Touch Panel Icon Management Across Multiscreen Tabs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image processing devices with tabbed-multiscreen forms require users to switch tabs to execute processes, which is inconvenient, especially when processes need to be assigned to multiple users or groups, necessitating cumbersome administrator operations.
Innovation Solution
An image processing device with a touch panel display featuring a standby screen with switchable screens, including a common area where icons are shared across all tabs and an individual area for unique icons, allowing efficient selection and execution of processes by adding new icons in both modes, enabling easy registration, deletion, and movement based on usage frequency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a particular process is assigned to a button on a specific tab, then the process can be executed when the user selects that tab, but the user is required to switch to the particular tab whenever the process is to be executed, making it inconvenient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of the same process icon across multiple tabs by allowing an icon to be registered in a common area that is shared by all tabs. When a process icon is placed in the common area, it appears on all tab screens, enabling users to access the same process from any tab without switching, thus resolving the contradiction between process accessibility and tab switching requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the administrator assigns the same process to each of the plurality of tabs, then users corresponding to respective tabs can execute the process, but this requires the administrator for a troublesome assigning operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a common area that serves all tabs universally. When an administrator registers a process icon in the common area, it automatically becomes available on all tab screens without requiring separate assignment operations for each tab. This universal registration mechanism eliminates the troublesome repetitive assigning operation while maintaining process availability across all tabs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the icon registration operations for multiple tabs into a single common area. By placing process icons in this shared common area, the system merges the functionality across all tabs, allowing one registration action to propagate the icon to all tabs simultaneously, thus reducing administrator workload and operational complexity.
3Device complexity
If icons are placed only on the currently displayed screen, then the screen layout is simple, but icons cannot be shared across multiple tabs, reducing efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the screen into two distinct areas: a common area for shared icons and an individual area for tab-specific icons. This segmentation allows icons to be placed in the common area to be shared across all tabs while maintaining clear visual organization on each screen. The segmentation resolves the contradiction by providing both layout simplicity through structured zones and productivity through efficient icon sharing capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing device comprises a touch panel, a scanner, a printer, and a controller. The image processing device is configured to execute scanning using the scanner and copying using the scanner and the printer. The controller causes the touch panel to display a standby screen including one of a plurality of screens, each of the plurality of screens is configured to display a plurality of icons including a scan icon and a copy icon. The controller adds a new icon on a screen displayed in the touch panel among the plurality of screens. An adding mode of the new icon includes a first mode in which the new icon is placed only on the screen displayed on the touch panel and a second mode in which the new icon is placed on both a displayed screen and a non-displayed screen.