JP2922664B2 - Image processing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for performing image processing on a page basis, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of apparatus, an image input to the apparatus is not always input at a constant speed, and therefore, at least corresponds to the amount of information necessary for a printer to print one page. Recording was started after the data was accumulated in the buffer memory having the capacity.

[0003]

Generally, printers that perform page-by-page printing control ignore the paper feeding time required to convey the recording paper to the printing position depending on the storage position of the recording paper as compared with the printing time. In order to operate the printer at the highest speed when recording multiple pages, it is necessary to give a paper feed instruction for printing the next page before printing the previous page is completed. The condition is that the time required for inputting image information for one page into the buffer memory is within the time required for printing one page.

[0004] However, in order to satisfy the above conditions, the input and output of images in the buffer memory must be performed at high speed and in parallel, which has the disadvantage that control becomes complicated and cost increases.

When the input and output of images in the buffer memory are serially processed, that is, image storage and recording are alternately performed for each page, a next page feed instruction is issued after the previous page has been printed. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the time required for recording becomes long.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and has as its object the purpose of printing even if the input / output of image information in the buffer memory is performed in a serial process. If the amount of information in the image is small,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus that enables a printer to operate at the highest speed.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems The above-mentioned problems are solved,
In order to achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention records an image in page units on a fed recording material, and when recording image data of a plurality of pages, performs first printing on a fed recording material.
A recording unit capable of performing a sheet feeding operation for recording a second page following the page printing operation, a storage unit for storing uncompressed image data to be output to the recording unit, and a storage unit. After storing the image data of at least one page, the capacity of the image data of the page to be stored next is predicted, and the capacity of the image data stored in the storage means and the page to be stored next It is determined whether or not the sum of the image data capacity and the capacity of the image data exceeds the predetermined capacity. If the capacity exceeds the predetermined capacity, the storage of the image data is interrupted to start the recording. If the storage is continued without starting and the recording is started after storing the image data of a plurality of pages in the storage means, the recording means may output the data during the printing operation of the first page on the fed recording paper. The following And having a control means for executing the paper feed operation for the page record.

[0008]

According to such a configuration, the storage means stores the image data for a plurality of pages, the confirmation means confirms the storage state of the storage means, and the control means executes the processing in the storage means based on the storage state confirmed by the confirmation means. The output of the stored recording data is controlled.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a CP for controlling the entire apparatus.
5 shows a control unit incorporating U1a. 2a is CPU1
a ROM for storing a control program for operating a, an error processing program, programs for the respective flowcharts shown in FIGS. 2 to 6, and 2b is used as a work area for each of the programs and a temporary shunting rear when error processing is performed. 2 shows a RAM. Reference numeral 3 denotes a keyboard provided with keys necessary for facsimile operation, an operation panel including an LED (emitting diode) for displaying an operation menu, an LCD (liquid crystal element), and the like, and 4 denotes a telephone sent from the control unit 1. The figure shows an automatic calling device for transmitting a dial signal to the telephone line 20 via the line control unit 5 in accordance with the number data. Reference numeral 5 denotes a line control unit for performing modulation / demodulation of a procedural signal and an image signal and line control. Reference numeral 6 denotes a reading unit for reading a document. In the reading unit 6, the main operation is performed at two resolutions of 8 pixels / mm and 16 pixels / mm.
The sub-scanning has three resolutions of 4 pixels / mm, 8 pixels / mm, and 16 pixels / mm, respectively, and can be read by an arbitrary combination of main scanning and sub-scanning. Also,
The reading unit 6 includes a CCD line sensor, a document conveying system, and the like, and the read image data is transmitted in the form of a monochrome binary serial level signal. Reference numeral 7 denotes an encoding circuit that converts serial data sent from the reading unit 6 into codes such as run length and MH. Reference numeral 8 denotes an image storage memory for storing image data encoded by the encoding circuit 7, which usually has a capacity of 1 Mbyte. Reference numeral 9 denotes a shift register for converting serial data sent from the reading unit into 8-bit parallel data. Reference numeral 13 denotes a recording unit for recording an image of a maximum A4 size in a page unit at a line density of 16 pixels / mm in both the main scanning and the sub-scanning, and the printing time of one line is constant. This is a configuration that cannot be interrupted. The time required for the recording paper to be transported from the storage position to the recording position is 12 seconds, and the printing time for one page of A4 size is 1 second.
3 seconds, printing pause time between pages when continuous paper is fed is 2
It has the ability to print four pages of A4 size in a maximum of one minute per second. Reference numeral 10 denotes a buffer memory for printing on the recording unit 13. The buffer memory 10 has a capacity of 2 Mbytes so that the amount of information required to print one A4 recording sheet at a linear density of 16 pixels / mm in both main scanning and sub-scanning can be stored. And input of uncompressed image data from the control unit 1 or the shift register 9 is performed. Reference numeral 14 denotes an address decoder for selecting the image storage memory 8 or the buffer memory 10 from an address output from the control unit 1, and the address at which each memory is selected is variable. 1
Reference numeral 5 denotes a resolution conversion circuit.
mm can be converted to 16 pixels / mm, and sub-scan can convert 4 pixels / mm or 8 pixels / mm to 16 pixels / mm. And
Reference numeral 20 denotes a telephone line (line).

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of transmission according to the present embodiment. First, the operation at the time of transmission will be described based on FIG.

After the initialization process (step S1), the apparatus waits for a key input (step S2). When there is a key input for instructing transmission from the operation panel 3 (step S3), the setting of the original is waited. If the original is set correctly (step S4), the reading unit 6 reads the original according to an instruction from the control unit 1. (Step S
5). Although the reading resolution at this time is not described, the reading is performed by the operator from the operation panel before instructing the transmission. For example, reading is performed at a resolution of 8 pixels / mm in both the main scanning and the sub-scanning. The serial data output from the reading section 6 is encoded by the encoding circuit 7 and stored in the image storage memory 8 (step S6). When reading of the originals of all pages is completed (step S7), the control unit 1 transmits the telephone number to the automatic calling device 4 and instructs the automatic calling device 4 to call. The automatic calling device 4 sends a dial signal via the line control unit 5 (step S8). If the other party's line 20 can be captured and the communication is confirmed, the communication speed is determined based on the result of the training signal transmission (step S9), and the image data is sequentially transmitted from the image storage memory 8 to the line 20 (step S10). . When the transmission is completed (Step S
13), the line 20 is disconnected (step S14). Then, the transmitted contents in the image storage memory 8 are deleted (step S15), and the process returns to the state between key inputs (step S2).

If an effective key input other than the transmission instruction is detected in step S3, a predetermined process is performed according to the content of the input key (step S2).
1).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation at the time of copying according to the embodiment, FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation at the time of recording according to the embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a timing chart at the time of recording in the embodiment. It is. Here, the operation at the time of copying will be described.

In the present invention, when there is a key input of a copy instruction from the operation panel 3 (step S301), the control unit 1 instructs the reading unit 6 such as the density magnification resolution based on the key input information from the operation panel 3. When the original is correctly set at a predetermined position (step S302), reading is started (step S303), and the serial data output from the reading unit 6 is converted into 8-bit parallel data by the shift register 9, and the buffer memory 10 Is stored in (Step S304). When reading of one page is completed (step S305), and the document read immediately before is the last page (step S306), step S3 is performed.
Proceeding to 10, recording is started. The operation of step S310 will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

Returning to step S306, if there are more originals to be read, the current usage of the buffer memory 10 is set to A.
(Step S307), the capacity of the buffer memory 10 which is predicted to be used for the next original is calculated from the instructed resolution, and B is calculated (Step S308).
The sum of A and B is compared with 2 Mbytes which is the capacity of the buffer memory 10 (step S309).
The process returns to step S302 until M bytes are exceeded, and the reading of the document is continued. If the sum of A and B exceeds 2 Mbytes, as shown in FIG. 6, the process proceeds to step S310, where the control unit 1 instructs the recording unit 13 to start feeding the recording paper (step S311). The operation mode of the resolution conversion circuit 15 is set. The resolution conversion circuit 15 converts the 8-bit parallel data read from the buffer memory 10 into serial data, and if the reading resolution is 8 pixels / mm in both the main scanning and sub-scanning, one image is enlarged twice in each direction. To the recording unit 13. If recording is started and there is an image to be printed as the next page in the buffer memory 10 (step S312), paper feeding for the printing of the next page is performed within three seconds after the recording of the page currently being printed is started. An instruction is issued (step S313).
When the recording of one page is completed (step S314), and there is an image of the next page in the buffer memory 10, the steps S311 to S315 are repeated to continue the recording. At this time, the printer performs printing at the highest speed. If the information to be printed is no longer stored in the buffer memory 10 (step S315), attention is again paid to the reading unit. If the read original remains (step S316), the flow returns to step S302 to read the original. Resume. If there is no original to be read, end processing is entered (step S
317), and returns to the state of waiting for key input again (step S).
301). FIG. 7 shows a specific example of the operation branch in step S309, that is, a list of operation branches based on the usage amount of the buffer memory 10 and the reading resolution of the next page. As is apparent from FIG. 7, four A4 size originals were converted to 8 pixels / mm ×
When copying at a resolution of 8 pixels / mm, all four originals are read and then recorded, and the time required for recording is 70 seconds as shown in FIG. If reading and recording of a document are alternately performed one by one, the time required for recording is 100 seconds, which indicates that the present invention is extremely effective.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the operation at the time of reception according to this embodiment.

Here, the operation at the time of reception will be described.

The apparatus receives an incoming call (step S40).
1) The initial identification signal is transmitted (step S402), and the communication mode such as the communication speed and the resolution is determined based on the result of the communication between the procedure signal and the training signal (step S40).
3) The image reception starts (step S404). The received image is decoded by the CPU 1a in the control unit 1,
The data is sequentially stored in the buffer memory 10 in the form of uncompressed 8-bit parallel data. When an image for one page that can be printed by the recording unit 13 is received (step S405), if the currently received page is the last page (step S4).
06), the line is disconnected (step S407), and the recording operation starts (step S310). Since the contents of the recording operation are the same as steps S311 to S315 in the copy operation as shown in FIG. 6, the description is omitted. Step S4
Returning to step S06, if the page just received is not the last page, as in steps S307 to S309 described in the description of the copying operation, the usage amount A of the buffer memory 10 is used.
The mode branches depending on the relationship between the memory capacity B predicted to be used by the received image of the next page. When the sum of A and B is 2 Mbytes or less, reception is continued as it is (step S).
309 → Step S404) When the sum of A and B exceeds 2M bytes, the recording operation starts as in Step S310, and further the image is received (Step S40).
9). However, the received image is not decoded and is stored in the image storage memory 8.
Is stored in When the reception is completed (step S410)
The line is disconnected (step S407), and the CPU 1a decodes the image in the image storage memory 8 and transfers it to the buffer memory 10 after waiting for the end of the recording operation (step S310) already being performed (step S411). When the transfer of one page is completed (step S412), if the page just transferred is the last page (step S413),
The recording operation is started (step S310), and after recording is completed, the system is in a state of waiting for an incoming call (step S401). Step S4
Returning to step 13, if the page just transferred is not the last page, when the sum of A and B is 2 Mbytes or less, as in the above-mentioned steps S307 to S309, the image transfer of the next page is started (step S411). The sum of A and B is 2M
If it exceeds the byte, the recording operation (step S31)
0) After execution, image transfer of the remaining pages is performed (step S411). As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to easily speed up the recording operation of a plurality of pages without any cost increase.

The present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices or to an apparatus constituted by a single device. It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By only partially changing the recording control, it is possible to speed up the recording operation of a plurality of pages easily with the same configuration as the conventional one without increasing the cost at all. Specifically, recording is started for each image data of a predetermined capacity, and before the recording on the first recording paper is completed, the second recording paper is continuously conveyed. The total time for recording an image can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of transmission according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of copying according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of reception according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of reception according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation at the time of recording according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a list of operation branches based on the usage amount of the buffer memory 10 and the reading resolution of the next page.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart at the time of recording in the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 1a CPU 2a ROM 2b RAM 3 Operation panel 10 Buffer memory 13 Recording part 15 Resolution conversion circuit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 5/30 G06T 1/60 H04N 1/21 H04N 1/23

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] When recording an image in page units on a fed recording material and recording image data of a plurality of pages, a second page following the first page printing operation on the fed recording material is provided. A recording unit capable of performing a sheet feeding operation for recording a page, a storage unit for storing uncompressed image data to be output to the recording unit, and at least one page of image data stored in the storage unit. Thereafter, the capacity of the image data of the page to be stored next is predicted, and the sum of the capacity of the image data stored in the storage means and the capacity of the image data of the next page to be stored is determined by a predetermined value. It is determined whether or not the capacity exceeds the capacity. If the capacity is exceeded, the storage of the image data is interrupted and the recording means is started to record. If not, the storage is continued without starting the recording. Multi-page image If the recording is started after storing the data, the recording means executes a paper feeding operation for recording the second page following the printing operation of the first page on the fed recording paper. An image processing apparatus, comprising: 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the capacity of the image data of the next page to be stored is predicted from the resolution of the image data. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined capacity is one page of recording information at the highest resolution that can be processed by the image processing apparatus.