JP2003054093A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To use a liquid crystal panel of a portable telephone as a display of a printer. SOLUTION: A color thermal printer 10 is connected with a portable telephone 25 through a cable 20 and a smart media 12 storing image data is set in a holder 11a. When an image select button 16 is pushed, a screen of image data is read in from the smart media 12. The image data is transmitted to the portable telephone 25 through the cable 20. The inputted image data is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32. When the image select button 16 is pushed furthermore, next image data is read in and displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32. An image is printed on a color thermal recording sheet 13 by pushing a print start button 18 when a desired image is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32. In other words, the liquid crystal panel 32 of the portable telephone 25 can be used as the display of the printer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a printer that selects arbitrary image data from a plurality of image data stored in an electronic storage medium and prints it on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital cameras for personal use and printers capable of printing image data of the picked-up images on recording paper with high image quality have been rapidly spread. A digital camera converts an optical subject image formed on a photoelectric surface of an image pickup device such as a CCD image sensor arranged behind a photographing lens into a digital signal and converts it into an electronic storage medium (hereinafter referred to as a memory) such as a smart medium. It is stored as image data. The memory is removable, and you can remove it from the digital camera and set it in the printer.
A display device such as a television monitor is connected to the printer through a monitor output terminal, and the television monitor confirms and selects an image to be printed. When the print start operation is performed, the image data stored in the memory is printed on the recording paper similarly to the silver halide photograph, and a high quality photographic print can be obtained.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned printer, the printer and the TV monitor are taken to a place where there is a TV monitor or the like which is a display device in order to confirm and select an image to be printed. Since it is necessary to connect and to, or to install a printer near the TV monitor and to connect these in advance, there is a problem in that restrictions on use and time and effort for connection are required.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is for connecting a mobile phone owned by a user and for checking and selecting an image to be printed on a liquid crystal panel mounted on the mobile phone. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer that can be used as a display device of the.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a printer of the present invention is a printer for selecting image data from a plurality of image data stored in an electronic storage medium and printing the image data on a recording medium. The printer body is provided with a connection means for electrically connecting the printer body and the mobile phone, and a data communication means for transmitting and receiving data between the printer body and the mobile phone via the connection means. This data is displayed on the display means mounted on the mobile phone. This data is preferably either image data selected from at least a plurality of image data or print information data indicating a print state. It is preferable that the connection unit includes a power supply unit that supplies power from the printer body to the mobile phone.

[0006]

1 and 2 are a perspective view and a block diagram showing the configuration of a color thermal printer according to the present invention. A holder 11 a into which the smart media 12 is inserted and a paper feed cassette 14 into which the color thermal recording paper 13 is loaded are provided on the front surface of the printer body 11 of the color thermal printer 10. Above the paper feed cassette 14, a paper ejection port 11b for ejecting the printed color thermosensitive recording paper 13
Are formed. The smart media 12 is composed of a DRAM that can be accessed at high speed, and a subject image captured by a digital camera (not shown) is stored as digital image data.

The color thermal recording paper 13 is, as is well known,
A cyan thermosensitive coloring layer, a magenta thermosensitive coloring layer and a yellow thermosensitive coloring layer are sequentially formed on the support. The yellow thermosensitive coloring layer, which is the uppermost layer, has the highest heat sensitivity and develops yellow with a small amount of heat energy. The cyan thermosensitive coloring layer, which is the lowermost layer, has the lowest thermal sensitivity and develops cyan with a large amount of heat energy. The magenta thermosensitive coloring layer, which is an intermediate layer, develops magenta with heat energy which is about the intermediate level between the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer and the cyan thermosensitive coloring layer. The yellow thermosensitive coloring layer loses its coloring ability when irradiated with near ultraviolet rays having an emission wavelength peak of 420 nm, and the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer loses its coloring ability when irradiated with ultraviolet rays having an emission wavelength peak of 365 nm.

An operation panel 1 is provided on the upper surface of the printer body 11.
5 are provided. The operation panel 15 includes a print image selection button 16, a print number designation button 17,
A print start button 18 and the like are arranged. In addition, a USB (Universal
Sirial Bus) standard connection terminals are provided. A USB connector 20a provided at one end of the cable 20 is connected to this connection terminal. A mobile phone connector 20b is provided at the other end of the cable 20, and the mobile phone 25
Connection terminal (not shown). As a result, the color thermal printer 10 and the mobile phone 25 are electrically connected to each other via the communication I / Fs 26 and 27 shown in FIG.

The communication I / F 26 of the mobile phone 25 includes a CP
An LCD driver 31 and a liquid crystal panel 32 are connected via U30. Selected image data, which will be described later, is input to the mobile phone 25 from the color thermal printer 10 via the cable 20. The CPU 30 drives the LCD driver 31 based on the selected image data to display an image on the liquid crystal panel 32. Although not shown, the CPU 30 includes a communication I / F 26, an LCD driver 31, and a liquid crystal panel 3.
2, the voice communication means and the like necessary for voice communication are connected.

The color thermal printer 10 has a communication I / F.
In addition to the CPU 27, a CPU 35, a digital signal processing circuit 36, a memory 37, a thermal head 39 via a head driver 38, an optical fixing device 41 via a driver 40, a recording paper conveyance mechanism, and the like are provided. The CPU 35 generally manages the electrical operation of the color thermal printer 10 including the digital signal processing circuit 36, and performs signal processing according to input signals from the buttons 16 to 19 arranged on the operation panel 15. I do.

The CPU 35 uses the print image selection button 1
When 6 is pressed, one screen of image data is read from the image data stored in the smart media 12. Then, in the digital signal processing circuit 36, depending on the size and resolution of the liquid crystal panel 32 of the mobile phone 25, for example, when the display size is small, pixel-thinned selection image data is created. The selected image data is transmitted to the mobile phone 25 via the communication I / F 27 and the cable 20, and as described above, the liquid crystal panel 3 of the mobile phone 25.
The image is displayed on 2. Thus, each time the print image selection button 16 is pressed, the smart media 12 is pressed.
While the image data is read from the screen one by one,
Selected image data is created and sent to the mobile phone 25.
Each image is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32.

When the image displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32 is printed, the number of prints is designated by pressing the print number designation button 18. When the print start button 19 is pressed after the number of prints is designated, the digital signal processing circuit 36 performs image processing such as trimming and rotation of the image data read from the smart media 12. The image data for one screen after the image processing is written in the memory 37 as print data.

The thermal head 39 is provided with a heating element array in which a large number of heating elements are arranged in a line in the width direction of the recording paper on the surface facing the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 (not shown). The thermal head 39 heats each heating element of the heating element array to a predetermined temperature in accordance with print data in synchronism with the transfer of the color thermal recording paper 13 by a recording paper transfer mechanism (not shown), thereby performing color thermal recording. Heat energy corresponding to print data is supplied to the paper 13. In this way, the CPU 35 performs thermal recording on the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 in the three-color frame sequential manner according to the print data written in the memory 36.

The optical fixing device 41 comprises a yellow fixing lamp (not shown) for irradiating near ultraviolet rays having an emission wavelength peak of 420 nm, and a magenta fixing lamp for irradiating ultraviolet rays having an emission wavelength peak of 365 nm, and is selected by the driver 40. Lights up. After the thermal recording of the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer is completed, the yellow fixing lamp is turned on to irradiate near-ultraviolet rays toward the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 conveyed by the recording paper conveying mechanism to fix the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer. Similarly, after the thermal recording of the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer is completed, the magenta fixing lamp is turned on and the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is irradiated with ultraviolet rays to fix the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer. In this way, a full-color image is printed on the color thermosensitive recording paper 13.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.
When printing images taken with a digital camera,
First, the color thermal printer 10 and the mobile phone 25 are connected by the cable 20. Then, the smart media 12 in which the image data is stored is taken out from the digital camera and set in the holder 11a of the color thermal printer 10.

When the user presses the print image selection button 16, one screen of image data is read from the image data stored in the smart media 12. The image data is subjected to image processing such as pixel thinning according to the size and resolution of the liquid crystal panel 32 of the mobile phone 25 in the digital signal processing circuit 36. The image-processed image data is transmitted to the mobile phone 25 as the selected image data via the communication I / F 27 and the cable 20.

In the mobile phone 25, the LCD driver 31 is driven based on the input selected image data to display an image on the liquid crystal panel 32. The user sees the image displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32 and selects whether to print. If you do not want to print the displayed image,
The user repeats the above-mentioned operation to display the next image data on the liquid crystal panel 32, and retrieves the image to be printed.

On the other hand, when printing the image displayed on the liquid crystal panel 32, the number of prints is designated by pressing the print number designation button 17. If you press the print start button 18 after specifying the number of prints,
In the digital signal processing circuit 36, the smart media 1
Image processing such as trimming and rotation of the image data read from No. 2 is performed. The image data for one screen after the image processing is written in the memory 37 as print data.

Then, the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is conveyed in the forward direction from the paper feeding cassette 14 to the recording position of the thermal head 39 by a conveying mechanism (not shown). When the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 reaches the recording start position, the thermal head 39 synchronizes with the forward transfer of the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 and applies heat energy corresponding to the yellow image data from each heating element of the heating element array. It is supplied to the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 and a yellow image is thermally recorded line by line on the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer.

When the thermal recording of the yellow image is completed, the driving of the thermal head 39 is stopped and the conveyance of the color thermal recording paper 13 is stopped. Immediately after this, the yellow fixing lamp of the optical fixing device 41 is turned on, and the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is conveyed in the reverse direction. At this time, the optical fixing device 41
The near-ultraviolet light having an emission wavelength peak of 420 nm is emitted toward the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 to fix the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer.

When the fixing of the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer is completed, the conveyance of the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is stopped and the yellow fixing lamp is turned off. Then, the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is again conveyed in the forward direction, and the thermal head 39 supplies the thermal energy corresponding to the magenta image data to the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 from each heating element of the heating element array, and the magenta thermosensitive coloring is performed. Thermal recording of magenta images line by line.

When the thermal recording of the magenta image is completed, the driving of the thermal head 39 is stopped and the color thermal recording paper 1
3 is stopped. Immediately after this, the magenta fixing lamp of the optical fixing device 41 is turned on, and the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is conveyed in the reverse direction. At this time, ultraviolet rays having an emission wavelength peak of 365 nm are emitted from the optical fixing device 41 toward the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 to fix the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer.

When the fixing of the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer is completed, the conveyance of the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is stopped and the magenta fixing lamp is turned off. Then, the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is conveyed again in the forward direction, and the thermal head 39 supplies the thermal energy corresponding to the cyan image data from each of the heating elements of the heating element array to the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 to develop the cyan thermosensitive coloring. Thermal recording of the cyan image line by line in layers. In this way, a full-color image is printed on the color thermosensitive recording paper 13. When the thermal recording on all the thermosensitive coloring layers is completed, the color thermosensitive recording paper 13 is ejected from the paper ejection port 11b. When a plurality of prints are designated, the above print operation is repeated until the designated number is reached.

When the designated number of prints are completed,
The color thermal printer 10 is in a standby state. The user can press the print image selection button 16 again to search and print the image data to be printed from the image data stored in the smart media 12.

In the above embodiment, the color thermal printer and the mobile phone are electrically connected by a cable, but as shown in FIG.
Insert the mobile phone 25 into 1 and hold it 5
2 and a mobile phone connector (not shown) connected to the connection terminal of the mobile phone 25 are provided at the back of the insertion port 52, and the mobile phone 25 can be electrically connected by inserting the mobile phone 25 into the printer main body 51. You may do it.

In the above embodiment, the connection terminals and cables of the color thermal printer are of USB standard, but the present invention is not limited to this, and parallel interface, serial interface, IEEE 1394, etc.
The connection terminals and cables of any standard may be used, or the dedicated connection terminals and cables different from these standards may be used. Alternatively, wireless communication such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) may be used.

In the above embodiment, the printer and the mobile phone are connected to transmit and receive the image data only. However, when the printer and the mobile phone are connected, the printer supplies power to the mobile phone to transfer the data. The phone may be charged.

In the above embodiment, only the image to be printed is displayed on the liquid crystal panel. However, the time until the completion of printing may be displayed on the liquid crystal panel, or the ringing tone of the mobile phone may be emitted when the printing is completed. . In this case, it is possible to avoid an unnecessary waiting time until the completion of printing. Also, although an example using a mobile phone has been described, PHS may be used. In this case, PHS
The connection connector to be connected to the PHS has the same shape and the same number of pins as the connection terminal of the PHS. Furthermore, a monitor output terminal may be provided on the printer body, and a television monitor may be connected as necessary to allow detailed observation of the image.

In the above embodiment, an example of a color thermal printer has been described, but other printing methods such as an inkjet printer and a thermal transfer printer may be used.
Further, although the smart media is used as the electronic storage medium for storing the image data, other electronic storage media such as CompactFlash (registered trademark) may be used.

[0030]

As described above, according to the printer of the present invention, the connecting means for electrically connecting the printer main body and the mobile phone, and the data between the printer main body and the mobile phone via the connecting means. And a data communication means for transmitting and receiving
Since the data transmitted from the printer body is displayed on the display means installed in the mobile phone, connecting the mobile phone owned by the user enables confirmation of the image to be printed by the display means installed in the mobile phone and It can be used as a display device for selection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a color thermal printer embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of a color thermal printer.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a color thermal printer according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 color thermal printer 11 Printer body 12 smart media 13 color thermal recording paper 16 Print image selection button 17 Button to specify the number of prints 18 Print start button 20 cables 25 mobile phones 26,27 Communication I / F 32 LCD panel

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F term (reference) 2C061 AQ04 AR01 CQ21 CQ24                 5B021 AA01 PP08                 5C052 AA11 AA17 DD02 FA02 FA03                       FA04 FB01 FC06 FE01                 5C062 AA05 AA12 AB23 AB38 AC41                       BA04 BB03

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer for selecting image data from a plurality of image data stored in an electronic storage medium and printing the image data on a recording medium, the connecting means electrically connecting a printer body and a mobile phone. And a data communication unit for transmitting and receiving data between the printer body and the mobile phone via the connecting means, and displaying the data transmitted from the printer body on a display unit mounted on the mobile phone. Characteristic printer. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the data is either image data selected from at least the plurality of image data or print information data indicating a print state. 3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the connection unit includes a power supply unit that supplies power from the printer body to the mobile phone.