JPH06217094A - Picture processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To speed copying while maintaining small sizing and efficiency of a page buffer by controlling to output the odd number-th picture data in the ascending order and to output the even number-th picture data in the descending order based on overwriting detection result. CONSTITUTION:The processor consists of a page buffer 10 to temporarily store input picture data, disk controller unit 11 serving as a memory for use of large- capacity data storage, and a detecting device 12 detecting the overwriting of the page buffer 10, and output control section 13 switching the output processing are further added. When no picture data are stored on the page buffer 10, the area securing processing is performed. When the area is secured, the picture data are transferred from a hard disk to the page buffer 10. The picture data to be outputted are different by what part number-th picture data to be outputted are. When they are the odd part number-th one they are outputted in the ascending order and when they are the even number-th one, outputted in the descending order.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which stores input image data in a large-capacity memory and then sends the image data to an image output apparatus while repeating reading.
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that manages storage means to perform efficient input / output processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an image read from a document reading device is written in a storage device and the second and subsequent copies read out the image from the storage device, thereby eliminating the need for circulating the document (hereinafter referred to as electronic RDH). Is well known. The storage device used in the electronic RDH is preferably a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk because it has a large capacity, but a semiconductor memory may be used. When the required number of copies are to be output, a plurality of originals are read once in page order, the image data is stored in the storage device, and the stored image data is repeatedly read in page order and sent to the image output device. The specified number of copies is output.

By the way, when a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk is used, the access speed is limited to about 1 megabyte / second including the seek time. On the other hand, the normal signal transfer rate is 6 for medium-speed copying machines, for example.
Since it is about 10 megabytes / second, there is a speed difference between the two. A page buffer is provided to fill this speed difference, and a method of temporarily storing image data page by page in the page buffer and then sequentially storing the image data in the hard disk is often used in an image processing apparatus having an electronic RDH function. Has been. However, when writing to the hard disk via the page buffer at the time of image input and reading from the hard disk to the page buffer at the time of output,
The hard disk read / write time delays the copy output.

Therefore, an apparatus in which the reading time of the hard disk is reduced by storing and outputting the first copy in the hard disk is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-81563. In addition, a device that performs parallel input / output processing to achieve high-speed output (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-78364), and the next address after the last address of the page buffer at the beginning to make the page buffer smaller and more efficient An apparatus using a page buffer (hereinafter referred to as a ring buffer) which is formed into a ring by using an address is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-100872.

On the other hand, the electronic RDH is characterized in that it is relatively easy to output the image data once stored in an arbitrary output order. An apparatus characterized in that the order of input and output is different is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-60-7.
4768, JP 61-242166, JP 63-23472
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-199961, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-265368, and the like.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The ring buffer for the purpose of downsizing and efficiency of the page buffer as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-100872 is
When the total amount of input image data exceeds the buffer capacity, the image data will be overwritten after confirming the end of storage in a storage device such as a hard disk, so when outputting multiple copies, all pages are printed every number of copies. Processing for outputting to the output device while reading from a storage device such as a hard disk must be performed, and there is a problem that the copying speed of the second and subsequent copies decreases due to the speed difference described above.

Further, the page rearrangement process as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-74768 or the like sets the order of output pages by designating arbitrary image information from the input means. , The ascending order or the descending order output is set for each output device, and the purpose is to distribute the ejected recording sheets without using a stacker or to rearrange them in a desired order. In addition to being unable to solve the problem, the time until paper ejection is even longer, and CPM
There is a problem that (the number of copies per minute) decreases.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems while using the ring buffer while keeping the size and efficiency of the page buffer small.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, according to the present invention, an image data input means and a ring-shaped storage capable of storing input image data for a plurality of pages and having a first address next to the last address are stored. Means, storage means for storing image data, print output means, and paper reversing means for reversing print output paper, in the image processing apparatus, storage control means for controlling the storage means Is the storage start address,
A stored data management table for storing stored image data attributes such as image size and page number, and an overwrite detection unit for detecting that the storage address of the storage unit has changed from the last address to the first address, An even-odd number discriminating means for discriminating whether the image to be output is an even-numbered copy or an odd-numbered copy and information in the stored data management table are searched, and it is determined that the page to be output exists on the storage means. In this case, a management table search means for transferring to the output means without reading from the storage means, and a paper inversion control means for controlling the paper inversion operation in association with the even-odd part determination result are provided. The image processing apparatus controls the odd-numbered copies to be output in ascending order and the even-numbered copies to be output in descending order based on the overwrite detection result.

Further, in association with the print paper post-processing means for performing post-processing of the print output paper, and the output page selection result,
An image processing apparatus provided with a post-processing position control means for designating and moving a location for post-processing.

[0011]

When the image data is input by the input means,
A request for securing an area for storing the image data on the storage means is transmitted, a page information table is created, and then queued in an area request queue in the page buffer table. When the area is secured, the storage start address, the image size, the input page, etc. are written in the page information table and are re-queued in the area securing queue in the page buffer table, and then the image data is input and stored to the storage means. The accumulation operation of is started. When a plurality of pieces of image data are successively input in this way, the final address of the storage means is reached and the area is secured by returning to the initial address, so that the occurrence of overwriting is detected and the overwriting flag is turned on.

On the other hand, the output of the first copy is performed in synchronization with the input of the image data, and when the image data is stored in the storage means in a certain amount or more, the output process is activated. The output of the second and subsequent copies depends on the state of the overwrite flag. If the overwrite flag is OFF, all the image data will be present on the storage means, so that the output is performed at the timing of the output means.

When the overwrite flag is ON, it is determined whether the image data to be output is an even-numbered copy or an odd-numbered copy. If it is an even-numbered copy, the image data is output in the reverse order of the input order.
Then, since there is always image data to be output first in the storage means, the output operation can be started without reading from the storage means. During this output operation, it is possible to read in advance image data that does not exist in the storage means. In the case of even-numbered copies, the paper reversing device use flag is turned on so that the ejected printing paper is reversed.

As described above, when there are a plurality of copies of the image to be output, the pages are output alternately in ascending order and descending order in units of copies so that the input image data can be output in a plurality of copies without reducing the processing speed. It can be realized, and is particularly effective when the total sum of input image data exceeds the entire area of the storage means.

[0015]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a hardware block diagram showing an embodiment of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 5, E
SS (Electoronic Sub-System) (main control unit) 1 is U
I (Job operation designation device (operation panel, etc.))
2. ADF (Auto Document Feeder)
3, IIT / IPS (image reading device) 4, IOT
(Output device) 5 and FINISHER (Printing paper post-processing device)
SYSCONT (Syst
em Controller (system controller) 7 and command / status signal and image input signal control II
T-I / F (communication section with reading device) 8, IOT-I / F for controlling command / status signal and image output signal
(Communication unit with recording device) 9, page buffer 10 for temporarily storing input image data, and disk controller unit 1 as large-capacity data storage memory
1 which is a detector 12 for detecting the overwrite of the page buffer 10 and OUTCONT for switching the output processing.
(Output control unit) 13 is added.

When a document is set on the platen of ADF3 or IIT / IPS4 and the job operation is set by UI2 and the start button is pressed, IIT / IP
In S4, the image information of the original is read by photoelectric conversion, and conversion to digital image data and image processing are apt to be performed.
The data is sequentially stored in the page buffer 10 via the IIT-I / F8. At that time, if the output is possible, the IOT 5 is directly transmitted from the page buffer 10 via the IOT-I / F 9.
And the post-processing is executed by FINISHER6, and writing to the disk 11 is started at the same time. If direct output is impossible, only writing to the disk 11 is started.

Output is performed only from the page buffer 10, but image data is stored in the page buffer 10 by I.
There are two types: input from the IT / IPS 4 and reading from the disk 11. The basic operation is IIT /
The input image data from the IPS 4 is directly output, and the image data read from the disk 11 is output for the second and subsequent copies. The image data output to the IOT-I / F9 is IO
At T5, on / off of the laser beam is controlled for each pixel based on the binary data generated from the image data, and an image is formed by reproducing a halftone image by halftone dots.

Simultaneous access to the page buffer 10 and each processing block can be realized by bus arbitration of the image bus. If the page buffer 10 and each processing block perform time-division processing, parallel processing of input processing and output processing is possible. Next, the job operation realized on the hardware configuration of FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an internal processing control procedure from the standby state to the time when the start button is pressed after the job is set by the UI2. When the start signal is received, the parameters of the requested job are stored in the management area (S1), and the Pa shown in FIG.
Information of the input image data is written to geinfo (page information storage unit), queued in the area request queue in the Pagebuffer Table shown in FIG. 2, and the area for storing the input image data is set in the page buffer. Go inside to secure it (S2). When the area can be secured, the Pageinfo in FIG. 2 is requeued to the area securing queue in the Pagebuffer Table in FIG. 2 (S3).

If the area cannot be secured, it means that the image data in the page buffer is being output or the transfer to the storage device is incomplete.
Wait until the Pagebuffer Table is updated (S
7). When the area is secured and the processing is completed, IIT /
Input processing from the IPS 4 is activated (S4). At this time,
If output is possible at the same time as input, output processing is also activated (S5). When the input process is completed, the process of writing the input image data to the storage device such as the hard disk is started (S6). At the same time, it is checked whether this input image data is the final one, and if it is not the final one, the process is repeated from S2 for the next input image data. If it is the final input image data, the following discrimination processing is executed.

First, the total sum of input series of input image data exceeds the entire storage area of the page buffer, and the detector 12
If is transmitting the overflow signal, the overwrite flag is turned on. When the overwrite flag is ON, the current number of output copies is further checked, the inverter flag is checked (S7), and the processing of the image data reading section described later is performed (S9).
The output process is activated (S10). Overwrite flag is OFF
In the case of, since all the image data is still stored in the page buffer, it is only necessary to start the output process. When the output process is completed, it is checked whether all the requested outputs are completed. If not completed, the process returns to the overwrite flag judgment unit and the process is repeated. If completed, the page buffer and the image data in the hard disk are checked. Erase (S11), perform job end processing (S12),
finish.

In the process of the image data reading section, the work of storing the image data to be output on the page buffer is carried out. If the image data is already stored in the page buffer, the output process is started without doing anything, but if the image data is not stored in the page buffer, the area securing process as shown in S2 to S3 above. When the area is secured, the image data is transferred from the hard disk to the page buffer. The image data to be output differs depending on the number of copies of the image data to be output, and is set in ascending order for odd number of copies and descending order for even number of copies.

In the output processing section, the inverter flag is set to O.
The processing differs depending on whether it is N or OFF, and the inverter flag is set to O.
If it is N, the process of reversing the paper is performed after printing. If the inverter flag is OFF, this process is not performed. Further, in a system to which a printing paper post-processing device is added, even when performing processing such as stapling and punching, the processing content differs depending on whether the reversing device flag is ON or OFF, and the post-processing device based on the reversing device flag. The position of the actual processing part inside is moved, or the processing timing is changed.

FIG. 2 shows a software configuration for realizing FIG. 1. System-Manager (hereinafter abbreviated as sysmng) (system management module), Pagebuffer-Manager
(Hereinafter abbreviated as pbmng) (page buffer management module) and Output-Controller (hereinafter abbreviated as outcont)
It shows that the job processing is realized by the (output control module). sysmng receives a request from UI-TASK (operation control unit) and executes the flow shown in FIG. pbmng is the part that manages the area of the page buffer. It queues Pageinfo in the Pagebuffer Table, removes it, and checks the current free area. The OUTCONT 13 performs a work of switching the output process after starting the input process or the output process. For example, when the inversion flag is ON, the process is switched so that the output device performs the inversion control, and when the preparation is completed, the return value is transmitted to the input process or the output process unit.

FIG. 3 shows the behavior of the page buffer 10, and exemplifies a case where image data for 7 pages is processed and overwriting occurs at the 5th page. Page buffer 10
Then, when the image data is sequentially stored from the first page, the final address of the page buffer is reached in the middle of the fifth page, the first address is returned, and the continuation from the fifth page to the seventh page is performed. Go. At this time, it is assumed that the transfer to the hard disk 11 has already been completed for the first page. If the transfer to the hard disk 11 is not completed, the storage of the fifth page is awaited. At this time, since the input / output simultaneous processing is performed, the output of the first copy is finished when the storage of the seventh page is finished (FIG. 3).
See left side of). The shaded area in FIG. 3 represents image data that has been erased by overwriting.

When the output of the first copy is completed, the output of the second copy is performed. However, since the overwriting has occurred, the second copy is output from the final page, that is, the seventh page. Since the 7th page always exists in the page buffer, the output processing is performed as it is without being read from the hard disk. In Figure 3,
Since the 4th to 7th pages exist in the page buffer, reading from the hard disk is possible up to the 1st to 3rd pages (see the center of FIG. 3).

Since the output of the second copy is in descending order, inversion processing is performed in the output processing. When the output of the second copy is completed, the output of the third copy is performed, but since the first to third pages exist in the page buffer here, the reading from the hard disk is performed to the fourth to seventh pages (Fig. (See right side of 3). The paper is ejected with the odd-numbered parts facing upward and the even-numbered parts facing downward. If the paper is discharged to one paper discharge tray, the worker will perform the sorting work, but the labor of this work is almost the same even if all the paper are not in the same plane direction. Rather, it is convenient that the direction is different at the partition because it can be used as a guide for sorting. When sorting mechanically with a sorter or the like, there is no difference between the two because no manual work is required. Further, for example, when the number of bottles is 20 bins, the upward portion is discharged to the 1-10 bin, and the downward portion is discharged to the 11 to 20 bins.

FIG. 4 shows a timing chart of processing, and shows an example of processing image data for three pages. In the conventional example, even if the input / output is completed, the output of the second copy is impossible until the writing of the third page and the reading of the first page are completed on the hard disk 11. Will be done. In addition, it is necessary to read the hard disk for all pages after the second copy. In the example of the present invention, when the input / output is completed, the third page to be output next is always output for the second copy continuously to the first copy existing in the page buffer.

Note that here, since the output on one side is handled, the pages are in a simple ascending or descending order.
If the last page always exists in the page buffer, the same processing can be performed for double-sided input, double-sided output, and double-sided input / output. However, in this case, since the page order is switched by passing through the circulation path for reversing the paper, it is necessary to manage the input / output pages.

In the above embodiment, the image data is directly handled, but the internal page buffer 10, by performing the compression processing at the input and the expansion processing at the output.
The capacity of the hard disk 11 may be reduced. Further, in the above configuration, it is possible to add processing for rotating an image or specifying a position. Further, the page buffer 10 only needs to be capable of absorbing the input / output speed difference in the DMA (Direct Memory Access) drive, and even if it is a line buffer, it is a FIF.
It may be an O (first-in / first-out) memory. The hard disk 11 may be any memory as long as it can store a plurality of pages, such as a semiconductor memory or a magnetic tape. However, since these are expensive at present or have a low read / write speed, a hard disk is used in the embodiment. Regarding the control of each device, SYSCONT and OUTCONT are all used in the embodiment.
However, if each device has intelligent functions, it can be realized by SYSCONT performing only system management.

[0031]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, when image data is overwritten on the page buffer, this is detected, and the 2 × nth copy is in descending order.
Since the writing and reading from the hard disk are minimized by outputting in the ascending order for the xn + 1 copy, 1
The output of the first copy and the second copy can be continuously performed, and the CPM is improved.

Further, by reducing the access to the hard disk, the frequency of failures such as access errors is reduced, the reliability is increased, and the usage rate of the image bus which has been used for each transfer of the hard disk is reduced. Therefore, there is an effect that it can be utilized for other image processing by observing the unused timing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a control unit of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining inter-task communication and a management table for implementing the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation of a page buffer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a processing timing chart of a conventional example and the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ESS 2 UI 3 ADF 4 IIT / IPS 5 IOT 6 FINISHER 7 SYSCONT 8 IIT-I / F 9 IOT-I / F 10 page buffer 11 disk 12 detector 13 OUTCONT S1 to S11 control unit processing steps

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image data inputting means, an annular storage means capable of storing a plurality of pages of input image data, and having an address next to a final address as a head address, and storing the image data. In an image processing apparatus including a storage unit, a print output unit, and a sheet reversing unit for reversing a print output sheet, a storage unit control unit for controlling the storage unit includes a) a storage start address and an image size. , And a stored data management table for storing stored image data attributes such as page numbers, and b) overwrite detection means for detecting that the storage address of the storage means has changed from the last address to the first address, c) an even-odd number discriminating means for discriminating whether the image to be output is an even-numbered copy or an odd-numbered copy; and d) the information in the stored data management table is searched, and the page to be output on the storage means is Exist If it is determined that the paper is to be read out from the storage means, the management table search means for transferring to the output means, and e) the paper for controlling the paper reversing operation in conjunction with the even-odd part determination result An image processing apparatus comprising: a reversing control unit, and controlling the odd-numbered copies to be output in ascending order and the even-numbered copies to be output in descending order based on the overwrite detection result. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a print sheet post-processing unit for performing post-processing of the print output sheet, further comprising a portion for performing the post-processing in conjunction with the output page selection result. An image processing apparatus comprising post-processing position control means for designating and moving.