Image Forming Apparatus Non-Contact Touch via Sheet Discharge
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image forming apparatuses with touch panel functions face challenges in allowing non-contact operation, particularly for sanitary reasons, as users may want to avoid direct touch on the touch panel, and existing solutions complicate the apparatus structure to adjust sensitivity.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus includes a control device with a processor that determines user presence and controls sheet discharge without forming an image on the sheet, allowing a non-contact touch gesture by discharging a sheet to the output tray and adjusting display brightness and contrast for increased visibility, enabling users to operate the device without direct touch on the panel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the touch panel sensitivity is increased to enable non-contact operation, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases due to sensitivity adjustment mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
A sheet is introduced as an intermediary medium between the user and the touch panel. The user touches the sheet instead of the touch panel directly, enabling non-contact operation without modifying the touch panel's sensitivity or structure. The sheet acts as a mediator that transfers the touching action while maintaining hygiene and non-contact benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The function of direct touch panel interaction is copied through sheet-based interaction. Instead of modifying the touch panel to detect proximity or non-contact gestures, the system creates a parallel interaction mode where the sheet replicates the touch interface, allowing users to operate the device by touching the sheet which then triggers the same operations as direct touch would.
2Ease of operation
If sheets are discharged without image formation for non-contact operation, then ease of operation is improved, but loss of substance increases due to sheet waste
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of discarding the sheets used for non-contact operation, the system recovers and reuses them. The sheet that was touched by the user is collected and then used as the medium for receiving the actual printed output. This transforms what would be waste into a useful carrier for the final printed material, eliminating sheet waste while maintaining non-contact operation benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The sheet performs multiple functions in sequence: first serving as the interaction medium for non-contact operation, then automatically becoming the reception medium for the printed output. The system self-manages the sheet lifecycle, where the same sheet that facilitated user interaction subsequently receives the printed document, eliminating the need for separate output sheets and reducing waste.
Data Source
AI summary
In an image forming apparatus, a control device functions as a controller and a user presence/absence determiner. When accepting an instruction to execute a print job through a touch panel, the controller controls operations of a sheet feed device, a conveyance device, and an image forming device to allow a document image represented by image data generated by a document reading device to be formed on a sheet to make a printed matter and allow the printed matter to be discharged to a sheet output tray. When the user presence/absence determiner determines that a user is present, the controller controls, before printing for at least a last sheet in the print job, the operations of the sheet feed device and the conveyance device to allow a sheet to be discharged to the sheet output tray without allowing the image forming device to form the document image on the sheet.