JPH0134384B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is capable of displaying text corresponding to the help command when receiving a help command requesting information necessary for operating equipment such as a copying machine to assist the operator in operating the equipment. The present invention relates to a text display device.

As a text display device, for example, a display section consisting of a text display tube is provided in the copying machine console, and a text corresponding to the state of the copying machine is selected from among the texts stored in the text storage ROM of the control section and displayed. It has been proposed that the information be displayed in the section.

According to this text display device, for example, compared to a display unit that displays text by illuminating it with a display lamp from the back side of a display board on which display text is printed, the type of displayed text can be changed according to the storage capacity of the text storage ROM. Since the number of sentences can be increased, the selection range of displayed sentences can be widened.

However, this text display device only displays the type of trouble in text when a copying machine encounters a problem such as a paper jam, so it is difficult for beginners who are not used to operating copying machines to understand how it works. There is a limit to the improvement of operability because it is difficult to know whether troubleshooting should be carried out or not.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and is intended to prevent deterioration in operability even for beginners who are not accustomed to operating equipment such as copying machines (including facsimile machines, printers, word processors, etc.). Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a text display device which, when receiving a help command requesting operation information, displays a text corresponding to the help command.

The text display device according to the present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, which includes a copying machine control section (microcomputer) 3 that controls a copying machine 1 having a console 2, and a control section (microcomputer) 3 that controls a copying machine 1 having a console 2. It has a text display control section 4 that outputs a display signal, and a drive section 5 that causes the display section 6 of the console 2 to display a predetermined text based on the display signal of the text display control section 4. The copying machine control unit 3 is composed of a microcomputer having an input/output interface, a program ROM, a calculation CPU, and a calculation result storage RAM, and receives sensor signals from the copying machine 1, operation signals from the console 2, etc. A control signal for controlling the operation of the copying machine 1 and a control signal corresponding to the state of the copying machine 1 (hereinafter referred to as a state signal) are output. The text display control unit 4 stores an input/output port 11 that takes in a status signal and a program that processes the status signal and determines a text display mode.
ROM 8 and text that stores case tables, etc. described later, and predetermined display texts in the form of character code strings.
The ROM 9 processes the status signal based on the program in the ROM 8, determines the text number of the text corresponding to the status of the copying machine 1, reads the text from the text ROM 9, and sets the display mode (for example, display all at once). The CPU 7 determines the display format (whether to display the text or time-division display, as well as the display timing and display time limit, etc.), the RAM 12 stores the read text and display mode, and, for example, a 5 x 7 lighted dot. It has a character generator 10 that generates a character pattern of a displayed sentence based on the contents stored in the RAM 12. Further, the drive unit 5 is controlled by a timing signal from a timing counter 13, and a shift register 1 outputs a drive signal according to the character pattern of the character generator 10.
4, an X-driver 15 that lights up the display panel 6 in dots according to the drive signal, a decoder 16 that expands the timing signal and outputs a drive signal corresponding to dynamic lighting, and an Y-driver 1 for dynamically displaying the character pattern of character generator 10
It has 7.

Figure 2 A, B, C, and D show part of the structure of text ROM9. A indicates a case table that is selected for displaying a sentence corresponding to a case when a case is judged based on the status signal input from the copying machine control unit 3, and an area 21 indicates the beginning of the displayed sentence corresponding to the case. The initial document number to be displayed is memorized, the area 22 stores the type of alternate type (format in which multiple sentences are displayed alternately), which will be described later, and the area 23 is used to store the type of alternate format (a format in which multiple sentences are displayed alternately), and the area 23 is used to store the help button when the operator turns on the help button depending on the status of the copier. When the display text is turned on, the number of help text hierarchies that determine the displayed text is stored, and the area 24 stores the number of the alternate text that is displayed as an alternative text instead of the initial text.
Area 25 stores a help table pointer that specifies a help tree table to be described later. b shows the help tree table, areas 31, 32,...
...33 stores help text numbers to be displayed according to the number of times the help button is turned on. C indicates a management table, an area 41 stores the number of characters stored in the text ROM 9, an area 42 stores the first address among the addresses where the case table is stored, and an area 43 stores the help tree table. The area 44 stores the first address among the addresses where the diagnostic case table for maintenance diagnosis of the copying machine is stored, and the area 45 stores the address where the display text is stored. The first address in the display text is memorized, and the area 46 is the 60th address in the memorized display text.
The minimum sentence number of character sentences (40 to 60 characters) is memorized, and area 47 is the 80th of the stored display sentences.
Memorizes the minimum sentence number of character sentences (60 to 80 characters). D indicates a text storage section, in which a display text is stored in an area 53 as a character code string, and areas 51 and 52 display a display that is rewritten when the display text includes rewriting information such as a reduction ratio. The position in the sentence (for example, the number of characters) is memorized.

Figures 3 and 4 show the text display mode;
Figure 3 shows the scroll method;
The figure shows an alternate method. In the scrolling method, the displayed text has a predetermined number of characters (for example, 40 characters).
When the display text exceeds
GREEN HANDLE ON LEFT SIDE AND
Change the display text "OPEN COPIER (please lift the green handle to the left to open the copier)" to "LIFT GREEN HANDLE ON LEFT SIDE".
It is divided into "AND→" and "OPEN COPIER" and displayed for 4 seconds each. In addition, the alternate method is "READY TO ENLARGE...
141% PUSH “START” (You can make a 141% enlarged copy. Please press the start button)” and the first sentence “SMALLER COPY PAPER
The second sentence ``COULD BE USED'' is displayed alternately for 4 seconds each.

Figure 5 A and B show two alternative formats, A is the first sentence 1MSG1 and the second sentence 2
Either sentence 1 or 2 is displayed after MSG2 is alternately displayed a predetermined number of times, for example, 3 times. Either sentence 1 or 2 is displayed. As shown in the figure, in A, a is a case where the first and second sentences 1 and 2 are both 40 characters or less, b is a case where both sentences 1 and 2 are both larger than 40 characters, and c is a case where both sentences 1 and 2 are larger than 40 characters. This is the case when the first sentence 1 is 40 characters or less and the second sentence 2 is over 40 characters (MSG is an abbreviation for message and means the sentence). b, c
If each sentence exceeds 40 characters, it will be displayed in a scrolling manner. For example, in A, sentence 1
After repeating the display of (MSG1) for 4 seconds and sentence 2 (MSG2) for 4 seconds three times, the display is fixed to sentence 1 (MSG1) or sentence 2 (MSG2). Case (b) is more obvious than case (a), so the explanation will be omitted. In addition to these A and B, alternative formats include
For example, it is possible to display an alternate display for 4 minutes or to display a certain state forever until the state of the copying machine changes. This alternate format is stored in the area 22 of FIG. 2A.

FIGS. 6A to 6D explain the help tree table in area 23 and B of FIG. 2A, and show examples of text output when a paper jam occurs in the copying machine. A shows the text output tree, and the displayed text is as follows. A is the initial sentence.

A..."EI CLEAR PAPER PATH PUSH
HELP FOR INFO (Please remove the paper from the aisle. Press the help button to display the procedure.) EI is the text code.

B..."LIFT GREEN HANDLE ON
LEFT SIDE AND OPEN COPIER (Lift the green handle to the left to open the copier.) C...REMOVE ALL PAPERS IN
COPIER (please remove all paper in the copier)"D..."CLOSE COPIER AND PUSH
START (please close the copier and press the start button)" (b) is the case where the help button is pressed once based on the display A on the display section 6, and (c) is the case where the help button is pressed twice.
This is the case where the button is pressed twice, and d is the case where the button is pressed three times. If you keep pressing the help button further, ro, ha,
It is repeated in the order of d. Both are displayed in the alternate format shown in FIG. 5A, and since sentence B exceeds 40 characters, it is divided into B ₁ and B ₂ and scrolled. In A, when the paper is removed,
P-1 display is performed. The P-1 display is as shown in E. E indicates that the initial text is an alternate display.

“READY MESSAGE FOR 1:1,
REDUCE, ENLARGE, (SORT),
INTERRUPT (Can be copied 1:1, reduced,
magnification, (sorter), interrupt text)” “DO NOT CHANGE QUANTITY
SELECTED (Please do not change the selected number of copies)” “READY--PUSH “START” TO
CONTINUE COPYING (You can copy - press the start button to continue copying)" Based on the above structure and text display mode, the operation is explained using the flowchart in Figure 7 as follows. be.

When a sensor signal indicating the state is input from the sensor of the copying machine 1 to the copying machine control section 3, a state signal corresponding to the state is outputted to the text display control section 4 while being synchronized by the transfer synchronization signal. (information reception). If there is no abnormality due to noise or the like in the reception of this status signal, it is determined to be normal in the received information inspection. The status signal is processed by the CPU 7 based on the program in the ROM 8 of the control unit 4, and a case corresponding to the status signal is determined. If this case is judged to be different from the previous case, write a sentence.
The case table (FIG. 2A) of the case is read from the ROM 9 to the RAM 12, and at the same time, the help tree table (FIG. 2B) is read by the help table pointer in the case table area 25.
Read out to RAM12. Reading of the case table and help tree table is performed by determining addresses determined based on the storage in areas 42 and 43 of the management table (FIG. 2C). Areas 45 and 4 of the above-mentioned case determination and management table
Area 2 of the case table based on the memory of 6, 47
The address of the initial text number 1 is determined. The text storage unit (Fig. 2 D) starts from this determined address.
The text (character code string) in the area 53 is read out to the RAM 12 and stored in the RAM 12. The presence or absence of rewriting information and alternate sentences is checked based on the contents of areas 51 and 52 of the text storage section and furthermore, the contents of area 22 of the case table, and if there is rewriting information, the reduction ratio is changed based on the signal from the console 2. etc. are rewritten, and if there is an alternate sentence, the 4-second timer for performing the alternate display mentioned above is set (Similarly, the 4-second timer is also set when it is necessary to scroll the display based on the number of characters. (It is also counted by a counter when performing three alternate displays). When the 40-character code constituting the initial text is sent from the RAM 12 to the character generator 10, the character generator 10 generates a character pattern, which is read out and taken into the shift register 14. The shift register 14 drives the X-driver 15, and the Y
- The initial text is displayed on the display section 6 by the driver 17 dynamically controlling the lighting. When the 4-second timer finishes counting, the alternate sentence is read out from the RAM 12 and displayed on the display section 6 in the same manner. Which of the alternate formats A and B in FIG. 5 is adopted is determined by the contents of the area 22 of the case table. The content of this area 22 also determines the text that is fixedly displayed when the alternate display ends. Furthermore, if the number of help text layers in the content of the area 23 of the case table is one or more, the display of the help text shown in FIGS. 6A to 6E is controlled based on the number of times the operator turns on the help button.

When the 4-second timer times out in the above-described alternate display, if the first half of a 60 to 80 character sentence is being output, the sentence address is added, for example, address 40, and the second half of the sentence is transferred from sentence ROM9 to RAM1.
2 and outputs it, and also sets a new 4 second timer. Also, if the 4-second timer times out while outputting the second half, the address is calculated from the text number that is not currently being output based on the initial text number and alternate text number in the case table, and in the same way, the text is transferred from text ROM9 to RAM1.
2 and outputs it, and also sets a new 4 second timer.

As explained above, according to the text display device of the present invention, when a help command requesting information necessary to operate a device such as a copying machine is received, a text corresponding to the help command is displayed. , even a beginner can avoid deterioration in operability.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. Second
Figures A, B, C, and D are explanatory diagrams showing a part of the text ROM in the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing scroll display in the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an alternate display in the present invention. FIGS. 5A and 5B are explanatory diagrams showing display modes in the present invention. 6th
Figures A to H are explanatory diagrams showing help text display modes.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the present invention. Explanation of symbols, 1... Copy machine, 2... Console, 3... Copy machine control section, 4... Text display control section, 5... Drive section, 6... Display section, 7... CPU
(Signal processing section), 8...Program ROM, 9...
Text memory (ROM), 10... Character generator, 11... Input/output port, 12... Output
RAM.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An input unit for inputting a status signal and a help command; a text storage memory for storing an initial text and a help text corresponding to the status signal; and a text storage memory for processing the status signal and the help command. a control unit that reads and displays a corresponding sentence from the text storage memory; a display unit that displays the text in response to a command from the control unit; and a control unit that displays an initial sentence in response to a change in the status signal. A text display device comprising: means for displaying; and means for displaying a help text according to the number of times the help command has been issued after the status signal has changed in response to the help command. 2. The means for displaying the help text according to the number of times the help command is issued after the status signal changes displays the help text in a cycle that is repeated according to the number of times the help command is issued. The text display device according to item 1. 3. The text display device according to claim 1, wherein the control section further includes means for displaying the initial text after displaying the help text for a predetermined period of time.