JP6191258B2 - Information processing system, information processing method, and image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, and an image processing apparatus .

  Conventionally, companies (hereinafter, referred to as “vendors”) that provide software and hardware related to the device main body, other than companies that design and manufacture the device main body (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “manufacturers”). However, there is known a technique for creating an application specialized for a specific business and providing it to a customer by using a function of a main device provided by the manufacturer. For example, in Patent Document 1, for the purpose of reducing the burden on an application developer, when an error in which a job has occurred is detected, it is determined whether the job is a job for which a recovery request has been made, and a recovery request has been made. In the case of a job, a technique for providing an application developer with a function (error recovery service) for performing error recovery processing is disclosed.

  Here, for an application developed on the manufacturer side (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “maker application” in this specification), an error screen for notifying an error that needs to be notified to the user among errors that occur in the main device. When an error that needs to be notified to the user occurs in the main device during the execution of the manufacturer application, an error screen for notifying the error is displayed. Here, regarding an application developed on the vendor side (hereinafter also referred to as a “vendor application” in this specification), if the error screen is associated in advance, the vendor side can also notify the user. Since it is necessary to develop an error screen for each type of required error, there is a problem that the development man-hour on the vendor side increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing system, an information processing method, and an image processing apparatus that can reduce the man-hours for developing an application using the function of the main device.

In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides an operation device that displays a screen for accepting a user operation, and information processing that executes a process based on the user operation requested by the operation device An information processing system comprising: a notification transmission unit configured to transmit a notification of the error to the operation device when an error occurs during the execution of the process requested by the operation device; The error screen for notifying an error that has occurred in the information processing device is associated in advance, and the error screen corresponds to a first application for requesting the information processing device to perform processing. A second application for requesting processing to the information processing apparatus, which is not attached, and the processing from the first application. A display control unit that displays the screen of the first application when requesting the request, and displays the screen of the second application when requesting the processing from the second application, and the information processing apparatus A notification receiving unit that receives a notification of an error that occurred during the execution of the process in the above, and a screen of the second application is displayed by the display control unit when the notification of the error is received by the notification receiving unit If there is, the switch to the display unit control unit from the second application screen to the first application screen and the notified error associated with the first application An information processing system including a control unit that displays an error screen .

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to reduce the development man-hour of the application using the function of main body equipment.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of an MFP. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the MFP. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration example of the MFP. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the operation unit. FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for starting an application already installed in the operation unit. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of an operation procedure for screen switching when an error occurs in the MFP during the operation of the vendor application. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the simple copy application screen displayed on the operation unit. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen in which an error screen is superimposed on the copy application screen. FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of an operation procedure of screen switching when an error that has occurred in the main body is resolved. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen when the error screen is hidden. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing transition of the screen task state when screen switching is performed. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the operation unit according to the second embodiment. FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of correspondence information. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the operation unit according to the modification.

Hereinafter, embodiments of an information processing system, an information processing method, and an image processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, a case where the information processing system according to the present invention is applied to a multifunction peripheral (MFP) will be described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. Note that a multifunction peripheral is a device having at least two functions among a printing function, a copying function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of the MFP 1 according to the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the MFP 1 includes a main body 10 capable of realizing various functions such as a copy function, a scanner function, a fax function, and a printer function, and an operation unit 20 that receives an input corresponding to a user operation. . In this embodiment, a vendor application developer can install and uninstall an application (vendor application) created by the vendor application developer in the MFP 1.

  In the present embodiment, for example, immediately after the MFP 1 is activated, a home screen on which icons corresponding to various applications are displayed is displayed on the operation unit 20. For example, when the user performs an operation (for example, a touch operation) to select an icon corresponding to the vendor application among a plurality of icons displayed on the home screen, the vendor application is activated and the vendor application screen is displayed on the operation unit 20. Is done. Here, the vendor application installed in the MFP 1 is an application using an API (Application Programming Interface) that functions as an interface for changing the setting of the MFP 1, and the type and number thereof can be arbitrarily changed. For example, an application using an API for changing a part of settings (for example, settings of color, paper size, number of copies, etc.) of various settings of the copy function provided by the MFP 1 is installed (installed) as a vendor application. ).

  In the present embodiment, an error screen for notifying an error (abnormality) that has occurred in the MFP 1 is associated with the manufacturer application in advance, whereas an error screen is not associated with the vendor application. In this example, the manufacturer application corresponds to the “first application” in the claims, and the vendor application corresponds to the “second application” in the claims, but is not limited thereto.

  Next, a specific hardware configuration of the MFP 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the MFP 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the MFP 1 includes a main body 10 and an operation unit 20, which are connected to each other via a dedicated communication path 30 so as to communicate with each other. The communication path 30 may be, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard, but may be of any standard regardless of wired or wireless.

  The main body 10 can perform an operation according to the input received by the operation unit 20. The main body 10 can also communicate with an external device such as a client PC (personal computer), and can also perform an operation according to an instruction received from the external device.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the main body 10 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the main body 10 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, an HDD (hard disk drive) 14, a communication I / F (interface) 15, a connection I / F 16, and an engine unit 17. These are connected to each other via a system bus 18.

  The CPU 11 comprehensively controls the operation of the main body 10. The CPU 11 controls the overall operation of the main body 10 by executing a program stored in the ROM 12 or the HDD 14 or the like using the RAM 13 as a work area (work area), and the above-described copy function, scanner function, fax function, printer function, etc. Implement various functions.

  The communication I / F 15 is an interface for communicating with an external device such as a client PC (personal computer). The connection I / F 16 is an interface for communicating with the operation unit 20 via the communication path 30.

  The engine unit 17 is hardware that performs processing other than general-purpose information processing and communication for realizing a copy function, a scanner function, a fax function, and a printer function. For example, a scanner (image reading unit) that scans and reads an image of a document, a plotter (image forming unit) that performs printing on a sheet material such as paper, and a fax unit that performs fax communication are provided. Further, a specific option such as a finisher for sorting printed sheet materials or an ADF (automatic document feeder) for automatically feeding a document can be provided.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the operation unit 20 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the operation unit 20 includes a CPU 21, a ROM 22, a RAM 23, a flash memory 24, a communication I / F 25, a connection I / F 26, and an operation panel 27, which are a system bus 28. Are connected to each other.

  The CPU 21 comprehensively controls the operation of the operation unit 20. The CPU 21 controls the overall operation of the operation unit 20 by executing a program stored in the ROM 22 or the flash memory 24 using the RAM 23 as a work area (work area), and functions (copy function, scanner function) provided in the main body 10. Various functions such as a UI (user interface) function for performing operations and displays related to the fax function and printer function) are realized.

  The communication I / F 25 is an interface for communicating with an external device such as a server device via a network. The connection I / F 26 is an interface for communicating with the main body 10 via the communication path 30.

  The operation panel 27 receives various inputs according to user operations and displays various images. In the following description, an image displayed on the operation panel 27 may be referred to as a “screen”. In this example, the operation panel 27 is configured by a liquid crystal display device (LCD) having a touch panel function, but is not limited thereto. For example, an organic EL display device equipped with a touch panel function may be used. Further, in addition to or instead of this, an operation unit such as a hardware key and a display unit such as a lamp may be provided.

  Next, the software configuration of the MFP 1 will be described. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the software configuration of the MFP 1. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the main body 10 includes an application layer 101, a service layer 102, and an OS layer 103. The entities of the application layer 101, the service layer 102, and the OS layer 103 are various software stored in the ROM 12, the HDD 14, and the like. Various functions are provided by the CPU 11 executing these software.

  The software of the application layer 101 is application software for operating a hardware resource to provide a predetermined function (in the following description, it may be simply referred to as “application”). For example, the types of applications include an application for providing a copy function, an application for providing a scanner function, an application for providing a fax function, and an application for providing a printer function.

  The software of the service layer 102 is software that is interposed between the application layer 101 and the OS layer 103 and provides an interface for using hardware resources included in the main body 10 for the application. More specifically, it is software for providing a function of accepting an operation request for a hardware resource and arbitrating the operation request. As an operation request received by the service layer 102, a request such as reading by a scanner or printing by a plotter can be considered.

  Note that the interface function by the service layer 102 is provided not only to the application layer 101 of the main body 10 but also to the application layer 201 of the operation unit 20. That is, the application layer 201 (application) of the operation unit 20 can also realize a function using hardware resources (for example, the engine unit 17) of the main body 10 via the interface function of the service layer 102.

  The software of the OS layer 103 is basic software (operating system) for providing a basic function for controlling hardware included in the main body 10. The software of the service layer 102 converts a hardware resource use request from various applications into a command interpretable by the OS layer 103 and passes the command to the OS layer 103. Then, when the command is executed by the software of the OS layer 103, the hardware resource performs an operation according to the request of the application.

  Similarly, the operation unit 20 includes an application layer 201, a service layer 202, and an OS layer 203. The application layer 201, the service layer 202, and the OS layer 203 included in the operation unit 20 have the same hierarchical structure as that of the main body 10 side. However, the functions provided by the applications in the application layer 201 and the types of operation requests that can be accepted by the service layer 202 are different from those on the main body 10 side. The application of the application layer 201 may be software for operating a hardware resource provided in the operation unit 20 to provide a predetermined function, but mainly functions provided in the main body 10 (copy function, scanner function, Software for providing UI (user interface) functions for performing operations (including setting operations) and display related to a fax function and a printer function are included.

  In this embodiment, the software of the OS layer 103 on the main body 10 side and the software of the OS layer 203 on the operation unit 20 side are different from each other in order to maintain the independence of functions. That is, the main body 10 and the operation unit 20 operate independently of each other with different operating systems. For example, it is possible to use Linux (registered trademark) as the software of the OS layer 103 on the main body 10 side and Android (registered trademark) as the software of the OS layer 203 on the operation unit 20 side.

  In the present embodiment, since the power supply to the operation unit 20 is performed from the main body 10 via the communication path 30, the power control of the operation unit 20 is performed separately from the power control of the main body 10 (independently). Can do).

  Next, the functional configuration of the MFP 1 will be described. Here, the functional configuration of the operation unit 20 will be mainly described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the operation unit 20. For convenience of explanation, FIG. 4 mainly illustrates functions according to the present invention, but the functions of the operation unit 20 are not limited to these.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the operation unit 20 includes a user operation event reception unit 210, a manufacturer application management unit 220, a vendor application management unit 230, an application information management unit 240, an application screen control unit 250, and a display unit. 260, an event transmission / reception unit 270, an abnormality detection unit 280, a holding unit 290, a search unit 300, and an application operation control unit 310.

  The user operation event reception unit 210 receives a user operation event for the operation unit 20. For example, the user operation event reception unit 210 receives an input corresponding to a user's touch operation on the operation panel 27. In this example, the user operation event reception unit 210 corresponds to a “reception unit” in the claims.

  The manufacturer application management unit 220 stores a manufacturer application installed in the MFP 1. The vendor application management unit 230 stores a vendor application installed in the MFP 1. The application information management unit 240 manages installation / uninstallation of applications (maker application and vendor application) to the MFP 1. The application information management unit 240 manages application information (applications stored in each of the manufacturer application management unit 220 and the vendor application management unit 230).

  In response to a request from application operation control unit 310, application screen control unit 250 renders a screen of an application that operates on MFP 1. In FIG. 4, only one application screen control unit 250 is illustrated for convenience of explanation, but in the present embodiment, a plurality of application screens corresponding to a plurality of types of applications mounted on the operation unit 20 on a one-to-one basis. A control unit 250 is provided. Detailed operation of the application screen control unit 250 will be described later.

  The display unit 260 displays a screen of an application to be displayed among applications operating on the operation unit 20. In the present embodiment, the display unit 260 performs control to display the screen drawn by the application screen control unit 250 on the operation panel 27 in response to a request from the application screen control unit 250. Detailed operation of the display unit 260 will be described later.

  The event transmission / reception unit 270 transmits / receives event information to / from the main body 10. For example, the event information transmitted from the main body 10 includes information indicating an error that has occurred in the main body 10 and information indicating that the error that has occurred has been resolved.

  The abnormality detection unit 280 detects an error that has occurred in the MFP 1. In the present embodiment, the abnormality detection unit 280 detects an error that has occurred in the main body 10 based on the event information received by the event transmission / reception unit 270. Further, the abnormality detection unit 280 detects that an error that has occurred in the main body 10 has been resolved based on the event information received by the event transmission / reception unit 270.

  The holding unit 290 holds the screen information that is the source of the error screen in association with each error type. The search unit 300 searches the screen information corresponding to the error detected by the abnormality detection unit 280 from the plurality of screen information held by the holding unit 290.

  The application operation control unit 310 includes a control unit 311 and an allocation unit 312. The control unit 311 performs switching control of applications that operate on the MFP 1. In this embodiment, the control unit 311 controls the display of an error screen by switching the application to be displayed from the vendor application to the manufacturer application when an error is detected by the abnormality detection unit 280 during the operation of the vendor application. I do. In addition, when the error detected by the abnormality detection unit 280 is resolved, the control unit 311 switches the display target application to the vendor application.

  Allocation unit 312 accepts only an application for which selection has been instructed when user operation event reception unit 210 receives an input instructing selection of any one of a plurality of apps installed in MFP 1. Assign screen operation rights. Detailed operation of the application operation control unit 310 will be described later.

  The user operation event receiving unit 210, the manufacturer application management unit 220, the vendor application management unit 230, the application information management unit 240, the application screen control unit 250, the display unit 260, the event transmission / reception unit 270, the abnormality detection unit 280, and the search described above. Each function of the unit 300 and the application operation control unit 310 (the control unit 311 and the allocation unit 312) is executed by the CPU 21 executing a program stored in the ROM 22 or the flash memory 24 using the RAM 23 as a work area (working area). However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, at least a part of the functions of the respective units of the operation unit 20 may be realized by a dedicated hardware circuit (for example, a semiconductor integrated circuit). Further, the above-described holding unit 290 can be realized by the ROM 22, the flash memory 24, or the like.

  Next, activation of an application already installed in the operation unit 20 will be described. FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for starting an application already installed in the operation unit 20. In this example, first, the user performs an operation of touching an icon corresponding to the selection target application among the plurality of icons displayed on the home screen. Thereby, the user operation event reception unit 210 receives an input corresponding to the touch operation. In other words, it can be considered that the user operation event receiving unit 210 accepts an input instructing selection of any application. Then, the user operation event reception unit 210 notifies the application operation control unit 310 of the user operation event (step S1). In this example, the user operation event reception unit 210 notifies the application operation control unit 310 of icon information indicating the icon selected by the user.

  Next, the application operation control unit 310 requests the application information management unit 240 for an application (application information) corresponding to the icon information notified from the user operation event reception unit 210 (step S2). Upon receiving this request, the application information management unit 240 reads the requested application from the applications stored in each of the manufacturer application management unit 220 and the vendor application management unit 230 and transmits it to the application operation control unit 310 ( Step S3). Next, the application operation control unit 310 outputs an activation instruction to the application acquired from the application information management unit 240 (step S4). In addition, the application operation control unit 310 (assignment unit 312) assigns a screen operation right only to an application acquired from the application information management unit 240 (that is, an application instructed to be selected).

  An application activated in response to an activation instruction from the application operation control unit 310 requests the application operation control unit 310 to draw a screen of the application (which can also be regarded as a screen held by the application). . Upon receiving this request, the application operation control unit 310 requests the application screen control unit 250 corresponding to the activated application to draw an application screen (step S5). Upon receiving this request, the application screen control unit 250 draws the application screen (step S6). When the drawing of the application screen is completed, the application screen control unit 250 requests the display unit 260 to display the drawn application screen (step S7). Upon receiving this request, the display unit 260 performs control to display the application screen drawn by the application screen control unit 250 on the operation panel 27 (step S8).

  It does not matter whether the above activation sequence is a manufacturer application or a vendor application (the same activation sequence is used). Since the manufacturer application is automatically activated when the MFP 1 is activated, the manufacturer application is always activated even when there is no explicit instruction by the touch operation of the icon and the icon is not displayed on the forefront of the operation unit 20.

  Next, an operation procedure of screen switching when an error occurs in the MFP 1 during the operation of the vendor application will be described. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram in this case. Here, the operation unit 20 is equipped with a “copy application” capable of providing a UI function for performing all operations related to the copy function provided by the MFP 1 as a manufacturer application. A “simple copy application” using an API for changing some of various settings of the copy function provided by the MFP 1 (for example, settings of color, paper size, number of copies, etc.) And

  In the following description, a case where an error relating to the copy function occurs in the main body 10 during the operation of the simple copy application will be described. In the following description, the application screen control unit 250 corresponding to the copy application is referred to as “maker application screen control unit 250a”, and the application screen control unit 250 corresponding to the simple copy application is referred to as “vendor application screen control unit 250b”. Will be described. In this example, the manufacturer application screen control unit 250a corresponds to the “drawing unit” in the claims, but is not limited thereto.

  In the example of FIG. 6, first, the user performs an operation of touching an icon corresponding to the simple copy application among a plurality of icons displayed on the home screen. Thereby, the user operation event reception unit 210 receives an input corresponding to the touch operation. Then, the user operation event reception unit 210 notifies the application operation control unit 310 of the user operation event (step S10). In this example, the user operation event receiving unit 210 notifies the application operation control unit 310 of icon information indicating an icon corresponding to the simple copy application as the icon selected by the user.

  Next, the application operation control unit 310 requests the application information management unit 240 for a simple copy application (application information) corresponding to the icon information notified from the user operation event reception unit 210 (step S11). Upon receiving this request, the application information management unit 240 reads out the requested simple copy application from the applications stored in the vendor application management unit 230 and transmits it to the application operation control unit 310 (step S12). Next, the application operation control unit 310 outputs an activation instruction to the simple copy application acquired from the application information management unit 240 (step S13). In addition, the application operation control unit 310 (assignment unit 312) assigns a screen operation right only to the simple copy application acquired from the application information management unit 240.

  The simple copy application activated in response to the activation instruction from the application operation control unit 310 is displayed on the screen of the simple copy application (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “simple copy application screen”) to the application operation control unit 310. Request drawing. Upon receiving this request, the application operation control unit 310 requests the vendor application screen control unit 250b corresponding to the activated simple copy application to draw a simple copy application screen (step S14). Upon receiving this request, the vendor application screen control unit 250b draws the simple copy application screen (step S15). When the drawing of the simple copy application screen is completed, the vendor application screen control unit 250b requests the display unit 260 to display the drawn simple copy application screen (step S16). Upon receiving this request, the display unit 260 performs control to display the simple copy application screen drawn by the vendor application screen control unit 250b on the operation panel 27 (step S17). FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the simple copy application screen displayed on the operation unit 20.

  Returning to FIG. 6, the description will be continued. After the above-described step S17, an error that occurs asynchronously in the main body 10 is notified from the event transmission / reception unit 270 to the application operation control unit 310 via the abnormality detection unit 280. In the example of FIG. 6, when an error relating to the copy function occurs in the main body 10, the event transmission / reception unit 270 receives event information indicating an error that has occurred in the main body 10 from the main body 10. Then, the event transmission / reception unit 270 notifies the abnormality detection unit 280 of event information indicating an error that has occurred in the main body 10 (step S18). Upon receiving this notification, the abnormality detection unit 280 detects an error that has occurred in the main body 10 based on the notified event information (step S19). Then, the abnormality detection unit 280 notifies the operating simple copy application of error information including information indicating that an error has occurred in the main body 10 and the type of the error that has occurred (step S20). In FIG. 6, the notification destination of the error information is illustrated as being the application operation control unit 310, but here, the notification destination of the error information is a simple copy application having a screen operation right. For example, when the application operation control unit 310 controls the operation of each application installed in the MFP 1, the notification destination of error information may be the application operation control unit 310 as shown in FIG.

  The simple copy application that has received the notification of the error information is not associated with an error screen for notifying the error (that is, does not hold the error screen). Is requested to switch to a maker application in which various error screens are associated in advance, and information indicating the type of error that has occurred in the main body 10 is notified. Upon receiving this request, the application operation control unit 310 requests the maker application screen control unit 250a corresponding to the copy application in which various error screens relating to the copy function are associated in advance to draw an error screen (step S21). ). At this time, the application operation control unit 310 also notifies the maker application screen control unit 250a of information indicating the type of error that has occurred in the main body 10.

  Upon receiving the request from the application operation control unit 310 (error screen drawing request), the manufacturer application screen control unit 250a requests the search unit 300 to search for screen information corresponding to the error that has occurred in the main body 10 ( Step S22). Upon receiving this request (screen information search request), the search unit 300 searches the screen information corresponding to the error that has occurred in the main body 10 among the plurality of screen information stored in the holding unit 290 (step S23). Screen information corresponding to the error that has occurred in the main body 10 is acquired (step S24). And the search part 300 transmits the screen information acquired by search to the maker application screen control part 250a (step S25).

  Next, the maker application screen control unit 250a that acquired the screen information from the search unit 300 draws an error screen based on the acquired screen information on the copy application screen (copy application screen) (step S26). More specifically, the maker application screen control unit 250a renders an error screen based on the acquired screen information so as to be superimposed on the copy application screen. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen in which an error screen is superimposed on the copy application screen. As described above, since the manufacturer application is automatically activated when the MFP 1 is activated, the manufacturer application screen control unit 250a has already finished drawing the copy application screen.

  Returning to FIG. 6, the description will be continued. When the drawing of the error screen is completed, the manufacturer application screen control unit 250a notifies the application operation control unit 310 of the drawing result of the error screen (step S27). Upon receiving this notification, the application operation control unit 310 switches the application to be displayed (display target application) (step S28). In this example, the application operation control unit 310 switches the application to be displayed from the simple copy application (vendor application) to the copy application (maker application). Then, the application operation control unit 310 requests the maker application screen control unit 250a to draw a copy application screen (step S29). The manufacturer application screen control unit 250a that has received this request has already completed drawing of the copy application screen, so the screen drawn in step S26 on the display unit 260 (the error screen is superimposed on the copy application screen). Screen) is requested (step S30). Upon receiving this request, the display unit 260 performs control to display on the operation panel 27 a screen in which an error screen is superimposed on the copy application screen (step S31).

  Next, an operation procedure of screen switching when the error occurring in the main body 10 is resolved after the above screen switching is performed will be described. FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram in this case. When the error that has occurred in the main body 10 is resolved, the event transmission / reception unit 270 receives event information indicating that the error that has occurred in the main body 10 has been resolved from the main body 10. Then, the event transmission / reception unit 270 notifies the abnormality detection unit 280 of event information indicating that the error that has occurred in the main body 10 has been resolved (step S40). Receiving this notification, the abnormality detection unit 280 detects that the error that has occurred in the main body 10 has been resolved based on the notified event information (step S41). Then, the abnormality detecting unit 280 notifies the error copy information indicating that the error that has occurred in the main body 10 has been resolved to the simple copy application having the screen operation right (step S42). In FIG. 9, the notification destination of the error cancellation information is illustrated as being the application operation control unit 310, but here, the notification destination of the error cancellation information is a simple copy application having a screen operation right. For example, when the application operation control unit 310 controls the operation of each application installed in the MFP 1, the notification destination of the error release information may be the application operation control unit 310 as shown in FIG. .

  The simple copy application that has received the notification of the error release information requests the application operation control unit 310 to switch the display target application to the simple copy application. Upon receiving this request, the application operation control unit 310 requests the maker application screen control unit 250a to discard the error screen (step S43). Upon receiving this request, the manufacturer application screen control unit 250a discards the error screen superimposed on the copy application screen (step S44). As a result, as shown in FIG. 10, the error screen displayed on the copy application screen is hidden.

  Returning to FIG. 9, the description will be continued. When the discarding of the error screen is completed, the manufacturer application screen control unit 250a notifies the application operation control unit 310 of the error screen discarding result (step S45). Upon receiving this notification, the application operation control unit 310 switches the application to be displayed (step S46). In this example, the application operation control unit 310 switches the application to be displayed from the copy application to the simple copy application. Then, the application operation control unit 310 requests the vendor application screen control unit 250b to draw a simple copy application screen (step S47). The vendor application screen control unit 250b that has received this request has already completed drawing of the simple copy pre-screen, and therefore requests the display unit 260 to display the simple copy application screen drawn in step S15 of FIG. (Step S48).

  FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing transition of the screen task state when the screen switching shown in FIGS. 6 and 9 is performed. In this example, the application located on the left side of FIG. 11 has a higher screen task order (display priority). In the present embodiment, the application operation control unit 310 accepts only a display switching request from an application having a screen operation right (in this example, a simple copy application). This prevents contention for display switching requests. Further, in this embodiment, when the abnormality detection unit 280 detects an error that has occurred in the main body 10, it notifies the error information only to an application having a screen operation right at that time (in this example, a simple copy application). When it is detected that the error that has occurred in the main body 10 has been resolved, error release information is notified only to an application having a screen operation right (in this example, a simple copy application).

  In the present embodiment, the application operation control unit 310 manages the application to which the screen operation right is assigned as a single application even when a plurality of applications exist in the screen task. In the present embodiment, the application operation control unit 310 (assignment unit 312) can assign screen operation rights to other apps only when an application having screen operation rights is not being executed. When the screen operation right is assigned to another application, the application that has held the screen operation right until then loses the screen operation right.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when an error occurring in the main body 10 is detected during operation of a vendor application (for example, a simple copy application) that is not associated with an error screen, various error screens are displayed. An error screen for notifying the detected error is drawn on the screen of the manufacturer application associated in advance. Then, when the application to be displayed is switched from the vendor application to the manufacturer application (for example, a copy application), an error screen drawn on the screen of the manufacturer application is displayed. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is not necessary for the developer of the vendor application to develop an error screen, so that it is possible to reduce the man-hour for developing an application using the function of the MFP 1.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, when an error occurs in the MFP 1 (main unit 10) during the operation of the vendor application, the correspondence information that associates the type of the vendor application that should be switched to the error screen for each error type is displayed. Based on this, it is different from the first embodiment described above in that it is determined whether or not to switch the display to the error screen. Specific contents will be described below. Note that description of portions common to the above-described first embodiment is omitted as appropriate.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the operation unit 2000 according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12, the operation unit 2000 is different from the first embodiment in that it further includes a correspondence information storage unit 320. The correspondence information storage unit 320 can be realized by the ROM 22, the flash memory 24, or the like, for example.

  The correspondence information storage unit 320 stores correspondence information that associates the type of vendor application that should be switched to the error screen for each type of error that occurs in the MFP 1. FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of correspondence information. For example, for an error type indicating “plotter cover open” on the fifth line, an error screen is displayed on the vendor application for providing a copy function and a vendor application for providing a fax function. The information indicating that it is necessary to switch the display to the screen is associated (copy system "○", fax system "○"), and the vendor application for providing scanner functions will return to the error screen. It is shown that information indicating that it is not necessary to switch the display is associated (scanner system “−”). In other words, for the error type indicating “open plotter cover” on the 5th line, the vendor application type that provides the copy function as the type of vendor application that should be switched to the error screen. It can also be understood that an app is associated with a vendor app for providing a fax function. The same applies to other lines.

  Here, as in the first embodiment, when an error occurs in the main body 10 during the operation of the vendor application, the abnormality detection unit 280 detects an error that has occurred in the main body 10, and the error information described above is displayed. Notify vendor apps. In this embodiment, the vendor application that has received this notification determines whether or not to switch the display of the error screen based on the type of error indicated by the error information and the correspondence information stored in the correspondence information storage unit 320. to decide. More specifically, the vendor application that has received the error information notification corresponds to the error type indicated by the error information among the error types included in the corresponding information stored in the corresponding information storage unit 320 (matches). ) Identify the type of error, refer to the information associated with the identified error type (information indicating the type of vendor application that should be switched to the error screen), and notify the vendor application (error information notification) It is determined whether or not the received vendor application corresponds to a vendor application that should be switched to the error screen.

  When the vendor application that has received the notification of the error information determines that it corresponds to the vendor application that should switch the display to the error screen, the vendor application determines to switch the display of the error screen, and the application operation control unit 310 On the other hand, request switching of the application to be displayed. On the other hand, if the vendor application that has received the notification of error information determines that it does not fall under the vendor application that should switch the display to the error screen, it determines that it does not switch the display to the error screen. The operation control unit 310 is not requested to switch the application to be displayed. Therefore, if the application operation control unit 310 (control unit 311) determines to switch the display to the error screen by the vendor application that has received the notification of the error information, the application operation control unit 310 (the control unit 311) switches the display to the error screen. When the vendor application that has received the information notification determines not to switch the display to the error screen, the display to the error screen is not switched.

  In this embodiment, when an error is detected during the operation of the vendor application, a function for determining whether to switch the display to the error screen based on the correspondence information described above (in the “determination unit” in the claims) Is not limited to this, but the application operation control unit 310 may further include a determination unit 313 as illustrated in FIG. 14, for example. In this form, as in the first embodiment, the vendor application that has received the notification of the error information from the abnormality detection unit 280 requests the application operation control unit 310 to switch the display target application, Information indicating the type of error that has occurred in the main body 10 is notified. When the determination unit 313 receives information indicating the type of error that has occurred in the main body 10 from the vendor application that has received the notification of error information, together with a request for switching the application to be displayed, the type of the received error, Based on the correspondence information stored in the correspondence information storage unit 320, it is determined whether or not to switch the display to the error screen. When the determination unit 313 determines to switch the display to the error screen, the control unit 311 switches the display to the error screen, while the determination unit 313 does not switch the display to the error screen. If it is determined, display switching to the error screen is not performed.

  In short, the operation unit 2000 only needs to have a determination unit that determines whether to switch the display to the error screen based on the correspondence information when an error is detected during the operation of the vendor application. .

  As mentioned above, although embodiment which concerns on this invention was described, this invention is not limited to each above-mentioned embodiment as it is, A component can be deform | transformed and embodied in the range which does not deviate from the summary in an implementation stage. . Moreover, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above-described embodiments. For example, you may delete a some component from all the components shown by each above-mentioned embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements over different embodiments may be appropriately combined.

(Modification)
Hereinafter, modifications will be described. The following modifications can be arbitrarily combined. Further, the following modifications can be arbitrarily combined with the above-described embodiments.

(1) Modification 1
In each of the above-described embodiments, the application operation control unit 310 (control unit 311) displays a display when an error occurring in the main body 10 is detected during the operation of a vendor application having a screen operation right (for example, a simple copy application). When the target application is switched from the vendor application to the maker application and the detected error is resolved, the display target application is switched to the vendor application having the screen operation right. When the error detected by the abnormality detection unit 280 is resolved, the unit 311 is a screen that is different from the error screen and has a higher display priority than the screen of the vendor application that has the screen operation right (for example, the home screen). Screen) is displayed, switch the application to be displayed to a vendor application that has screen operation rights. It may be in the form that does not.

  For example, since a paper jam (error) has occurred in the main body 10 during execution of copying using the above-described simple copy application (an example of a vendor application), the operation unit 20 is used for the purpose of the user performing another operation. Assume that a home button (not shown) is pressed. When the home button is pressed, the screen displayed on the operation unit 20 returns to the home screen, so that the top (screen with the highest display priority) in the screen task is the home screen. Thereafter, when the paper jam is resolved, the error release information is notified to the simple copy application, and the application operation control unit 310 (control unit 311) requests the switching of the display target application from the simple copy application having the screen operation right. However, since the home screen having a higher display priority than the screen of the simple copy application having the screen operation right is displayed, the control unit 311 does not switch the display target application to the simple copy application. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the screen presented to the user from being arbitrarily switched to a screen that is not currently required by the user (in this example, the simple copy application screen) regardless of the user's intention.

(2) Modification 2
In each of the above-described embodiments, the main body 10 and the operation unit 20 (2000) operate independently from each other with different operating systems. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and for example, the main body 10 and the operation unit 20 (2000) are the same. The form which operate | moves with an operating system may be sufficient.

(3) Modification 3
The functions of the units mounted on the operation unit 20 (2000) described above may be appropriately distributed and mounted on the operation unit 20 (2000) and the main body 10.

(program)
The program executed in the MFP 1 of the above-described embodiment is a file in an installable format or an executable format, and is a CD-ROM, flexible disk (FD), CD-R, DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), USB (Universal Serial). (Bus) or the like may be recorded and provided on a computer-readable recording medium, or may be provided or distributed via a network such as the Internet. Various programs may be provided by being incorporated in advance in a ROM or the like.

1 MFP
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Main body 20 Operation part 30 Communication path 210 User operation event receiving part 220 Manufacturer application management part 230 Vendor application management part 240 Application information management part 250 Application screen control part 260 Display part 270 Event transmission / reception part 280 Abnormality detection part 290 Holding part 300 Search Unit 310 application operation control unit 311 control unit 312 allocation unit 313 determination unit 320 correspondence information storage unit

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-153218

Claims (8)

An information processing system comprising: an operation device that displays a screen for accepting a user operation; and an information processing device that executes a process based on the user operation requested by the operation device,
The information processing apparatus includes:
When an error occurs during execution of the processing requested from the operation device, the device includes a notification transmission unit that transmits the error notification to the operation device.
The operating device is:
An error screen for informing an error that has occurred in the information processing apparatus is associated in advance, and a first application for requesting processing to the information processing apparatus;
A second application for requesting processing to the information processing apparatus, which is not associated with the error screen;
Display that displays the screen of the first application when the process is requested from the first application, and displays the screen of the second application when the process is requested from the second application A control unit;
A notification receiving unit that receives notification of an error that occurred during execution of the processing in the information processing apparatus;
When the second application screen is displayed by the display control unit when the error notification is received by the notification reception unit, the second application screen is displayed on the display unit control unit. A control unit that performs switching from the screen of the first application to the screen of the first application and display of an error screen that notifies the notified error associated with the first application,
Information processing system. The operating device is:
A holding unit that holds screen information in association with each error type;
When the error is detected, further comprising: a search unit that searches the screen information corresponding to the detected error from the plurality of screen information stored in the holding unit,
The display control unit displays a screen in which the error screen based on the screen information searched by the search unit is superimposed on the screen of the first application.
The information processing system according to claim 1. The operating device is:
A correspondence information storage unit that stores correspondence information that associates the type of the second application that should be switched to the error screen for each error type;
A determination unit that determines whether to switch the display to the error screen based on the correspondence information when the error is detected during the operation of the second application;
The control unit performs display switching to the error screen when the determination unit determines to perform display switching to the error screen, but does not perform display switching to the error screen by the determination unit. If it is determined that the display to the error screen is not performed,
The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2. The operating device is:
A receiving unit for receiving an input for instructing selection of any one of a plurality of applications including the first application and the second application;
An allocation unit that assigns screen operation rights only to applications for which selection is instructed,
The information processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3. When the error is detected during the operation of the second application having the screen operation right, the control unit switches the application to be displayed from the second application to the first application, and the detected error When is resolved, the display target application is switched to the second application.
The information processing system according to claim 4. When the error is resolved, the control unit displays a screen that is different from the error screen and has a higher display priority than the screen of the second application having the screen operation right. In this case, the application to be displayed is not switched to the second application.
The information processing system according to claim 5. An information processing method executed by an information processing system including an operation device that displays a screen for accepting a user operation and an information processing device that executes processing based on the user operation requested from the operation device,
The information processing apparatus is
If an error occurs during the execution of the process requested by the controller device, a notification transmission step of transmitting a notification of the error to the controller device is executed.
The operating device is
An error screen for notifying an error that has occurred in the information processing apparatus is associated in advance, and the first application is requested when the process is requested from the first application for requesting the information processing apparatus to perform the process. When the process is requested from a second application for requesting processing to the information processing apparatus that is not associated with the error screen, the screen of the second application is displayed. A display control step to display;
A notification receiving step of receiving a notification of an error that occurred during execution of the processing in the information processing apparatus;
If the screen of the second application is displayed by the display control step when the notification of the error is received by the notification receiving step, the screen of the second application is changed to the screen of the first application. And a control step of performing an error screen for notifying the notified error associated with the first application ,
Information processing method. An image processing apparatus comprising: an operation device that displays a screen for accepting a user operation; and an information processing device that executes a process based on the user operation requested from the operation device,
The information processing apparatus includes:
When an error occurs during execution of the processing requested from the operation device, the device includes a notification transmission unit that transmits the error notification to the operation device.
The operating device is:
An error screen for informing an error that has occurred in the information processing apparatus is associated in advance, and a first application for requesting processing to the information processing apparatus;
A second application for requesting processing to the information processing apparatus, which is not associated with the error screen;
Display that displays the screen of the first application when requesting the processing from the first application, and displays the screen of the second application when requesting the processing from the second application A control unit;
A notification receiving unit that receives notification of an error that occurred during execution of the processing in the information processing apparatus;
When the second application screen is displayed by the display control unit when the error notification is received by the notification reception unit, the second application screen is displayed on the display unit control unit. A control unit that performs switching from the screen of the first application to the screen of the first application and display of an error screen that notifies the notified error associated with the first application,
Image processing device.

Images