Patent ID: 7733529

Claim:
An electronic blackboard comprising: a writing surface; an optical reader for optically reading an image written on the writing surface and for outputting the read image as image data; a printer; a connecter for removably connecting an external storage medium; an input device operable by an operator to input a copy instruction to instruct the optical reader to read the image on the writing surface, and a density control instruction for starting a density controlling process for causing a density of the image data of the read image to be darker; an image controller for executing the density controlling process on the image data of the read image; a memory for temporarily storing the image data outputted from the optical reader; and a controller; wherein the controller, in response to the copy instruction: controls the electronic blackboard to read the image on the writing surface optically by the optical reader; controls the electronic blackboard to print an image by the printer based on the image data outputted from the optical reader; and controls the electronic blackboard to temporarily store the image data outputted from the optical reader in the memory, and to store the image data in the external storage medium connected to the connecter; and wherein the controller, in response to the density control instruction being input after the control performed in response to the copy instruction: controls the electronic blackboard to read the image data temporarily stored in the memory and to execute, with the image controller, the density controlling process on the read image data, and controls the electronic blackboard to update the image data stored in the external storage medium with the image data on which the density controlling process has been executed; and wherein the controller counts a number of times the density controlling process has been executed in accordance with the density control instruction for the image data of one image read by the optical reader; and the controller does not permit the density controlling process to be executed more than a predetermined number of times.