Image Processing Apparatus Condition Input Screen Resumption
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Solution Overview
Problem
In shared image processing apparatuses, users often face inconvenience when settings for a process are interrupted, requiring them to restart from scratch, leading to inefficiency and increased user-friendliness issues.
Innovation Solution
An image processing apparatus with a display portion for condition input, a control portion for storing and retrieving conditions, a re-display portion for restoring previous settings, and a process execution portion for resuming tasks based on stored conditions, allowing users to temporarily stop and resume processes without losing settings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple users share a single image processing apparatus, then device utilization improves, but user convenience deteriorates when one user interrupts another user's settings process
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically storing the first user's input screen data and setting conditions in memory before the user actually needs to resume. When the second user completes their process, the system has already prepared the first user's settings data, eliminating the need for the first user to re-enter settings and thus maintaining ease of operation while enabling multi-user sharing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the first user's input screen data and setting conditions in the memory unit. This copy allows the first user to resume their process without losing any settings, while the second user can simultaneously use the apparatus. The copying mechanism resolves the contradiction by preserving the first user's work state without preventing the second user from utilizing the device.
2Device complexity
If a user is forced to re-enter settings from scratch after being interrupted, then system simplicity is maintained, but time efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary storage of input screen data and setting conditions in memory during the interruption. This preliminary action ensures that when the user returns, their settings are already preserved and ready for resumption, eliminating the time-wasting re-entry process while maintaining reasonable system complexity through automated memory management.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides self-service by automatically detecting when a user has completed a process, retrieving and displaying the previous user's input screen data, and enabling resumption without manual intervention. The control unit autonomously manages the retrieval and display of stored settings data, reducing time loss while keeping the interface simple and user-friendly.
3Ease of operation
If the system stores and retrieves setting data automatically, then user convenience improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The memory unit serves multiple functions: it stores input screen data, stores setting conditions, and provides retrieval capabilities. By making the memory unit multi-functional, the system achieves automated storage and retrieval of settings data without adding separate dedicated components for each function, thus improving user convenience while controlling device complexity through functional integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The control unit automatically manages the entire process of detecting process completion, retrieving stored data from memory, and displaying it on the display unit without requiring user intervention. This self-service automation improves user convenience by eliminating manual data re-entry, while the complexity is contained within the control unit's automated logic rather than requiring complex user interactions.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing apparatus includes a display portion that displays a condition input screen on which a user enters a condition for a process of printing or scanning an image, a control portion that, when first operation is performed, controls a storage portion to store the condition thus entered, a retrieval portion that, if second operation is performed, reads out the condition from the storage portion, a re-display portion that displays again the condition input screen in a state where the condition thus read out is entered, and a process execution portion that, if third operation is performed, executes the process of printing or scanning an image based on a latest condition stored in the storage portion.