Operation guide customizable measuring instrument

• US 7,194,374 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2004
• Issued: 03/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc. (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc. (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Toru, Matsumoto, Takuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Barbee; Manuel L.
• Application Number:
  US10/940,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20050080588A1
• Time in Patent Office: 918 Days
• Field of Search: 702 30- 32, 702/108, 702/122, 702/119, 702/123, 702/127, 715/705, 715/707, 715/708, 715/709, 715/712, 715/713, 700/17, 700 83- 85
• US Class Current: 702/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells

Abstract

In an operation guide customizable measuring instrument constructed such that an operation guide for guiding an operation procedure of the instrument is displayable on a display section, and an instrument mechanism for measuring a physical quantity of an object to be measured is operable by an instrument control program equipped with a function which is callable in response to a predetermined command, the instrument has an operation guide storage which variably stores an operation guide file containing the operation guide and the command written in a markup language and a script language therein; an operation guide file processing part which displays the operation guide on the display section based on the operation guide file, and displays an instruction input section for accepting an instruction of an operator on the display section; and a command processing part which outputs the command to the instrument control program so as to call the function corresponding to the command in response to the instruction accepted by the instruction input section.

Claims

1. An operation guide customizable measuring instrument constructed such that an operation guide for guiding an operation procedure of the instrument is displayable on a display section, and an instrument mechanism for measuring a physical quantity of an object to be measured is operable by an instrument control program equipped with a function which is callable in response to a predetermined command, the instrument comprising:

an operation guide storage which stores an operation guide file containing the operation guide and the command written in a markup language and a script language therein;

an operation guide file processing part which displays the operation guide on the display section based on the operation guide file, and displays an instruction input section for accepting an instruction of an operator on the display section;

a command processing part which outputs the command to the instrument control program so as to call the function corresponding to the command in response to the instruction accepted by the instruction input section; and

an operation guide rewriting part which accepts a rewriting instruction with respect to at least one of a first description written in the markup language and a second description written in the script language based on an external instruction, rewrites the operation guide file stored in the operation guide storage based on the rewriting instruction for storing into the operation guide storage,

wherein the external instruction is provided by a user who optionally creates the operation guide files written in the markup language and the script language in accordance with at least one procedure item of a work procedure manual or a data processing method.

2. The instrument according to claim 1, wherein

the instrument control program includes an object linking and embedding (OLE) automation;

the markup language is a hyper text markup language (HTML);

the script language is a JavaScript;

the operation guide file processing part is an HTML parser; and

the command processing part is a JavaScript interpreter.

3. The instrument according to claim 1, wherein the operation guide file is in plural number, and the one of the operation guide files is callable of the other one of the operation guide files.

4. The instrument according to claim 1, wherein the operation guide file is in plural number, and the one of the operation guide files is callable of the other one of the operation guide files depending on an output from the instrument control program.

5. The instrument according to claim 1, wherein the instrument mechanism is a colorimeter device which measures the color of the object to be measured.

6. A computer-readable medium having a program product stored thereon, the program product causing a measuring instrument to perform a predetermined function, the measuring instrument being provided with a computer, and the computer being operable based on an instrument control program, the program product which causes the computer to perform a process, the process comprising:

reading an operation guide file containing an operation guide and a predetermined command written in a markup language and a script language;

displaying the operation guide on a display section to realize the function of measuring a physical quantity of an object to be measured, the operation guide displayed on the display section including an operation guide indicating section and an operation accepting section;

calling a function described by the operation guide in response to an operator'"'"'s manipulation on an operation accepting section based on descriptive contents in an operation guide indicating section, and in response to an output of the predetermined command to the instrument control;

wherein,

the operation guide file is rewriteable by rewriting at least one of a first description in the markup language and a second description written in the script language; and

,

the operation guide file is created by a user in accordance with procedure items of a work procedure manual or a data processing method.

7. The computer-readable medium according to claim 6, wherein

the markup language is a hyper text markup language (HTML);

and

the script language is a JavaScript.

8. The computer-readable medium according to claim 6, wherein the operation guide file is in plural number, and the one of the operation guide files is callable of the other one of the operation guide files.

9. The computer-readable medium according to claim 6, wherein the operation guide file is in plural number, and the one of the operation guide files is callable of the other one of the operation guide files depending on an output front the instrument control program.

10. The computer-readable medium according to claim 6, wherein the measuring instrument measures the color of the object to be measured.

11. A computer-readable medium having a program product stored thereon, the program product causing a measuring instrument to perform a predetermined function, the measuring instrument being provided with a computer, and the computer being operable based on an instrument control program,

the program product which causes the computer to function as:

operation guide reading and displaying means for reading an operation guide file containing an operation guide and a predetermined command written in a markup language and a script language, and for displaying the operation guide on a display section to realize the function of measuring a physical quantity of an object to be measured; and

function calling means for calling a function described by the operation guide in response to an operator'"'"'s manipulation on an operation accepting section based on descriptive contents in an operation guide indicating section, and in response to an output of the predetermined command to the instrument control program, the operation guide displayed on the display section including the operation guide indicating section and the operation accepting section, wherein the operation guide file is rewriteable by rewriting at least one of a first description written in the markup language and a second description written in the script language and wherein the operation guide file is created by the operator in accordance with procedure items of a work procedure manual or a data processing method.