JP4363218B2 - mobile phone - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cellular phone that can be adapted to call incoming in transmitting data by radio communication. <P>SOLUTION: In the body 2 of a printer 1, a card slot 12 is provided at a lower portion at the right side of its front. A CF-type communication card 13 is removably inserted to the card slot 12. The CF-type communication card 13 incorporates an IrDA-compliant infrared communication module. Data can be transmitted from a cellular phone 14 to the CF-type communication card 13 by infrared communication so as to be printed. The cellular phone 14 is capable of responding to call incoming which uses a call function during data transmission using an infrared communication function by using a parallel processing function. Namely, when call processing interrupts the cellular phone 14 during data transmission to the printer 1, the cellular phone 14 parallel executes data transmission processing and call processing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&amp;NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile phone that transmits data to an output device that performs output processing by wireless communication, and more particularly to a processing technique in data transmission.

  In recent years, many mobile phones are equipped with an infrared communication port as standard. As a usage method, a telephone number or the like stored in a mobile phone can be transmitted to another mobile phone using infrared communication. Some mobile phones have a phone book function and a camera function. Personal information created by the phone book function and image data taken by the camera function are stored in a unique file format. For example, personal information is in a vCard file format, and image data is in a vNote file format. The layout of data stored in these file formats is determined by the dedicated display application program provided in the mobile phone.

  The user operates the mobile phone with the infrared communication port of the mobile phone facing the infrared communication port of a personal computer or the like so as to be communicable. The mobile phone transmits personal information and image data stored by the user's operation to, for example, a personal computer. The personal computer prints personal information and image data received in response to a user's operation using a printer.

  By the way, the processing speed of data transmission by the infrared communication port of a cellular phone is relatively slow, and it takes about several tens of seconds to one minute for data transmission. For this reason, if there is an incoming call during data transmission, the user must select whether to continue the data transmission or respond to the incoming call. If you choose to continue sending data, you will have the other party wait. If the response to the incoming call is selected, the data transmission must be performed again. Since the above time is required to perform this data transmission again, there is a possibility that it will be received again during that time, and there is a possibility that the data transmission cannot be completed easily.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile phone and an output processing system that can adapt to incoming calls when data is transmitted by wireless communication.

In the present invention, the mobile phone is a communication means with another telephone, a storage means for storing data, a short-range wireless communication means for transmitting the data to a printing apparatus, and the short-range wireless communication means. setting means for setting the priority of the process for the transmission processing of the data to the printing device and the call, if it is determined that there is an incoming call by the pre-Symbol call means during the transmission process of the data And a priority processing unit that preferentially executes one process based on the set priority. According to this configuration, the priority processing unit, when it is determined that there is an incoming call by passing talk means during transmission processing of data to the printing apparatus by short-distance wireless communication, the priority set by the setting means One process based on the above is preferentially executed. Therefore, it is possible to cope with both a user who gives priority to a mobile phone call and a user who gives priority to data transmission by short-range wireless communication from the mobile phone to the printing apparatus. Incoming calls can be easily handled according to user preferences.
Further, in the portable telephone of the present invention, the priority processing unit, after completion of the preferential execution by said one processing is summarized in that executing the processing in low other hand priority than the one processing .
In the mobile phone of the present invention, the can and call incoming Tsu there by the call means during the transmission process of the data further parallel processing means for parallel processing and processing for the call and transmission processing of the data comprising, a mode can incoming call there was Tsu by the call means during the transmission process of the data which is the parallel processing unit for parallel processing processes and for the through talking to the transmission processing of the data, the priority processing means and a mode in which priority execution of one process based on the set by the priority by said setting means, the setting means, sets as one mode for executing one of the plurality of modes The gist is to do.
Further, in the portable telephone of the present invention, the can and call incoming Tsu there by the call means during the transmission process of the data executes the vent talk process, further comprising a mode for displaying the status of the transmission process, The gist of the invention is that the setting means sets a mode for executing any one of the plurality of modes.

  The gist of the present invention is that the short-range wireless communication means is Bluetooth.

  In the present invention, when there is an incoming call by the call means during the data transmission process, the parallel processing means performs a mode in which the data transmission and the call are processed in parallel, and the data transmission process and the call A mode in which one process based on a set priority is preferentially executed when it is determined that the process coexists, and when there is an incoming call by the call means during the data transmission process, the call process is executed, Setting means for setting as a mode for executing any one of the plurality of modes, including at least two modes including a mode for displaying a state of transmission processing and a mode in which the parallel processing means performs parallel processing And the gist of the above. According to this configuration, the mode includes a mode for processing data communication and a call in parallel, a mode for setting which of data communication and a call is prioritized, and a mode for performing a call and displaying the status of the data communication. By storing the selected mode, it is possible to easily meet various user requests.

  In the present invention, the output device includes a receiving unit that receives data from the mobile phone, an identification unit that identifies whether the data type of the data received by the receiving unit is a predetermined data type, and layout data. When the storage unit for storing and the identifying unit identify the predetermined data type, the layout data corresponding to the data type is read from the storage unit, and the layout data is added to the layout data. The gist of the invention is that it includes a conversion processing unit that converts data into data, and an output unit that performs output processing based on the data with layout and outputs the contents of the data in a layout according to the data type. According to this configuration, when transmitting data from a mobile phone and causing the output device to output data contents in a layout according to the data type, the time for transmitting the data to the output device is long, and there is an incoming call during the transmission Even when the possibility increases, it is possible to easily deal with incoming calls.

In the present invention, the data transmitted from the short-range wireless communication means is data of a data type in which designation information input by operating the operation unit of the mobile phone is described and a layout cannot be defined, and the output The apparatus includes: a receiving unit that receives data from the mobile phone; an acquisition unit that acquires designation information included in the data received by the reception unit; a storage unit that stores layout data corresponding to the designation information; and the acquisition Based on the data with layout, a conversion processing unit that reads out layout data corresponding to the designation information acquired by the means from the storage unit, and converts the data into data with a layout of a data type that can define the layout using the layout data. Output means for performing output processing and outputting the content of the data in a layout according to the specified information; And the spirit that was example.
In the present invention, the receiving unit determines whether the data is appropriate from the data type of the data received from the mobile phone, and receives the data when the data type is determined to be appropriate by the determining unit, A reception unit that discards the data when it is determined that the data type is inappropriate, and the output device receives the data at the reception unit and notifies the user when the data is being transmitted. In addition, it is preferable to provide a notifying unit for notifying that the data transmission process is stopped when the receiving unit discards the data.
Furthermore, in the present invention, it is preferable that the receiving unit further includes a setup unit that receives in advance from the mobile phone reference data to be referred to by the determination unit for determining whether the data type is appropriate and writes the reference data in the storage unit.
Moreover, this invention is an output processing system, Comprising: The said mobile telephone of the said invention and the said output apparatus are provided, and it makes it a summary.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the printer 1. In FIG. 1, a printer 1 as an output device is an ink jet printer, and a sheet feeder 4 and a roll paper support 5 of an automatic paper feeder 3 are provided on the back side of a main body 2. A sheet paper (not shown) is set in the sheet feeder 4 and fed into the main body 2. Further, the roll paper P 1 is set on the roll paper support portion 5 and fed into the main body 2. A cover 6 is provided in the center of the main body 2, and a printing mechanism is provided in the cover 6, and a sheet P (cut sheet paper or roll paper) as a printing medium printed by the operation of the printing mechanism. The paper is discharged from the front lower discharge port 7. An operation panel 8 is provided on the right side of the upper surface of the main body 2.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel 8 includes a display device 9 having a display screen 9a and an operation unit 10 including a plurality of operation switches. The display device 9 is a liquid crystal display device and displays, for example, a menu for manually selecting a paper type (cut sheet or roll paper), paper size, layout, photo selection, number of printed sheets, and the like on the display screen 9a. .

  The operation unit 10 is also provided with a power switch 10a for powering on the printer 1, a maintenance switch 10b that is pressed when an error occurs, and a roll paper switch 10c that is pressed when operating the roll paper. Further, the operation unit 10 is provided with a print start switch 10d, a cancel switch 10e, an upper switch 10f, a lower switch 10g, a determination switch 10h, and a return switch 10i. The print start switch 10d is pressed when starting to print an image on a cut sheet or roll paper. The cancel switch 10e is pressed when canceling printing that is being executed or when discarding the input contents on the display screen 9a when the printing is not being performed. The upper switch 10f and the lower switch 10g are pressed when selecting a menu on the display screen 9a, moving a cursor when selecting various setting items, or increasing / decreasing numerical values to be input. The decision switch 10h is pressed when the display on the display screen 9a is advanced to the next screen or when the setting content input using the display screen 9a is confirmed. The return switch 10i is operated when returning the screen displayed on the display screen 9a to the initial screen or when returning the display of the display screen 9a to the previous screen.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a second display device 11 is attached to the upper right side of the main body 2 of the printer 1. A print image to be printed on the paper P is displayed in advance on the display screen 11 a of the second display device 11.

  A card slot (CF card slot) 12 is provided on the front right side of the main body 2, and the card slot 12 has a CF (Compact Flash®) type card (infrared communication card) (hereinafter referred to as CF type) with a built-in infrared communication function. (Referred to as a communication card) 13 is set to be insertable / removable. The CF type communication card 13 is an IrDA module having an infrared communication function compliant with IrDA (Infrared Data Association), and is set in the card slot 12 so that the printer 1 has an infrared communication function capable of receiving infrared data. Give. The printer 1 takes in the data received from the mobile phone 14 by the CF communication card 13 and performs a printing process based on the data. The main body case of the CF type communication card 13 constitutes a communication device main body.

  The mobile phone 14 has a telephone function, an infrared communication function, a telephone book function capable of registering and managing personal information including a telephone number, an e-mail function for sending and receiving e-mails with other mobile phones, and taking still images or moving images. It has many functions such as a camera function as a data generation means to perform, a parallel processing function for simultaneously performing a call and data transmission.

  The mobile phone 14 manages personal information data (text data) handled by the phone book function and image data handled by the camera function in a file format compatible with infrared communication. Specifically, personal information data is managed in the vCard (TM) file format, and image data is managed in the vNote (TM) file format. Therefore, personal information data in the vCard file format or image data in the vNote file format managed by the mobile phone 14 is received by the printer 1 through the CF type communication card 13 set in the card slot 12. In addition, the mobile phone 14 can send and receive e-mails and image data to and from other mobile phones and personal computers through the mobile phone network.

  If the print 1 is a CF-type memory card for a digital camera set in the card slot 12, the image data captured by the digital camera can be read from the CF-type memory card and printed.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the CF type communication card 13 is provided with an infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a and a display unit 13b serving as communication ports on the front surface (front surface). The infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a includes a light receiving element and a light emitting element. The light emitting element emits infrared light composed of a pulse signal modulated by a pulse phase modulated by a carrier wave having a carrier frequency of, for example, 25 to 50 kHz by turning on / off the light emission. The light receiving element outputs infrared light including a bit signal expressed in the same manner. The display unit 13b includes a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) having different emission colors, and notifies the data reception state of the CF type communication card 13 by a combination of the emission color, lighting, blinking, and extinguishing. A connector (not shown) is formed on the back surface of the CF-type communication card 13, and this connector is electrically connected to a printer-side connector provided on the back surface of the card slot 12. The CF-type communication card 13 constitutes a communication interface unit for IrDA communication.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13 a and the display unit 13 b provided on the front surface of the CF type communication card 13 are in positions where the CF type communication card 13 is exposed in a state where it is set in the card slot 12. Both are visible from the user (operator) who operates the mobile phone 14. The maximum communicable distance (hereinafter referred to as the maximum communication distance) between the infrared light receiving and emitting units 13a and 20 is a value within 10 to 50 cm, for example. Since infrared light is a communication medium having relatively high directivity, when transmitting data from the mobile phone 14, the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 20 of the mobile phone 14 is directed to the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a at a predetermined spread angle (60 degrees in this example). It is necessary to keep the state as straight as possible within about 10 seconds to 1 minute required for data transmission. For this reason, the user performs a transmission operation while looking at the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a of the data transmission destination. The user holds the mobile phone 14 at a position close to the distance within the maximum communication distance from the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a, and keeps the posture of the mobile phone 14 while watching the infrared receiving / emitting unit 13a, for example, several tens of seconds to 1 minute. Hold the degree. At this time, the display unit 13b enters the field of view of the user (operator) who operates or holds the mobile phone 14 while looking at the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a. In addition, while the data is being transmitted, the line of sight is naturally directed to the display unit 13b that is lit, and the transmission destination is also naturally directed to the line of sight. Therefore, even if data is transmitted toward the display unit 13b, the transmission data can be received by the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a. For example, assuming that the maximum communication distance L (cm) and the receivable spread angle θ (°), the position of the display unit 13b is within the range of radius (L / 2) · tan θ (cm) with respect to the infrared light receiving and emitting unit 13a. If so, the above condition is satisfied.

  The field of view is generally a viewing angle of 60 degrees on the nose side, 100 degrees on the ear side, 60 degrees on the upper side, and 75 degrees on the lower side for one eye. The position of the display unit 13b relative to the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a may be within the range of the field of view, but simply entering the field of view also necessitates diverting the line of sight from the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a to confirm the display unit 13b. A range within 1/3 of the viewing angle is preferable to prevent such a situation. Furthermore, a range of 1/4 of the viewing angle is appropriate. Specifically, the positional relationship on the surface of the main body 2 varies depending on the maximum communication distance when viewed only from the viewing angle, but the display unit 13b is preferably within a range of a radius of 20 centimeters relative to the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a, and particularly good. The range is within a radius of 10 centimeters.

  Although the reception status is also displayed on the screen 9a provided in the printer 1, since the screen is provided upward, for example, a user who extends the hand holding the mobile phone 14 from the front side of the printer 1 and performs a transmission operation. Therefore, the display content of the screen 9a cannot be visually recognized. Therefore, in this printer 1, the display unit 13b is provided on the same surface as the infrared light receiving and emitting unit 13a on the front surface different from the upper surface of the main body 2 on which the screen 9a of the operation panel 8 is provided. That is, the position of the card slot 12 is set so as to have such a positional relationship with the screen 9a. Of course, a configuration in which the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a and the display unit 13b are positioned on the side surface of the main body 2 instead of the front surface is also possible.

  Further, the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a is set to be positioned at a height within 10 cm from the bottom surface of the printer 1. This is to enable data transmission while the mobile phone 14 is placed on the same mounting surface (desk or table) as the printer 1. The cellular phone 14 includes a model in which the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 20 is provided on the side surface (referred to as a side model) and a model provided on the back surface (the surface opposite to the operation button) (referred to as a back model). is there. In the case of the side model, the infrared light receiving / emitting part 13a on the printer 1 side is located in the communication area of the infrared light receiving / emitting part 20 when the mobile phone 14 is placed flat on the side model while standing on the side. It is arranged to be located. When the mobile phone 14 is placed on a desk on which the printer 1 is placed, it is usually placed closer to the maximum communication distance. For example, the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 20 is separated from the infrared communication unit by a distance of half the maximum communication distance. It is assumed that the mobile phone 14 is placed on the desk so as to face the front 13a. At this time, the display unit 13b is set to be located in the communication area of the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a on the front surface of the printer 1. For example, if the maximum communication distance is 20 cm and the communicable spread angle is 60 °, the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a and the display unit 13b are located in an area having a radius of 11 cm centering on the other side. When the mobile phone 14 of the rear model is laid down, the height of the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 20 is in the range of about 5 to 20 mm. When the mobile phone 14 of the side model is stood sideways, the height of the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 20 is about It becomes the range of 15-40 mm. In this embodiment, the height of the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a is within 10 cm from the bottom surface of the printer 1, and the mobile phone 14 is placed on the same desk or table as the printer 1 for both the side model and the rear model. The position is set so that data can be transmitted as it is. In addition, there is a paper discharge port 7 in the center of the front surface of the printer 1, and the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a can be arranged only at a position avoiding this. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the infrared light receiving and emitting unit 13a that is a communication port is disposed at a height within 10 cm on the lower side of both sides of the paper discharge port 7 on the front surface of the printer 1. As a result, data can be transmitted while the mobile phone 14 is placed on the same desk as the printer 1, and communication is hardly interrupted by the paper discharged from the paper discharge port 7. In addition, the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a of the present embodiment is located at a height within a range of 2 to 5 cm among heights within 10 cm from the bottom surface of the printer 1.

  FIG. 4A shows the mobile phone viewed from the front. As shown in the figure, the mobile phone 14 includes a plurality of operation buttons 15 (15a to 15c, etc.), an earpiece 16, a mouthpiece 17, a display 18, and a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) imaging device 19. .

  While using the camera function, the mobile phone 14 displays an image captured by the CCD imaging device 19 on the display 18 and operates the operation button 15b as a shutter to display the captured image as one image. Can be saved as data.

  In the present embodiment, the mobile phone 14 stores image data (still image data) taken by the camera function as JPEG data. Then, when printing the image data, the mobile phone 14 transmits the JPEG data in the vNote (TM) format, which is one of the file formats compatible with infrared communication. In this vNote format, JPEG data is encoded (compressed) by an encode / decode converter called Base64 and stored as encoded JPEG image data. In addition, the mobile phone 14 can register the personal information created on the display 18 by operating the operation button 15a using the phone book function.

  FIG. 4B shows an example of personal information registered and displayed on the display using the telephone directory function of the mobile phone. The personal information registration method will be described. First, when the operation button 15 is operated to select the personal information creation mode (new registration mode) of the phone book function, the personal information creation program built in the mobile phone 14 is activated. . On the display 18, each item shown on the left side in FIG. 4B, that is, "name", "phonetic", "phone number 1", "phone number 2", "phone number 3", "e-mail address 1" "," E-mail address 2 "," E-mail address 3 "," Address "and" Memo (note) "are displayed. After selecting the desired item by operating the operation button 15c, the corresponding data is input, and this is repeated as many times as necessary to create one piece of personal information as shown in FIG. . Personal information data (text data) created by the telephone directory function is stored in the vCard (TM) format, which is one of the file formats compatible with infrared communication in this embodiment.

  Furthermore, the mobile phone 14 has an infrared light receiving / emitting unit 20 (shown in FIG. 1) for performing infrared communication with the CF type communication card 13 as an infrared communication function compliant with IrDA (Infrared Data Association). I have. The cellular phone 14 transmits image data and personal information data to the CF-type communication card 13 by operating the operation buttons 15. The infrared light receiving / emitting unit 20 includes a light receiving element and a light emitting element that can receive and issue the same infrared communication method as the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13 a provided in the CF type communication card 13.

  Furthermore, the mobile phone 14 can respond to an incoming call by the call function during data transmission by the infrared function by the parallel processing function. That is, when a call process is entered into the mobile phone 14 during a data transmission process to the printer 1, the mobile phone 14 executes the data transmission process and the call process in parallel. Thereby, even if there is an incoming call during data communication, the user can easily respond to the incoming call and enjoy a call with the other party. In addition, since data transfer is continued even in response to an incoming call, a print result can be obtained without retransmitting data. That is, a printed matter can be obtained in a shorter time than in the past.

Next, the electrical configuration of the printer 1, the CF-type communication card 13, and the mobile phone 14 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.
First, the electrical configuration of the mobile phone 14 will be described. The cellular phone 14 includes a control unit 21, a memory 22 as a storage unit, a transmission / reception unit 23 as a call unit, a microphone 24, a speaker 25, an operation button 15, a display 18, a CCD imaging device 19, and an infrared light receiving / emitting unit as a communication unit. 20.

  In the memory 22, image data and personal information data captured by the CCD imaging device 19 are temporarily stored by the control unit 21. The microphone 24 outputs the voice spoken at the earpiece 16 to the control unit 21 as a voice signal. The speaker 25 converts the sound signal output from the control unit 21 into sound and outputs it from the mouthpiece 17.

  The transmission / reception unit 23 is an input / output interface, and transmits the audio signal, mail, and image data output from the control unit 21 to another mobile phone or personal computer, and also transmits the voice signal, mail from other mobile phone or personal computer. The image data is received and output to the control unit 21.

  The control unit 21 includes a CPU, a ROM, an EEPROM, and the like, and the CPU executes various operations based on a control program and various application programs stored in the ROM and the EEPROM. That is, the control unit 21 executes the processing operation for the above-described call, creation of mail, transmission / reception of data, and storage based on the operation of the operation button 15.

  The control unit 21 executes a process for displaying and storing the image data captured by the CCD imaging device 19 based on the operation of the operation button 15. At this time, the image data stored in the memory 22 is stored in the JPEG data format by the control unit 21.

  The control unit 21 executes processing for creating and storing personal information based on the operation of the operation button 15. At this time, personal information data (text data) stored in the memory 22 is stored in the business card data format (in this example, the vCard format) by the control unit 21.

  Further, the control unit 21 executes a processing operation for transmitting the stored personal information data or image data to the printer 1 (CF type communication card 13) via the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 20 based on the operation of the operation button 15. To do. When transmitted from the control unit 21 to the CF type communication card 13, personal information data is transmitted in the vCard file format, and image data (encoded JPEG data) is transmitted in the vNote file format. The control unit 21 transmits these according to the object exchange protocol. In this embodiment, IrOBEX (TM) used for exchanging objects called v format such as a telephone directory (vCard), a schedule (vCalender), and a memo (vNote) is adopted as an object exchange protocol.

  Furthermore, the control unit 21 operates as a parallel processing unit that provides a parallel processing function. That is, when the control unit 21 receives that a call has arrived from the transmission / reception unit 23 during transmission of image data / personal information data stored based on the user's operation, the control unit 21 displays that fact on the display 18. When the user operates the operation button 15 to respond to the incoming call (presses the call button), the control unit 21 permits the transmission / reception unit 23 to respond, and the transmission / reception unit 23 establishes a channel between the other party's phone. Establish and transmit and receive audio signals using the channel. And the control part 21 outputs the audio | voice signal received from the transmission / reception part 23 to the speaker 25, and outputs the signal which converted the user's audio | voice with the microphone 24 to the transmission / reception part 23. FIG. This enables a call between the user who owns the mobile phone 14 and the user (calling party) who owns the phone called to the user.

Next, the electrical configuration of the CF type communication card 13 will be described.
The CF type communication card 13 includes a card control unit 31, a memory 32, a card side UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) 33, a printer side UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) 34, an infrared light receiving and emitting unit 13a, and a display unit (LED) 13b. Have.

  The card control unit 31 controls the memory 32, the card side UART 33, the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a, and the display unit 13b. The card control unit 31 includes a CPU, a ROM, and the like, and the CPU executes various operations based on a control program and various application programs stored in the ROM. When the card control unit 31 receives data from the mobile phone 14 via the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a, the card control unit 31 instructs the card-side UART 33 to transfer the object data (personal information data or image data) to the printer 1. . At this time, a part of the memory 32 is used as a buffer for temporarily storing object data.

  The card side UART 33 converts object data (personal information data or image data) into a serial bit stream based on an instruction from the card control unit 31 and outputs the serial bit stream to the printer side UART 34.

  The printer-side UART 34 has a communication interface (I / F) 45 on the printer 1 side via a bus 35 that is connected when both connectors are electrically connected in a state where the CF-type communication card 13 is set in the card slot 12. Controlled by When the printer-side UART 34 starts receiving object data from the card-side UART 33, the printer-side UART 34 outputs an interrupt signal to request the printer 1 to read the data. When the printer 1 that receives this interrupt signal opens the input port, reading of object data into the printer 1 is started. At this time, the printer-side UART 34 converts the serial bit stream received from the card-side UART 33 into parallel byte data and outputs the object data to the printer 1 side.

  The printer-side UART 34 outputs various signals input from the printer 1 side to the card control unit 31 via the card-side UART 33. The card control unit 31 monitors various signals input from the printer 1 side, manages the data reception state (communication status), and controls display of the display unit 13b in a lighting mode according to the communication status at that time. Therefore, the data reception state is notified to the user by the lighting mode of the display unit 13b provided on the front surface of the CF type communication card 13. At this time, the card control unit 31 transmits information on the communication status to the mobile phone 14 via the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a, and the data reception state on the printer 1 side is displayed on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14 by character information or the like. Is done.

Next, the electrical configuration of the printer 1 will be described.
The printer 1 includes a CPU 41, a ROM 42, an EEPROM 43, a RAM 44, a communication interface (I / F) 45, an ASIC (Application Specific IC) 46, drivers 47a to 47d, and a user interface 48, which are respectively connected via a data bus 49. They are electrically connected to each other.

  The communication interface 45 includes a communication interface unit 45a, a parallel communication unit 45b, a Bluetooth (TM) (hereinafter referred to as BT) communication unit 45c, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) communication unit 45d, a slot communication unit 45e, and serial communication. Part (not shown). Each of the communication units 45b to 45e has a communication port (input / output port). Each of the communication units 45b to 45e has a communication port (input / output port), and the communication interface unit 45a includes, for example, a group of communication interfaces provided independently for each of the communication units 45b to 45e. When each of the communication units 45b to 45e receives data, it notifies the CPU 41 that manages the priority of communication (data reception). The CPU 41 determines whether or not the data can be received based on the information indicating the reception received from the communication interface unit 45a. For example, when the first data is received after the next data can be received, the communication unit Command to open the input port. The communication interface unit 45 a receives data sent from a predetermined host device by opening one of the input ports of the communication units 45 b to 45 e in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 41, and sends it to a common data bus 49. Output. When data arrives first in any one of the plurality of input ports, the communication interface unit 45a starts taking in data from that port and continues to other ports until the end of taking in data. In a busy state, data reception from other ports is prohibited. The communication interface unit 45a performs such processing in accordance with instructions from the CPU 41. When the reception of data from one communication port is started, the CPU 41 secures a data transfer path through which the received data reaches the printing process until the end of the printing, and receives data from other communication ports during that time. The communication interface unit 45a is instructed to be prohibited. Further, the CPU 41 performs an interlock process for permitting or prohibiting data reception from the communication port.

  When the communication interface unit 45a receives a reception request from the host device or the CF-type communication card 13, the CPU 41 receives a notification to that effect from the communication interface unit 45a. Based on the communication information, the communication port availability And the communication port being received.

  The parallel communication unit 45b can receive data from the host computer (personal computer) HC through a communication cable via parallel communication. The BT communication unit 45c can receive data from the BT compatible mobile terminal BC by short-range wireless communication using radio waves in a predetermined standard frequency band according to a predetermined communication protocol. The USB communication unit 45d can receive data from a USB compatible device (not shown) according to a predetermined communication protocol. The slot communication unit 45e can receive data from the CF type communication card 13 or the CF card (memory card) inserted in the CF card slot 12. Each of the communication units 45b, 45c, 45d, and 45e can transmit a predetermined signal or data such as information necessary for communication with the host device or a signal for notifying the state of the printer 1.

  The CPU 41 controls the communication interface (I / F) 45, the ASIC 46, and the drivers 47 a to 47 c based on a control program stored in the ROM 42 and various application programs stored in the EEPROM 43. The CPU 41 outputs a command signal for operating a part of the printing mechanism to the ASIC 46 and instructs data transfer processing between the ASIC 46 and the RAM 44 and between various processing circuits inside the ASIC 46. The CPU 41 incorporates, for example, a DMA controller for transfer processing. Further, the CPU 41 drives and controls the paper feed motor M1, the carriage motor M2, and the cutter motor M3 of the cutter device that cuts the printed portion of the roll paper into a predetermined size via the drivers 47a to 47c.

  The ASIC 46 performs image processing on the data to generate print data, and drives and controls the plurality of piezoelectric elements PZ via the driver 47c based on a command signal from the CPU 41 and the print data. The RAM 44 includes a reception buffer 44a, a work memory 44b, an output buffer 44c, and the like. Data received through each of the communication units 45b to 45e is temporarily stored in the reception buffer 44a, data for performing a predetermined process is stored in the work memory 44b, and finally generated print data is stored in the output buffer 44c. Is done.

  The paper feed motor M1 is a motor for transporting the cut paper or roll paper P1 set in the automatic paper feeder 3 to the paper discharge port 7 via the printing position. The carriage motor M2 is a motor for reciprocating a carriage mounted with a recording head having a plurality of ejection nozzles in the main scanning direction. The piezoelectric element PZ is an element that is provided for each of a plurality of ejection nozzles provided in the recording head and ejects ink from the nozzles. The cutter motor M3 is a motor that drives the cutter device, and moves the cutting blade in the main scanning direction to cut the roll paper into a predetermined size.

  Further, the CPU 41 reads out menu display data stored in advance in the EEPROM 43 and transfers it to the display processing unit 9 b of the display device 9. The display processing unit 9b causes the display screen 9a to display a menu used for manually selecting the paper type, paper size, layout, photo selection, number of prints, and the like based on the menu display data. A “layout” is prepared for the menu item, and this “layout” is printed by specifying one or a plurality of images inputted for printing from a memory card or the like set in the card slot 12 on a sheet. This is a function for creating an image (printed state image). The EEPROM 43 stores a plurality of layout templates used for designating the layout. The display data of the print image created by this layout function is temporarily stored in the RAM 44. When the operation unit 10 is operated before printing, the CPU 41 reads the display data from the RAM 44 and transfers it to the display processing unit 11b. The print image is displayed on the display screen 11a.

Further, the CPU 41 inputs a signal based on the operation of each switch 10 a to 10 i provided on the operation panel 8 via the user I / F 48.
FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram for explaining data communication performed between the mobile phone and the printer via the CF type communication card and printing processing of the received data. Each functional unit shown in the figure is realized by a hardware circuit including various circuits, and a CPU that executes a communication protocol program, an application program, and the like.

  The card control unit 31 built in the CF type communication card (infrared communication card) 13 includes an IrDA communication circuit 61, an IrDA stack (IrDA protocol stack) 62, a file transfer unit 63, and an object transmission / reception unit 64. The IrDA communication circuit 61 includes hardware including a CPU and a communication circuit (both not shown), and corresponds to a physical layer in the communication layer. The IrDA stack 62 includes an IrDA communication protocol group and corresponds to a data link layer and a network layer. The file transfer unit 63 controls transfer of files received from the mobile phone 14 by infrared communication, and corresponds to a transport layer and a session layer in the communication layer. The object transmission / reception unit 64 performs data transfer control between two communication systems of IrDA communication performed with the mobile phone 14 and serial communication performed with the printer 1, and received data check, etc. Manage the necessary processing. The object transmitting / receiving unit 64 includes a portion corresponding to a presentation layer and an application layer for processing data from the file transfer unit 63, and a portion constituting a presentation layer to a data link layer including a serial communication protocol stack in an upper layer of the UART 33. Become.

  The file transfer unit 63 is a functional part constructed when the CPU in the CF type communication card 13 executes an OBEX (Object Exchange) (TM) program, and controls file transfer based on the OBEX specification. Specifically, a logical communication link with OBEX on the mobile phone 14 side is established and disconnected, and a restoration process for assembling packets sent after being divided into packets at the time of file transfer into an original file is performed.

  The object transmission / reception unit 64 has a corresponding extension storage unit 64a. When the printer 1 detects that the CF communication card 13 is inserted into the card slot 12 for the first time after the power is turned on, the object transmission / reception unit 64 receives the CF communication from the printer 1. The extension data sent to the card 13 is stored (set up) in the corresponding extension storage unit 64a. Further, the object transmission / reception unit 64 obtains a file name from the received data, and compares and refers to the extension and extension data in the file name, so that the received data is capable of printing for the printer 1. It is determined whether the data is print-compatible data. For details, read the file name “aaaa.bbb” in the header of the data, extract the extension “bbb” from the file name, and compare the extension “bbb” with the extension data. Judge whether or not. This reference comparison is not case sensitive. Then, the object transmission / reception unit 64 performs a data selection process that permits the reception of print-compatible data based on the determination result, but rejects the reception of non-print-compatible data. If the object transmission / reception unit 64 is print-compatible data, the object transmission / reception unit 64 transfers the object data and data with the file extension “bbb” (referred to as file extension data) to the printer 1 side.

  On the printer 1 side, a card driver 71, an IrDA UART driver (hereinafter referred to as a UART driver) 72, a data transfer unit 73, an IrDA profile processing unit (IrDA profile unit) 74, a text data raster processing unit 75, an image data raster processing unit 76 and a print engine 77 are provided.

  The card driver 71 and the UART driver 72 are configured by hardware and software including a driver circuit built in the slot communication unit 45e in FIG. The data transfer unit 73 is a functional part realized by the CPU 41 executing a communication protocol program. The IrDA profile processing unit 74, the text data raster processing unit 75, and the image data raster processing unit 76 are functional parts that are realized by the CPU 41 executing an application program. Further, the print engine 77 is a printing process comprising a software part realized by the CPU 41 executing an application program, an ASIC 46, drivers 47a to 47d, a paper feed motor M1, a carriage motor M2, a piezoelectric element PZ, a cutter motor M3, and the like. It is comprised from the hardware part which implement | achieves.

  When applied to the OSI reference model, the card driver 71 and the UART driver 72 correspond to the data link layer and the network layer. The data transfer unit 73 corresponds to a transport layer and a session layer, and the IrDA profile processing unit 74, the text data raster processing unit 75, and the image data raster processing unit 76 correspond to a presentation layer and an application layer.

  The card driver 71 is a communication driver that exchanges signals and data with the CF type communication card 13, and issues necessary instructions to the UART driver 72 based on instructions from the CPU 41.

  The UART driver 72 controls the communication operation of the printer side UART 34 built in the CF type communication card 13, and controls the printer side UART 34 based on instructions from the CPU 41 and the card driver 71, for example. When the UART driver 72 receives an interrupt request from the printer-side UART 34, the printer 1 opens the input port and starts to take in data unless the printer 1 is busy receiving data from the other communication units 45b to 45d.

  Further, the card driver 71 receives extension data from the CPU 41 and stores it in the setup data storage unit 71a during an initialization process executed by the CPU 41 when the printer 1 is powered on. Then, the card driver 71 reads the extension data stored in the setup data storage unit 71a based on an instruction from the CPU 41 that detects the electrical connection between the printer 1 and the CF type communication card 13 for the first time after the power is turned on. It transmits to the communication card 13. In this embodiment, “vcf”, “vnt”, “jpeg”, and “jpg” are set in the extension data as the extension of the print compatible file. The extension data sent to the CF type communication card 13 is set up on the CF type communication card 13 side by being stored in the corresponding extension storage unit 64a by the object transmitting / receiving unit 64. When the UART driver 72 receives a notification such as an error notification detected by the data transfer unit 73 and the IrDA profile processing unit 74, the UART driver 72 transmits a signal to that effect to the card control unit 31. The card control unit 31 manages the communication status indicating the data reception state by monitoring the data and signals received from the mobile phone 14 and the printer 1, and displays the display unit (LED ) Display control of 13b. The CF type communication card 13 notifies the sender of the data reception state by the lighting mode of the display unit 13b.

  When the data transfer unit 73 receives the object data and the file extension data sent from the object transmission / reception unit 64 of the CF type communication card 13, the data transfer unit 73 sends the file extension data to the IrDA profile processing unit 74. Judge whether it was received correctly. This determination is made according to a transmission control procedure in which a procedure for verifying whether or not the object data has been correctly received is programmed. The transmission control procedure includes a basic procedure and an HDLC (High Level Data Link procedure). In this example, a transmission control procedure in which the basic procedure is simplified is adopted.

  Here, the transmission control procedure in this example will be briefly described. The object transmission / reception unit 64 serves as a control station that transfers a message, and the data transfer unit 73 serves as a slave station that receives a message. In this transmission control procedure, the control station that transfers the message issues <ENQ> and establishes the data link by confirming the <DLE> <ACK0> response from the slave station. Once the data link is established, the control station then sends a message and confirms the <DLE> <ACK0 / ACK1> response from the slave station. If a data error is confirmed from the slave station, a <NAK> response is sent and a retransmission request is sent to the control station. If the message is transferred normally, the control station issues <EOT> and terminates. The message structure is in the format of “<DLE> <STX> message body (text) <DLE> <ETX> <CRC>”. If the message body exceeds 1024 characters, for example, the message structure is divided into 1024 characters. Framing is performed with the DLE> <STX> message division block <DLE> <ETB> <CRC> and the last message is set to “<DLE> <STX> message division block <DLE> <ETX> <CRC>”. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Code) is calculated by performing cyclic redundancy code calculation sequentially from the data following <STX> to <DLE> <ETX> or <DLE> <ETB>. Send immediately after ETX> or <ETB>. Examine <CRC> and if the calculation matches, return <DLE> <ACK0 / ACK1> to terminate the message transfer, otherwise return <NAK> and make a retransmission request. Note that the error detection method employed for error control is not limited to the CRC detection method, but may be a parity check method, a checksum, or a Hamming code.

  The data transfer unit 73 sequentially sends the data (the message body or the message division block) to the next IrDA profile processing unit 74 when the data can be correctly received by the transmission control procedure 73a. The object transmission / reception unit 64 is requested to retransmit the data. Receiving this retransmission request, the object transmission / reception unit 64 retransmits the data transmitted to the data transfer unit 73 immediately before. The data transfer unit 73 instructs the UART driver 72 to transmit an error notification signal to the object transmission / reception unit 64 when a timeout occurs without being retransmitted after the retransmission request.

  The IrDA profile processing unit 74 includes an extension identification unit 81, a number determination unit 82, a note analysis unit 83, a division processing unit 84, a text data format conversion unit 85, a template storage unit 86, an image data decoding unit 87, and a determination. A portion 88 is provided. The IrDA profile processing unit 74 is realized based on program data and various data stored in the ROM 42 or the EEPROM 43.

  The extension identifying unit 81 identifies the file format of the object data from the file extension data input from the data transfer unit 73. That is, it identifies the extension of personal information data (vCard file format), attached format image data (vNote file format), or image data (JPEG file). That is, if the file extension data is “vcf”, it is identified as “vCard file”, if “vnt”, it is identified as “vNote file”, and if it is “jpeg” or “jpg”, “JPEG file”. Identify. The extension identifying unit 81 then distributes the processing path of the object data sent from the data transfer unit 73 according to the identified extension. That is, if the extension is “vcf”, the extension identifying unit 81 sends the vCard file (personal information data) to the number determination unit 82, and if the extension is “vnt”, the vNote file (image data). Is sent to the image data decoding unit 87. Further, if the extension is “jpeg” or “jpg”, the JPEG data is sent to the image data raster processor 76. Here, uppercase and lowercase letters are not distinguished in the extension data.

  The number determination unit 82 determines whether the vCard file is a “single case” file including one piece of personal information or an “all case” file including a plurality of pieces of personal information. If it is determined that the file is a “single case” file, the vCard file is sent to the note analysis unit 83. If it is determined that the file is “all cases”, the vCard file is sent to the division processing unit 84. The determination result of the number determination unit 82 is “N = 0” for “single case”, “N = 1” for “all cases”, and the determination value N is sent to the text data format conversion unit 85. Sent.

  The note analysis unit 83 extracts and analyzes the text described in the Note area of the vCard file. When printing a single piece of personal information, it is possible to specify a print layout by describing a predetermined designated character in the note area, and whether or not a print layout is designated by the designated character is determined. Therefore, the description contents of the note area are analyzed. In the present embodiment, numbers (numbers) are adopted as designated characters. The reason for using numbers is that the number of characters to be written is small and the identification is easy. In addition to numbers, alphabets (for example, A, B, C,...) Can be adopted as designated characters. The note analysis unit 83 sends the specified character information M (for example, numbers M = 1, 2,... N) obtained as an analysis result to the text data format conversion unit 85.

  When the division processing unit 84 starts to sequentially input all the case files in units of message division blocks, the division processing unit 84 examines the contents of the data while storing them in a buffer (not shown), and divides the data by a predetermined number of times by extracting a delimiter for each case. To do. Then, the personal information data is sent to the text data format conversion unit 85 for the next processing for each of the divided predetermined number of cases. In this embodiment, the predetermined number of cases is set to one, and all data in the vCard file is sequentially divided into individual information for each case, while the division processing unit 84 converts the text data format for the next processing one by one. Sent to the unit 85.

  The text data format conversion unit 85 converts personal information data (text data) from the vCard format to the XHTML (Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language) format. However, before performing format conversion, whether the object data is in vCard format is analyzed to verify that the data is in vCard file format. For example, the presence or absence of properties (“BEGIN VCARD”, “N”, “SOUND”, etc.) that should be provided for vCard file format data is confirmed. If the data is not in the vCard file format, the data is discarded and the CF type communication card 13 is notified through the UART driver 72 that the data is incorrect. On the other hand, if the data is in the vCard file format, the object data is subjected to format conversion processing. The vCard file can also be of a type with an image attachment function by a mobile phone manufacturer. When it is analyzed that it is a vCard file with an image attachment function type, the attached JPEG image data is extracted and transferred to the image data decoding unit 87. As described above, the text data format conversion unit 85 analyzes and verifies in advance whether the extension is “vCard” but the contents of the data are also correctly in the vCard format. When the image data decoding unit 87 receives a vNote file of a type including text data described by the memo pad function, the text data format conversion unit 85 receives only the text data from the image data decoding unit 87. At this time, the contents of the data have already been verified by the image data decoding unit 87 and are not analyzed again.

  When performing the format conversion process, the text data format conversion unit 85 first reads a print layout template (hereinafter referred to as a template) described in the XHTML format from the template storage unit 86. In the template, a layout frame is specified by a tag description so that the value (text data) of each item (property) constituting the object data can be assigned to a predetermined position. By incorporating the value (text data) of the corresponding item (property) in the layout frame, the personal information in the vCard format is converted into the XHTML format with a template. In other words, the vCard file is originally a file format that does not have the concept of layout, but the format is converted from a file format (vCard) that cannot be defined to a layout format (XHTML) so that it can be printed with a predetermined layout at the time of printing. To do. A layout is defined by tags by using a template described in the XHTML format at the time of format conversion. The text data format conversion unit 85 sends XHTML data in which personal information is embedded in the template to the text data raster processing unit 75.

  On the other hand, the image data decoding unit 87 receives the object data in the vNote file format from the extension identifying unit 81, analyzes the contents of the object data, and verifies whether the data is in the vNote file format. For example, it is confirmed whether or not there is a property or the like that should be provided in the case of vNote file format data. If the data is not in the vNote file format, the data is discarded and the CF communication card 13 is notified through the UART driver 72 that the data is incorrect. On the other hand, if the data is in the vNote file format, the attached encoded image data is extracted, and if the text data described by the memo pad function is analyzed, the text data is transferred to the text data format conversion unit 85. To do. Then, a decoding program (Base 64) prepared in advance is activated to decode the encoded image data into JPEG image data. In this way, the image data decoding unit 87 analyzes and verifies in advance whether the extension is “vnt” but the contents of the data are also correctly in the vNote format. The image data decoding unit 87 sends the decoded JPEG image data to the image data raster processing unit 76.

  The text data raster processing unit 75 performs raster processing on the XHTML data received from the text data format conversion unit 85. This raster processing includes XHTML analysis processing, layout setting processing, color conversion processing, and binarization processing. First, in the XHTML analysis process, XHTML data is analyzed and decomposed into layout template information described in the XHTML language and personal information described in text. Then, the contents described in the XHTML language (tag) (the XHTML language (tag) of the layout template information is analyzed to calculate the allocation area of the personal information text (value of each property), and the calculated position coordinates of each allocation area In the layout setting process, the character code of the personal information text is converted into character data, and the obtained character data is assigned to an address determined from the allocation area specified by the template. The data is expanded as dot data, and after color conversion processing and binarization processing are performed on the expanded dot data, processing for rearranging the binarized data in the dot formation order at the time of printing is performed. As a result, if the XHTML data includes an image (address specification only), the image A transfer request is made to transfer the image data to the mobile phone 14 by designating the address data. When the image data is transferred from the mobile phone 14 in response to the transfer request, the layout is set for the entire image and text together. Therefore, when the text and the image are included, the layout in which the text and the image are arranged at a predetermined position is determined.Here, when the vCard data includes the image, the encoded image data is decoded. (Base 64) is necessary, but in this embodiment, the image data acquired from the mobile phone 14 is once sent to the image data decoding unit 87, and the JPEG data after being decoded by the image data decoding unit 87 is converted into a text data raster. The decoding process is indirectly performed by returning to the processing unit 75. As described above, when vCard data includes an image, only the address data of the image may be embedded in the vCard data as in this embodiment, or the image data may be embedded in the vCard data from the beginning. In the case of the configuration, it is possible to eliminate the transfer process for transferring only the image data later.

  The image data raster processing unit 76 performs raster processing on the JPEG image data. However, before the raster processing, JPEG data sent directly without going through the image data decoding unit 87 is analyzed to verify whether it is JPEG file format data. For example, the presence or absence of information that should be provided in the case of JPEG file format data is confirmed. If the data is not in JPEG file format, the data is discarded. On the other hand, if the data is in the JPEG file format, the process proceeds to raster processing. In this way, the image data raster processing unit 76 analyzes and verifies in advance whether the extension is “jpeg” but the data contents are also correctly in the JPEG format.

  The raster processing includes JPEG analysis and decoding processing, layout setting processing, color conversion processing, and binarization processing. In JPEG analysis and decoding processing, since JPEG image data is compressed image data, it is first decompressed into uncompressed image data. The multi-valued image data of the YCbCr color system (color system expressed using luminance (Y), blue color difference (Cb), and red color difference (Cr)) obtained by decompression is further converted to RGB color system. Convert to multi-value image data. In the layout setting process, an allocation area in which RGB color system multi-value image data is allocated on a sheet is calculated, and the image is assigned to an address on the work memory (image buffer) 44b determined from the calculated allocation area. Expand as dot data. After the developed image data (dot data) is subjected to color conversion processing and binarization processing, the binarized data is subjected to processing for rearranging in the dot formation order at the time of printing. The same processing is performed for the raster processing of the JPEG image after the layout setting processing in the text data raster processing section 75 described above. When text is included in the vNote data, the image data raster processing unit 76 performs layout setting processing for the entire text and image.

  The print engine 77 sets the CMYK binary image data (raster data) after raster processing developed on the work memory 44b as a set with a print command header to be a printer print command, and prints the print mechanism by the engine controller based on the printer print command. Is driven to print on the paper.

  The text data raster processing unit 75 and the image data raster processing unit 76 receive a CF type communication card in the printer 1 so that data in file formats (XHTML format and JPEG format) handled by the BT compatible portable terminal BC can be printed. It is an existing one that was provided before the method was adopted. In this example, minimization is achieved by diverting the existing part of the function part that needs to be added so that even the file data of the cellular phone compatible format received via the CF type communication card 13 can be printed. That is, by adding to the IrDA profile processing unit 74 a function part for converting data in a cellular phone compatible format (vCard format and vNote format) to a BT compatible format, each raster processing unit 75 is used for data processing after format conversion. , 76 is diverted.

  FIG. 6 shows a schematic configuration of an image processing apparatus that includes two raster processing units and a part of a print engine, and generates print data from data in XHTML format and JPEG format. This image processing apparatus mainly includes a CPU 41, an ASIC 46, a ROM 42, an EEPROM 43, and a RAM 44. However, part of the processing is realized by software that the CPU 41 executes a program. Of course, most of the processing is not realized by a hardware circuit, but more than half of the processing can be realized by software.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the ASIC 46 includes an interpretation processing unit 90, a JPEG decompressor 91, a YCbCr / RGB converter 92, a memory controller 93, an image processing unit 46a, and a print processing unit 46b. The image processing unit 46 a includes a color conversion processing unit 94 and a binarization processing unit 95. The print processing unit 46 b includes a command encoder 96 and an engine controller 97. A character generator 98 is built in the ROM 42. The EEPROM 43 includes a template storage unit 86 in a part of the storage area and stores a color conversion table 99.

  The memory controller 93 is a circuit that performs image processing for developing dot data including at least one of character data and image data on the work memory 44b and rearranging the pixel order of the developed dot data to the raster scan order. .

  In addition, the buffers (storage units) 75a and 76a included in the raster processing units 75 and 76 in FIG. Of course, those dedicated storage areas may be secured in, for example, SDRAM other than RAM.

<Raster processing of XHTML data>
First, the processing of the text data raster processing unit 75 that performs raster processing on XHTML data will be described. The text data raster processing unit 75 includes an interpretation processing unit 90, a memory controller 93, a character generator 98, a first buffer 75a, and the like.

  The ROM 42 stores character generator data (CG data) indicating a pattern of characters (characters, symbols, etc.) such as Japanese and English fonts, and a character generator 98 for converting the character code (character code) into CG data. Has been built. When a character code is given to the designated address, the character generator 98 reads CG data necessary for specifying the dot configuration (character dot pattern) of various characters. CG data is vector data. Here, the vector data is data representing the outline of the character or figure to be drawn. More specifically, the coordinates of the main points of the character or figure and the equation of a curve (for example, a Bezier curve) connecting the coordinates are expressed. It is described by the parameters that it contains.

  The XHTML data sent to the text data raster processing unit 75 is first transferred to the interpretation processing unit 90. The XHTML data includes character data that is a text in which personal information is described, and a template tag that describes a place where the text of the personal information is to be laid out.

  The interpretation processing unit 90 analyzes the description content of the XHTML data, layout data (address (Coordinate data in space) and the corresponding correspondence is converted. The character data includes a character code (for example, ASCII code) that specifies the type of character or symbol and modification information such as a font. The interpretation processing unit 90 passes the character data and layout data decomposed and converted from the XHTML data to the memory controller 93 together with information associated with each correspondence.

  The memory controller 93 performs vector font expansion processing for converting CG data (vector data) read by supplying character data to the character generator 98 into character dot pattern data (character dot data) of a predetermined character size. Further, the memory controller 93 expands the character dot data obtained by the vector font expansion processing to the vertical position and the horizontal position designated by the layout data (coordinate data on the address space) in the work memory 44b. Then, the memory controller 93 rearranges the developed pixel order into the raster scan order, stores it in the first buffer 75a, and then transfers it to the print processing unit 46b. Here, since the first buffer 75a is used for raster processing of XHTML data, its buffer capacity is relatively small (for example, 30 to 100 kilobytes).

<Raster processing of JPEG image data>
Next, processing of the image data raster processing unit 76 that performs raster processing on JPEG image data will be described. The image data raster processing unit 76 includes a JPEG decompressor 91, a YCbCr / RGB converter 92, a memory controller 93, a second buffer 76a, and the like.

  The JPEG decompressor 91 is a circuit that decompresses JPEG image data and converts it into YCbCr color system multi-value image data. The YCbCr / RGB converter 92 is a circuit for color-converting the YCbCr color system multi-value image data from the YCbCr color system to the RGB color system RGB multi-value image data. The following conversion formula is used for this color conversion.

R = Y + 1.40200 × Cr
G = Y−0.34414 × Cb−0.71414 × Cr
B = Y + 1.77200 × Cb
The memory controller 93 is a circuit that manages the RGB multi-valued image data received from the YCbCr / RGB converter 92 in the work memory 44b and performs image processing for rearranging the developed pixel order into the raster scan order. Here, in JPEG compression processing, the original image is divided into block regions of 8 pixels × 8 pixels, and predetermined calculation processing is performed in units of block regions. For this reason, the original RGB multivalued data converted from JPEG data passed from the YCbCr / RGB converter 92 is also arranged in the form of pixel data divided into 8 pixel × 8 pixel block areas. The memory controller 93 converts the array of pixel data sorted into the block area of 8 pixels × 8 pixels into a raster scan suitable for print processing (that is, for example, horizontal scan in the row direction from the left end to the right end of the image). , Scans that are repeated downward from the top row one row at a time). The memory controller 93 performs this rearrangement by developing each pixel data of the RGB multi-valued image received from the YCbCr / RGB converter 92 and writing it in the second buffer 76a according to the raster scan order. As a result, RGB multilevel image data in which pixels are arranged in the raster scan order is stored on the second buffer 76a. The memory controller 93 transfers the RGB multilevel image data in which the pixels are arranged in the raster scan order to the image processing unit 46a. Here, since the second buffer 76a is used for raster processing of JPEG image data, its buffer capacity is relatively larger than that of the first buffer 75a (for example, 3 to 10 megabytes).

  The RGB multilevel image data transferred to the image processing unit 46 a is sent to the color conversion processing unit 94. The color conversion processing unit 94 is a circuit that performs color conversion of RGB multilevel image data to CMYK multilevel image data. Further, the binarization processing unit 95 is a circuit that binarizes the CMYK multilevel image data into CMYK binary image data.

  The color conversion processing unit 94 reads the color conversion table 99 for color conversion from the RGB color system to the CMYK color system stored in the EEPROM 43, and refers to this to convert the RGB multi-value image data into the CMYK multi-value image. Convert to data. The CMYK multivalued image data is transferred to the binarization processing unit 95.

  Next, the binarization processing unit 95 performs binarization processing (for example, error diffusion processing or dither processing) on the CMYK multilevel image data, and converts this into CMYK binary image data. The CMYK binary image data is transferred to the print processing unit 46b. It should be noted that when the data transferred to the image processing unit 46a is subjected to predetermined processing such as enlargement, reduction, and rotation, the data is transferred to the CPU 41, and the predetermined processing is performed by software processing.

  Character dot data or CMYK binary image data rearranged in the raster scan order is transferred to the print processing unit 46b. These data are transferred to the command encoder 96.

  The command encoder 96 sets the character dot data or CMYK binary image data together with the command header of the printer print command from the CPU 41 as print data, and sends it to the engine controller 97. The engine controller 97 outputs a command signal for driving and controlling the piezoelectric element PZ to the driver 47d based on the print data.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram for explaining the flow of data processing from conversion of data received by a printer using a plurality of communication methods into print data until printing. As the communication method, only the memory card reading method, the BT communication method, and the infrared communication (IrDA) method are listed. The data received by these communication methods is handled in different file formats depending on the type of the transmission source device. However, the printer 1 is capable of printing regardless of the file format handled by each communication method. The memory card reading method is based on the premise that the image data taken by the digital camera is read from the memory card and printed, and the read data is JPEG data generally adopted by the digital camera. Data received by the BT communication method is XHTML data and JPEG data frequently used in a BT compatible mobile terminal BC such as a PDA. Data received by the infrared communication (IrDA) system is vCard format data and vNote format data adopted by the mobile phone 14. As described above, when the file format of the received data is different, different data processing is required for each file format before the print data is converted and printed.

  The printer 1 of this embodiment receives a print processing function that handles print data received from a printer driver in a host computer, a print processing function that processes image data (JPEG) read from a memory card, and a BT communication method. And a print processing function for processing XHTML data. In this embodiment, when the infrared communication method is adopted, the IrDA communication module is provided in the form of the CF communication card 13 by using the card slot 12 originally provided for the memory card so that it can be mounted in the card format. I have to. Accordingly, it is not necessary to change the shape design of the casing (main body case) of the printer 1 and the printer 1 casing can be used before and after the introduction of the infrared communication system. There is no need. In addition, the printer 1 only needs to add / change software such as the IrDA communication protocol and application. As a result, the IrDA communication function is added in such a way that the existing circuit is shared and the existing circuit is shared.

Hereinafter, a characteristic configuration of a printer in which only a simple configuration is added by sharing an existing configuration when an infrared communication method is introduced will be described with reference to FIG.
What was added when the infrared communication system was introduced was an IrDA communication comprising a CF-type communication card 13 set in the card slot 12 and an IrDA communication chip, a communication protocol, an application, and the like provided in the main body 2. It is the processing unit 120.

  As already described, the CF-type communication card 13 includes the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a, the IrDA communication circuit 61, the IrDA stack 62, the file transfer unit (IrOBEX) 63, the object transmission / reception unit 64, and the UARTs 33 and 34. The cellular phone 14 that transmits data to the CF-type communication card 13 by infrared communication has a similar communication layer structure, and includes an infrared light emitting / receiving unit 20, an IrDA communication circuit 121, an IrDA stack 122, a file transfer unit (IrOBEX) 123, and An application 124 is provided. The IrDA communication processing unit 120 includes drivers 71 and 72, a data transfer unit 73, and an IrDA profile processing unit 74. The IrDA profile processing unit 74 is constructed by software that converts data handled by the mobile phone 14 into a file format or data handled by another communication method.

  On the other hand, the components for realizing the memory card reading method include an image selection process including a slot communication unit 45e, an image data raster processing unit 76, a UI (user interface) for selecting image data stored in the memory card MC, and the like. Part (not shown). The image data raster processing unit 76 has a function of raster processing JPEG image data, and includes a decompressor 91 and a YCbCr / RGB converter 92 as already described with reference to FIG.

  Further, the components that realize the BT communication method are a BT communication unit 45c, a text data raster processing unit 75, and an image data raster processing unit 76. The BT communication unit 45c includes a BT communication circuit (physical layer) 125, a BT communication protocol stack (hereinafter referred to as BT stack) 126, a file transfer unit (OBEX) 127, BPP128, and BIP129 (both application layers). The BT compatible mobile terminal BC that transmits data to the BT communication unit 45c also has a substantially similar communication layer structure, and includes a BT communication circuit (physical layer) 131, a BT stack 132, a file transfer unit (OBEX) 133, a BPP 134, and a BIP 135 ( Both have an application layer). The text data raster processing unit 75 has a function of raster processing text data in XHTML format, and has an interpretation processing unit 90 and a character generator 98 as already described with reference to FIG. The JPEG image data received by the BT communication unit 45c is transferred to the image data raster processing unit 76 and subjected to raster processing. That is, since the BT communication method and the memory card reading method handle image data in the same file format, the image data raster processing unit 76 is shared for the raster processing.

  The XHTML data sent from the BPP 128 of the BT communication unit 45c is interpreted by the interpretation processing unit 90, whereby a character code and layout data are extracted. Of these, the character code is converted into a dot-pattern character pattern by the character generator 98. The converted layout data is used to determine the arrangement position of the character pattern when developing the image.

  On the other hand, the IrDA profile processing unit 74 of the IrDA communication processing unit 120 includes a text data processing unit (vCrad processing unit) 141 that mainly performs data format conversion processing from the vCard format to the XHTML format, and data from the vNote format to the JPEG format. An image data processing unit (vNote processing unit) 142 that performs format conversion processing. The text data processing unit 141 includes a number determination unit 82, a note analysis unit 83, a division processing unit 84, a text data format conversion unit 85, and a template storage unit 86. On the other hand, the image data processing unit 142 includes an image data decoding unit 87. The text data processing unit 141 converts the vCard text data into XHTML text data in a template embedded description format. In other words, the text data processing unit 141 converts the vCard text data that is a mobile phone compatible format into XHTML text data that is a BT compatible format, so that the text data raster processing unit 75 prepared for the BT compatible format data processing is displayed. Use. The image data processing unit 142 converts (decodes) the encoded image data in the vNote attached format into JPEG image data. In other words, the image data processing unit 142 is prepared for processing data corresponding to the BT compatible format and the memory card compatible format by converting (decoding) the encoded image data in the vNote attached format which is a format compatible with the mobile phone into JPEG image data. The image data raster processing unit 76 is used. As described above, the raster processing units 75 and 76 are commonly used for raster processing of each data in the BT compatible format and the mobile phone compatible format.

  The image data received by any of the above three communication methods is sequentially processed by the image processing unit 46a and the print processing unit 46b after raster processing, and print data based on the image data is generated. In addition, after raster processing of text data received by any of the above three communication methods, the image processing unit 46a and the print processing unit 46b sequentially process the print data based on the text data. Then, the print mechanism 145 is driven and controlled by the print processing unit 46b based on the print data.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the printer 1 includes an authentication code storage unit 151 and an authentication code management unit 152. The BT compatible mobile terminal BC and the mobile phone 14 are provided with a function for requesting an input of an authentication code on the display 18 when a transmission operation is performed to transmit relatively confidential information such as personal information. At this time, if the same authentication code as that registered in the data transmission destination device is input, authentication is performed when the communication link is established, and data transmission becomes possible. In the printer 1, when the authentication code is input by operating the operation unit 10 in the selected state of the authentication code registration menu on the operation panel 8, the authentication code is stored in the authentication code storage unit (in this example, a predetermined recording area of the EEPROM 43) 151. Remembered. The authentication code management unit 152 reads and manages the authentication code from the authentication code storage unit 151 when the printer 1 is turned on and whenever the authentication code is input by the operation unit 10 for updating, and the authentication code is also stored. The data is sent to the BT communication unit 45 c and stored in the storage unit 153 provided in the BT stack 126. The authentication code management unit 152 transmits the authentication card to the object transmission / reception unit 64 in the CF communication card 13 and stores it in the storage unit 154 when the CF communication card 13 is detected for the first time after the printer 1 is turned on. To do.

<OBEX data structure>
Next, IrDA communication performed between the mobile phone 14 and the CF type communication card 13 will be described.

  FIG. 9 shows the data structure of the OBEX specification used at the time of file transfer. The data DA includes an operation code OP, a header HD, and a data body DB. The operation code OP describes a command related to communication. “Connect”, “Disconnect”, “PUT”, “FPUT”, “GET”, “FGET”, “Abort”, “Response”, and the like are prepared as commands.

  “Connect” means a connection request, and “Disconnect” means a disconnection request. “PUT” is a data reception request, “FPUT” is a final data reception request (including the end of transmission data), “GET” is a data extraction request, and “FGET” is a final data extraction request (indication of reception data end). Means). “Abort” means abort and “Response” means response.

  In the header HD, information on the data body DB is described. The data body DB is data itself to be transmitted / received (transferred), and is usually divided into packets (blocks) having a predetermined size or less. In the case of this example, the object data transmitted from the mobile phone 14 to the printer 1 is divided into a plurality of parts and transferred when the data size exceeds a predetermined size. "Name", "Authentication", "filesize", "Bodylength", etc. are prepared. “Name” means a file name, “Authentication” means verification of qualification to access information, “filesize” means file size, and “Bodylength” means body data length. Since “Name” is described in the form of “file name.extension”, the “extension” of the file can be acquired by looking at the value of “Name”. In “Authentication”, an authentication code (pin code) that can verify the qualification to access information is described. The mobile phone 14 is set to require the input of an authentication code when transmitting all items of personal information registered in the phone book function or all items of personal information in a specified group. When all such data is transmitted, an authentication code is input to an input field required on the display 18 after the transmission button is operated. The input authentication code is described in “Authentication” of the header HD.

  As already described with reference to FIG. 8, the printer 1 is provided with an authentication code registration function. The authentication code is registered in the printer 1 by operating the operation unit 10.

FIG. 10 shows a transfer processing sequence for transferring data in the flow of mobile phone → infrared communication card (CF type communication card) → printer.
When a data transmission operation is performed with the mobile phone 14, an IrDA connection (physical connection) is first performed between the IrDA communication circuits 61 and 121 which are physical layers. An IrDA connection request is issued from the mobile phone 14, and the IrDA connection is established in such a manner that the CF communication card 13 responds to the request. Next, OBEX connection (logical connection) is performed. The mobile phone 14 transmits data having “Connect” as the operation code OP to request OBEX connection (logical connection), and the CF communication card 13 responds to this with data having “Response” as the operation code OP. An OBEX connection (logical connection) is established.

  When the logical connection is established, the file transfer unit 123 divides the file data into data lengths that are within the maximum allowable data length of the data body DB, and transfers the data in multiple divided blocks (frames). At this time, “PUT” is used as an operation code OP, and data DA in which a block is inserted in the data body DB is created and transmitted. Thereafter, after waiting for reception of data having “Response” as the operation code OP, the next data DA having “PUT” as the operation code OP is transmitted.

  The file transfer unit (IrOBEX) 63 on the CF-type communication card 13 side assembles sequentially received blocks to restore the data, and the restored data is transferred to the object transmitting / receiving unit 64. The object transmitting / receiving unit 64 transmits data to the printer 1 in units of blocks (frames) within a predetermined data size according to a transmission control procedure (basic procedure). At this time, the object transmitting / receiving unit 64 transmits the “name / extension” acquired from “Name” of the header HD together with the data.

  Thus, when the data transfer process proceeds and the last block (data) is transferred from the mobile phone 14, “FPUT” is described in the operation code OP, so the file transfer unit 63 sets the operation code OP of the received data to “FPUT ”Is recognized as the last block, that is, a data reception completion notification. In response to this, a disconnection request with OP code OP as “Disconnect” is sent from the mobile phone 14 to disconnect the OBEX connection (logical connection), and then the IrDA connection (physical connection) to disconnect the communication link. Blocked. Thereafter, the printer 1 generates print data from the received data, and printing is executed based on the print data.

  Note that if the mobile phone 14 is interrupted during data transmission, data having an operation code OP of “Abort” is transmitted to the CF type communication card 13. Also in this case, the communication link is cut off through the same sequence of IrDA disconnection and OBEX disconnection. In this example, the file transfer function from the printer 1 to the mobile phone 14 is not provided. However, when data having an operation code OP of “GET” is sent from the mobile phone 14 to the CF type communication card 13, the printer The printer 1 may be provided with a transfer function for transferring a file stored in one memory to the mobile phone 14.

<Sharing of authentication code>
As described above, in IrDA communication, an IrDA connection (physical connection) and an OBEX connection (logical connection) are established at the beginning of the communication, and an earlier authentication code is requested at the time of the OBEX connection. On the other hand, in the BT-compatible mobile terminal BC, the physical connection and the logical connection are established at the beginning of communication, but the earlier authentication code is requested at the time of the physical connection. The authentication code required for the two communication methods is pre-registered using the authentication code registration function of the printer 1 and is used in common by the CF communication card 13 and the BT communication unit 45c.

  Hereinafter, the authentication code registration function shared by the two communication methods will be described in detail. First, when registering an authentication code, “authentication code registration” is selected from the menu displayed on the screen 9a. Recognizing that the authentication code registration has been selected, the CPU 41 displays an input field on the screen 9a to prompt the user to input the authentication code. When the authentication code is input by operating the operation unit 10, the CPU 41 stores the authentication code in a predetermined storage area of the EEPROM 43 (authentication code storage unit 151 in FIG. 8).

  The authentication code management unit 152 shown in FIG. 8 is activated when the CPU 41 executes the authentication code management program stored in the ROM 42 in the initialization process when the printer power is turned on. The authentication code management unit 152 reads the authentication code from the authentication code storage unit 151 and stores the authentication code in a register, for example, for management. Upon receiving a code request from either the BT communication unit 45c or the CF type communication card 13, the authentication code management unit 152 transmits an authentication code to the request source. The BT communication unit 45c outputs a code request when the printer 1 is initialized, and the CF communication card 13 outputs a code request when it is electrically connected for the first time after the printer 1 is turned on. The authentication code management unit 152 reads the updated authentication code from the authentication code storage unit 151 and performs BT communication every time the operation unit 10 is operated to receive notification that the authentication code has been updated such as addition / deletion. To the unit 45c and the CF-type communication card 13.

  The BT communication unit 45c and the CF-type communication card 13 are provided with authentication code storage units 153 and 154 in the same layer as the communication layer that requires an authentication code during communication or in an upper layer thereof. In the BT communication unit 45c that requires an authentication code at the time of physical connection, for example, a storage unit 153 is provided in the BT stack 126. In the CF type communication card 13 that requires an authentication code at the time of logical connection, for example, the object transmission / reception unit 64 includes a storage unit 154.

  The BT communication circuit 125 makes an authentication code request to the BT stack 126 when an authentication code is required during physical connection, and the BT stack 126 transmits the authentication code to the BT communication circuit 125. The BT communication circuit 125 collates the received authentication code with the authentication code read from the storage unit 153. On the other hand, if an authentication code is added to “Authentication” of the header HD in the data received at the time of logical connection, the IrDA communication circuit 61 reads the authentication code from the storage unit 154 and collates both authentication codes. As a result of the verification, if the two authentication codes match, the reception of data is permitted, and if the two authentication codes do not match, the reception of the data is rejected. As described above, both the BT communication unit 45c and the CF-type communication card 13 acquire the authentication code from the authentication code management unit 152, and the authentication code registration function is also shared by BT communication and IrDA communication.

<Control of lighting of display part of CF type communication card>
Next, lighting control of the display unit 13b that notifies the data reception state will be described in detail. The display unit 13b of the CF type communication card 13 notifies the user of the data reception state from the mobile phone 14.

FIG. 11 shows the display control device of the display unit, and FIG. 12 shows the relationship between the communication status and the display mode (lighting mode).
As shown in FIG. 11, the display control device 158 includes a CPU 159 and a lighting drive control circuit 160 built in the card control unit 31, and lighting control (display control) 2 by the CPU 159 through the lighting drive control circuit 160 2. Two LEDs 161 and 162 are provided. The two LEDs 161 and 162 have different lighting colors (display colors), and in this example, the LED 161 can be lit green and the LED 162 can be lit red.

  The lighting control of the display unit 13b is controlled by the CPU 159 in the card control unit 31. The CPU 159 communicates with the mobile phone 14, the data check result determined by itself in the CF type communication card 13, a signal for informing the data reception state determined on the printer 1 side, and the like The communication status is grasped based on the current reception status. The CPU 159 writes the grasped communication status (bit data) in the register 159a. When the signal S corresponding to the communication stator is input from the CPU 159, the lighting drive control circuit 160 controls the lighting of the two LEDs 161 and 162 based on the signal S.

  As shown in FIG. 12, there are five types of communication statuses: “reception not possible”, “reception possible”, “receiving”, “reception completed”, and “error occurred”. The setting data SD indicating the relationship between the communication status and the lighting control content is stored in a predetermined storage area of the memory 32. The CPU 159 controls lighting of the two LEDs 161 and 162 in any one of five lighting modes while referring to the data DA based on the current communication status written in the register 159a. In this example, five lighting modes of “off”, “green lighting”, “green flashing”, “orange lighting”, and “red flashing” are set as lighting modes corresponding to five types of communication statuses. The orange color is generated by lighting the green and red LEDs 161 and 162 simultaneously.

  The relationship between the communication status and lighting status is “off” when “reception not possible”, “green” when “reception is possible”, “blinking green” when “reception”, “reception complete” The lighting control details are set so that “Orange light” is sometimes displayed, and “Error occurrence” is “Red blinking”.

  FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 explain how the communication status transitions, and show two transition examples. The only difference between FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 is that the transition destination status at the time of “reception completed” and “error occurrence” is different, “reception impossible” → “reception possible” → “receiving” → “reception completed” → “ The method of transition of “error occurrence” is the same. FIG. 13 shows an example in which an error always occurs when an error occurs, and the display unit 13b blinks red (error display). On the other hand, FIG. 14 shows an example in which no error is displayed on the display unit 13b when an error is displayed on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14, and an error is displayed on the display unit 13b only when no error is displayed on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14. is there. As shown in the figure, the display mode (lighting mode) of the display unit 13b (LEDs 161 and 162) changes due to the transition of the communication status. Note that the period of 3 seconds “after 3 seconds” in FIGS. 13 and 14 is a guideline that can be recognized by the user, and is not necessarily 3 seconds.

  First, a description will be given of the communication status transition from “cannot be received” to “reception completed” common to FIGS. When the printer 159 of the card control unit 31 does not receive a ready command output from the UART driver 72 when the printer 1 is in the initialization processing state or when the infrared communication is interlocked, “Reception” Set the communication status to “Not possible”. That is, the CPU 159 writes the bit data “cannot be received” to the register 159a. Here, when the ready command is not output, when the CPU 41 is in the initialization process that is performed immediately after the printer 1 is turned on and when the data reception by the other communication method is performed first, the data reception by the infrared communication method is performed. Is forbidden interlock. When the communication status is “unreceivable”, all the LEDs 161 and 162 are turned off, and the display unit 13b is turned off.

  Here, when the printer 1 is powered on with the CF type communication card 13 set in the card slot 12, the card driver 71 is expanded with respect to the CF type communication card 13 detected during the initialization process of the printer 1. Set up child data. On the other hand, when the CF-type communication card 13 is set in the card slot 12 after the printer 1 is turned on, the card driver 71 detects the CF-type communication card when the CF-type communication card 13 can be detected for the first time after the power is turned on. Set up extension data in the card 13. The CPU 41 starts the first interlock process only after the initialization process and the setup process are completed. As a result of the interlock process, the UART driver 72 outputs a Ready command to the card control unit 31 when the CPU 41 permits the release of the interlock.

  When the CPU 159 of the card control unit 31 inputs a ready command from the UART driver 72 after the reception preparation on the printer 1 side is completed in this way, the value of the register 159a is rewritten from “unreceivable” to “receivable” bit data. When the initialization process of the printer 1 is completed or the interlock is released, the communication status shifts from “reception not possible” to “reception possible”. When the communication status is “receivable”, only the green LED 161 is lit, and the display unit 13b is “green”. When the display unit 13b is lit green, the user is notified that the CF type communication card 13 is receivable.

  The CPU 159 maintains the communication status of “Receivable” while inputting the ready command. Then, when a PUT request is received from the mobile phone 14 while the display unit 13b is lit in green, a logical connection (OBEX connection) is established. When the CF-type communication card 13 starts receiving data, the CPU 159 rewrites the value of the register 159a from “receivable” to “receiving” bit data. The CPU 159 maintains the “receiving” communication status while executing the object data reception and transfer processing.

  The timing of switching to the “receiving” communication status is when a physical connection (IrDA connection), logical connection (OBEX connection (Connect)), or data transmission (OBEX PUT) starts. Any of these may be mentioned. When the status is “receiving”, only the green LED 161 blinks, and the display unit 13b is in the “green blinking” state.

  When the reception of the object data from the mobile phone 14 is completed, the CPU 159 rewrites the value of the register 159 a from “receiving” to “receiving complete” bit data. When the CF-type communication card 13 finishes receiving data, the communication status shifts to the “reception completed” communication status. This transition timing includes when the last PUT (FPUT) is received from the mobile phone 14, when the response (Response) is transmitted to the last PUT (FPUT), or when OBEX disconnection (Disconnect) (logical connection (Disconnection) data is received, or IrDA disconnection (disconnection of physical connection) is received. When the communication status is “reception completed”, the two LEDs 162 and 163 of green and red are turned on simultaneously, and the display unit 13b is in the “lighting of orange” state.

  When the CPU 159 detects that an error has occurred in the communication state in which data is received from the mobile phone 14, the CPU 159 rewrites the value of the register 159a with the bit data of “error occurrence”. When the communication status is “Error occurrence”, the LED 163 blinks and the display unit 13b blinks red.

There are two cases shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 as a method of notifying the user of the occurrence of an error by controlling the lighting of the display unit 13b.
Hereinafter, the state transition of the communication status will be described for each case.

  As shown in FIG. 13, for example, when the CF-type communication card 13 is inserted into the card slot 12 after the printer 1 is turned on, the initialization process is started. It becomes. When this initialization process is completed, the printer 1 is ready for reception and a ready command is output to the CF-type communication card 13, resulting in a communication status B of “Receivable”. Next, when data is transmitted from the mobile phone 14, the command at the start of data transmission is confirmed, and the communication status C becomes “receiving”. When the data transmission is completed, the command at the completion of the data transmission is confirmed, and the communication status D becomes “transmission complete”. When the communication status D is reached, when a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds) elapses thereafter, the communication status A is entered. Therefore, when the data transmission is completed, the display unit 13b is "lit orange" for 3 seconds and then turned off.

Here, the error contents when shifting from the communication statuses A, B, C, and D to the “error occurrence” communication status E will be described.
First, when shifting from communication status A to E, there are a case where initialization of the CF type communication card 13 fails and a case where initialization command transmission to the CF type communication card 13 fails. Examples of the initialization command include “Configuration”, “Setup”, and “Ready”.

  The transition from communication status B to E includes the case of failure of physical connection or logical connection, the case of unsupported file reception (extension check error), and the case of failure of the Setup command.

  When the communication status changes from C to E, the file transfer from the mobile phone 14 to the CF communication card 13 (IrDA communication) fails, and the object data transfer from the CF communication card 13 to the printer 1 fails (transmission control). Procedure). Furthermore, when the data of the corresponding file is abnormal (file data check error) and when receiving data from another communication unit is being printed (interlock has been released but other data is still being printed) ). For example, when a time-out occurs without receiving an FPUT, the CPU 159 (object transmission / reception unit 64) disconnects the connection with the mobile phone 14. When the printer 1 side times out without receiving the next packet, an error is issued and the connection with the mobile phone 14 is disconnected. After this connection is cut off, there is no way to notify the mobile phone 14 of the error, so the display unit 13b of the CF-type communication card 13 is flashed in red to notify the user of data transmission failure.

  The transition from the communication status D to E includes the case of data transmission failure from the CF type communication card 13 to the printer 1 (transmission control procedure) and the case of data error in the corresponding file (file data check error). It is done. When the communication status E is reached, when a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds) elapses, the communication status A is entered. Therefore, when an error occurs, the display unit 13b “flashes red” for 3 seconds and then turns off. Note that when the communication status B → E, C → E, D → E transitions, an error occurs while communication between the mobile phone 14 and the CF-type communication card 13 is established. Notification is made and an error is displayed on the display 18.

  Next, in the case shown in FIG. 14, the transition of the communication status A → B → C → D → E is the same as that in FIG. If an error occurs in each of the communication statuses B, C, D, if the error content is displayed as an error on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14, the communication status E is not transferred to the communication status A as it is. Transition. Therefore, when an error is displayed on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14, the communication status A is entered and the display unit 13b is extinguished on the assumption that no error notification is required by the display unit 13b. However, when an error occurs in the communication status D of “reception completed”, the fact that the error has occurred is not displayed on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14 whose communication link has already been interrupted. The process proceeds to E, and the error is notified to the user by blinking the display unit 13b in red. Also in this case, when the communication status E is reached, after a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds) has elapsed, the communication status A is entered. Therefore, when an error occurs, the display unit 13b “flashes red” for 3 seconds and then turns off. In FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the communication status E of “error occurrence” flashes red for 3 seconds. However, the holding time of red flashing is not set, and the status E that is flashing red is displayed. When the lock process is performed and the interlock is released, the status E changes to B, and the flashing from red flashing to green lighting is also possible.

  When the cancel operation is selected on the mobile phone 14, “Abort” is transmitted to the CF-type communication card 13. When this “Abort” is received, the reception of data is interrupted at that time, so that only halfway data exists and correct printing cannot be performed, so the data received so far is discarded. When this interruption is received, the display unit 13b may be turned off from blinking green, or may be blinked red as an error.

<Interlock function>
FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a data transfer path reservation process and an interlock process using a conceptual model.

  The figure shows the processing after the data received by the communication units 45b to 45e of the communication interface 45 from the host device (mobile phone 14, mobile terminal BC, host computer (HC)) finally reaches the print engine 77. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a mechanism for determining a transfer path for sequentially transferring the units, in which a stream pipe 149 realizes a switching function in which the CPU 41 exclusively selects one transfer path. The status of the processing units 74 to 76, etc., in which the data received by the communication units 45b to 45e is sequentially transferred until finally reaching the print engine 77, for example, the execution state of data processing (RUN), standby state (WAIT), ready state (READY), and the like to manage the current state of each processing unit 74-76, etc. Management unit 150 are provided.

  When the stream pipe 149 receives a transfer request from any of various processing units on the upstream side (reception unit side) including the IrDA profile processing unit 74, the stream pipe 149 manages the downstream side ( It is determined whether or not the transfer path can be secured based on the state of each of the processing units 75 and 76 located on the transfer destination side) and the print engine 77, and the transfer path is connected or disconnected according to the determination result. It has switches SW11 and SW12. The switch SW11 selects one of the plurality of transfer paths prepared for sending the XHTML data to the text data raster processing unit 75, which has received the transfer request first, while the switch SW12 is the image data raster processing unit. One of the plurality of transfer paths prepared for sending JPEG data to 76 is first selected for receiving the transfer request. However, when referring to the management contents of the status management unit 150, the various processing units 75 and 76 and the print engine 77 located on the downstream side including the raster processing unit 75 or 76 that is the transfer destination perform the data processing execution state (RUN ) (In other words, data processing is in progress) When the information indicating that the data processing is in progress, it waits without connecting the transfer path, and transfers when the data processing execution status (RUN) has been acquired. Connect routes.

  In other words, in the present embodiment, in principle, the setting is made such that reception and transfer of the next data is not permitted unless all the preceding data has been processed by the print engine 77. For this reason, when the stream pipe 149 accepts a transfer request for XHTML data, not only the text data raster processing unit 75 that is the transfer destination but also the print engine 77 is determined, and in principle, the status management unit 150 Only when information indicating that the print engine 77 has completed all the processing of the preceding data is obtained, the connection of the switch SW11 is permitted to secure the transfer path of the next data. Similarly, when the stream pipe 149 accepts a JPEG data transfer request, not only the image data raster processing unit 76 that is the transfer destination but also the print engine 77 is determined, and in principle, the state management unit Only when information indicating that the print engine 77 has completed all the processing of the preceding data is obtained at 150, the connection of the switch SW11 that secures the transfer path of the next data is permitted. However, an exception process that exceptionally permits connection of the switch SW11 or SW12 is prepared even when the print engine 77 is executing the process. This exception processing will be described later.

  Further, a module indicated by a switch SW21 in the figure is prepared, and the switch SW21 prints raster data obtained as a result of processing in each of the raster processing units 75 and 76 or received from the outside. It controls the selection (connection) of the transfer path when transferring to the engine 77. The switch SW21 is activated when one of the two switches SW11 and SW12 of the stream pipe 149 is connected, and data in which a transfer path to the raster processing unit 75 or 76 is secured by the connection of the switch SW11 or SW12. Then, a switching process (connection process) is performed to secure the transfer path so that it can be transferred to the print engine 77. The switch SW21 is configured to perform transfer path connection suitability determination and connection processing based on the management contents of the state management unit 150 when a transfer request for raster data is received from the parallel communication unit 45b or the HCRP 156.

  The exception processing performed by the stream pipe 149 is performed as follows in consideration of the connection state of the switch SW21. In the following description, the case where the stream pipe 149 receives a JPEG data transfer request and the case where the stream pipe 149 receives a XHTML data transfer request are described separately. First, when a JPEG data transfer request is received, the stream pipe 149 determines whether the second-stage switch SW21 located on the downstream side is connected to a state in which raster data from the image data raster processing unit 76 can be transferred. That is, it is determined whether or not a transfer path from the image data raster processing unit 76 to the print engine 77 is connected. When the switch SW21 is connected to a state in which raster data from the image data raster processing unit 76 can be transferred, at least the image data raster processing unit 76 has finished data processing (for example, ready state (READY )) Even if the print engine 77 is executing (RUN), the switch SW12 is exceptionally permitted to connect the next data transfer path.

  Next, when the XHTML data transfer request is received, the stream pipe 149 is connected to a state where the downstream switch SW21 located on the downstream side is capable of transferring raster data from the text data raster processing unit 75. That is, it is determined whether or not a transfer path from the text data raster processing unit 75 to the print engine 77 is connected. When the switch SW21 is connected to a state in which raster data from the text data raster processing unit 75 can be transferred, at least the text data raster processing unit 75 has finished data processing (for example, ready state (READY )) Even if the print engine 77 is executing processing (RUN), the switch SW11 is exceptionally permitted to connect the next data transfer path.

  When the stream pipe 149 receives a transfer request for XHTML data from any of the IrDA profile processing unit 74, BPP128, HCRP 156, and OPP (Object Push Profile) 157, the text data raster processing unit 75 and the print engine in the state management unit 150 are received. If the management contents of 77 are not in the process of data, the transfer path by the switch SW11 is connected. When the stream pipe 149 receives a JPEG data transfer request from any one of the IrDA profile processing unit 74, the BIP 129, and the OPP 157, the management contents of the image data raster processing unit 76 and the print engine 77 in the state management unit 150 are data. If processing is not in progress, a transfer path by the switch SW12 is connected. At this time, however, the stream pipe 149 also refers to the connection state of the switch SW21 in the state management unit 150. If the switch SW21 is connected to a state in which raster data from the raster processing unit 75 or 76 can be transferred, at least the raster pipe If the processing unit 75 or 76 has finished processing, even if the print engine 77 is executing processing, the switch SW12 is exceptionally connected to secure a transfer path for the next data.

  Note that the “transfer request” is a command used to secure a transfer path when receiving data. On the other hand, it is periodically determined whether or not the data can be received from the communication unit 45e. For this purpose, a “request command” is also prepared separately that is used when asking the stream pipe 149 whether or not the transfer path of the data from the communication unit 45e can be secured. When the transfer path of the received data cannot be secured, this request command is used in the interlock process described later, which is executed on the printer 1 side for the interlock that disables reception on the CF type communication card 13 side. It has become.

  The transfer path of data received by each of the communication units 45b to 45e of the communication interface 45 is uniquely determined depending on the type (vCard, vNote, XHTML, JPEG, etc.). For example, in the case of reception through IrDA communication, a transfer path that sequentially passes through the IrDA profile processing unit 74, the text data raster processing unit 75, and the print engine 77 is selected for vCard data. For vNote data, a transfer path that sequentially passes through the IrDA profile processing unit 74, the image data raster processing unit 76, and the print engine 77 is selected. In the case of reception by BT communication, a transfer path that sequentially passes through the BPP 128, the text data raster processing unit 75, and the print engine 77 is selected for XHTML data. For JPEG data, a transfer path that sequentially passes through the BIP 129, the image data raster processing unit 76, and the print engine 77 is selected.

First, a reservation process for securing a data transfer path will be described.
The stream pipe 149 secures a transfer path (stream pipe) up to printing at the start of data reception so that the data received by the communication units 45b to 45e can be processed smoothly without being interrupted by other data ( make a reservation.

  The securing of the transfer path is represented as a connection of switches SW11, SW12, and SW21 that select a path to the processing units 75 and 76 and the print engine 77 shared by a plurality of types of data in FIG. However, the switches SW11, SW12, and SW21 are modules that are realized by the CPU 41 executing a program prepared for securing a transfer path. When any of the communication units 45b to 45e receives data, the communication interface unit 45a notifies the CPU 41 of the fact, and opens a port of the communication unit when receiving a permission for reception from the CPU 41 as a response. Next, any one of the upper-layer processing units of the communication unit, that is, the IrDA profile processing unit 74, BIP129, BPP128, or HCRP156, analyzes the data received from the receiving unit and, for example, determines the data type from the extension ( Data type) is specified, and the specified data type is notified to the stream pipe 149. The stream pipe 149 secures a transfer path that matches the notified data type. The rule for securing the transfer path can be explained by switching the switches SW11, SW12, SW21. The switches SW11, SW12, and SW21 are connected so as to secure the data transfer path at the start of data reception, and the connection is not blocked in principle until the printing of the data is completed. For this reason, if one transfer path is occupied by a certain data, the transfer path is continuously occupied until the printing of the data is completed, and even if other data is temporarily received, a reception error is generated in principle. The switches SW11, SW12, and SW21 are connected only when it is necessary to secure a transfer path, and are disconnected when it is not necessary to secure a transfer path. For this reason, when both of the switches SW11 and SW12 are in the disconnected state, it can be determined that the data can be received from the communication unit.

  Interlock processing means that if the transfer path is occupied by the previously received data and it is determined that the transfer path cannot be secured even if the next data is received, reception is not permitted and the next data If it is determined that a transfer path can be secured, this is a process of permitting reception. This interlock process is a process for determining whether or not the printer 1 can receive data from the mobile phone 14 without causing an error, and is periodically executed by the IrDA profile processing unit 74. When the IrDA profile processing unit 74 determines that the data cannot be received as a result of the interlock processing, the IrDA profile processing unit 74 determines that the data can be received without outputting a ready command to the CF-type communication card 13 via the UART driver 72. At this time, a ready command is output to the CF type communication card 13 via the UART driver 72.

  The CF-type communication card 13 releases the interlock state by input of a ready command, shifts to a receivable state, and lights the display unit 13b in green to notify that “reception is possible”. Further, when the CF communication card 13 completes reception of data started to be received from the mobile phone 14 in a receivable state, the IrDA profile processing is performed almost at the same time when transfer of the received data to the printer 1 side is completed. Since there is no longer any ready command input from the unit 74, the state shifts to the interlock state and the display unit 13b is turned off to notify that “reception is impossible”. For this reason, the user knows that the data cannot be transmitted from the mobile phone 14 because the display unit 13b is turned off until the printing of the preceding data is completed. Nevertheless, the frequency of receiving errors decreases. The CPU 159 executes control of transition and release of the interlock state in the CF type communication card 13.

Here, there are the following rules for selecting a transfer route.
(1) Only the CPU 41 (including the stream pipe 149) secures a transfer path according to the requested data type. When any one of the communication units 45b to 45e is opened, one of the upper layer processing unit 74, BPP128, BIP129, HCRP156, and OPP157 identifies the data type from the received file extension, In order to perform necessary processing on the data specifying the data type, the stream pipe 149 is requested to transfer to the upper layer processing units 75 and 76 and the print engine 77. The stream pipe 149 secures a transfer path for data received from the port in order to transfer the data of the data type requested to be transferred from the request processing unit to the upper layer processing unit. In FIG. 15, a path is selected for each processing stage by the switches SW11, SW12, and SW21.

  (2) Once the CPU 41 secures the transfer path, in principle, the CPU 41 occupies the path until the end of printing the data. However, connection and disconnection of the route are performed in stages. That is, at the time of connection, the CPU 41 connects the transfer path in stages from the upstream side (communication unit side) to the downstream side (print engine side) as data is transferred. First, the first-stage switch SW11 or SW12 is connected, and then the second-stage switch SW21 is connected. On the other hand, when the transfer path is cut off, the second-stage switch SW21 is cut off after the print engine 77 finishes printing. The connection of the first-stage switches SW11 and SW12 is released after the connection of the second-stage switch SW21 is released.

  (3) For the first-stage switches SW11 and SW12, the processing section (next processing section) immediately downstream of the switches ends the process, and the connection of the second-stage switch SW21 is maintained. Switching is permitted on condition that the transfer path of the next data can be secured. That is, only when this condition is established, the next data transfer path is secured and reception is permitted even before the end of printing of the previous data.

The interlock process is performed according to the following rules.
The interlock process is periodically performed by the determination unit 88 of the IrDA profile processing unit 74 at predetermined time intervals (for example, several tens of milliseconds). The determination unit 88 determines whether or not the path is connected to the raster processing units 75 and 76 in the upper layer, that is, whether one of the switches SW11 and SW12 is connected to somewhere. When neither of the switches SW11 and SW12 is connected (that is, when both are disconnected), it is determined that the interlock should be released. On the other hand, when one of the switches SW11 and SW12 is connected, it further asks both the raster processing units 75 and 76 whether or not the raster processing is being performed. As a result of receiving the response, if neither of the raster processing units 75 and 76 is performing the raster processing, it is determined that the interlock should be released. In other cases, it is determined that the interlock should be performed. Specifically, the determination unit 88 sends a request command to the stream pipe 149 to obtain a determination result as to whether or not the transfer path from the IrDA profile processing unit 74 can be connected as a response. When the determination unit 88 obtains a response indicating that the transfer path can be connected from the stream pipe 149, the IrDA profile processing unit 74 instructs the UART driver 72 to output a ready command. The IrDA profile processing unit 74 is instructed not to output a ready command when a response indicating that the connection is not possible is obtained from the stream pipe 149. The determination unit 88 sends the determination result to the UART driver 72 via the data transfer unit 73. The UART driver 72 does not output a ready command when it receives a notification (ready command output stop instruction) indicating that it should be interlocked from the IrDA profile processing unit 74 (determination unit 88), while it should release the interlock. When a notice to that effect (ready command output instruction) is received, a ready command is output.

  However, since the interlock process is performed according to such a rule, the reception status of raster data that is not monitored by the stream pipe 149, for example, received from the host computer HC through the communication unit 45b is not monitored. . For this reason, for example, even if raster data has already been received from the host computer HC and data processing is in progress, the interlock may be released because this is not subject to monitoring. In this case, even if data is transmitted from the mobile phone 14 on the basis that the display unit 13b is lit in green, a reception error occurs on the printer 1 side. For this reason, it cannot be said that the interlock function is sufficient, but reception errors can be considerably reduced.

  For example, even if the first-stage switches SW11 and SW12 to be determined by the determination unit 88 are both disconnected at the timing after the print processing of the preceding data is completed, the received data from the other communication unit 45b is already at that time. There are cases where the switch SW21 in the second stage is switched to occupy the transfer path. In this case, the interlock is released, but the transfer path cannot be secured. If one of the first-stage switches SW11 and SW12 to be determined by the determination unit 88 is connected, the second-stage switch SW21 is also connected to the side that can secure the same path, and is usually a print engine. The transfer route up to 77 should be secured. However, even if one of the switches SW11 and SW12 in the first stage is connected and the raster processing of the raster processing units 75 and 76 is completed, if the print processing of the print engine 77 has already been completed, In some cases, other data has already switched the connection of the switch SW21 in the second stage. Even at this time, the interlock is released, but the transfer path cannot be secured. In these cases, the interlock is released and the display unit 13b is lit green, but a reception error occurs when the user transmits data. This is constructed by diverting the interlock function to the previous function by adopting a configuration that adds the IrDA communication function without changing the hardware (circuit) and software originally provided in the printer 1 as much as possible. Due to that. Of course, it is also possible to adopt a configuration that realizes an interlock function with no leakage that targets all communication methods. Conversely, the interlock process can be further simplified, and for example, the determination unit 88 can be an interlock process in which only one of the switches SW11 and SW12 is determined on the connection side.

  According to the rule for securing the transfer path of the present embodiment, the first switch SW21 that secures the transfer path for the preceding data is maintained while the connection of the first switch is maintained even before the previous data is printed. When the transfer path of the next data can be secured only by switching the switches SW11 and SW12 at the stage, the next data can be received. For example, if the raster processing in the image data raster processing unit 76 of the previously received vNote data is finished and all the raster data is stored in the buffer 76a, the interlock is released at that time. When the JPEG data is received from the communication unit 45c after the display unit 13b is lit in green by this interlock release, at this time, one of the switches SW11 and SW12 in the first stage is connected and the raster processing is completed. Furthermore, since the condition for securing the transfer path of the next data while maintaining the connection of the switch SW21 at the second stage is satisfied, the stream pipe 149 permits the reception of the JPEG data. That is, a transfer path for the JPEG data is secured. Therefore, even when the previous vNote data is just buffered in the buffer 76a after the raster processing, the next JPEG data can be received and processed even before printing. In this way, the combination of data types that allows the next data to be received and transferred before the preceding data print process is completed is not limited to the above example. For example, after receiving vCard data, the next XHTML data is received. It is the same even when the reception order of these two data is reversed. Further, if the conditions are met, it is possible to receive a plurality of next data sequentially before the printing of the preceding data is completed, and the number of next data that can be received at this time is the storage capacity of the buffers 75a and 76a corresponding to the raster processing units 75 and 76. And can receive a plurality of data as long as it can be buffered within its storage capacity.

  Normally, when a user wants to print a plurality of data, it is natural that the plurality of data is continuously transmitted. However, in this printer 1, the buffering capacity of the print engine 77 is limited. Thus, in principle, only one print is permitted, and the CPU 41 does not permit the reception of the next data until the end of one print. However, since the reception of the next data may be permitted even before the printing of the preceding data is exceptional, the interlock processing content (that is, the stream pipe 149) is matched to the condition when the exceptional reception is permitted. Setting details) is set.

  The interlock is not released under conditions where reception is not permitted, and the interlock is released under conditions where reception is likely to be permitted. Therefore, although the display unit 13b may be lit in green, a reception error may occur. However, if reception can be permitted even before the previous data is printed, the display unit 13b is lit in green and can be received. By avoiding the display unit 13b from turning off, the number of reception opportunities is increased as much as possible. When the user knows that the signal can be received by the green lighting of the display unit 13b, the user transmits the next data. At this time, the combination of the previous data and the next data that can be permitted to be received even before the printing of the preceding data is completed is selected from three combinations selected from the vNote and JPEG formats, and the vCard and XHTML formats. There are a total of six types of combinations with three combinations selected by two parties.

  Here, normally, the user can know that the next data can be transmitted when the printer 1 finishes printing. However, even when the data can be received due to the internal processing, the user can know by the green lighting of the display unit 13b. Can do. Therefore, since there is a notification by the display unit 13b, it is possible to avoid a situation of waiting for the end of the printing operation although it can be received.

  FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a program executed by the CPU 41 on the printer 1 side when a CF type communication card is inserted (set) into the card slot. Hereinafter, the processing content executed when the CPU 41 detects the CF type communication card 13 will be described.

  First, in step (hereinafter simply referred to as “S”) 10, it is determined whether or not the CF type communication card 13 has been inserted into the card slot 12 (that is, whether or not the CF type communication card 13 has been detected). If it is detected that the CF-type communication card 13 has been inserted into the card slot 12, the process proceeds to S20, and if it is not detected that the card has been inserted, the process is terminated.

  In S20, it is determined whether the card whose insertion has been detected is the CF communication card 13 or the memory card MC. If it is the CF type communication card 13, the process proceeds to S30, and if it is a memory card, the memory card is recognized and the process is terminated.

  In S30, the CF type communication card 13 is set up. That is, the card driver 71 is instructed to read extension data (reference data) from the setup data storage unit 71 a and transmit it to the object transmission / reception unit 64. As a result, the card driver 71 transmits the extension data to the object transmission / reception unit 64, and the object transmission / reception unit 64 that has received the data stores the extension data in the storage unit 64a.

Next, in S40, an interlock process is performed. That is, the processing described above with reference to FIG. 15 is executed.
In S50, it is determined whether or not the interlock can be released. If it is OK to release the interlock, the process proceeds to S60. If the interlock cannot be released, the process returns to S40 again. When the process returns to S40, the interlock process is executed every predetermined time until the interlock can be released.

  In S60, a ready command for releasing the interlock is output. Upon receiving this ready command, the card control unit 31 (CPU 159) sets a communication status A of “Receivable”, and the display unit 13b of the CF type communication card 13 is lit in green. The user grasps that the CF type communication card 13 is in a state capable of receiving data by looking at the green lighting of the display unit 13b.

<Unsupported data reception prohibition process with CF type communication card>
FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a program for prohibiting reception of unsupported data. This function of the object transmitting / receiving unit 64 is realized by the CPU 159 in the card control unit 31 executing the program shown in this flowchart.

In S110, data is received from the mobile phone 14.
In S120, the extension is extracted from the received data. That is, the extension is extracted from the file name in “Name” in the header HD of the received data DA (see FIG. 10).

  In S130, the corresponding extension (extension data) stored (setup) in the storage unit 64a (shown in FIG. 6) is read. The corresponding extension is an extension of data (corresponding data) that can be printed by the printer 1.

  In S140, it is determined whether the received data is corresponding data. That is, the extension acquired from the received data in S120 is compared with the corresponding extension read from the storage unit 64a in S130. In the present embodiment, “vcf”, “vnt”, “jpeg”, “jpg” set as corresponding extensions are compared with the extensions extracted from the received data, and if the two match, the received data is the corresponding data. If it is determined that there is no match, it is determined that the received data is unsupported data. As a result of the determination, if the received data is corresponding data (if the extension matches the corresponding extension), the process proceeds to S150. On the other hand, if the received data is unsupported data (the extension does not match the corresponding extension). In the case), the process proceeds to S160.

In S150, the received data is transferred to the printer 1.
In S160, the LED 162 (shown in FIG. 11) of the display unit 13b is controlled to blink to notify the occurrence of an error. That is, the display unit 13b blinks red.

In S170, an error message indicating that the received data cannot be handled is transmitted to the mobile phone 14. As a result, a message indicating a reception error is displayed on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14.
18 to 22 are examples illustrating a sequence of the interlock process. Note that FIGS. 18 to 20 also illustrate unacceptable data reception prohibition processing performed by the CF communication card. In the following description of the interlock process, transfer of XHTML data is performed for the exception process described in FIG. 16, that is, for the exception process in which the print engine 77 permits the reception of the next data even before the process of the previous data is completed. An example will be described in which the present invention is not applied to the switch SW11 that is activated when requested, but is applied only to the switch SW12 that is activated when a JPEG data transfer is requested.

  The method of releasing the interlock that permits reception of the next data differs depending on whether the data received first by the printer 1 is vCard data or vNote data or JPEG data. 18 is an example in which vCard data is transmitted first, and FIGS. 19 and 20 are examples in which vNote data or JPEG data is transmitted first. FIG. 20 shows an example in which reception is possible if the next data is vNote data or JPEG data even while the previous data is being printed. 21 and 22 illustrate other interlock processing.

First, based on FIG. 18, an interlock process and an unsupported data reception prohibition process when vCard data is received first will be described.
First, when the printer 1 is powered on, extensions (extension data) “vcf”, “vnt”, “jpeg”, and “jpg” corresponding to the CF type communication card (infrared communication card) 13 are set up from the printer 1. Thereafter, the printer 1 performs a process for determining whether or not reception from the CF-type communication card 13 is permitted (hereinafter referred to as an interlock release process), and may permit the reception (that is, the interlock state is changed). If it is determined that it can be canceled, a ready command is output from the printer 1 to the CF-type communication card 13. When the CF type communication card 13 receives a ready command, the CF type communication card 13 is released from the interlock state and becomes ready for reception. The display unit 13b that has been extinguished until the interlock state is released lights up in green.

  Then, it is assumed that vCard data having an extension of “vcf” is transmitted from the mobile phone 14 as corresponding data. Then, the CF communication card 13 that has received this compares the extension “vcf” of the data with the set-up extension data “vcf” “vnt” “jpeg” “jpg”. Since there is a combination that matches both, the CF communication card 13 receives the data and transfers it to the printer 1. While this data is being received, the display unit 13b blinks in green. When data reception is completed over several tens of seconds to one minute, the display unit 13b turns orange, and a notification of reception completion (reception completion signal) is sent from the CF type communication card 13 to the mobile phone 14, The CF type communication card 13 enters the interlock state. In this example, since communication between the mobile phone 14 and the CF communication card 13 and communication between the CF communication card 13 and the printer 1 are asynchronous, reception from the printer 1 to the CF communication card 13 is completed after a while. Is notified. Thereafter, the printer 1 performs printing.

  When the printer 1 receives vCard data, the printer 1 outputs a ready command after printing. Therefore, since the CF type communication card 13 is in the interlocked state when the printer 1 is executing printing, an error signal is transmitted from the CF type communication card 13 to the mobile phone 14 even if the corresponding data is sent from the mobile phone 14. Is done.

  Thereafter, when printing is completed and a ready command is output from the printer 1 to the CF type communication card 13, the interlock state is released. When unsupported data having an extension other than “vcf”, “vnt”, “jpeg”, and “jpg” is transmitted from the mobile phone 14, the CF type communication card 13 that has received the data transmits the extension and extension data of the data. Compare with reference. For example, in the case of unsupported data having unsupported extensions such as “txt” and “mpeg”, as a result of the reference comparison, all combinations of the two do not match. And an error signal is transmitted to the mobile phone 14. At this time, the display unit 13b blinks red. In this way, unsupported data is discarded in the CF type communication card 13 and is not transferred to the printer 1. Therefore, the unsupported data does not occupy the communication port of the slot communication unit 45e used when data is transferred to the printer 1, so that it is possible to avoid the reception of data at the communication port of another communication method.

Next, based on FIG. 19, an interlock process and an unsupported data reception prohibition process when vNote or JPEG data is received first will be described.
Corresponding extensions (extension data) “vcf”, “vnt”, “jpeg”, and “jpg” are set up from the printer 1 to the CF type communication card (infrared communication card) 13. The communication card 13 is released from the interlock state and can be received. As a result, the display unit 13b that has been extinguished until then lights up in green.

  Then, it is assumed that vNote or JPEG data having extensions “vnt”, “jpeg”, and “jpg” is transmitted from the mobile phone 14 as corresponding data. Then, the CF type communication card 13 that has received the data sets the extension “vnt” (or “jpeg” “jpg”) of the data and the extension data “vcf” “vnt” “jpg” “jpg” set up. Compare reference. Since there is a combination that matches both, the CF communication card 13 receives the data and transfers it to the printer 1. While this data is being received, the display unit 13b blinks in green. When data reception is completed over several tens of seconds to one minute, the display unit 13b turns orange, and a notification of reception completion (reception completion signal) is sent from the CF type communication card 13 to the mobile phone 14, The CF type communication card 13 enters the interlock state. After a while, the printer 1 notifies the CF type communication card 13 that the reception has been completed. If the printer 1 receives vNote or JPEG data having any of the extensions “vnt”, “jpeg”, or “jpg” after notifying that the reception is completed, the CF 1 is processed when the raster processing of the corresponding data is completed. A ready command is output to the communication card 13. That is, the ready command is output after the end of printing when the vCard data described in FIG. 18 is transmitted, whereas the ready command is output at the end of the raster process when vNote or JPEG data is transmitted. Thereafter, the printer 1 performs printing.

  Therefore, when the printer 1 is executing printing, the CF communication card 13 is released from the interlock state and is in a communicable state. However, only vNote or JPEG data is permitted to be received during execution of printing. For example, when vCard data is transmitted from the mobile phone 14, the CF type communication card 13 that receives the vCard data refers to and compares the extension “vcf” of the data with the extension data. As a result of the reference comparison, there is a combination in which both match, so the vCard data is received and transferred to the printer 1. When the printer 1 receiving the vCard data recognizes that it is vCard data from the extension “vcf”, it outputs an error signal to the CF type communication card 13 because it is an unacceptable data type.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 20, when vNote or JPEG data having any of the extensions “vnt”, “jpeg”, or “jpg” is received during the printing, the printer 1 receives this. The process according to the data type is advanced. When receiving the vNote or JPEG data, the printer 1 transmits a reception completion message to the CF-type communication card 13, and then outputs a ready command to the CF-type communication card 13 when the raster processing of the received data is completed. . However, since the IrDA profile processing unit 74 that performs the interlock processing in the printer 1 can manage only a part of the communication units that receive the data processed by the raster processing units 75 and 76, the data received from the other communication units May already be accepted even if it is vNote or JPEG data.

  When communication from the CF-type communication card 13 to the printer 1 occurs, the CF-type communication card 13 automatically shifts to the interlock state when the data reception is completed. However, if the connection process between the CF-type communication card 13 and the printer 1 fails, no transition is made. Hereinafter, this type of example will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 21, when the corresponding data is transmitted from the mobile phone 14, the CF communication card 13 transmits the transfer end control code <EOT> to the printer 1 when all the data has been transferred to the printer 1. To do. In response to this <EOT>, the data link is released by receiving an affirmative response <DLE> <ACK0> from the printer 1. If a time-out occurs without receiving an affirmative response <DLE> <ACK0> from the printer 1 to <EOT> as shown in the figure, the CF-type communication card 13 transmits an error signal to the mobile phone 14. Thus, only when the data link is not correctly released due to timeout, the communication state is maintained instead of the interlock state. Therefore, if data reception fails due to time-out, the data is received by the CF-type communication card 13 if the data is subsequently transmitted again from the mobile phone 14.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 22, when an affirmative response <DLE> <ACK0> to the transfer end control code <EOT> is received from the printer 1, after the communication is completed (data link is released), the CF type communication card 13 shifts to an interlock state.

<Conflict avoidance process during IrDA and BT communication>
Next, a conflict avoidance process for avoiding communication conflict between the infrared communication method using the CF communication card 13 and another communication method will be described.

  FIG. 23 is a sequence illustrating an example of a conflict avoidance process with another communication method. In this figure, an example of avoiding a conflict between data reception by infrared communication and data reception by the BT communication method is shown, but the same is basically true when a conflict with other communication methods is avoided.

  By the way, the card slot 12 has an opening shape that can be inserted simultaneously if it is a memory card of another type (for example, SD (TM) type) different in size from the CF type memory card. For this reason, even when the CF communication card 13 is set, a memory card of a format other than the CF type can be simultaneously inserted into the card slot 12. In this case, reception of the CF type communication card 13 is validated even if a memory card is set. That is, when the CPU 41 detects both the CF communication card 13 and the memory card, the CPU 41 also enables reception of the CF communication card 13. However, reception of the CF type communication card 13 is invalidated while data is being read from the memory card. In this respect, the processing basically performed is the same when data reception competes with a communication unit of another communication method.

As an example of contention avoidance processing with other communication methods, processing for avoiding data reception contention between the infrared communication method and the BT communication method will be described.
In FIG. 23, it is assumed that data is first transmitted from the mobile phone 14 to the infrared communication card (CF type communication card) 13. The CF type communication card 13 transfers the received data to the printer 1. The printer 1 receives this data over a necessary predetermined time (for example, several tens of seconds to 1 minute). When the data reception is completed, the printer 1 notifies the CF type communication card 13 that the reception has been completed. The CF type communication card 13 notifies the mobile phone 14 that the reception has been completed. The mobile phone 14 displays the completion of reception, and the user can confirm that the data has been transmitted to the printer 1.

  The printer 1 converts the data received from the mobile phone 14 into print data, and executes printing. After all the received data is converted into print data, printing is started, and when all the data is printed out, the printing ends.

  On the other hand, the mobile terminal BC having the BT communication function on the right side transmits data to the BT communication unit 45c later than the mobile phone 14. In this case, the IrDA communication port on the printer 1 side is opened, and the other BT communication unit 45c, USB communication unit 45d, and parallel communication unit 45b are in a busy state, so data is not accepted. At this time, a reception rejection notification is transmitted from the BT communication unit 45c to the portable terminal BC. The reception refusal is displayed on the portable terminal BC, and the user can recognize the failure of data transmission.

  After the printing of the received data from the mobile phone 14 is completed, when the data is transmitted again from the mobile terminal BC to the BT communication unit 45c, the communication interface unit 45a in the printer 1 opens the port of the BT communication unit 45c and performs other communication. Make the port busy. Therefore, even if data is transmitted by infrared communication from the mobile phone 14 to the printer 1 that is receiving data from the mobile terminal BC, the mobile phone 14 is notified of the reception refusal. Data received from the portable terminal BC is processed in the printer 1 and the contents of the data are printed.

  Basically, when data reception by another communication method such as the parallel communication unit 45b, the USB communication unit 45d, and the serial communication unit (not shown) competes with the data reading from the memory card in the slot communication unit 45e. Are processed in the same sequence.

  FIG. 24A shows a notification image that displays the communication state on the screen 9 a of the operation panel 8 of the printer 1. FIG. 2B shows four frames constituting a moving image. When in the data receiving state, it is also displayed on the screen of the operation panel 8 in addition to the display unit 13 b of the CF type communication card 13.

  The CPU 41 manages the communication status, and the communication status is displayed on the screen 9 a of the operation panel 8. There are five types of communication statuses notified by the lighting control on the display unit 13b: reception is impossible, reception is possible, reception is in progress, reception is completed, and reception errors. On the character displayable screen 9a, these character strings In addition to the display, a reception error is notified by distinguishing up to the error content (by error cause).

  As shown in the screen 9a in FIG. 9A, when data is being received, a moving image MG1 and text TX1 indicating that data is being received are displayed. The data of the moving image MG1 and the text TX1 is stored in the EEPROM 43. The text TX1 is displayed, for example, “Data is being received”.

  As shown in FIG. 24B, the moving image MG includes four frames G1 to G4, and the CPU 41 generates the moving image MG by sequentially displaying the images G1 to G4 at predetermined time intervals. .

  The CPU 41 can confirm the data reception when it reaches the IrDA profile processing unit 74. When the data reception is confirmed, the CPU 41 displays the moving image MG1 and the text TX1 in FIG. 24A on the screen 9a. To notify the user of the data reception state. The user can check the data reception state on either the display unit 13b of the CF-type communication card 13 or the screen 9a of the printer 1.

  In addition, when the communication status is a reception error, for example, the screen 9a shown in FIG. 24 is changed to “Data is being received” instead of “Data of this extension cannot be handled” “Extension and data match. Notify "and specify the type of error, such as" Communication has been lost ".

  Further, the communication status information can be transferred from the CPU 159 on the CF type communication card 13 side to the CPU 41 on the printer 1 side, and a notification image corresponding to the communication status can be displayed on the screen 9a. Of course, the CPU 41 can manage the communication status and display the notification moving image MG and text TX on the screen 9a. In this case, a moving image MG1 and text TX1 indicating the data reception state are displayed.

  Further, when printing is started, the CPU 41 displays a notification image AG2 shown on the screen 9a in FIG. In the notification image AG2, a moving image MG2 and a text TX2 are displayed.

<Data processing on the printer side>
Next, processing of data transferred from the CF type communication card 13 to the main body 2 side of the printer 1 will be described. The processing on the printer side mainly includes (A) a distribution process according to the type of data, (B) a determination process for single or all cases of personal information data, and (C) a division of all case data for personal information. There are a transmission process, (D) business card layout printing of personal information data, and (E) telephone book layout printing of personal information data.

  First, a process from conversion of received data into a file format that can be handled by a processing circuit such as an ASIC to generation of data with a designated layout will be described. First, the data structure of the vCard file will be described.

<Single data of vCard>
25, 26 and 27 show an example of personal information data in the vCard file format. Here, FIG. 25 and FIG. 26 show single data of vCard, FIG. 25 is data of only personal information (text), and FIG. 26 is data with an image. FIG. 27 shows all vCard data.

  As shown in FIG. 25, the single data MD1 in the vCard format starts with “BEGIN: VCARD” and ends with “END: VCARD”. Each item of personal information as described below is described in the “property: value” format between the “BEGIN: VCARD” and “END: VCARD” using properties and values. A property points to an item, and a value points to the specific content that should be placed in that item. Properties include “N (name)”, “SOUND (phonetic)”, “TEL (phone number)”, “EMAIL (email address)”, “ADR (address)”, “NOTE (memo)”, etc. Provided (however, parentheses are descriptions of properties).

  First, the name of another person is described in the value of the property “N”. For example, when starting a vCard compatible phone book application (new registration) and entering “Taro Yamada” in the name input field displayed on the screen, “N: Taro Yamada” is described. Similarly, the name of the name is described in the value of the property “SOUND”.

  Although the telephone number is described in the property “TEL”, the following can be specified by adding a command (hereinafter referred to as TYPE designation). The office telephone number is described in the value of “TEL; WORK; VOICE:”, and the office FAX number is described in the value of “TEL; WORK; FAX:”. When “WORK” is replaced with “HOME”, a home phone number is described. A mobile phone number is described in the value of “TEL; CELL:”. In addition, various TYPE designations can be made by selecting a cellular phone number registration icon, and thus various telephone numbers can be designated. In the value of “TEL; X-ABC-MAIN; VOICE:” on the seventh line in FIG. 25, the telephone number of “representative” is described. There is also a property that describes the phone number of “School”. In addition, various identification TYPE commands are prepared.

  An e-mail address is described in the value of the property “EMAIL”. Similarly to the “TEL” command, the “EMAIL” command can specify a plurality of e-mail addresses by specifying “TYPE” after “EMAIL”. In the example of FIG. 25, the value of “EMAIL; WORK:” is the company's e-mail address, the value of “EMAIL; CELL:” is the e-mail address of the mobile phone, and the value of “EMAIL: INTERNET:” is set. Is an Internet e-mail address.

  An address is described in the value of the property “ADR”. “ADR” can also specify a company address, a home address, etc. by specifying TYPE such as “WORK” and “HOME”.

  The value of the property “NOTE” describes the contents of the memo. In the present embodiment, a function for setting a print layout for the printer 1 is provided by inputting a designated character into a memo and describing the designated character in a “NOTE” value.

<All data of vCard>
As shown in FIG. 27, the vCard all case data AD includes a plurality of pieces of personal information, and each piece of personal information starts with “BEGIN: VCARD” and ends with “END: VCARD”. Each item constituting one piece of personal information is described in the “property: value” format between “BEGIN: VCARD” and “END: VCARD”.

  Therefore, as can be seen from the figure, “END: VCARD” is described every time one piece of data ends. When transmitting personal information data from the mobile phone 14, the user can select “single” or “all”. The printer 1 determines a print layout to be applied depending on whether the received vCard file is “single” or “all”. In the present embodiment, in order to identify whether the vCard file is “single case” or “all cases”, a command or property that is always described in the personal information data and that is described only once per case is represented by the number of cases. Adopt as discriminator CS. Of course, a command or property described in a fixed number for each case may be used. For example, since “VCARD” is described twice for each case, a single case is adopted if the count value is “2”, and “all cases” is judged if the count value is “4 or more”. You can also

  In the present embodiment, “END: VCARD” is adopted as the number discriminator CS. The number determination unit 82 of the IrDA profile processing unit 74 determines whether the personal information data is a single case or all cases (including all cases in the group in the case of group designation). Specifically, the CPU 41 counts the number discriminator “END: VCARD” included in the data by the counter, and determines whether the received vCard file is “single” or “all” based on the counted value. That is, when the count value is “1”, the determination value (for example, flag) N is reset to “N = 0”, and when the count value is “2 or more”, the determination value N is set to “N = 1”. .

  In the case of all files, the IrDA profile processing unit 74 does not receive all the data and then sends it to the text data format conversion unit 85. The data is sent to the text data format conversion unit 85 of the next processing unit by a predetermined number. This processing is performed by the division processing unit 84. The delimiter for each item in the data is determined by looking at the category identifier DS. In this example, “END: VCARD” is adopted as the classification identifier DS.

  Specifically, after the data transfer unit 73 checks whether or not the data is correctly received in the transmission control procedure 73a, the CPU 41 determines “END: VCARD” which is the segment identifier DS for the data (same as the number discriminator CS in this example). Is counted by a counter, and the number of received personal information is counted from the counted value. Each time a predetermined number of pieces of personal information are buffered in the reception buffer 44a of the RAM 44, the CPU 41 sends the data in the reception buffer 44a to the text data format conversion unit 85 for the next process. Specifically, the CPU 41 executes the next text data format conversion process every time a predetermined number of pieces of data are buffered. The classification identifier DS may be the last property for each case.

<Business card printing template>
FIG. 28 shows an example of template format data of a print layout applied when personal information data is printed.

  The print layout (print format) of the vCard file depends on the template format data stored in the EEPROM 43 in the printer 1. The template format data is print layout data described in the XHTML format. The XHTML data is divided into three areas, field, comment tag, and property, for each item (each line in the figure) between <body> and </ body>.

  The field is a data area such as a character string printed as a title in a business card such as “name” and “phone number” in FIG. Prescribed titles necessary for a business card such as “name” and “phone number” are described in advance in the field of the template format data LT1.

  The comment tag is an instruction for designating the print position, font, character size, etc. of each property value in the vCard format file (for example, if the property is “N”, that value is “Taro Yamada”). The value is embedded immediately after the comment tag "<!-->". There is also a method of replacing the comment tag “<!-->” With a value.

  The property is data in vCard format, and is an instruction for designating the print position, font, character size, etc. of the data designated by TYPE. Immediately after the property “<>”, data specified by TYPE, for example, a character string such as “WORK” or “CELL” is incorporated. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 25, only one comment tag is included in data that is not subject to TYPE designation, such as name or reading, for each piece of personal information. On the other hand, a property is added to a comment tag in an area in which data that can be specified by TYPE such as a telephone number or an electronic mail is described. Note that fonts and character sizes are not specified in the comment tags and properties in FIG.

<Format conversion to template format>
FIG. 30 shows template format data LD after the personal information data of FIG. 25 is applied to the template format data LT1 for business card printing of FIG. In the personal information data of FIG. 25 (personal information displayed as shown in FIG. 4B on the display of the mobile phone), the specified value (and property) is incorporated in the template format data LT1 for business card printing in FIG. Thus, template format data LD composed of XHTML data shown in FIG. 30 is obtained. The text data format conversion unit 85 performs the conversion process from the personal information data to the template format data LD. The template format data LD converted by the text data format conversion unit 85 is transmitted to the text data raster processing unit 75.

  The CPU 41 performs text data format conversion processing as follows. When template format data LT1 having no property is read, the property value (“Taro Yamada”, etc.) is extracted from the vCard file using the property (“Name”, etc.) described in the comment tag as a clue. The extracted value is incorporated immediately after the comment tag in the template format data LT1. Further, the CPU 41 takes the property immediately after “TYPE” in the property (such as “TELNO1”) as a clue, extracts the TYPE (such as “WORK”) of the property from the vCard file, and extracts the property in the template format data LT1. Immediately after that, the extracted TYPE is incorporated. The embedding process according to this rule is performed by the CPU 41 executing a text data format conversion process program. In this way, template format data LD shown in FIG. 30 is created.

<Example template for printing>
FIG. 31 shows an example of a business card format print layout. This figure shows a template PL1 of a print layout designated by the template format data LT1. In the drawing, arrangement areas A1 to A9 surrounded by a square frame are places where values of individual items of personal information are arranged, and the designation of the places is designated by a comment tag in the template format data LT1. Then, the value specified by the comment tag is arranged in the arrangement areas A1 to A9 designated by the comment tag. The titles given in the placement areas A1 to A9 are described in advance in the template format data LT1, and values are placed on the right side of each title. In the drawing, each of the placement areas A1 to A9 is shown in parentheses (for example, “(ORG1)”) is a property in the vCard data, and the value of the property is placed in the placement area. means. For example, the value “Taro Yamada” of the property “N” in FIG. 25 is arranged on the right side of the “name” in the arrangement area A4 in FIG. Although there is a difference between the business card print template of FIG. 27 and the print layout example of FIG. 31, the template format data of FIG. 28 is shown as a simple template example. In this example, XHTML data that can specify the business card printing layout shown in FIG. 31 is stored in the EEPROM 43 as one of the template format data. In this case, as personal information, necessary data such as a company name, a department, a title, a company telephone number, a company FAX number, and a company e-mail are input and used.

  XHTML format data is inserted into each item in the figure according to the template format data LT1, and converted into data to be printed according to a predetermined font type, font size, font style, and the like. For example, in the case of a company name, in the vCard format, the property “ORG” describes a specific company name as a value, and first, vCard is converted into the XHTML format as described above. After the conversion, the data becomes a template format, and finally the value of the property “ORG” is inserted as shown in the figure.

  FIGS. 32A and 32C show print layout templates. FIGS. 32A to 20C are print layout template examples for printing business cards, and FIG. 32D is a print layout template example for printing a phone book. In the figure, the templates PL2 to PL4 and PL10 are shown as print layout templates in which the property value (text) of the vCard file is incorporated. Templates PL2 to PL4 and PL10 are composed of XHTML data in which tags for designating an allocation position and an area size (allocation area) in which the value (text) is incorporated for each property are described. A print layout template (XHTML data) for printing a plurality of types of business cards including those shown in FIGS. 31 and 32A to 32C is stored in the EEPROM 43.

  Here, the type of print layout for printing a business card will be briefly described. FIG. 32A shows a print layout template PL2 for horizontally written business cards having the same character size. FIG. 5B is a print layout template PL3 for printing a horizontal business card in which the name character size is printed larger than the others, and FIG. 10C is a vertical writing in which the name character size is printed larger than the others. This is a print layout template PL4 for printing the business card. FIG. 4D shows a print layout template PL10 for printing a telephone directory used when printing all personal information. Print layout template data (XHTML data) for printing the telephone directory is also stored in the EEPROM 43.

  In the present embodiment, when the personal information is a single case, it is printed with a print layout for printing a business card, and when it is all (a plurality of cases), it is printed with a print layout for printing a phone book. When the vCard file is “all cases” including a plurality of pieces of personal information, the CPU 41 uniquely designates the print layout template PL10 for printing the telephone directory of FIG. On the other hand, when the vCard file is “single case” containing only one piece of personal information, the user can select and specify a print layout for printing a business card from the mobile phone 14.

  FIGS. 33A and 33B show a print layout for printing a business card with an image in which an image is incorporated into the business card. When the CPU 41 recognizes that the vCard file (see FIG. 22) has a format to which image data can be attached as shown in FIG. 26, the CPU 41 uses the printing template LT2 for business card printing with images shown in FIG. For example, a business card with a face photo can be printed by attaching an image of the face photo to the vCard file.

  FIG. 33A shows an example of a print template in which an image (face photo) is arranged near the upper left of a vertically oriented business card and the text of personal information is laid out vertically. The position and size at which each property value (text) or image is assigned in the business card is specified by a layout frame (layout area) that is specified by describing the assigned position and area size with tags in the XHTML format. In the template PL8 in FIG. 5A, the image layout frame (allocation area) G1 is set at a predetermined position near the upper left of the business card. Layout frames T1 to T6 into which text for each property necessary for the business card is poured are set at positions suitable for each item of the business card. The text layout frames T1 to T6 specify the font, font size, and character color of the text to be inserted. The lengths and widths of the layout frames T1 to T6 are automatically adjusted in the direction of the arrow in accordance with the number of characters of the text (character string length) with the upper right corner T1a of the layout frame as a base point.

  FIG. 33B shows an example of a print layout template in which an image (face photo) is arranged near the upper right of a business card in landscape orientation, a horizontal line is added as a design near the center in the vertical direction, and text is laid out horizontally. is there. In the same way as the template PL9 of the print layout for printing vertical business cards, the template PL9 in FIG. 5B is set with an image layout frame G2 and text layout frames T10 to T16, and has a horizontal line near the center. It consists of XHTML data in which a layout frame G3 is set. The lengths and widths of the text layout frames T10 to T16 are automatically adjusted in the direction of the arrow in accordance with the number of characters of the text (character string length) with the upper left corner T10a of the layout frame as a base point. . Each data of the print layout templates PL8 and PL9 for printing business cards described in the XHTML format is stored in the EEPROM 43 (see FIG. 5) in association with numbers, for example.

  FIGS. 34A to 34F and FIGS. 35A to 35F show examples of print layout templates prepared in addition to the layout for printing business cards. 34A to 34F are print layout templates for laying out and printing image data and text data.

  In templates PL21 to PL25 of FIGS. 34 (a) to 34 (e), layout frames G21 to G25 for images are arranged at the upper left corner, the upper right corner, the lower left corner, the lower right corner, and the center, respectively, and other portions are arranged. Text layout frames T21 to T25 are arranged. FIG. 34 (f) includes two layout frames G16 and G17 for images and two layout frames T26 and T27 for text, and the positions are set so that the images and the texts are diagonally arranged. .

  Next, FIGS. 35A to 35F show other print layout template diagrams. FIG. 35A shows an example in which the layout frame of text 2 is arranged in the layout frame of text 1. FIG. 35B shows an example in which the layout frame of text 1, the layout frame of text 2, and the layout frame of text 3 are arranged side by side. FIG. 35C shows an example in which the layout frame of text 1 and the text 2 of the layout frame with a frame line are arranged vertically. FIG. 35D shows an example in which the layout frame of image 2 is arranged in the layout frame of image 1. FIG. 35E shows an example in which the layout frame of image 1 and the layout of image 2 are arranged side by side. FIG. 35F shows an example in which the layout frame of image 1 and the layout frame with a frame line of image 2 are arranged.

A method for capturing an image in the layout frame will be described.
The size (size) and image quality (rough or fine) of the image vary depending on the mobile phone 14 used. There are also several types of paper to be printed. Therefore, as the print layout, the entire paper size in FIG. 33A is set as the paper size, the paper width is set to 100%, and the horizontal width of the layout frame L1 is set to an arbitrary value from 0 (zero)% to 100%. Further, the length of the sheet is set to 100%, and the length of the layout frame L1 is set to an arbitrary value from 0 (zero)% to 100%. When capturing an image in the set layout frame L1, select either the larger one of the image of the mobile phone 14 in the vertical or horizontal direction, or one when the image of the mobile phone 14 is a square, and the selected one is the layout. The image size is converted by the memory controller 93 so as to be equal to the length or width of the frame L1. The data so far are stored in the work memory 44b.

  Next, a method for importing text into the layout frame L2 will be described. The ROM 42 includes character generator data (CG data) indicating a pattern of characters (text, symbols, etc.) such as Japanese and English fonts, and stores a character generator 98 that converts character codes into CG data. When a character code is given to the designated address, the character generator 98 reads data of a text dot pattern indicating a dot configuration of various texts. The dot pattern is bit data and is serially output by a circuit such as a shift register. That is, the character generator 98 has a role of providing the memory controller 93 with text and symbol data having various fonts, sizes and colors.

  In addition, font, text position information, text color information, and the like can be designated by the display device 9 of the operation panel 8 shown in FIG. 2 and the operation unit 10 including a plurality of operation switches. If not specified, a preset default value is set.

  The XHTML data includes text information and template information, but the interpretation processing unit 90 (see FIG. 7) analyzes the XHTML data to extract only the text information and analyzes the template information to determine layout information. The layout information is determined as an address of a memory space where an image is developed in the work memory 44b. Each layout frame is specified as an address of a memory space where the image is developed, and the dot pattern data read from the character generator 98 is poured into the layout frame designated by the address by the layout information.

  The expanded image data (dot data) and text data (dot pattern data) are subjected to processing for rearranging them in the dot formation order at the time of printing. The generated print image is stored in the work memory 44b.

  The print processing unit 46b cuts out the print image developed in the work memory 44b for each image band and attaches a command to create print data. The print engine 77 sequentially prints the print image on a predetermined sheet based on the print data. The

  Although the layout can be specified on both the mobile phone 14 and the operation panel 8 on the printer 1, the specification on the mobile phone 14 side has priority. When there is no layout designation description in the memo area, the layout designated on the printer 1 side is validated.

  From the menu displayed on the display screen 9a of the operation panel 8 shown in FIG. 2, the upper switch 10f and the lower switch 10g are pressed to select and determine the paper size, the number of printed sheets, and the like. Next, a layout is selected and the determination switch 10h is pressed. Then, template diagrams corresponding to FIGS. 31 to 35 are displayed on the display screen 9a. The upper switch 10f and the lower switch 10g are pressed to determine a desired layout, and the determination switch 10h is pressed. Then, the operation unit 10 is further operated to register in the printer 1 that the designated layout is valid when printing from the mobile phone 14.

<Specify print layout in the memo area>
The user displays a personal information column on the display 18 of the mobile phone 14 and inputs print layout designation information in a memo column therein. For example, numbers (numbers) such as “1”, “2”, and “3” are entered in the memo field. The number described as the print layout designation information is described as the value of the property “NOTE” in the vCard data. The numbers described in the memo field are treated as print layout designation numbers when printing a single piece of personal information. For example, in the instruction manual of the printer 1, the templates PL1 to PL4 in FIG. 31 and FIGS. 32A to 32C and the designated numbers of the templates PL1 to PL4 are described in association with each other. Designate the business card layout by entering the designated number in the manual into the memo field.

  For example, if “2” is entered in the memo field as in the personal information field in FIG. 4B, “2” is described in the property “NOTE” in the vCard file in FIG. When the vCard file is received from the mobile phone 14, the specified number is specified by reading the character string described as the value of the property “NOTE” and analyzing it. This analysis process is performed by the note analysis unit 83. Specifically, the CPU 41 analyzes the value of “NOTE” in the vCard file. When the CPU 41 can identify the designated number, the business card layout template (XHTML format) corresponding to the designated number is read from the EEPROM 43. Then, the CPU 41 executes the above-described text data format conversion process, and generates template format data LD as shown in FIG. 30 based on the vCard file as shown in FIG. 25 and the template format data LT1 as shown in FIG. create. This template format data LD is XHTML data.

  Here, it is normal that a character string or a sentence as an original memo is input in the memo column instead of a print layout designation number. When the CPU 41 analyzes the value of the property “NOTE”, if a number is included in a character string or sentence described as an original memo, the number may be mistaken for a designated number. The program executed by the CPU 41 in the analysis process determines that the description data is an original memo when a character or character string other than the designated number is described, and there is a number that can be used as the designated number. However, the number is set not to be specified as the designated number. Then, when it is determined that the original memo is used and when the memo field is blank, it is determined that the designated number is not designated, and for example, a template PL2 of a business card layout set by default is designated.

  In the present embodiment, a designation number (numeric) is used for designating the print layout. However, the designation is not limited to a numeral, and it is also possible to designate an alphabet, katakana, symbol character, character, character string, or the like. . However, in order to specify as easily as possible, it is preferable to designate one digit number or one character for designation of one information, and a number (number) or alphabet having a property of order is preferable.

<Processing of IrDA Profile Unit>
FIG. 36 is a flowchart showing data processing in the IrDA profile processing unit 74. When the data transfer unit 73 has received data correctly according to the transmission control procedure, the CPU 41 executes the program shown in the flowchart of FIG. When this program is executed by the CPU 41, the functions of the extension identification unit 81, the number determination unit 82, the note analysis unit 83, the division processing unit 84, the text data format conversion unit 85, and the image data decoding unit 87 in FIG. Realized. Hereinafter, this program executed by the CPU 41 will be described. An extension and object data are transferred from the CF type communication card 13 to the printer 1, and the extension is sent to the head of the data.

  In S200, it is determined what the extension of the received data is. If the extension of the received data is “jpeg” or “jpg”, it is determined as image data in JPEG format and the process proceeds to S220. If the extension of the received data is “vnt”, it is determined that the data is image data created in the vNote format (hereinafter referred to as vNote file), and the process proceeds to S210. Further, if the extension of the received data is “vcf”, it is determined that the data is text data created in the vCard format (hereinafter referred to as a vCard file), and the process proceeds to S130.

  In S210, the encoded image data attached to the vNote file is decoded (decompressed) into image data in JPEG format by an encode / decode converter called Base64.

In S220, the image data in JPEG format is transferred to the image data raster processing unit 76.
In S230, the number of personal information data transmitted from the mobile phone 14 is determined. That is, it is determined whether the vCard file is “single” or “all”. In this example, the number of personal information is determined by counting the identifier “END: VCARD” in the vCard file data. If the counting result C is C = 1, it is determined as single case data, and if the counting result C is C ≧ 2, it is determined as all case data. For example, as shown in FIG. 25, when the vCard file is single data, since there is only one identifier “END: VCARD”, the count result C is C = 1 and it is determined as “single data”. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 25, when the vCard file is all data, since there are a plurality of “END: VCARD” and the counting result C satisfies C ≧ 2, it is determined as “all data”. If it is determined as “single case” including only one piece of personal information, the process proceeds to S240. On the other hand, if it is determined that “all cases” include a plurality of pieces of personal information, the process proceeds to S250. As another determination method, it is possible to determine by the file name of data.

  In S240, the description content of the Note area is analyzed and a template corresponding to the analysis result is designated. The value (description content) of the property “NOTE” in the vCard file data is analyzed, and the template designation information (number in this example) is found from the value. For example, if “2” is described in the memo as shown in FIG. 4B, “2” is described in the value of the property “NOTE” in the vCard file data as shown in FIG. Therefore, this number “2” is extracted as an analysis result. The number “2” is stored in the RAM 44 as template designation information.

In S250, a “phone book” template is designated. That is, in the case of “all cases”, the “phone book” template is always designated.
In S260, a predetermined number of pieces of data are sent to the next process while dividing all pieces of data in the vCard file into a predetermined number of pieces of personal information.

  In S270, the specified template is read from the template storage unit 86. That is, in the case of “single case”, a template (name card layout) determined from the analysis result of the description contents of the note area designated in S240 is read, and in the case of “all cases”, the template of “phone book” designated in S250. Read (phone book layout).

  In S280, the personal information of the vCard file is converted into XHTML data with a template. That is, the content (value) of the item (property) of the personal information is applied to a place where the item to be applied to the template is specified, thereby converting the data into XHTML data with a template. For example, in the case of a single vCard file shown in FIG. 25, it is converted into XHTML format data as shown in FIG. In addition, in the case of the vCard file with an image shown in FIG. 26, it is converted into XHTML format data in which personal information constituting the vCard data is incorporated into a print template LT2 with an image in the XHTML format as shown in FIG.

In S290, the XHTML data with the template is transferred to the text data raster processing unit 75.
The extension identification unit 81, the number of cases determination unit 82, the note analysis unit 83, and the division processing unit 84 in the IrDA profile processing unit 74 are realized by S200, S230, S230, S240, and S260, respectively. The text data format conversion unit 85 is realized by S250, S270, S280, and S290.

  The data thus transferred to the text data raster processing unit 75 is generated as print data by performing various processes thereafter. Further, the data transferred to the image data raster processing unit 76 is generated as print data by performing various processes thereafter. The print engine 77 drives and controls the printing mechanism based on the print data. The personal information transmitted in the vCard file is printed on the roll paper P1 with the designated print layout, or the image transmitted in the vNote file is printed. Or For example, when a vCard file including a single piece of personal information is transmitted to the printer 1, the personal information is printed with a business card layout corresponding to the designated number entered in the memo field of the mobile phone 14.

The characteristic points of the infrared wireless communication interface based on the IrDA system in this embodiment will be described below.
The IrDA communication interface unit is placed separately on the CF type communication card 13 and the main body 2, and the received data check is first transferred to the main body 2 side for the first check to see if it is corresponding data in the CF type communication card 13. It is shared with the second check to see if it was done. The printer 1 includes a plurality of communication units 45 b to 45 d having a communication method different from that of the CF type communication card 13 in the main body 2, and any one of the CF type communication card 13 and the other communication units 45 b to 45 d is connected. It is a configuration that can only receive data. In this case, the object transmission / reception unit 64 (CPU 159) in the CF-type communication card 13 determines whether the corresponding data or unsupported data is in the CF-type communication card 13 and discards the unsupported data. Unsupported data to be transferred is not transferred to the main body 2 side of the printer 1. If such data to be discarded is transferred from the CF type communication card 13 to the main body 2 side and the port is occupied, reception from the other communication units 45b to 45d is suspended during that time. End up. However, in this embodiment, unsupported data is discarded in the CF type communication card 13 so as not to be transferred to the main body 2 side, so that efficient communication that does not unnecessarily disturb the other communication units 45b to 45d can be realized. It becomes possible.

  Incompatible data is detected at the start of reception in the CF-type communication card 13 on the upstream side of reception, and an error is immediately displayed on the display unit 13b, so that a user who has started data transmission from the mobile phone 14 is notified of the reception error quickly. I am doing so.

  Further, extension data (reference data) used when determining whether the data is compatible data or non-compatible data is set up in the CF type communication card 13 from the main body 2 side of the printer 1. Thereby, the data registered on the main body 2 side as reference data can be used. In other words, the corresponding data may differ depending on the model of the printer 1, and in such a case, reference data corresponding to the model is set up, so CF type communication between multiple models or old and new models The card 13 can be shared.

Hereinafter, effects of the present embodiment will be described.
(1) The mobile phone 14 can respond to an incoming call by the call function during data transmission by the infrared function by the parallel processing function. That is, when the mobile phone 14 enters a call process during the data transmission process to the printer 1, the mobile phone 14 executes the data transmission process and the call process in parallel. Thereby, even if there is an incoming call during data communication, the user can easily respond to the incoming call and enjoy a call with the other party. In addition, since data transfer is continued even when an incoming call is answered, a print result can be obtained without retransmitting data. That is, a printed matter can be obtained in a shorter time than in the past.

  (2) When data is transmitted from the mobile phone 14 using infrared rays with high directivity, the infrared light receiving / emitting unit (communication port) 20 of the mobile phone 14 is directed toward the infrared light receiving / emitting unit (communication port) 13a on the printer 1 side. Data transmission is performed while looking at the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a located at the transmission destination. At this time, since the display unit 13b notifies the communication state in the vicinity of the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a that the user is viewing, the reception state can be easily visually recognized during data transmission.

  (3) Since the CF type communication card 13 is set in the card slot 12 provided on the front surface of the main body 2, the display unit 13 b is located on the front surface of the main body 2 and is easily visible to the user (operator). Since the screen 9a of the operation panel 8 is provided upward on the upper surface of the main body 2 of the printer 1, for example, a user who extends his / her hand from the front side of the printer 1 and puts the mobile phone 14 within the communicable area transmits data. The screen 9a of the operation panel 8 is difficult to see. However, since the display unit 13b is arranged on the front surface of the main body 2 which is the same as the infrared light receiving / emitting unit 13a which is a communication port, the display unit 13b can be seen well from the user who transmits data in such an attitude and the data reception state is confirmed. It's easy to do.

  (4) If the printer 1 is installed at a relatively high place, the screen 9a of the operation panel 8 located on the upper surface of the main body 2 faces upward, and the user cannot check the screen 9a. Since it lights on the front surface (front surface) of the main body 2, it can be seen well from the user (operator) who transmits data. The same effect can be obtained even in a configuration in which the card slot 12 is provided on the side surface of the main body 2, for example.

  (5) Since the data reception state is notified by the display color of the display unit 13b, it is easy to determine the reception state. In addition, when the data reception status is good, the lighting color is the same color (green) for both “Receivable” and “Receiving”, and when the error occurs, the lighting color is red. It can also be determined. Furthermore, since the data reception state is also displayed on the screen 9a of the operation panel 8, the reception state is notified using at least one of characters or images on the screen, so that it is straightforward and easy to understand.

  (6) Although the printer 1 can receive data by a plurality of communication methods, since it can only receive data from one of these ports, an interlock process is performed to determine whether or not data can be received from the CF-type communication card 13. Judge with. Only when it is determined that reception is possible by the interlock function, the display unit 13b is lit in green to notify that reception is possible, and when it is determined that reception is impossible, the display unit 13b is turned off. Therefore, it is not known that the printer 1 is not ready to receive data, and it is possible to avoid a situation where an error occurs each time the user transmits data many times.

  (7) After the communication link between the mobile phone 14 and the CF type communication card 13 is disconnected, for example, when an error occurs on the printer 1 side, there is no way to notify the mobile phone 14 of the error. However, it is possible to notify the user that an error has occurred by blinking red the display unit 13b of the CF type communication card 13 that can communicate with the printer 1. Therefore, the user can also know the error that occurred after the communication between the mobile phone 14 and the CF type communication card 13 is cut off. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a situation in which an error occurs after the communication link is disconnected and the user who thinks that the data transmission is successful is not frustrated after the data transmission and feels frustrated.

  (8) Since the data reception state is also displayed on the screen 9a provided on the upper surface of the main body 2 of the printer 1 so as to face upward, it is also possible for the user who transmits data from a position with a higher eye level than the printer 1 to communicate. Can know.

  (9) In this embodiment, the IrDA profile processing unit 74 for converting the data format is provided so that the raster processing unit of another communication method can be used (shared) when the infrared communication method is introduced. That is, the image data (encoded image data) in the vNote file attachment format was decoded into JPEG image data by Base64 decoding, and the personal information data (text data) in the vCard file format was converted to XHTML data in the template embedded description format. Therefore, after the format conversion, it can be converted into print data through a data processing path shared with other communication methods. Therefore, when introducing the infrared communication system into the printer 1, the circuit and software to be added can be simplified as much as possible.

  (10) Since the IrDA communication module is a CF-type communication card 13 built in the card and can be mounted on the printer 1 simply by being set in the card slot 12 for the memory card, the housing of the printer 1 is not changed. It can be used as it is. Therefore, since it is not necessary to change the shape of the housing of the printer 1, it is not necessary to change the design of the housing or change the manufacturing mold. This can suppress an increase in manufacturing cost of the printer 1 due to the introduction of the infrared communication method.

  (11) The personal information data of the mobile phone 14 is in vCard format, and data cannot be printed directly, but it is made printable data by providing a means for converting vCard format file data into XHTML format data. be able to.

  (12) By distinguishing between single cases and all cases, data is converted into business card template format data for single cases, and converted to phone book template format data for all cases. be able to.

(13) The print layout can be automatically determined by simply distinguishing between single and all data.
(14) The business card layout can be changed according to the type of vCard data. For example, when only the data related to the company is included, it can be printed with the business card layout for the company, and when only the private information is included, it can be printed with the personal business card layout.

(15) By selecting vCard data, a company business card layout, a personal business card layout, or a telephone directory layout can be selected.
(16) The object can be printed with the specified content corresponding to the description information of the memo area. That is, the user displays the personal information column of the mobile phone 14 and writes character information such as “a”, “b”, and “c” in the memo column therein. The written character information is stored in the memo area of the personal information data. The numbers described in this memo area are treated as characters that specify the layout. When the personal information data transmitted from the mobile phone 14 is received, the number stored in the memo area is identified and the layout corresponding to the character is determined. Personal information can be printed in the layout specified in the memo area.

  (17) Data created by the mobile phone 14 is transmitted to the printer 1, and business card printing can be facilitated by the printer alone. When there are no business cards on hand, the necessary number of business cards can be printed easily by simply sending the data of the mobile phone 14 to the printer 1. In addition, since the mobile phone 14 originally uses data for managing personal information, there is no need to input the contents of the business card. Further, the vCard format data that cannot be defined by the mobile phone 14 is converted into the XHTML format data that can be layout defined, so that it can be printed in the layout as a general business card. In addition, since a plurality of business card templates are prepared, a business card having a desired layout can be printed.

  (18) Based on the data received from the mobile phone 14, the printer 1 can appropriately convert these data and print them directly. Therefore, data can be sent to a personal computer (PC) and stored in a storage medium such as a memory card, and can be printed more easily and quickly than when it is read into the printer 1 and printed.

(Second embodiment)
Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, about the same member as 1st embodiment, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and detailed description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The cellular phone 14a of the present embodiment includes a telephone function, a Bluetooth (TM) (hereinafter referred to as BT) communication function, a telephone book function capable of registering and managing personal information including a telephone number, and other cellular phones. It has many functions, such as an e-mail function for sending and receiving e-mail between them, a camera function as a data generation means for taking a still image or a moving image, and a parallel processing function for simultaneously performing a call and data transmission.

  The mobile phone 14a manages personal information data (text data) handled by the phone book function and image data handled by the camera function in a file format compatible with wireless communication. Specifically, personal information data is managed in a vCard (TM) file format, and image data is managed as JPEG data. The cellular phone 14a transmits personal information data or image data in the vCard file format via the BT communication function, and the printer 1 receives it via the BT communication unit 45c of the communication interface 45. The mobile phone 14a can send and receive e-mails and image data to and from other mobile phones and personal computers through the mobile phone network.

  More specifically, as shown in FIG. 37, the mobile phone 14a includes a control unit 21, a memory 22 as a storage unit, a transmission / reception unit 23 as a call unit, a microphone 24, a speaker 25, an operation button 15, a display 18, and CCD imaging. The apparatus 19 includes a Bluetooth communication unit (hereinafter referred to as a BT communication unit) 26 as a communication unit.

  The BT communication unit 26 can transmit data to other BT communication devices existing within a communicable range by short-range wireless communication using radio waves in a predetermined standard frequency band according to a predetermined communication protocol.

  The control unit 21 executes a processing operation for transmitting the stored personal information data and image data via the BT communication unit 26 based on the operation of the operation button 15. When transmitted from the control unit 21 to the BT communication unit 45c, the personal information data is transmitted in the vCard file format, and the image data (encoded JPEG data) is transmitted in the vNote file format.

  The control unit 21 operates as a parallel processing unit that provides a parallel processing function. That is, when the control unit 21 receives that a call has arrived from the transmission / reception unit 23 during transmission of image data / personal information data stored based on the user's operation, the control unit 21 displays that fact on the display 18. When the user operates the operation button 15 to respond to the incoming call (presses the call button), the control unit 21 permits the transmission / reception unit 23 to respond, and the transmission / reception unit 23 establishes a channel between the other party's phone. Establish and transmit and receive audio signals using the channel. And the control part 21 outputs the audio | voice signal received from the transmission / reception part 23 to the speaker 25, and outputs the signal which converted the user's audio | voice with the microphone 24 to the transmission / reception part 23. FIG. This enables a call between the user who owns the mobile phone 14a and the user (calling party) who owns the phone called to the user.

  Transmission of image data / personal data to the printer 1 is performed by radio waves in a predetermined band between the BT communication unit 26 of the mobile phone 14 a and the BT communication unit 45 c of the printer 1. Accordingly, this communication is continued if the mobile phone 14a is within a predetermined distance from the printer 1 (a distance determined by the electrical characteristics of both the BT communication units 26 and 45c). For this reason, the user can move the mobile phone 14a within the range during data transmission, that is, if the mobile phone 14a is close to the printer 1, data transmission is possible. Unlike the case of transmitting data, it is not necessary to hold the infrared light emitting unit of the mobile phone 14a so as to face the infrared light receiving unit of the printer 1, and data transmission can be easily performed from the viewpoint of the posture and the like. Further, since it is not necessary to hold the infrared light emitting portion of the mobile phone 14a so as to face the infrared light receiving portion of the printer 1, the user can hold the mobile phone 14a on the head even when data is being transmitted when there is an incoming call. Since the speaker 25 of the mobile phone 14a is placed close to the ear, the voice of the other party can be heard well, and the user's voice can be reliably collected by the microphone 24 of the mobile phone 14a. , Can make a call reliably.

Hereinafter, effects of the present embodiment will be described.
(1) The mobile phone 14a has a BT communication unit 26, and when the control unit 21 receives an incoming call while transmitting data to the printer 1 via the BT communication unit 26, the parallel processing function performs data communication and incoming call. Calls that respond to were made at the same time. The data communication by the BT communication unit 26 does not require the mobile phone 14a to be correctly directed to the CF type communication card 13 of the printer 1 as compared with the infrared communication. You can make a call.

Hereinafter, modifications to the embodiment will be described.
(Modification 1) In the second embodiment, the printer for printing the data transmitted from the mobile phone 14a is not limited to the above configuration. For example, as shown in FIG. 38, a printer 1a connecting a BT communication unit BU as an external connection unit may be used. The BT communication unit BU is connected to the USB communication unit 45f via a connector. The USB communication unit 45f has a function as a USB host, and the BT communication unit BU has a function as a USB device. Accordingly, the USB communication unit 45f receives data from the BT communication unit BU via the USB, and the printer 1a performs a printing process based on the data. In the printer 1a configured as described above, image data captured by the mobile phone 14a can be easily printed.

  (Modification 2) The mobile phone 14 may be configured to give priority to either data transmission or telephone call. That is, in the mobile phone 14, the control unit 21 displays on the display 18 in order to set the priority between the data communication and the call in the mode for setting various functions of the mobile phone 14. The priority set according to the operation is stored in the memory 22. When it is necessary to simultaneously perform data transmission processing for the printer 1 and processing for responding to an incoming call (when there is an incoming call during the data transmission processing), the control unit 21 stores the priority stored in the memory 22. A process with a higher priority is executed based on the degree, and a process with a lower priority than that is executed after the end of the previous process. That is, in this modified example, the control unit 21, the memory 22, and the operation button 15 function as a setting unit that sets priority, and the control unit 21 functions as a determination unit that determines simultaneous execution of processing. Furthermore, the control unit 21 functions as a priority processing unit that executes high priority processing based on the set priority. If comprised in this way, it can respond to both the user who gives priority to a telephone call, and the user who gives priority to data transmission, and can respond easily to the incoming call at the time of data transmission according to a user preference. it can.

  (Modification 3) In the mobile phone 14, when there is an incoming call to the mobile phone 14 during the process of sending data to the printer 1, a response to the incoming call is processed to stop data transmission. Also good. In this case, the control unit 21 of the mobile phone 14 displays a message indicating a transmission error on the display 18 serving as a display unit. That is, the control unit 21 functions as a display unit that displays an error message on the display unit. In the mobile phone configured as described above, the incoming call can be surely enjoyed and the state of data communication can be easily confirmed on the display 18.

  (Modification 4) The mobile phone 14 may be configured so that the embodiment and the modifications 1 and 2 can be appropriately changed. In other words, the mobile phone is a mode in which data communication and a call are performed simultaneously, a mode in which either data communication or a call is prioritized, and if there is an incoming call during data communication, a call based on the incoming call is made and an error occurs in the display unit. And a change in each mode is stored in the memory 22 based on the operation of the operation button 15. If comprised in this way, a data communication and a telephone call can be performed suitable for a user preference.

  (Modification 5) In each of the above embodiments, data transmission between the mobile phone 14 and the printer 1 is performed by infrared communication. However, wireless communication such as BT communication, UWB (ultra-wide band wireless communication) or the like is used. Data communication may be performed. Further, data communication may be performed by wired communication in which the mobile phone 14 and the printer 1 are connected by a cable.

  (Modification 6) In each of the above embodiments, the control unit 21 is configured to provide a parallel processing function, but the mobile phone 14 as a whole may be configured to provide a parallel processing function. That is, a data transmission control unit that transmits stored data to the printer 1 and a call control unit that controls a call function may be provided. If comprised in this way, the load in each control part will decrease and provision of a higher quality telephone call etc. can be performed. Note that the microphone 24 and the speaker 25 may be connected to the transmission / reception unit 23 so that the transmission / reception unit 23 takes charge of the call control function.

  (Modification 7) In the above-described embodiment, notification by display is used, but notification by sound may be performed together with display. For example, during data reception, a sound is emitted at any one time of reception error and reception completion. If you make a sound during data transmission, you know that the data reception is skillful. If you make a sound when there is a reception error, you know that the data reception has failed. I understand.

  (Modification 8) The display unit can be provided not on the CF type communication card 13 but on the main body 2. A communication port is provided at a position within 10 cm from the bottom surface side of the main body on at least one side of both sides of the front surface of the printer 1 across the paper discharge port.

  (Modification 9) A part or all of the communication interface unit may be incorporated in the CF type communication card 13 which is a wireless communication device. For example, the card driver 71 and the data transfer unit 73 may be built in the card side. Further, for example, the infrared light emitting / receiving unit 13a and the IrDA communication circuit 61 may be arranged on the card side, and the file transfer unit 63 and the object transmission / reception unit 64 may be arranged on the output device main body side.

  (Modification 10) Although the business card has been described in the above embodiment, it can be printed in the same manner as long as it is in the form of a card such as a telephone card, a bank card, and an employee card. In the embodiment, the face photograph is described, but it may be a company logo mark, a mark symbolizing an activity, or image data such as a photograph.

  (Modification 11) When a roll paper is selected and a printing process is performed with a business card layout or a phone book layout, the designation to automatically cut the roll paper according to the printing layout form is included in the description information of the memo area. It may be possible to perform based on this.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the printer according to the first embodiment. The top view which shows the principal part of an operation panel. The perspective view of CF type | mold communication card (infrared communication card). (A) The top view of a mobile phone, (b) The screen figure which shows an example of the personal information displayed on the mobile phone. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a mobile phone, an infrared communication card, and a printer. The block diagram which shows the functional structure of a mobile telephone, an infrared communication card, and a printer. The block diagram which shows the electric constitution concerning a data conversion process. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a printer sharing structure. FIG. 6 is a data structure diagram in OBEX transfer. The sequence diagram of the data transmission from a mobile telephone to a printer. The block diagram which shows the display control apparatus of a display part. The correspondence figure which shows the relationship between a communication status and a lighting mode. Transition diagram of communication status. FIG. 14 is a transition diagram of communication status different from FIG. The block diagram explaining an interlock process. The flowchart which shows the initial process at the time of card | curd recognition. The flowchart which shows a data suitability determination process. The sequence diagram explaining an interlock release process. The sequence diagram explaining an interlock release process. The sequence diagram explaining an interlock release process. The sequence diagram explaining an interlock release process. The sequence diagram explaining an interlock release process. The sequence diagram which shows the competition avoidance process with infrared communication and electromagnetic wave communication. (A) is a screen diagram for informing the data reception state, (b) is an image diagram for each frame of the moving image, and (c) is an image diagram for informing printing. Data diagram of a single vCard file. Data diagram of a single vCard file with images. Data diagram of all vCard files. Business card layout template data diagram. Data diagram of business card layout template with images. Data diagram of template format data. Layout diagram of business card layout template. (A)-(c) is a layout figure of a business card layout template, (d) is a layout figure of a telephone directory layout template. (A), (b) is a business card layout diagram incorporating image data. (A)-(f) is the printing layout figure which combined image data and text data. (A)-(c) is a print layout figure containing a some text, (d)-(f) is a print layout figure containing a some image. The flowchart which shows the process of an IrDA profile part. The block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the mobile telephone and printer of 2nd embodiment. The block diagram which shows the electric constitution of another mobile telephone and a printer.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printer as output device and printing device, 12 ... Card slot as slot, 13 ... CF card type infrared communication card (infrared communication card) as wireless communication interface and wireless communication device, 14 ... Mobile phone, 18 ... Mobile phone display, 20 ... Infrared light emitting and receiving unit (communication port on the mobile phone side).

Claims (6)

A means of communicating with other phones,
Storage means for storing data;
Short-range wireless communication means for transmitting the data to a printing device;
Setting means for setting a priority between the data transmission process to the printing apparatus and the call process by the short-range wireless communication unit;
If it is determined that there is an incoming call by the pre-Symbol call means during the transmission process of the data, a priority processing unit that preferentially executing one of the processing based on the set priority,
A mobile phone characterized by comprising: The priority processing unit, said after finishing the one processing priority execution, the mobile phone according to claim 1, characterized in that executing the processing of low other hand priority than the one processing. The can and call incoming there was Tsu by the call means during the transmission process of the data further comprising parallel processing means for parallel processing and processing for a call and the transmission processing of the data,
Kiniwa a call incoming there was Tsu by the call means during the transmission process of the data, a mode in which the parallel processing means for parallel processing and processing for the through talking to the transmission processing of the data, the priority processing means and a mode in which priority execution of one process based on the set by the priority by said setting means,
The mobile phone according to claim 2, wherein the setting unit sets a mode for executing any one of the plurality of modes. To come incoming call there was Tsu by the call means during the transmission process of the data executes the vent talk process, further comprising a mode for displaying the status of the transmission processing to the display unit,
The mobile phone according to claim 3, wherein the setting unit sets a mode for executing any one of the plurality of modes.   The mobile phone according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the short-range wireless communication means is Bluetooth.   A print processing system comprising the mobile phone according to claim 1 and the printing apparatus.

Images