Patent Publication Number: US-2013239035-A1

Title: Method of setting driver program of image processing device and image processing system with transparent function

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a Continuation Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/843,242, filed Jul. 26, 2010 which is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,931, filed Feb. 3, 2005 in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2004-16222 filed on Mar. 10, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety and by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present general inventive concept relates to a method of setting a driver program that drives an image processing device, and more particularly, to a method of setting a user interface of a driver program that allows the driver program not to interfere with an acquisition result of an application program operated by a user when the driver program of the image processing device is displayed over the application program. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Generally, a scanner and other types of image processing devices, such as a multifunction device with a scanning unit, scan a document and convert the scanned result into image data in a predetermined file format, such as a JPEG or a TIFF format, which is, in turn, transmitted to a host, such as a computer. In the computer, a driver program for driving the scanner is installed, and an application program for processing the image data generated by the scanner can also be installed. Examples of the application program are the Photoshop software program by Adobe Systems Incorporated, the Paint software program, and the like. Meanwhile, these application programs are not capable of having direct access to the image data read by the scanner, but are capable of accessing the image data in the file format. In this case, in order for the application program to acquire the image data, there is an inconvenience of requiring several sequential steps to acquire the image data. First, the image data of the document is stored in the file format by operating a scanner program. Then, the scanner program is terminated, and the application program is subsequently operated to access the image data saved in the file format. 
     Currently, the aforementioned application programs access the image data read by the scanner through a tool-kit without an important name (TWAIN) driver in an operating system, so that the application programs can directly access the read image data. 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating a conventional scanning system including a host  100  for processing image data scanned by a scanner  200 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the host  100  includes a storage medium  110  having an application program  130 , a TWAIN driver  112  and a driver program  111 , a control block  120  having a central processing unit (CPU) and a random access memory (RAM), an input device  130 , and a display unit  140 . In  FIG. 1 , the application program  113 , the TWAIN driver  112  and the driver program  111  are abbreviated respectively as APP, TWAIN and DRIVER. 
     When the application program  113  for processing the image data, e.g., the Photoshop application program, calls the image data, the application program  113  controls the scanner  200  through the driver program  111  to scan a document (not shown). 
     The driver program  111 , the TWAIN driver  112  and the application program  113  included in the storage medium  110  of the host  100  are operated under a typical Windows operating system or a Linux operating system. 
     The scanner  200  is operated by the driver program  111  and inputs a scanned result, i.e., the image data, to the storage medium  110 . At this time, the image data is input to the TWAIN driver  112  through the driver program  111 , and the application program  113  can directly acquire the image data through the TWAIN driver  112 . That is, it is unnecessary for the application program  113  to access the image data stored in a file format created by an additional scanner program. 
       FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an exemplary result obtained as an application program window  213  and a TWAIN driver window  212  are displayed on a screen. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , as a user starts an application program window  213 , if the user wishes to acquire the image data through the application program window  213 , a TWAIN driver window  212  that interfaces the driver program  111  with the application program  113  is displayed over the application program window  213 . Here, the TWAIN driver  112  allows the application program  113  to directly access the image data created by the scanner  200 . When the TWAIN driver window  212  is displayed, the user is able to access the image data while the application program  113  operates. However, as illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the TWAIN driver window  212  blocks the image data displayed by the application program window  213 . 
     The TWAIN driver window  212  includes a control menu  215  for controlling the image data acquired through the application program  113 . In particular, the control menu  215  of the TWAIN driver window  212  includes sub-control menus of an image type control menu  215   a,  a resolution control menu  215   b,  an image area control menu  215   c  and an image size control menu  215   d.  The control menu  215  adjusts the image data as the user sets the various sub-control menus of the control menu  215 . The TWAIN driver window  212  also includes a menu bar  216 , a scan button  217 , and a preview button  218 . 
     In a case in which the user wishes to scan more than one document, the user has a difficulty in confirming a displayed image of the acquired image data. Also, when the user clicks the TWAIN driver window  212  by using the input device  130 , such as a mouse, to move the TWAIN driver window  212  into a different position of the screen, the control block  120  starts operating to handle an interruption made by the input device  130  and as a result, there is a delay in processing the image data by the application program window  113 . 
     In a case in which the scanner  200  scans a number of documents consecutively, it may be impossible or difficult to move the position of the TWAIN driver window  212  through the use of the input device  130 . Also, when an image of the image data accessed by the application program window  213  is displayed on the screen, the user may have a difficulty in confirming the acquired image data since the TWAIN driver window  212  blocks the displayed image on the screen. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present general inventive concept provides a method of setting a user interface of a driver program to impede a driver program from interfering with an acquisition result of an application program operated by a user. 
     Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept. 
     The foregoing and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept may be achieved by providing a method of setting a user interface of a driver program of an image processing device when the driver program is displayed on a display device, the method including applying a transparent setting to display the driver program in a transparent state on the display device onto the driver program, and displaying the driver program with the applied transparent setting on the display device when an application program operates the driver program. 
     The method may further include setting a transparency level of the transparent setting. 
     The displaying of the driver program using the applied transparent function on the display device may include displaying a portion of the displayed driver program overlapping with the application program displayed on the display device according to the set transparency level. 
     The displaying of the driver program using the applied transparent function may also include displaying the driver program with the set transparency level over the displayed application program. 
     The applying of the transparent setting onto the driver program may include loading the driver program of the image processing device, activating the transparent setting of the loaded driver program, and saving the activated transparent setting into the driver program. 
     The displaying the driver program with the applied transparent setting may also include requesting the driver program to operate by the application program, and displaying the user interface of the driver program on the display device according to the set transparency level. 
     Furthermore, the driver program may be one of a tool-kit without an important name (TWAIN) driver, a windows image acquisition (WIA) driver, and an image and scanner interface standard (ISIS) driver. 
     The foregoing and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing an image processing system applied with a transparent setting, the image processing system including a display device, an image processing device to read image data of a document, and a host having a control block to activate the transparent setting to display a driver program in a transparent state and to apply the transparent setting to the driver program when an application program accessing the image data loads the driver program. 
     The control block of the host may be capable of setting a transparency level of the transparent setting. 
     The control block of the host may display a portion of the displayed driver program overlapping with the displayed application program on the display device according to the set transparency level. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating a conventional scanning system; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an application program and a tool-kit without an important name (TWAIN) driver of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating a tool-kit without an important name (TWAIN) driver according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating the TWAIN driver of  FIG. 3  in which a transparent setting is set; 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method of setting a transparent setting through a TWAIN driver according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept; and 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying a TWAIN driver on a screen based on a transparent setting according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures. 
       FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating a tool-kit without an important name (TWAIN) driver  310  according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , the TWAIN driver  310  appears on a screen on which an application program  300  is displayed when the application program  300  accesses image data obtained through a scanner. The TWAIN driver  310  can include a menu bar  311  including a basic menu to control a color type, a resolution, an area and a size of the image data, a menu to adjust an image quality, a filter menu, and an about menu to provide information regarding the TWAIN driver  310 . A number of sub-menus can be included in the basic menu. As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , a transparent menu  320  to set a transparent setting and a control menu  312  having sub-control menus of an image type control menu  312   a,  an image resolution control menu  312   b,  an image area control menu  312   c,  and an image size control menu  312   d.    
     The transparent menu  320  sets the TWAIN driver  310  displayed over the application program  300  to be displayed in a transparent state or in a translucent state. The transparent or translucent state can be realized by a predetermined operating system having functions of text and geometric figures displayed on the screen, such as Windows operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation, and the like, and in a host computer having a high capacitance storage medium, such as a processor, a random access memory (RAM) or a hard disk drive (HDD), the operating system and the TWAIN driver  310  can be installed on the hard disk drive. Therefore, the operating system installed into the high capacitance storage medium, such as the hard disk drive, drives the TWAIN driver  310  through the processor, and in turn, sets a transparency level of the TWAIN driver  310 . The newly set transparency level is applied to a previously set transparency level of the TWAIN driver  310  installed on the hard disk drive. 
     Also, the transparent menu  320  can have a set button  321  to set the transparency level of the TWAIN driver  310  when the TWAIN driver  310  is displayed over the application program  300 . Once a user clicks the set button  321  by using an input device, a set menu  321   a  to set the transparency level appears on an inner frame or an outer frame of the TWAIN driver  310 . The user then sets the transparency level by moving a set bar  321   b  through the use of the input device, such as a mouse. 
     The image resolution control menu  312   b  of the control menu  312  controls a scanning resolution of the image data scanned by the scanner. For example, the image resolution control menu  312   b  is capable of setting a target document to be scanned in a resolution of approximately 300 dots per inch (dpi), approximately 600 dpi and approximately 1,200 dpi. The image type control menu  312   a  is capable of setting an image type when the image data acquired by the scanner  200  is displayed on the screen. As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the acquired image data can be set to have a true color of a RGB type. The image area control menu  312   c  allows the user to select a particular area of the scanned image data, and the image size control menu  312   d  allows the user to increase or decrease the size of an image displayed on the screen corresponding to the image data. As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the image size is set to be approximately 100% indicating the size of the original image, and the image size can be greater than or less than approximately 100% to allow the user to view the image on the screen conveniently. The TWAIN driver  310  can also include a scan button  313  to control the scanner to scan the image data, and a preview button  314  to allow the user to preview the image corresponding to the image data scanned by the scanner. 
       FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating the TWAIN driver  310  of  FIG. 3  in which the transparent setting is set. After the transparent setting is applied to the TWAIN driver  310 , a portion of the TWAIN driver  310  that is displayed over the application program  300  becomes transparent or translucent and thus, the displayed image of the image data transferred from the scanner is not blocked by the TWAIN driver  310 . As a result of this transparently or translucently transformed TWAIN driver  310 , the user is able to directly confirm a portion of the image overlapping with the TWAIN driver  310 . Even though the TWAIN driver  310  is in a transparent or translucent state, the user is able to adjust a quality of the image by controlling the image size, the resolution and the like through using the various sub-control menus  312   a  to  312   d  of the control menu  312 . Although this embodiment of the present general inventive concept is described using the TWAIN driver, it is possible to apply this transparent function to a windows image acquisition (WIA) driver by Microsoft, an image and scanner interface standard (ISIS) driver, or any other acceptable alternative. Also, in addition to the scanner, such an image processing device as a printer, a digital photocopier, a multifunction apparatus, and the like, can alternatively be used with the transparent function, so that a result acquired by the application program is not blocked when being displayed on the screen. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method of setting a transparent setting of a TWAIN driver according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 3-5 , at operation S 410 , when a user desires to acquire image data scanned by the scanner  200  through the application program  300 , the user determines whether to set the transparent setting. Then, at operation S 420 , the user loads the TWAIN driver  310  capable of turning on or off the transparent setting on the screen, or the application program  300  automatically loads the TWAIN driver  310 . 
     Next, at operation S 430 , the user clicks a check box of the transparent menu  320  that allows the user to turn on or off the transparent setting by using the input device, e.g., a mouse, whereby the transparent setting is activated. Thereafter, at operation S 440 , the user can click the set button  321  to load the set menu  321   a  on the screen and then, set the transparency level using the loaded set menu  321   a.  At operation S 450 , the user can close the set menu  321   a  with the set transparency level in order to apply the set transparency level to the TWAIN driver  310 . Although not illustrated, there may be a case in which the TWAIN driver  310  has an application key to apply the set transparency level of the TWAIN driver, and in this case, the change in the set transparency level of the TWAIN driver is applied by clicking the application key. As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , when the transparent setting is applied to the TWAIN driver  310 , the transparent or translucent TWAIN driver  310  is displayed on the application program  300 . 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying the TWAIN driver  310  with the transparent setting according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  6 , at operation S 510 , a user operates the application program  300 , which acquires the image data from the scanner and processes the acquired image data thereafter. Examples of the application program  300  are Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and the like, which can be operated by a driver selected from a group including the TWAIN driver  310 , the WIA driver, and the ISIS driver. Currently, the TWAIN  310  driver is the most commonly used driver in image processing devices and drivers corresponding to the image processing devices. Although the embodiments of  FIGS. 3-6  of the present general inventive concept describe the TWAIN driver  310  as an exemplary driver, the WIA driver and the ISIS driver can be similarly applied. 
     Next, at operation S 520 , the TWAIN driver  310  determines whether the user activates the transparent setting. If the transparent setting is activated, at operation S 530 , the TWAIN driver  310  verifies the set transparency level with respect to the transparent setting set by the user. Afterwards, the TWAIN driver  310 , at operation S 540 , coverts a state of the TWAIN driver  310  displayed on the screen into a transparent or translucent state according to the set transparency level. Conversely, if the TWAIN diver  310  is not set with the transparent setting, at operation S 550 , the TWAIN driver  310  is displayed directly over the application program in an opaque state. 
     According to the present general inventive concept, there is provided an effect that an acquired result by an application program operated by a user is not blocked by a driver program, and a scanning operation can be operated at an optimum environment by controlling a transparency level of the driver program displayed over the application program. Although the present general inventive concept describes in detail a transparent setting of a TWAIN driver based on a scanner, image processing devices such as a printer, a photocopier, a multifunction apparatus, and the like can be applied similarly as an alternative to the scanner, and a WIA driver, an ISIS driver, and the like can be applied similarly as an alternative to the TWAIN driver. 
     Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.