JP2002333680A - Photo processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a photographic processing system which enables an operator to provide customers with the finishes surely meeting the contents of requests without mistake when digital images are to be provided recorded on recording media, such as CD-Rs, in addition to prints from the finished film images. SOLUTION: This photographic processing system has a scanner 2 for capturing image data from an image forming medium, print means 1 for printing the image data captured by this scanner 2 as an image on a photographic sensitive material and recording medium writing means 3 for writing the image data by a prescribed file form to the recording medium and has stating means 15 and 34 capable of stating the writing records of the recording medium writing means 3 to the photographic sensitive material.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photographic processing system, and more particularly, to a photographic processing system having recording medium writing means for writing digitally processed data in a predetermined file format on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recent developments in digitization technology and personal computer (PC) use have been developed in laboratories called labs or mini-labs (hereinafter simply referred to as labs) that process photographic development and printing requests from customers. Along with the spread, services other than printing finished film images and digitally processing and recording image data on a recording medium such as a CD-R to provide the service are increasing. In the laboratory, when the finish is completed, the finished portion is usually collected in one bag according to the contents of the request and sent to the customer or returned at the counter.

[0003] A customer can take image data from a recording medium into a personal computer and use it for various purposes.

[0004]

However, the request from the customer may be for both the print and the recording medium or may be separate, and is not always constant. There is no doubt that a great deal of effort has been required to sort the product reliably and to return and provide the finished product to the customer. That is, at present, the processing of the print and the recording medium is not performed by the same apparatus, and the processing is separately performed by the photographic processing apparatus and the recording medium writing apparatus, respectively. It is necessary to confirm that the combination is the request of the same customer by looking at the order form, etc.If the same client can be confirmed, it is necessary to accurately confirm the number, but the increase in the number of requests Accordingly, such labor of the operator is a considerable burden.

[0005] In order to avoid mistakes in the recording medium, it is possible to check the image while checking the image, but in that case, it is more troublesome and troublesome. In particular, when a plurality of recording medium writing devices are arranged to increase the processing capacity and a large number of recording media are created, the burden on the operator becomes even greater.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide, in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, a digital image created by recording a finished film image on a recording medium such as a CD-R, in addition to printing. In this case, it is an object of the present invention to provide a photographic processing system capable of surely providing a customer with a finish according to a requested content without mistaken by an operator.

[0007]

The above object is achieved by the invention described in each claim. That is, a characteristic configuration of the photographic processing system according to the present invention includes a scanner device that captures image data from an image forming medium, a printing unit that prints the image data captured by the scanner device as an image on a photosensitive material, Recording medium writing means for writing image data to a recording medium in a predetermined file format, wherein said recording medium writing means has writing means capable of writing on said photographic material.

According to this configuration, a record written on a recording medium such as a CD-R using the recording medium writing means is described on a photographic photosensitive material such as a printed photographic paper. The operator can easily sense that the data has been written on the recording medium, and correct the contents of the request from the customer without mistake.

As a result, when a digital image is created and recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-R and provided in addition to printing the finished film image, the requested contents are surely fulfilled without the operator being confused. It was possible to provide a photographic processing system capable of providing the customer with a suitable finish.

It is preferable that the photographic photosensitive material is a cut paper, and the writing means is a back printer for printing on a back surface of the cut paper that the writing by the recording medium writing means has been performed.

According to this configuration, the back printer that prints the corrected data and the like on the back surface of the cut paper can be used as it is when printing, so that a special description device is not required, which is convenient.

[0012] The description means may print on a part of the index print that the writing by the recording medium writing means has been performed.

According to this configuration, when the index print is created, it is convenient because it can be easily described that the writing by the recording medium writing means has been performed at the place where the order number is printed.

It is preferable that a plurality of the recording medium writing means are connected, and that the writing record of each of the recording medium writing means can be identified on the photographic material by the description means.

According to this configuration, even when a plurality of recording medium writing means are arranged and a large number of requests are efficiently processed, the contents of the request can be surely processed without fail, so that the labor of the operator is remarkable. And work efficiency can be improved.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a photographic processing system according to the present embodiment. This photographic processing system is roughly composed of a printer processor 1, which constitutes printing means, a scanner device 2, and a CD-R writing device 3, which is one type of recording medium writing means. Further, the printer processor 1 and the scanner device 2, and the scanner device 2 and the CD-R writing device 3
Are connected by communication cables 4 and 5.

The printer processor 1 includes a printer unit 1
A and a processor unit 1B, and creates a photographic print based on the image data transmitted from the scanner device 2. Two paper magazines 10a and 10b are mounted on the upper part of the printer unit 1A. Papers (corresponding to photographic photosensitive materials) are accommodated in rolls in the paper magazines 10a and 10b, and the papers are drawn out of one of the paper magazines 10a and 10b into the apparatus. The paper transport path inside the apparatus is indicated by a chain line.

The printer unit 1A includes a cutter 11 for cutting paper (making cut paper) to a print size, a digital exposure engine (exposure head) 13 for exposing an image on the paper, and various parts of the printer processor 1. And a controller 12 for controlling the operation of. Further, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 15 denotes a back printer which prints correction information (color and density correction value information for obtaining an appropriate print) for each exposed print on the back side of the print. The data to be printed is transmitted from the scanner device 2 and controlled by the controller 12 of the printer processor 1. This back printer 15 is different from the one mounted on a conventional photo processing device, as described later, not only correction information and the like, but also information on whether or not the CD-R writing device 3 is used, and further, When a plurality of CD-R writing devices 3 are connected as shown in FIG. 1, which CD-R writing device 3 is used is also printed. Printing by the back printer 15 is performed by an appropriate method such as an ink jet method, a dot printing method, and a thermal transfer method.

The processor section 1B performs development processing and drying processing on the exposed paper (cut paper) and discharges it as a finished photographic print outside the apparatus. The discharged photographic prints are collected by a sorter (stacking device) 14 for each order.

The scanner device 2 is a device for taking in image data from an image forming medium. When the image forming medium is a negative film (photographic film), an image of the negative film can be obtained by setting the negative film on the negative carrier 20. A reading light source unit 21 for that purpose is also provided. The monitor 22 displays the read image. Further, image data can be obtained from other than a photographic film as an image forming medium. For example, a photographic print can acquire image data from a storage medium of a digital camera or the like, and a driver device 23 for the image data is provided.

The CD-R writing device 3 is a device for writing image data obtained by the scanner device 2 to a CD-R in a predetermined file format. In FIG. 1, two devices are connected to the scanner device 2. Even a large number of requests can be processed efficiently. Examples of the file format include JPEG, GIF, and bitmap, but are not limited to a specific file format. The CD-R writing device 3 is roughly divided into a writing main unit 30 (functioning as a label surface printing device),
It comprises a personal computer main unit 31 and a monitor 31M. Then, as described later, the image data read by the image reading unit of the scanner device 2 is transmitted from the data transmission unit of the scanner device 2 and written on the CD-R.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4, a mechanism for writing a record written by the CD-R writing device 3 will be described.

<Description mechanism on back side of cut paper by back printer 15> FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of a photographic processing system according to the present embodiment. In the scanner device 2, instruction data input from the operator via input means such as a keyboard, for example, an instruction to write a film image on an individual print only or to write it on a CD-R in addition thereto is given. . In this case, the input means constitutes the identification data input unit 32. This identification data input unit 3
From 2, the instruction data according to the operator's instruction is transmitted to the identification data storage unit 33, where the instruction data is temporarily stored. The instruction data is transmitted from the identification data storage unit 33 to the data transmission unit 38 in accordance with the instruction to the controller 37, and further transmitted from the data transmission unit 38 to the data reception unit 39 of the printer processor 1. The instruction data is instructed from the data receiving section 39 to the back printer 15 together with the correction information of the image data from the controller 12, and the back of the printed cut paper P, as shown in FIG. To display the instruction data (in this case, 1
"CDR" indicating that the second CD-R writing device was used
1 "symbol. Hereinafter, when the second CD-R writing device is used, a symbol such as “CDR2” is printed. Of course, the printing form is not limited to such symbols, and various display modes such as characters, numbers, and symbols can be adopted, and the printing location is not particularly limited as long as it is on the back side.

By printing on the back surface of the cut paper P in this manner, it can be easily determined that writing has been performed on the recording medium writing device. Further, when there are a plurality of recording medium writing devices, which device is used, It is possible to identify whether a print has been used, and to easily match the print medium writing device used and the print from the order in which the print is finished and processed. Can be reliably avoided,
The labor of the worker can be reduced.

The controller 37 also controls the operation of each part of the CD-R writing device 3,
It is composed of hardware such as a PU and software such as a control program. However, the operation and control of the CD-R writing device 3 may be performed by a controller built in the CD-R writing device 3 itself.

The image data from the negative film or the like is read by the image reading unit 35 and temporarily stored in the image data storage unit 36 as in the case of a general photographic processing device. The data is transmitted to the transmission unit 38, transmitted to the data reception unit 39 in the printer processor 1, and further transmitted to the exposure head 13, where the paper is subjected to an exposure process according to an instruction from the controller 37.

<Mechanism for describing index print> When an index print is created, as described above,
In addition to or instead of printing the record using the CD-R writing device 3 on the back surface of the cut paper P by the back printer 15, the CD-R writing is performed at a place where the order number of the index print I is displayed. A record using the device 3 may be described. That is, when the index print I is created by printing, an instruction to that effect is transmitted from the identification data input unit 32 to the index image creation unit 34 (corresponding to a writing unit). Image synthesis is performed on each frame image data and identification data stored in the image data storage unit 36 and a preset template for creating index image data.
Index image data is created. This data is also stored in the image data storage unit 36.

The index image data and the image data of the frame image are transmitted from the data transmitting section 38 to the data receiving section 39 in accordance with an instruction from the controller 37, and further, the exposure head 1 is controlled by the controller 12 of the printer processor 1.
3 is transferred. Each frame image and the index image are printed and exposed on the paper by the exposure head 13.

When the index image is created, it is used as the first CD-R of the plurality of CD-R writing devices 3.
When the R writer 3 is used, for example, as shown in FIG.
Is printed. Second CD-R writing device 3
When "" is used, "b" is described in the same place. Depending on the CD-R writing device 3 used in this way, different identification symbols are described in the index print I.
By displaying, as in the case of printing on the back side of the cut paper described above, it is possible to easily match the printing medium writing device used and the print, and return the wrong combination to the customer in a bag. Troubles can be avoided reliably and the labor of the operator can be reduced.
Of course, the display mode and display location of the symbol can be appropriately changed.

[Other Embodiments] (1) In the above embodiment, a CD-R writing device is described as an example of a recording medium writing device, but the present invention is not limited to this, and other floppy ( Registered trademark)
A disk, MO disk, DVD, or the like may be used.

(2) In the above embodiment, an example was shown in which two CD-R writing devices 3 were connected. However, a larger number of CD-R writing devices 3 were connected to the scanner device 2, and It is also possible to adopt a method of efficiently performing a large amount of processing, and conversely, a method in which only one device is connected may be used.
In practicing the present invention, the number of recording medium writing means connected is not limited.

Furthermore, the CD-R writing device may be connected to another recording medium writing device, for example, a device for writing to a floppy disk, MO disk, DVD, or the like.

(3) In the above-described embodiment, an example is described in which the use of the recording medium writing device is described on the back surface of the cut paper or in the index print. It may be configured to create the determined discrimination print. In particular, it is useful when a photographic print is not created from image data and only a recording medium writing device is used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic overall configuration diagram of a photographic processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the photo processing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a description example of writing and recording on the back surface of paper by a back printer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a description example of a writing record on an index print surface;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing means 2 Scanner apparatus 3 Recording medium writing means 15, 34 Description means I Index print P Cut paper

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 1/387 H04N 1/387 F-term (Reference) 2H106 BA55 BA75 BA82 BA95 2H109 BA01 BA12 5B050 AA09 BA10 BA15 BA20 EA19 FA03 GA08 5C062 AA05 AB13 AB21 AB22 AC09 AF00 BA04 5C076 AA16 AA19 AA40 BA02

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A scanner device for taking image data from an image forming medium, a printing means for printing the image data taken by the scanner device as an image on a photographic material, and recording the image data in a predetermined file format. What is claimed is: 1. A photographic processing system comprising: a recording medium writing unit that writes on a medium; and a writing unit that can write the writing of the recording medium writing unit on the photographic photosensitive material. 2. The photograph according to claim 1, wherein said photographic photosensitive material is a cut paper, and said description means is a back printer for printing on a back surface of said cut paper that writing by said recording medium writing means has been performed. Processing system. 3. The photographic processing system according to claim 1, wherein said description means prints, on a part of said index print, that the writing by said recording medium writing means has been performed. 4. The photographic photosensitive material according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said recording medium writing means are connected, and said writing means for each of said recording medium writing means is identifiable. Any one of the photo processing systems.