OPERATING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• US 20110055719A1
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Maeda, Tetsuya, Shigenobu, Dai, Mori, Nobuyasu, Miyamoto, Takanori
• Granted Patent: US 9,285,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting

Abstract

A multi function peripheral is provided with a display controller for causing a display section to display reception screens for respective settings on functions executable in the electrical apparatus, an instruction receiver for receiving an instruction to designate a content of each setting from the user, a display format receiver for receiving an instruction to select any one of a wizard display format, a list display format and a menu display format from the user, and a storage for storing the display format received by the display format receiver while relating it to the contents of the respective settings received by the instruction receiver.

Claims

1. An operating device, comprising:

a display controller for causing a display section of an electrical apparatus to display reception screens for respective settings on functions executable in the electrical apparatus;

an instruction receiver for receiving an instruction to designate a content of each setting from the user during the display of the reception screen for each setting by the display controller;

a display format receiver for receiving a display format selection instruction from the user to select a user'"'"'s desired display format from at least two of a wizard display format for successively interactively displaying the contents of the respective settings received by the instruction receiver, a list display format for displaying a list of the contents of the respective settings received by the instruction receiver and a menu display format for displaying images indicating contents of the respective settings received by the instruction receiver on one screen; and

a storage for storing the display format received by the display format receiver while relating it to the contents of the respective settings received by the instruction receiver.

2. An operating device according to claim 1, wherein the display controller displays the reception screen for each setting in the wizard display format.

3. An operating device according to claim 1, wherein the display controller:

causes the display section to display a setting change image for receiving a setting change instruction to change the respective settings when the reception of the contents of the respective settings by the instruction receiver is completed, and

causes the display section to display the reception screen for each setting again when the setting change instruction is received by the instruction receiver during the display of the setting change image.

4. An operating device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a fixed form storage for storing a plurality of fixed forms each composed of a combination of the respective settings on the functions executable in the electrical apparatus; and

a fixed form selection receiver for receiving selection of a desired fixed form from the fixed forms stored in the fixed form storage from the user;

wherein;

the display controller causes the display section of the electrical apparatus to display the reception screen for each setting of the selected fixed form when selection of the fixed form is received by the fixed form selection receiver; and

the storage stores the display format received by the display format receiver and the fixed form received by the fixed form selection receiver while relating them to the contents of the respective settings received by the instruction receiver.

5. An operating device according to claim 4, wherein the display controller:

switches the display of the display section such that each reception screen gradually slides in a predetermined first direction in a display area of the display section to appear in the display area of the display section and the entire reception screen is displayed in the display area when the display of the display section is switched to each reception screen according to the selected fixed form; and

further switches the display of the display section such that a list display image indicating the contents of the received settings gradually slides in a predetermined second direction different from the first direction in the display area of the display section to appear in the display area of the display section and the entire list display image is displayed in the display area when reception of the settings on the respective reception screens for displaying according to the selected fixed form is completed.

6. An operating device according to claim 3, wherein:

the display controller causes the display section to display a deletion instruction reception image for receiving a deletion instruction to delete the contents of the respective settings stored in the storage and the fixed form and the display format related to these contents; and

the contents of the respective settings and the fixed form and the display format related to these contents are deleted from the storage when the instruction receiver receives the deletion instruction from the user during the display of the deletion instruction reception image.

7. An image forming apparatus as the electrical apparatus, comprising:

the display section; and

an operating device according to claim 1.

14. An operating device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an operation progress detector for detecting an operation progress by the user at the time of receiving the instruction by the instruction receiver; and

a guidance display data storage for storing a guidance display data used to display operation guidance corresponding to each operation progress detected by the operation progress detector for each operation progress,

wherein the display controller reads the guidance display data corresponding to the operation progress detected by the operation progress detector from the guidance display data storage and causes the display section to display the read guidance display data.

15. An operating device according to claim 14, wherein the operation progress detected by the operation progress detector is the number or frequency of erroneous entries of the instruction by the user.

16. An operating device according to claim 14, wherein the operation progress detected by the operation progress detector is a time required for the user to designate the content of each setting.

8. An operating device, comprising:

a display controller for causing a display section of an electrical apparatus to display reception screens for respective settings on functions executable in the electrical apparatus;

a storage for storing any one of a wizard display format for successively interactively displaying contents of the respective settings, a list display format for displaying a list of the contents of the respective settings and a menu display format for displaying images indicating the contents of the respective settings on one screen while relating it to the contents of the respective settings based on selection of the display format by a user; and

a start instruction receiver for receiving a reception start instruction for contents of the respective settings on the function executable in the electrical apparatus from the user,

wherein the display controller causes the display section to display a reception screen for each setting on the function executable in the electrical apparatus in the display format stored in the storage while being related to the contents of the respective settings when the reception start instruction is received by the start instruction receiver.

9. An operating device according to claim 8, further comprising an instruction receiver for receiving a display format charge instruction from the user to select any one of the wizard display format, the list display format and the menu display format and change the display format to the selected one,

wherein the display controller changes the display format on the display section to the display format indicated by the received display format change instruction when the display format change instruction is received by the instruction receiver.

10. An operating device according to claim 8, further comprising a display data storage for storing display data used to display the reception screens for the respective settings on the display section,

wherein the display controller forms display screens at the time of the wizard display format and the menu display format as the reception screens for the respective settings in the wizard display format and the menu display format by commonly using the same display data stored in the display data storage.

11. An operating device according to claim 8, wherein the display controller:

causes the display section to display a setting change image for receiving a setting change instruction to change the contents of the respective settings when the contents of the respective setting are displayed in any one of the display formats, and

causes the display section to display the reception screen for each setting when the instruction receiver receives the setting change instruction from the user during the display of the setting change image.

12. An operating device according to claim 11, wherein the display controller causes the display section to display a function execution instruction reception image for receiving a function execution instruction to execute the function with the contents of the respective settings displayed on the display section together with the setting change image.

13. An operating device according to claim 8, wherein the display controller:

switches the display of the display section such that each reception screen gradually slides in a predetermined first direction in a display area of the display section to appear in the display area of the display section and the entire reception screen is displayed in the display area when the reception screen for each setting is displayed on the display section of the electrical apparatus in accordance with the wizard display format and the display of the display section is switched to each reception screen, and

further switches the display of the display section such that a list display image indicating the contents of the received settings gradually slides in a predetermined second direction different from the first direction in the display area of the display section to appear in the display area of the display section and the entire list display image is displayed in the display area when reception of the settings on the respective reception screens is completed.

17. An operating device according to claim 8, further comprising:

an instruction receiver for receiving an instruction from the user to designate contents of the respective settings by the user when a reception start instruction is received by the start instruction receiver and the display controller causes the display section to display the respective settings on the function corresponding to the reception start instruction in the display format stored in the storage while being related to the respective settings;

an operation progress detector for detecting an operation progress by the user at the time of receiving the instruction by the instruction receiver; and

a guidance display data storage for storing a guidance display data used to display operation guidance corresponding to each operation progress detected by the operation progress detector for each operation progress;

wherein the display controller reads the guidance display data corresponding to the operation progress detected by the operation progress detector from the guidance display data storage and causes the display section to display the read guidance display data.

18. An operating device according to claim 17, wherein the operation progress detected by the operation progress detector is the number or frequency of erroneous entries of the instruction by the user.

19. An operating device according to claim 17, wherein the operation progress detected by the operation progress detector is a time required for the user to designate the content of each setting.