JP3482911B2 - Image printing apparatus and recording medium recording the program - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image printing apparatus and a recording medium recording the program thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are known vending machines that can issue various printed materials for a fee. Some of these vending machines include
There is also an image printing apparatus that can print a photographic image taken by a digital camera. The customer inserts the recording medium in which the photographed photo image is recorded into the image printing device, operates the device himself to specify the photo image to be printed, and pays the displayed fee for the specified photo image. Thus, a desired photographic image can be printed.

[0003]

However, in the conventional image printing apparatus, the cost of each color ink ribbon or printing paper, maintenance for replacement of these, and the depreciation of the entire apparatus cause printing per sheet. The cost was too high, which was an obstacle to widespread adoption. An object of the present invention is to provide a printed matter of a photographic image to a customer at a low price.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image printing device for printing a photographic image, the photographic designating device for designating a photographic image to be printed, and a partial payment of the amount of the photographic printing. And a calculation means for calculating the number of photographic images that can be printed at the normal charge based on the amount of money that has been put in for partial payment of the above-mentioned amount, and the above-mentioned calculated number of photographic images. The present invention is characterized by further comprising: a printing unit that prints a designated photographic image and prints the remaining number of photographic images by adding advertisement information to the photographic images.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image printing apparatus for printing a photographic image, comprising a photographic selecting means for selecting a photographic image to be printed and a normal charge printing or a discount when printing the selected photographic image. When the selection means for arbitrarily selecting charge printing and the photo printing by the normal charge printing are selected by the above selection means, the above selection is made in accordance with the amount of money corresponding to the number of sheets selected at the normal charge. When the photographed image is printed on the printing surface of a prescribed printing paper in a prescribed printing size and the photograph printing with the discount charge printing is selected by the selecting means,
The selected photo image is printed on the printing surface of the predetermined printing paper in a size smaller than the predetermined print size according to the amount of the charge corresponding to the selected number of sheets at the discount charge, and the photo is printed. Print control means for additionally printing the advertisement information on the margin portion formed on the printing surface by reduced printing of the image.

[0006]

[0007]

[0008]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the apparatus 1. The controller 7 includes a ROM that stores a program, a control unit that controls the entire apparatus 1 by the program, and various registers necessary for control. The interface (I / F) 8 detects the on / off state of each button of the operation unit 5 according to a scanning signal from the controller 7 and inputs the detected on / off state to the controller 7.
The display control unit 9 develops the image data supplied from the controller 7 into one screen and outputs the image data to the display unit 6 for display. The recording medium insertion mechanism 10 is composed of a mechanism for loading and unloading a memory card, a drive unit thereof, and an image reading unit as an image input unit for reading a photographic image recorded in the loaded memory card. ing. The interface 11 controls the recording medium insertion mechanism 10 according to a control command from the controller 7, and inputs the photographic image read by the recording medium insertion mechanism 10 to the controller 7. Charge insertion / return mechanism 12
Detects, sorts, and inspects the inserted banknotes and coins, and discharges the returned banknotes and coins. The interface 13 inputs the detection signal, the selection signal, and the inspection signal from the fee insertion / return mechanism 12 to the controller 7.

The charge management unit 14 stores data of a plurality of types of charge systems as a table. The controller 7 as the charge selection means selects a corresponding charge system by referring to this table based on the data input from the operation unit 5. The storage unit 15, which is an image storage unit, stores image data of a plurality of types of advertisement information (hereinafter, “image of advertisement information”).
(Hereinafter abbreviated) is stored, and a photographic image read from a memory card attached to the recording medium insertion mechanism 10 is temporarily stored. Image processing algorithm section 1
6 executes an image processing algorithm for the photographic image and the image of the advertisement information. With regard to this image processing algorithm, if the processing speed of the arithmetic processing unit constituting the control unit of the controller 7 is high, the storage unit 15 and the program can be executed without providing the image processing algorithm unit 16 as hardware. It is also possible to realize it by software by using the controller 7 to be executed.

The printer controller 17 is connected 8
The individual printers 18 are controlled so that the printer 1 receives the print command and the print data from the controller 7 as the print instruction means.
Output to 8. The print photo discharge sensor 19 determines whether or not the printed matter printed by the printer 18 is discharged to the print photo take-out port 4. The interface 20 inputs the detection result of the print photograph discharge sensor 19 to the controller 7. As shown in FIG. 3, each printer 18 has an interface 22 for exchanging print commands and other commands and print data with the printer controller 17,
A print data storage unit 23 for temporarily storing print data,
A printing mechanism section 24 for printing is provided. The control unit 25 expands the print data supplied from the printer control unit 17 via the interface 22 into a print format, stores the print data in the print data storage unit 23, reads it, and outputs it to the print mechanism unit 24.

The transmission / reception unit 21 wirelessly communicates with an external device to receive data from the external device or transmit data related to the device 1 to the external device. The data from the external device is data of an image of advertisement information described later, but since it is not directly related to this embodiment, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
It will be described in detail according to the flowchart of the controller 7 shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow of start button processing executed when the start button of the operation unit 5 is turned on in the main flow (not shown). First, an instruction message for inserting a memory card is displayed on the display unit 5 (step A1). And interface 1
Wait for the insertion of the memory card via 1. When the customer inserts the memory card (step A2), the image file in the memory card, that is, the photographic image taken by the digital camera is read and stored in the storage unit 15 (step A3). In this case, since the format of the photographic image differs depending on the camera maker, the maker name may be input by the customer. However, in the present embodiment, the controller 7 automatically detects the format by the index of the memory card or the like. Then, the image processing adapted to the format is performed and stored in the storage unit 15.

Next, the image processing algorithm unit 16 reduces the size of all the photographic images of the stored photographic images. Then, the thumbnail which is the reduced image is displayed on the display unit 6 (step A4). Further, the image selection menu is displayed on the screen (step A5). That is, as shown in FIG. 5, all the picture images of the frames are displayed together with the frame numbers, and a message prompting the input of the frame numbers of the photo images desired to be printed is displayed. When the customer selects the menu and inputs the frame number (step A6), processing such as changing the display of the frame number is performed. Then, the state of the end button of the operation unit 5 is detected to determine whether or not the selection is completed (step A7). If the selection is not completed, the customer waits for the input of the top number in step A6.

When the selection is completed, the selected number is displayed (step A8). Next, the fee system menu is displayed (step A9). Fig. 6 shows the screen of the charge system menu. Menu 1 is the case of the normal fee for paying a predetermined printing fee, and only the photographic image is printed and a message that the advertisement is not displayed is displayed. Menu 2 is the case of a discounted fee that discounts a part of the prescribed printing fee,
Display a message that the advertisement selected by the customer will be displayed outside the photo. Menu 3 is a case of no charge, and a message indicating that an advertisement will be displayed by being combined with a part of the photograph is displayed. Also, an illustration in print format is displayed for each menu.

In the flow of FIG. 4, when the customer selects any menu (step A10), the selected menu is discriminated (step A11). When the menu 1 is selected, the normal charge printing subroutine is executed (step A12). When the menu 2 is selected, a discount charge printing subroutine is executed (step A13). If menu 3 is selected, a free print subroutine is executed (step A1).
4). When the processing of the subroutine of the selected menu ends, the processing returns to the main processing.

FIG. 7 is a flow of the normal charge printing subroutine of step A12. A charge corresponding to the selected number is displayed (step B1), and it is determined whether or not the amount of money for the charge is input from the charge insertion / return port 3 (step B).
2). While the amount of money is not input, it is determined whether or not the stop button of the operation unit 5 is turned on (step B3), and when the stop button is turned on, this flow is ended. When the amount of money for the fee has been input, the selected photographic image is printed (step B4). Then, it is determined whether or not the printing of all the selected photographic images has been completed (step B5). If there are still photo images to be printed, the printing process of step B4 is continued. When all the selected photo images have been printed, this flow ends.

FIG. 8 is a flow of the subroutine for printing the discount charge in step A13 of FIG. A charge corresponding to the selected number of sheets is displayed (step C1), and it is determined whether or not the amount of money for the charge has been input (step C2). While the amount of money is not input, it is determined whether or not the stop button of the operation unit 5 is turned on (step C3), and when the stop button is turned on, this flow is ended. When the amount of money for the fee is input, the selection advertisement menu is displayed (step C
4). As shown in FIG. 9A, the storage unit 15 stores image data of a plurality of types of advertisement content corresponding to advertisement numbers. In the process of step C4, the stored image data is read out, and as shown in FIG. 9B, the illustration of the corresponding advertisement or the image of the corresponding advertisement information is reduced and displayed together with the advertisement number.

Then, in the flow of FIG. 8, when the customer inputs an advertisement selection through the operation unit 5 as the image designating means, the photographic image designated for printing by the customer is reduced (step C6). ). That is, a space for adding and printing an image of advertising information is secured adjacent to the outside of the photographic image. Next, the controller 7 as the advertisement image setting unit reads out the image of the advertisement information selected by the customer from the storage unit 15, and the image processing algorithm unit 16 serving as an image synthesizing unit synthesizes the two images (step C8). . Next, the composite image is output to the designated printer 18 via the printer control unit 17 and printed (step C9). Then, it is determined whether or not the printing of all the photographic images designated by the customer is completed (step C10). If there are still photographic images to be printed, the process proceeds to step C6, and the processes up to step C9 are repeated. When the printing of all the designated photo images is completed, this flow ends.

FIG. 10 is a flow of the free printing subroutine of step A14 in FIG. First, a message for inputting customer information is displayed (step D1).
Customer information is a customer's age, sex, and taste. When the customer inputs the age, sex, and taste (step D2), the input information is stored in the customer file of the storage unit 15 (step D3). FIG. 11 shows an example of a customer file table. In this table, combinations of tastes, sexes, and generations and advertisement numbers are stored in association with each other. Controller 7 as customer discrimination means
In order to determine the characteristics of the customer according to the condition input by the customer, the table refers to this table and extracts the target advertisement number based on the determination result (step D4).

Next, a guidance for setting the photo composite position is displayed (step D5). The screen of the guidance is shown in FIG. As shown in this figure, three printing modes for designating the position of the image of the advertisement information can be selected. When the photograph composition position is set by the customer (step D6), the photograph image designated for printing by the customer is cut off (step D7). That is, the image data of the portion of the photographic image corresponding to the area where the image of the advertisement information is printed is erased. Next, the image of the advertisement information to be combined is read from the storage unit 15 (step D8), and the two images are combined by the image processing algorithm unit 16 (step D9). Next, the composite image is output to the designated printer 18 via the printer control unit 17 for printing (step D10). Then, it is determined whether or not all the photographic images designated by the customer have been printed (step D11). If there are still photographic images to be printed, the process proceeds to step D7, and the processes up to step D10 are repeated. When the printing of all the designated photo images is completed, this flow ends.

As described above, in the above embodiment, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 8, when the photographic image designated by the customer is printed at the predetermined printing fee, the printing cost is lower than the predetermined printing fee. When the customer selects the printing fee, when printing the designated photographic image, the image of the advertisement information is added to the photographic image to be printed. Therefore, since the advertiser of the image of the advertisement information added to the photographic image bears a part of the printing fee, the printed matter of the photographic image can be provided to the customer at an inexpensive fee. On the other hand, the advertiser can add an advertisement to a photographic image that the customer can store for a long time and can be widely distributed to surrounding people such as family and friends, so that the advertising effect is extremely high. Further, it is possible to advertise at an extremely low advertisement fee as compared with the advertisement fee when advertised on media such as televisions and newspapers.

Further, in the above embodiment, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 10, when printing the photographic image designated by the customer, the image of the advertisement information read from the storage unit 15 which is the image storage means is displayed. , The print image is combined with the designated photographic image, and the combined image is printed. Therefore, since the advertiser of the image of the advertisement information to be combined with the photographic image bears the printing fee, the printed matter of the photographic image can be provided to the customer free of charge. Also in this case, the advertiser has the advantage of obtaining a high advertising effect with an extremely low advertising fee.

Next, a modification of the above embodiment will be described. 13 and 14 are flowcharts of a subroutine of a modified example of the normal fee printing in step A12 in FIG. 4 of the above embodiment. First, the fee according to the number of selected sheets is displayed (step E1), and the amount selection menu is displayed (step E2). In this money amount menu, there are two choices: whether to pay the full amount or to specify a partial payment. Then, when any one of the menus is selected by the customer (step E3), it is determined whether the selection of the menu is the full price menu or the designated menu (step E4). When the full amount menu is selected, it is determined whether or not the amount of money for the charge has been input (step E5). While the amount of money is not input, it is determined whether or not the stop button of the operation unit 5 is turned on (step E6), and when the stop button is turned on, this flow is ended. When the full amount for the fee has been input, the selected photographic image is printed (step E7). Then, it is determined whether or not the printing of all the selected photographic images has been completed (step E8). If there are still photo images to be printed, the printing process of step E7 is continued. When all the selected photo images have been printed, this flow ends.

When the designation menu is selected in step E4, it is determined in the flow of FIG. 14 whether or not the amount of money is input (step E9). While the amount of money is not input, it is determined whether or not the stop button of the operation unit 5 is turned on (step E10), and when the stop button is turned on, this flow is ended. When the full amount is input, the number of printable sheets is calculated at the normal charge (step E).
11). Next, of the photo images selected by the customer,
Print the calculated number of photographic images (step E
12). Then, it is determined whether or not the printing of all the calculated photographic images has been completed (step E13). If there are still photographic images to be printed, step E1
The printing process of No. 2 is continued.

When all the calculated photographic images have been printed, the guidance screen for setting the photographic composition position shown in FIG. 12 in the above embodiment is displayed (step E14). When the photograph composition position is set by the customer (step E15), a step E1 is performed due to a shortage of charges among the photograph images specified by the customer for printing.
The photographic image not printed in 2 is cut out (step E16). Next, the image of the advertisement information to be combined is read from the storage unit 15 (step E17), and the two images are combined by the image processing algorithm unit 16 (step E18). Next, the composite image is output to the designated printer 18 via the printer control unit 17 and printed (step E19). Then, it is determined whether or not all the photographic images designated by the customer have been printed (step E20). If there are still photographic images to be printed, the process proceeds to step E16 and step E19.
Repeat the above process. When the printing of all the designated photo images is completed, this flow ends. Before the guidance screen is displayed, customer information such as the customer's age, sex, and taste may be input, and an advertisement most suitable for the customer information may be selected, as in the above embodiment.

As described above, in the above-described modification, when the payment amount is less than the predetermined printing fee for printing only a plurality of designated photographic images, the number of sheets corresponding to the less amount is paid. With regard to the photographic image, the image of the advertisement information is added and printed. Therefore, the customer
Even if you cannot pay the full amount of multiple photo images specified for printing, you can print it free by adding advertisements to the photo images, and the advertiser of the image of the advertisement information to combine with the photo image will be charged for that amount. Therefore, the printed matter of the photographic image can be provided to the customer at a low price.

In the above embodiment, the customer information including the customer's age, sex, and taste is input, and the most suitable advertisement is selected for the customer information. However, other than the age, gender, and taste. The optimum advertisement may be selected by inputting the customer information. For example, the genre of the photo image to be printed, that is, whether the photo is a person,
A genre such as landscape or animal is input, and the optimum advertisement is selected with reference to the table shown in FIG. 15 (1). In the case of a person, images of advertisement information such as clothes, drinks, cars, etc. are added, and in the case of landscape, images of advertisement information of hotels, vehicles, sports equipment, etc. are added.

Alternatively, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the optimum advertisement is selected by other information that can be automatically selected, regardless of the customer's input. For example, referring to the time zone table shown in FIG. 15 (2), an advertisement most suitable for the time zone at the time of printing is selected and added. Also, for example, in FIG.
By referring to the table of climate (temperature zone, humidity zone) shown in (3), an advertisement most suitable for the climate is selected and added. Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 15 (4), with reference to the table of the tendency of the image color of the photographic image to be printed, the optimum advertisement for the image color is selected and added. In this case, an advertisement of an image color of the same system as the image color may be selected so as to be in harmony with the photographic image to be printed, and an image color that has a complementary color relationship with the image color may be selected so that the advertising effect is enhanced. May be selected.

In the above-described embodiment or modification, in the case where the image of the advertisement information is combined with the photographic image and printed, when there are a plurality of photographic images to be printed, the same photographic image is used for each of the plurality of photographic images. An image of the advertisement information may be combined and printed, or different images may be combined with each of the photographic images and printed. This print mode is the content of the advertisement,
It is selected according to the season, customer segment and other conditions.

Further, in the above-described embodiment and its modification, the program stored in the ROM of the controller 7 shown in FIG. 2 is executed to perform the processing shown in the above flowchart. It is also possible to realize the invention of the medium by configuring the program to be recorded in a general-purpose recording medium such as a disc, a CD, an MD, or the like. That is, a charge selection procedure for selecting a print charge cheaper than a predetermined print charge according to the operation of the customer,
Also, when an inexpensive charge is selected, a program for executing a print instruction procedure for adding an image of advertisement information to a photographic image and printing the photographic image is recorded in a recording medium. Alternatively, a program for executing an image synthesizing procedure for synthesizing an image of advertisement information read from an image storage unit for storing an image of advertisement information and a designated photographic image, and a print instruction procedure for printing with the synthesized image Is recorded on a recording medium.

Then, the image printing device and a general-purpose personal computer are connected by a communication cable, the program is read from the recording medium mounted on the personal computer, and the image printing device is controlled to print a photographic image. Further, when recording this program, it is possible to connect the personal computer to a network via a communication means such as a modem and download the program from the network to record the program.

[0033]

According to the present invention, it is specified by the customer.
When printing a photographic image at a specified printing fee,
If the customer chooses a print fee that is cheaper than the print fee of
Is added to the specified photo image when printing the specified photo image.
By adding and printing an image of advertising information, a photographic image
The advertiser of the image of the advertisement information added to the printer bears the printing fee.
Therefore, printouts of photographic images are available to customers at a low cost.
Can be provided. On the other hand, even for the advertiser,
Save and distribute widely to surrounding people such as family and friends
Since you can add advertisements to photographic images that may
The advertising effect of is extremely high .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an image printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the image printing apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of start button processing of the controller in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a screen of an image selection menu displayed on the display unit of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a screen of a fee system menu displayed on the display unit of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of normal fee printing in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of discount charge printing in FIG.

9A is a diagram showing a table of advertisement contents stored in a storage unit in FIG. 2, and FIG. 9B is a diagram showing a screen of an advertisement image selection menu displayed on the display unit in FIG.

10 is a flowchart of free printing in FIG.

11 is a diagram showing a table of customer information stored in the storage unit of FIG. 2. FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a screen of a combination position setting guidance displayed on the display unit of FIG.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of normal charge printing according to a modified example of the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of normal charge printing following FIG.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing various tables stored in a storage unit in a modification of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

5 Operation part 6 Display 7 controller 10 Recording media insertion mechanism 12 Charge insertion / return mechanism 14 Charge Management Department 15 memory 18 Printer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hiroki Takahashi 3-2-1 Sakaemachi, Hamura-shi, Tokyo Casio Computer Co., Ltd., Hamura Technical Center (56) Reference JP-A-10-210199 (JP, A) JP-A-10-215376 (JP, A) JP-A-9-65321 (JP, A) JP-A-10-200839 (JP, A) JP-A-11-8817 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G07F 5/00-9/10

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image printing device for printing a photographic image, comprising: a photographic designating device for designating a photographic image to be printed ; an amount designating device for designating a partial payment of a photographic printing amount; A calculation means for calculating the number of photographic images that can be printed at a normal charge based on the amount of money paid in partly , and printing the designated photographic image by the calculated number of sheets,
An image printing apparatus comprising: a printing unit that prints the remaining number of photographic images by adding advertisement information to the photographic images. 2. An image printing apparatus for printing a photographic image, comprising: a photographic selecting means for selecting a photographic image to be printed; and a normal charge printing or discount printing for printing the selected photographic image.
If you select the optional print option or the photo print with the normal charge print by the above-mentioned selecting means, the amount of charge corresponding to the number of sheets selected with the normal charge
Depending on the charged were entirely printed in a predetermined print size photographic images that have been the chosen printing surface of a predetermined printing paper, when the printing of a discount at the printing by the selection means is selected, discounts
Depending on the amount of money paid according to the above selected number of charges
The selected image as well as to print by reducing than the predetermined print size on the printing surface of the predetermined printing paper, advertising in the margin formed on the printing surface by reduced printing of the photographic image Te print control information Ru is added printing
An image printing apparatus comprising: a means .