Abstract:
Disclosed is a device and method for upgrading a basic photographic printing machine to provide a package printing functionality.  
     The device has an optics carriage including a plurality of interchangeable lenses having different powers of magnification and interfacing means for controlling the arrangement of the lenses in response to control commands input by a user though a keyboard.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention is concerned with the field of machines that automatically print photographs from a transparency; such machines are often referred to as “mini-labs”. In particular the present invention is concerned with an upgrade kit which may be used in association with certain types of automatic printing machines in order to increase capabilities of those printing machines.  
         BACKGROUND  
         [0002]    The use of automatic photographic developing and printing machines is well known. These machines come in many different forms and with many different capabilities, however they may be divided according to functionality into those machines which are capable of “package” printing and those which are not. By package printing it is meant, without operator intervention, printing a number of images of different sizes from a single negative, the negative being held stationary so that the numerous images are printed from a single negative “pass”.  
           [0003]    Such a capability is particularly useful for the production of sets of photographs of school pupils and weddings. This is because from a single negative, and in a single pass, it is possible to print a range of differently sized prints of the same image. Assortments of differently sized prints of the same image are frequently desired in the context of wedding and school photography. By printing such an assortment of differently sized images in a single negative pass the throughput of the apparatus is significantly increased. Furthermore, because all prints of the package are made at the one time, color balance is consistent throughout the whole order and paper wastage is minimized.  
           [0004]    However, in general the costs associated with package printers are considerably higher than those associated with “basic” automatic photographic printers, i.e. those capable of only printing either a single image from a single negative pass or a plurality of identically sized images. Consequently, unless an operator of an automatic printing machine is sure that there will be a demand for package printing then he or she will normally purchase an automatic printing machine which lacks the package printing capability. However it may be that a demand for package printing grows so that the operator decides to risk additional outlay and so purchases a package-printing machine. Rather than entail such risk it is an object of the present invention to provide an upgrade kit for a basic automatic photographic printer machine in order to provide a basic machine with a package printing functionality.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    According to a first embodiment of the present invention there is provided a package printing upgrade apparatus for incorporation into an automatic microprocessor controlled photographic printer processor of the type producing prints of only one size from a single negative in a single negative pass, said microprocessor being responsive to commands of a command set input to said microprocessor by means of a keyboard coupled to said microprocessor:  
           [0006]    said upgrade apparatus including:  
           [0007]    a) Optics carriage means including a plurality of interchangeable lenses having different magnification powers, said carriage including motive means operative to interchange said lenses;  
           [0008]    b) Interfacing means arranged to control said motive means and responsive to user control signals, said interfacing means arranged for interfacing with said microprocessor and producing commands from said command set;  
           [0009]    c) A reduced command set input means generating said user control signals.  
           [0010]    According to a second embodiment the present invention provides package printing upgrade apparatus for incorporation into an automatic microprocessor controlled photographic developing processor of the type producing prints of only one size from a single negative in a single negative pass, said microprocessor being responsive to commands of a command set input to said microprocessor:  
           [0011]    said upgrade apparatus including:  
           [0012]    a) optics carriage means including a plurality of interchangeable lenses having different magnification powers, said carriage including motive means operative to interchange said lenses; and  
           [0013]    b) Interfacing means arranged to utilize a command set to synchronously control said motive means and said microprocessor by passing appropriate commands from the command set to the motive means and the microprocessor respectively at appropriate times in order to produce a print package.  
           [0014]    According to a further embodiment, the present invention provides a package printing upgrade apparatus for incorporation into an automatic printing machine, said upgrade apparatus including:  
           [0015]    a) A controller adapted to generate commands for controlling the operation of the printing machine and an optics carriage having a number of lenses; and  
           [0016]    b) An interface means, for interfacing the controller with the printing machine and the lens carriage by forwarding appropriate commands to the printing machine and the optics carriage in order to synchronize movements of the lenses in the optics carriage with the printing functions of the printer, so as to produce a print package from a single negative pass.  
           [0017]    Therefore it is apparent that the upgrade apparatus of the present invention is able to synchronize and interface its operation with that of an existing printer apparatus in order to simplify the printing of photographic packages.  
           [0018]    In other words, the present invention enhances the function of standard mini-lab printers, as it allows operators to automatically print packages without the need for manually changing lenses and re-setting the printer between print sizes. In addition, the upgrade apparatus of the present invention increases the efficiency of the operation of the standard mini-lab printers, so that the rate of package printing output is markedly increased. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 depicts a typical mini-lab photographic printer processor unit with front panels removed.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 1A depicts a partial front plan view of FIG. 1.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control system of the mini-lab unit of FIG. 1.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the control system of FIG. 2 further incorporating a package printing upgrade apparatus according to the present invention.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 is an exploded view of the controller board portion of the package printing upgrade apparatus of FIG. 3.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 is a view of the interface board portion of the package printing upgrade apparatus of FIG. 3.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 6 depicts the optics carriage portion of the package printing upgrade apparatus of FIG. 3.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 6A is a partial front plan view of the mini-lab unit of FIG. 1 wherein the fixed lens shown in FIG. 1A has been interchanged with the optics carriage of FIG. 6.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 7 is a schematic representation of the package printing upgrade apparatus of FIG. 3 interfaced to a mini-lab printer. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0028]    With reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 1A, basic automatic photographic printing machines or “mini-labs”, such as the Konica series 808 printer processor, include a transparency mount  1 , for holding a transparency such as a processed 135 color negative film as well as a light source mounted in hood  3  for illuminating a transparency positioned in mount  1 . An image alignment window  5  for checking the alignment of an image formed on print paper  11  by lens  15 , and a conveyor belt for advancing print paper  11 . Print paper roll  19  is the supply of print paper  11  and cutting module  17  is used for cutting paper from roll  19  into sheets such as  11 , while paper processing module  21  serves to fix the image formed on paper  11 . Bellows  23  may be adjusted to accommodate lenses  15  having different lengths. Photographic printing machine  10  is microprocessor controlled by an operator with operator commands being input by means of keyboard  9  and commands confirmed and information output to the operator by means of LCD display  7 .  
         [0029]    With reference to FIG. 2 there is depicted a functional block diagram of the printing machine of FIG. 1. It will be noted that the printing machine is based on a microprocessor  101  which runs an operating program stored in memory  102 . Commands are entered by keyboard  9 ; other inputs may be taken from sensors  103 , which may include data such as the position of the conveyor belt or the status of cutting module  17 . Microprocessor  101  generates signals that control actuators  109 ; such actuators include servomotors for operating the conveyor belt.  
         [0030]    In operation a negative, from which it is desired to produce printed images, is placed in mount  1 . An image is formed by means of lens  15  upon paper  11  and that image is subsequently developed by paper processing module  21  and delivered to collection tray  25 . It is possible to print different sized images by changing lens  15  and requesting the microprocessor to cut paper roll  19 , by means of computer controlled cutting module  17  in order to produce differently sized print paper  11  however this procedure is very time consuming as will be seen from the following steps that have to be performed by the operator.  
         [0031]    Step A. Initially the operator determines and sets the paper feed length and exposure position that corresponds with each of the fixed lenses that the operator has determined will produce the required print sizes. Those parameters are registered and saved in the Printer&#39;s memory using a series of manual keystrokes on the printer&#39;s keyboard i.e. 4 different print sizes require the saving of four different groups of settings.  
         [0032]    Step B. The operator then selects a fixed lens  15  having a magnification appropriate to produce the required print size. The lens is installed into the printer and registered in the printer&#39;s memory  102 . The processor matches the installed lens with the previously saved print size parameters.  
         [0033]    Step C. The operator then manually presses the exposure key on the printer&#39;s keyboard  9  in order to instruct microprocessor  101  to start the printing process.  
         [0034]    Step D. Printer  10  feeds the required paper size into the print exposure position by means of belt  13  and exposes the paper (e.g. paper  11 ) to produce an image.  
         [0035]    Step E. the exposed paper is then conveyed to developing and paper processing module  21 . The above process is repeated from step B for the next image size until the complete package of images has been produced. This procedure is very time-consuming requiring as it requires the manual inter-changing of lenses and extensive manipulation of the keyboard by the user.  
         [0036]    With reference to FIG. 3 there is illustrated a block diagram of the system of FIG. 2 incorporating a package printing upgrade apparatus  114 , according to one embodiment of the present invention, demarcated by a dashed line in FIG. 3. This package printing upgrade kit  114  includes a keypad  111  which is coupled to a second microprocessor  113  which is preferably an 8 bit micro-controller based Central Processing Unit (CPU). This microprocessor  113  is in turn in communication with Read Only Memory  115 , which is preferably an EPROM or Flash ROM. The EPROM preferably retains a plurality of programs or macros that allow microprocessor  113  to offer a wide range of possible packages for selection by an operator. Microprocessor  113  sends output signals to a driver board  117  which in turn is coupled to the keyboard input port of first microprocessor  101  in a manner to be explained. Driver board  117  also receives a cable  14  carrying a READY signal from microprocessor  101  which is relayed to microprocessor  113 , preferably via an opto-isolator. The READY signal is used to initially synchronize the operation of upgrade kit  114  with that of mini-lab  10 . A further output from the driver board is a multi-conductor cable  118 , which connects to optics carriage  119 .  
         [0037]    Optics carriage  119  includes a number of slideable lens trays, each tray being selectively slideable from a first position to a second position by means of pneumatic actuators under the control of electrically controlled switches taking control signals from driver board  1   17 . Pneumatic supply  121  generates a continuous supply of pressurized air to power the pneumatic actuators.  
         [0038]    Upon the operator selecting which package is to be printed the microprocessor extracts the appropriate command set from the EPROM and sends these commands to the keyboard  9  on printer  10 . These commands are then sent from keyboard  9  to the microprocessor  101  and memory  102  as if an operator were manually depressing the keys. The driver board then coordinates the passing of appropriate commands at the appropriate time to the printer and/or the optics unit carriage  119 , in order to synchronize the lens movements in the optics carriage with the printing functions of the printer. This automated and synchronized procedure therefore eliminates the need for an operator to manually interchange lenses as was previously the case, and also does so at a much faster rate than a human operator could possibly work.  
         [0039]    It is also to be appreciated that the present invention operates without requiring any determination of the computer code of the operating program contained in memory  102  of mini-lab  10 . Rather the present invention emulates the signals that would normally be produced by keyboard  9  in order to produce the necessary printing functions of the mini-lab printer. Alternatively, if the computer code and communications protocol contained in memory  102  were known, microprocessor  113  would not have to emulate the signals in keyboard  9 , but could communicate directly with printer microprocessor  101 .  
         [0040]    To enable the device of the present invention to operate the minilab printer via a dedicated communication port, the device would need to communicate the required operator instruction to the operating program (contained in the memory of the minilab printer) via this port utilising a predetermined protocol.  
         [0041]    With reference to FIG. 4 there is depicted an exploded view of one embodiment of the control portion of the upgrade apparatus, the housing  140  of which contains a PCB  153  upon which is mounted LCD  125 , microprocessor  113 , EPROM  115  and connector  157 . A maintenance battery  127  for preserving the code stored in EPROM  115  is located in the lower half of housing  140 . The upper half of housing  140  mounts keypad  111  with keypad buttons  143 - 150 , and contains a transparent window through which LCD  125  can be viewed. Keypad buttons  143 - 150  are connected to PCB  153 , such as by ribbon cable  155 .  
         [0042]    Referring now to FIG. 5, driver board  117  is depicted. The board includes a connector  171  for connection by cable to connector  157  on PCB  153  of the controller portion. An important function of driver board  117  is to direct the control signals from PCB  153  appropriately to optics carriage  119  and to the microprocessor of the mini-lab printing machine. The driver board includes voltage translator circuits for producing an output, at connector  179 , suitable for controlling pneumatic switches on optics carriage  119 . IDC connector  175  is connected to keyboard  9  via a ribbon cable  10  (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). Connector  175  is connected in parallel with a second IDC connector  173  that receives a ribbon cable  12  (FIG. 3) which is in turn connected to a port of the printer&#39;s microprocessor  101 . By this arrangement driver board  117  facilitates the insertion of command signals originating from the upgrade apparatus microprocessor  113  into the data stream to main microprocessor  101 . Main microprocessor  101  receives and acts upon these additional commands as if they had originated in the standard manner from keyboard  9 . Apart from the signals from the controller PCB  153  received at connector  171  the interface board also receives a READY signal from main microprocessor  101  by means of cable  14  (shown in FIG. 3). This READY signal is an internal clock type signal that initially pauses the mini-lab&#39;s operational functions. The controller monitors this signal via driver board  117  and uses it to initiate the synchronization of the commands it issues to both the printer and the optics carriage with the normal operation of the printer.  
         [0043]    It is also to be noted that the controller and the circuitry of the driver board are preferably powered with 5 volts DC from the mini-lab printer via a fused connector  704  (see FIG. 7) on the driver/interface board  117 .  
         [0044]    With reference now to FIGS. 6 and 6A there is depicted an optics carriage  119  compatible with the present embodiment of the invention. Optics carriage  119  includes a number of slideable lens trays  201 - 204  each coupled to pneumatic actuators  206 - 209  respectively. Each of pneumatic actuators  206 - 209  is connected to two air cables. For example cables  211  and  213  are connected to actuator  208 . The cables are then connected to a switchable air source  215  that is powered by connection of a pneumatic supply to inlet  217 . The direction of air flow through each actuator  206 - 209 , and thus the movement of each tray from one position to another, is selectable by means of four solenoids  219  coupled to air source  215  and connected to control signal port  221 . The control signal port is in turn connected to terminal  179  of Driver Board  117 , the connection being shown as line  118  in FIG. 3. Chassis  223  is shaped to complement the lens bay of mini-lab printer  10 . Accordingly, it is a simple matter to remove fixed lens  15  from the printer and to install optics carriage  119  in its place as shown in FIG. 6A.  
         [0045]    The optics carriage is controlled from the driver board  117  via an optoisolated lens output driver, which is preferably a 24 volt solenoid driver transistor. This output driver is powered separately from the other components on the driver board, preferably with 24 volts DC from a fused connection from the printer&#39;s power supply unit (see FIG. 7). Electrical connection between driver board  117  and pneumatic supply  121  is then made and a source of pressurized air is connected to pneumatic supply inlet  217 .  
         [0046]    Once installed, each of the lenses of lens trays  201 - 204  may be independently moved in and out of the light path created by mini-lab light-hood  3  by transmitting appropriate signals to control signal port  221 . In the presently described embodiment lens tray  201  incorporates an 8×10 inch enlargement lens. Lens tray  202  has two 6×4 lenses. Lens tray  203  has one 5×7 lens and tray  204  has four wallet lenses. The above lens magnifications refer to the size of the images formed on print paper  11 .  
         [0047]    The operation of the system will now be explained with reference to FIG. 7, being a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of the components of the driver/interface board  117  and how these components interrelate with the components of the controller and a mini-lab.  
         [0048]    Numerous keystrokes or macros are able to be stored in the ROM in order to operate the printer in various ways. It is also to be appreciated that the Non-Volatile RAM  703  allows the operator to store several different combinations of these macros in groups or packages for future request, such as packages P 1 -P 4 . For example P 1  may consist of four wallet prints, two 6×4 and one 8×10 prints whereas P 2 -P 4  will each consist of different combinations of print sizes. These macros would include, inter alia, the commands that would issue from keyboard  9  to forward print paper  11  an appropriate amount, as well as the corresponding position of the lens trays of the optics carriage.  
         [0049]    An operator wishing to produce a particular package, say P 2  will select P 2  by means of keypad  111 . The microprocessor  113 , which manages presses of key pad  111 , outputs the operator&#39;s selection to the LCD  125  under control of an application program retained in the CPU&#39;s ROM.  
         [0050]    Therefore, upon an operator entering a request for a particular photograph package, the first appropriate macro is output via the CPU&#39;s I/O circuitry  700  and line driver  701  as a serial stream from two lines, being data and clock lines. The line driver is a balanced line driver to minimize external interference.  
         [0051]    The interface board receives the stream of signals, where the signals firstly undergo a serial to parallel conversion in the converter  705 , and separates the keyboard commands from the lens commands, where necessary. The keyboard commands are then forwarded to the keyboard matrix decoder  706  where the keyboard commands are arranged into an 8 bit×5 bit matrix of key presses. The lens commands are correspondingly forwarded from the converter  705  to the lens decoder  707 . The commands are queued in the lens decoder  707  and the keyboard matrix decoder  706 , where the commands await an activation signal from the controller via the enable line  702 .  
         [0052]    Once all of these commands have been acted upon, the process is repeated for all other macros in the requested print package.  
         [0053]    For effective and optimal operation, the upgrade apparatus needs to be synchronized with the normal operation of the mini-lab printer. Initial synchronization is achieved by the upgrade apparatus monitoring the READY signal of the main microprocessor. Driver board  117  relays READY signal on line  14  to microprocessor  113 . This signal is used to intially synchronize the upgrade apparatus with the printer, although further synchronization is required throughout the whole printing procedure.  
         [0054]    In this regard, each command from the upgrade apparatus to the printer and the optics carriage needs to be synchronized to that of the standard operation of the mini-lab so that the commands received by main microprocessor  101  from interface board  117  are transparently accepted. The mini-lab printer will have processing delays that are due to the normal operation of the printer, such as delays between receiving one instruction and implementing that instruction, before it is able to compute the next instruction. These operational delays are accounted for in the upgrade apparatus by building in interface delays. These delays are stored in EPROM  115  and are used to synchronize or queue the commands from the driver board to the minilab microprocessor  101 . The values of the interface delays will generally depend on the inherent delays in a particular model of mini-lab machine to perform each step in the printing procedure. Therefore, the interface delays will vary from one type of mini-lab machine to another.  
         [0055]    The inherent delays may be determined by dividing the operation of the mini-lab into sequential stages. Between each stage there will be a certain delay during which further commands cannot be received by microprocessor. The approximate minimum value of these inherent delays may then be arrived at by experimentation, such as by a trial and error approach of varying delay parameters in order to find the shortest possible times for each of the individual delays.  
         [0056]    In the presently described system, the following interface delays are used for interfacing to an 8012 mini-lab printer. In addition, example times are indicated, which, for the 808 Konica mini-lab machine, have been found by the inventor to optimize the package-printing throughput:  
         [0057]    Before Ready Signal—Time period that the Upgrade Apparatus allows before it monitors the READY signal; 15×100 ms.  
         [0058]    After Ready Signal—Time period between Driver Board  117  detecting a READY signal and issuing a command to main microprocessor  101 ; 10×100 ms  
         [0059]    Key Down Time—Time period the Upgrade Apparatus takes to simulate the holding down of the mini-lab keyboard&#39;s keys  111 ; 5×5 ms  
         [0060]    Key Up Time—Time the Upgrade Apparatus takes to simulate the release of the mini-lab keyboard&#39;s keys; 33×5 ms  
         [0061]    Registration Delay—Time taken for the mini-lab to register each of the print sizes and their settings prior to printing. This time should be long enough for the data to settle in the mini-lab&#39;s registers but not overly long in order to reduce waiting periods (i.e. if the delay is too short the mini-lab will not receive all of the code, and if delay is too long it will cause unnecessarily long package printing times); 24×100 ms  
         [0062]    Delay Before Print—Time period before the Upgrade Apparatus simulates the actuating of the print (exposure) keys command. This is used to delay the print command when printing multiple copies of the same size. It is required because there is no Registration Delay when printing multiple copes as the print size is already registered; 7×5 ms.  
         [0063]    Delay Before Color—Time period before actuating the Color Keys. When using the color keys, this is an additional delay to the usual Registration Delay; 8×5 ms.  
         [0064]    These delays are therefore used by microprocessor  113 , for example, to issue appropriately timed enable signals via enable line  702  to the decoders  706  and  707  on interface board  117 . Therefore, the controller will activate the decoders  706  and  707  at appropriate times, so that the decoders send appropriately timed commands to main microprocessor  101  of the printer and to optics carriage  119 .  
         [0065]    Main microprocessor  101  acts upon the commands received from interface board  117  as if they had actually been issued by keyboard  9  and directs its actuators, such as cutting module  17  and the driver of belt  13 , to cut and forward print paper  11  by an amount corresponding to the image sizes produced by optics carriage  119 . The end result of this operation being that a package, i.e. a number of differently sized images from the same negative held in transparency mount  1  are cut to size, printed, developed by module  21  and issued at output tray  25 .  
         [0066]    It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the exemplary embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The exemplary embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.