored within 8 bytes from the start address of the TAG (data information)) is read into the internal memory 13 (Step S201). Subsequently, data with a fixed size (size corresponding to the size of the data information; here, 24 bytes) is read into the internal memory 13 (Step S202), and it is judged whether or not the TAG (permitted apparatus list) is included in the read data. When it is judged that the TAG (permitted apparatus list) is not included in the read data (Step S203: NO), it is judged whether or not the processing reaches the EOF. When it is judged that the processing does not reach the EOF (Step S204: NO), the read data, that is, the data information is transmitted to the operation display section 14, and is displayed thereon (Step S205), and the processing returns to Step S202.
When it is judged that the TAG (permitted apparatus list) is included in the read data (Step S203: YES), or when it is judged that the processing reaches the EOF (Step S204: YES), a message to urge the user to select, from the displayed data information, data desired to be outputted is displayed on the operation display section 14. When the data information is selected and inputted (Step S206), it is judged whether or not there is a continuous space area, in the internal memory 13, with a size equal to or more than the data size stored in the selected data information. When it is judged that there is no space area (Step S207: NO), it is awaited that the memory is cleared by another processing to form the space area in the internal memory 13. When it is judged that there is a space area in the internal memory 13 (Step S207: YES), the image data is read from the disc based on the start address and data size of the selected data information, and the read image data is transferred to the internal memory 13 (Step S208). After this transfer is completed, a message such as “do you want to end this?”, an “END” button, and a “CONTINUE” button are pop-up displayed on a screen of the operation display section 14, on which the list of the data information is displayed. When the “CONTINUE” button is depressed (Step S209: NO), the processing returns to Step S206. When the “END” button is depressed (Step S209: YES), this processing is ended.
As described above, in accordance with the image forming apparatus 1, in the write list registration processing, the image data transferred from the scanner section 15 is sequentially stored into the space area of the internal memory 13. Then, every time the storing of the image data in one continuous space area is completed, the memory area information including the start address of the area concerned is sequentially registered in the write list. In the write control processing, the memory area information registered in the write list is sequentially referred to, the area in which the image data is stored is specified, and the image data in the specified area is written into the optical recording medium mounted on the CD/DVD drive 161 from the head of the optical recording medium concerned. Then, after the entire image data to be written is written into the disc, medium area information which is the memory area information in which the start address of the data on the internal memory 13 is changed to a start address of the data on the optical recording medium.
Hence, it becomes possible to write the image data sequentially transferred from the scanner section 15 sequentially into the optical recording medium. Consequently, it becomes unnecessary to, as heretofore, generate the image file after awaiting that the entire image data to be written into the optical recording medium is captured into the internal memory and that the image data to be written is fixed, and write the generated image file into the optical recording medium. In such a way, it becomes possible to shorten the processing time, and in addition, it also becomes unnecessary to ensure a storage capacity for generating the image file.
Moreover, the apparatus identification information about the apparatus permitted to read the written image data can be written into the optical recording medium. Consequently, it becomes possible to perform the restriction on reading so as to make it possible for only the permitted apparatus to read the image data in apparatuses to read data in the optical recording medium.
Furthermore, the data information to be written in the optical recording medium includes the image name as the image identification information about the image data written in each area. Consequently, even if the image data composing one image is distributed and written into the optical recording medium, it becomes possible to identify into which area on the optical recording medium the image data composing the one image is written.
Furthermore, a data structure of a file to be written in the optical recording medium includes, in head of the structure, the data storage section to store the image data sequentially written in the optical recording medium, and includes, in hinder part of the data storage section, the data information section to store the data information including the start address on the optical recording medium relating to the image data for unit of writing into the data storage section. Consequently, it becomes possible to write sequentially the image data in the optical recording medium.
Note that the description contents in the above-described embodiment represent a preferred example of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.
For example, in the embodiment, as an example, the case is explained that the input section to which the image data is inputted is the scanner section 15 and the image data sequentially read and inputted by the scanner section 15 is written sequentially into the optical recording medium such as the CD and the DVD; however, the present invention can also be applied to the case where image data from the host computer 2, which is sequentially inputted from the communication section 17, is written into the optical recording medium such as the CD and the DVD.
Besides the above, it is also possible to appropriately alter detailed configurations and operations of the image forming apparatus 1 within the scope without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-196944 | Jul 2006 | JP | national |