Patent ID: 9104959
Filing Date: 2015-08-11
Classification: G03G,G06K,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an operation unit that provides a paper size, a paper orientation, and a print request; a storage unit; a print control processing unit that (i) provides a request to start loading a page responsive to the operation unit providing a paper size, a paper orientation, and a print request, (ii) provides a request to eject image data in response to an in-advance paper feeding timing notice being provided by a unit of the image forming apparatus, and (iii) provides a paper feeding request in response to a completion notice of ejection preparation being provided by a unit of the image forming apparatus; a data processing unit that, responsive to the print control processing unit providing the request to start loading a page, (i) divides image data into pieces of band data, (ii) causes the storage unit to store the pieces of band data, (iii) calculates a number of specific bands corresponding to an in-advance paper feeding timing based on the paper size and the paper orientation, and (iv) provides the in-advance paper feeding timing notice to the print control processing unit when image processing is completed up to the number of specific bands; an image processing unit that, responsive to the print control processing unit providing the request to eject image data, (i) starts image data ejection preparation, (ii) provides a completion notice of ejection preparation for the image data to the print control processing unit in response to the image data ejection preparation being completed, (iii) retrieves pieces of band data saved in the storage unit, and (iv) generates image data based on the pieces of band data; and a drive processing unit that, responsive to the print control processing unit providing the paper feeding request, outputs to the image processing unit a vertical synchronization signal that causes a timing of transport of the paper by the paper feeding roller to coincide with a timing of ejection of image data, wherein the data processing unit further provides a completion notice of the page load to the print control processing unit, wherein the image processing unit further (i) starts ejecting image data based on the vertical synchronization signal when the drive processing unit inputs the vertical synchronization signal, and (ii) provides a completion notice of ejection of image data to the print control processing unit when ejection of image data is completed for all the pieces of band data, wherein the drive processing unit further provides a completion notice of ejection of a paper to the print control processing unit when the ejection roller completes ejection of the paper, wherein the print control processing unit further provides a print completion notice responsive to the data processing unit providing the completion notice of the page load, the image processing unit providing the completion notice of ejection of image data, and the drive processing unit providing the completion notice of ejection of the paper in turn, wherein the data processing unit further calculates the number of specific bands corresponding to the in-advance paper feeding timing, based on a first condition where a time obtained by adding a waiting time period of the vertical synchronization signal and an ejection processing time period of the image data to each other is shorter than a time obtained by adding a time period of a primary paper feeding and a time period of a secondary paper feeding to each other, and a second condition where a time period of image processing of the number of remaining bands obtained by subtracting the number of specific bands from the number of all bands of the image data is shorter than a time period from start of ejection preparation process of image data to completion of ejection process of image data in the image process, and wherein the number of specific bands corresponding to the in-advance paper feeding timing (N) represents a maximum value of n satisfying the following expression, X represents a number of bands of the paper, T