CN104057698B

CN104057698B - Control sound production prompt chip, printed material container and tape deck

Info

Publication number: CN104057698B
Application number: CN201410290583.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汪栋杰; 罗艳辉
Original assignee: Apex Microelectronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Jihai Microelectronics Co ltd
Priority date: 2014-06-24
Filing date: 2014-06-24
Publication date: 2016-02-03
Anticipated expiration: 2034-06-24
Also published as: CN104057698A

Abstract

The embodiment of the present invention provides a kind of and controls sound production prompt chip, printed material container and tape deck, wherein, described printed material container is releasably attached to tape deck, printed material container comprises: control device, for monitoring the state of printed material container, and/or monitoring characterizes the information of the state of printed material container, to obtain the status information of printed material container; According to the corresponding relation between the status information of printed material container and default different voice prompts, determine the target prompting sound corresponding with the status information of printed material container; The condition prompting instruction comprising target prompting sound is sent to sound production prompt device; Sound production prompt device, for receiving described condition prompting instruction, send target prompting sound, by the condition prompting of printed material container to user, the prompt facility efficiently solved due to tape deck in prior art is limited, and causing cannot by the condition prompting of corresponding printed material container to the defect of user.

Description

Control sound production suggestion chip, printing material container and recorder

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to a printing and imaging technology, in particular to a control sounding prompt chip, a printing material container and a recording device.

Background

Recording apparatuses, such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines, and the like, are used to record information to be recorded on a recording medium such as paper with a printing material such as ink or toner.

Taking the printing material as an ink as an example, the recording apparatus includes a recording apparatus main body and an ink cartridge detachably mounted in the recording apparatus. In order to grasp the ink amount state such as the amount of consumed ink or the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge, an ink amount detection device is often disposed on the ink cartridge, and a recording device sends an ink amount detection signal to the ink amount detection device, the ink amount detection device responds differently to the ink amount detection signal (i.e., an ink amount response signal) at different remaining amounts of ink, and the recording device determines the current ink amount state of the ink cartridge by detecting the ink amount response signal. When the ink amount state is insufficient, for example, the remaining amount of ink is close to 0, the recording apparatus indicates that the ink amount is insufficient.

Further, in order to detect the mounted state of the ink cartridge, an ink cartridge mounting detection device is also provided on the ink cartridge, the recording device transmits a mounting detection signal to the ink cartridge mounting detection device, the ink cartridge mounting detection device responds to the mounting detection signal (i.e., a mounting response signal), and the recording device determines the mounted state of the ink cartridge by detecting the mounting response signal. When the ink cartridge is mounted to the recording apparatus, the recording apparatus may indicate that the ink cartridge is mounted.

In order to mark the relevant information of the ink box, a consumable chip is also configured on the ink box, and the consumable chip is detachably mounted on the ink box. The consumable chip is provided with a storage element for storing information relating to the ink cartridge. When the ink box is installed to the recording device, the consumable chip on the ink box is electrically connected with the recording device, and data exchange is carried out between the consumable chip and the main body of the recording device. Specifically, the consumable chip on the ink cartridge is electrically connected to the recording apparatus main body through a terminal. The recording apparatus determines the mounted state of the ink cartridge by detecting the contact of the terminals of the consumable chip, or determines the state of the ink cartridge such as color information or ink amount by checking information related to the ink cartridge in the memory element of the consumable chip.

The mounted state, the ink amount state, and the like of the ink cartridge described above are information representing the state of the ink cartridge. The recording device acquires the ink box state information by detecting the corresponding ink box state detection device (such as an ink amount detection device and an ink box installation detection device) or a consumable chip, and prompts the corresponding ink box state information to a user in a mode of displaying information through a display screen.

Moreover, an inkjet printer manufacturer often simultaneously pushes out a plurality of inkjet printers with different market positions for the ink cartridges with the same model, for example, when the inkjet printer with the high-end market is pushed out and positioned, the inkjet printers with the middle-end and low-end markets are also pushed out and positioned, the inkjet printers with the different market positions use the ink cartridges with the same model, the detection function of the state of the ink cartridge is the same even a detection circuit for the state of the ink cartridge, which is arranged inside the inkjet printer, but the inkjet printers with the middle-end and low-end markets in the positioning have different degrees of deficiency in the prompt function of the state of the ink cartridge compared with the inkjet printer with the high-end market. For example, when a user installs ink cartridges of the same model to ink jet printers located in different markets, the ink jet printer located in the high-end market immediately prompts that the ink cartridges are installed through the display screen, while the ink jet printer located in the middle-end market, although having the display screen, cannot immediately prompt whether the ink cartridges are installed, and the ink jet printer located in the low-end market does not have the display screen at all, and further cannot immediately prompt whether the ink cartridges are installed. Although the ink box is provided with the corresponding ink box state detection device and the ink-jet printer is also provided with the corresponding ink box state detection function, some ink-jet printers cannot prompt the ink box state information to users, and inconvenience is brought to the users to use the ink-jet printer.

Therefore, the prompting function of the ink-jet printer is limited, so that the state of the ink box cannot be prompted to a user, the user cannot master the state information of the current printing material container, and inconvenience is brought to the user in applying the ink-jet printer. Also, not only the ink cartridge but also other printing material containers such as a toner cartridge and the like have the above-described problems.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a control sounding prompt chip, a printing material container and a recording device, so that the printing material container can directly prompt the state of the printing material container to a user through sound, the user can conveniently master the state information of the current printing material container, and corresponding processing can be timely performed.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a printing material container, wherein the printing material container is detachably mounted to a recording apparatus, the printing material container including:

the control device is used for monitoring the state of the printing material container and/or monitoring information representing the state of the printing material container so as to acquire the state information of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; sending a state prompting instruction comprising the target prompting sound to a sound-producing prompting device;

and the sounding prompt device is used for receiving the state prompt instruction which is sent by the control device and comprises the target prompt sound and sending the target prompt sound.

According to a first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the status information of the printing material container includes at least one of: consumption or balance of printing material; a mounting state of the printing material container; color information of the printed material.

According to the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

printing material container state detection means for detecting a state of the printing material container;

the control device is specifically configured to monitor the printing material container state detection device to obtain the state information of the printing material container detected by the printing material container state detection device; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; and sending a state prompting instruction comprising the target prompting sound to the sound-producing prompting device.

According to a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the printing material container status detection apparatus includes:

a printing material container mounting detection means for detecting mounting state information of the printing material container; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

printing material consumption or remaining amount detecting means for detecting a consumption or remaining amount of the printing material in the printing material container.

According to the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

the consumable chip is used for storing the state information of the printing material container;

the control device is specifically configured to monitor the information, stored in the consumable chip, representing the state of the printing material container, so as to obtain the state information of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; and sending a state prompting instruction comprising the target prompting sound to the sound-producing prompting device.

According to the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

the consumable chip is used for storing information representing the state of the printing material container;

the control device is specifically configured to monitor the state of the printing material container detected by the printing material container state detection device, and/or monitor information stored in the consumable chip and representing the state of the printing material container, so as to obtain state information of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; and sending a state prompting instruction comprising the target prompting sound to the sound-producing prompting device.

According to a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the consumable chip includes: the communication module is connected with the read/write control module and is used for finishing data communication between the consumable chip and the recording device; the storage module is connected with the read/write control module and is used for storing information representing the state of the printing material container; the read/write control module is respectively connected with the storage module and the communication module and is used for executing read and write operations and writing the write data received by the communication module into the storage module or reading and sending the data stored by the storage module to the communication module;

the control device is specifically configured to:

monitoring the information which is stored in the storage module of the consumable chip and represents the state of the printing material container, and acquiring the state information of the printing material container; or monitoring data information which is used for representing the state of the printing material container and is communicated with the recording device by the communication module of the consumable chip, and acquiring the state information of the printing material container; or the read/write control module of the consumable chip analyzes the information which is stored by the storage module and represents the state of the printing material container or the data information which is communicated with the recording device by the communication module and represents the state of the printing material container, and sends the information which represents the state of the printing material container to the control device, so that the control device obtains the state information of the printing material container;

or,

monitoring the state of the printing material container detected by the printing material container state detection device to acquire state information of the printing material container; or monitoring the state of the printing material container detected by the printing material container state detection device and the information of the consumable chip representing the state of the printing material container to acquire the state information of the printing material container.

According to the first aspect and any one of the first to sixth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the target prompt sound is a voice prompt.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a printing material container, where the printing material container includes: sound production suggestion consumptive material device, sound production suggestion consumptive material device includes:

a communication module for performing data communication with the recording apparatus;

a storage module to store information characterizing a state of the printing material container;

the control module is respectively connected with the storage module, the communication module and the sounding prompt module and is used for controlling reading and writing of information which is stored in the storage module and represents the state of the printing material container and controlling data communication between the communication module and the recording device;

the control module is further configured to monitor information, stored in the storage module, representing the state of the printing material container, and/or monitor data information, communicated with the recording device, representing the state of the printing material container by the communication module to acquire the state information of the printing material container, determine a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to a corresponding relationship between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds, and send a state prompt instruction including the target prompt sound to the sound-emitting prompt module;

and the sound production prompting module is used for receiving the state prompting instruction which is sent by the control module and comprises the target prompting sound and sending the target prompting sound.

According to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the target prompt sound is a voice prompt.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a recording apparatus, where the recording apparatus includes: a recording apparatus main body, and the printing material container according to any one of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a chip for controlling sounding prompt, where the chip for controlling sounding prompt is detachably mounted to a printing material container, and the chip for controlling sounding prompt includes:

According to a fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the target prompt sound is a voice prompt.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the control device and the sounding prompt device are additionally arranged in the printing material container, different prompt sounds are respectively set for each state of the printing material container in advance, and the control device controls the sounding prompt device to send the target prompt sound corresponding to the current state of the printing material container, so that a user can master the state information of the current printing material container and timely make corresponding processing.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural view of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is another schematic structural view of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of another structure of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic view of still another structure of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of the association between the consumable chip and the control device and the sounding prompt device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic view of still another structure of the printing material container according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip for controlling sounding prompt according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention can be applied to various recording devices, such as printers, copiers, fax machines and the like.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the printing material container is detachably mounted in the recording apparatus; the printing material container is used for containing printing materials such as ink, carbon powder or other toners; the printing material container may be an ink cartridge if the printing material contained therein is ink; if the printing material container contains printing material that is toner, the printing material container may be a toner cartridge.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printing material container is detachably mounted to a recording apparatus (not shown in the drawings). As shown in fig. 1, the printing material container 100 includes:

a control device 101 configured to monitor a status of the printing material container and/or monitor information indicative of the status of the printing material container to obtain status information of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; and sending a state prompting instruction comprising the target prompting sound to the sound prompting device 102.

And the sound-emitting prompting device 102 is configured to receive the state prompting instruction including the target prompting sound sent by the control device 101, and emit the target prompting sound.

Optionally, the status of the printing material container includes at least one of: consumption or balance of printing material; a mounting state of the printing material container; color information of the printed material, and the like.

Optionally, the control device acquires the status information of the printing material container by monitoring a printing material container status detection device provided on the printing material container and/or a consumable chip provided on the printing material container. The printing material container state detection device for detecting a state of the printing material container includes: a printing material container mounting detection device for detecting a mounting state of the printing material container; and/or printing material consumption or residual amount detection means for detecting a consumption or residual amount of printing material in the printing material container. The consumable chip is used for storing information representing the state of the printing material container.

It is understood that the control device 101 and the audible prompting device 102 may also be disposed in a single control audible prompting device, for example, the control device 101 and the audible prompting device 102 may be integrated into a chip having the monitoring function and the audible prompting function.

Specifically, the target prompt sound may be a voice prompt, corresponding voice prompt contents are recorded in advance for each state of the ink cartridge, and then the voice prompt contents corresponding to the state are sent according to the current state of the ink cartridge, for example, a state when the current ink remaining amount of the ink cartridge containing black ink is 40% is prompted by sending a "current ink amount of black ink cartridge is forty percent" voice prompt, so that the state information of the ink cartridge can be more intuitively, clearly, conveniently and obviously prompted to the user.

The target prompt sound can also be other easily-distinguished sound prompts, such as 'dropping' sounds emitted at different frequencies, corresponding sound prompts are recorded in advance for each state of the ink box, and then the sound prompt corresponding to the state is emitted according to the current state of the ink box so as to prompt the state information of the ink box to a user.

Specifically, the sound production prompting device can respectively prompt the state of at least two different ink boxes to the user. The states of not less than two different ink cartridges may be states of different ink cartridges belonging to the same type, such as ink volume states at two different ink remaining amounts; it may also be a state belonging to a different type of ink cartridge, such as a remaining amount state of the ink cartridge and a mounted state of the ink cartridge. The target prompt sound, particularly the voice prompt, is set to correspond to the state of each ink box, so that the user can distinguish the state of the ink box corresponding to the target prompt sound each time. Therefore, the target prompt sound of the present embodiment is preferably implemented by voice prompt. When the user hears the voice prompt, the state of the ink box prompted by the voice prompt can be intuitively, clearly, conveniently and obviously mastered.

By adopting the printing material container provided by the embodiment of the invention, the sounding prompt device is additionally arranged in the printing material container, different prompt sounds are respectively set for each state of the printing material container in advance, and the sounding prompt device can be used for conveniently mastering the state information of the current printing material container by sending the target prompt sound corresponding to the current state of the printing material container so as to timely perform corresponding processing.

In order to simplify the description process and make the technical solution appear clearly, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention is described below by taking only the printing material container as an ink cartridge and the recording apparatus as an inkjet printer as an example, and it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the technical solution description of the embodiment of the present invention is also applicable to other types of printing material containers, such as a toner cartridge, and the like.

It is to be understood that the printing material container may further include a printing material storage device for storing the printing material, and a printing material output device for outputting the printing material stored in the printing material storage device.

Taking a printing material container as an ink cartridge and a recording device as an ink jet printer as an example: the printing material storage device may be an ink chamber or an ink bag provided in the ink cartridge, and stores ink for printing. The printing material output device may be an ink supply port or an ink supply portion formed at a bottom or a side portion of the ink cartridge, and is connected to an ink supply tube of the ink-jet printer when the ink cartridge is loaded in the ink-jet printer, so as to output the ink stored in the printing material storage device to the printing head.

Moreover, the ink box also comprises the control device and the sound production prompting device.

Example one

Fig. 2 is another schematic structural diagram of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printing material container 200 is detachably attached to a recording apparatus (not shown in the drawings), and on the basis of the above-described embodiment, the printing material container further includes: printing material container state detection means for detecting a state of the printing material container.

As shown in fig. 2, the printing material container 200 includes:

a printing material container status detecting device 201 for detecting the status of the printing material container, comprising:

a printing material container mounting detection means for detecting mounting state information of the printing material container; and/or printing material consumption or residual amount detection means for detecting a consumption or residual amount of printing material in the printing material container.

The control device 202 is specifically configured to monitor the printing material container status detection device 201, so as to obtain the status information of the printing material container detected by the printing material container status detection device 201; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; a status alert instruction including the target alert sound is transmitted to the sound emission alert device 203.

And the sound-emitting prompting device 203 is used for receiving the state prompting instruction which is sent by the control device 202 and comprises the target prompting sound, and emitting the target prompting sound.

Next, each module of the printing material container provided in this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to a specific implementation manner, taking the printing material container as an example.

In practice, the printing material consumption or remaining amount detecting means may be a piezoelectric sensor, a photo-detecting float lever, a photo-detecting prism, a detecting circuit, which detects the state of the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge.

Taking a printing material consumption or surplus detection device in an ink box as an example, the device is electrically contacted with two probes on the side of an ink-jet printer through two electric contact points on the ink box so as to be connected with a detection circuit in the ink-jet printer, the ink-jet printer can judge the installation state of the ink box through the contact of the detection probes and the electric contact points, and can judge the ink surplus state of the current ink box by sending an ink quantity detection signal to a piezoelectric sensor and detecting an ink quantity response signal fed back to the ink quantity detection signal by the piezoelectric sensor under the current ink surplus. Because the ink residual quantity of the ink box is different and the vibration condition of the piezoelectric sensor is different, when the ink-jet printer sends an ink quantity detection signal to the piezoelectric sensor, the ink quantity response signals fed back by the piezoelectric sensor due to vibration are different, and therefore the current ink quantity state can be represented through the ink quantity response signals.

Alternatively, the ink cartridge may further include a light detecting float lever, a float member of the light detecting float lever floats on the surface of the ink, and the current ink level is reflected to the light detecting member through the lever member, and the ink jet printer detects the amount of light blocked by the light detecting member by emitting detection light to the light detecting member to determine the current ink level.

Or, set up the light and examine the prism in the ink horn, when the ink is sufficient in the ink horn, the light that examines the prism and incides into the light is examined the prism and is refracted inside the ink horn but not reflect the light and examine the prism, when the ink is insufficient in the ink horn, the light that examines the prism and incides into the light reflects the light and examine the prism, and the ink jet printer detects the light that examines the prism through sending out to the light and examines the prism and whether the light that detects the prism is in order to judge current ink is sufficient.

Or, a detection circuit can be arranged in the ink box to judge the current ink allowance in the ink box by detecting the capacitance, resistance or current of the ink when different ink allowances are detected.

In the prior art, due to the arrangement of the internal circuit of the prompting function of the ink-jet printer, the ink-jet printer only selectively prompts the ink box state information to a user for the detected ink box state, and the ink-jet printer does not prompt the user for some detected ink box states. For example, with respect to the detected ink amount status, the inkjet printer may only present the information of the ink amount shortage to the user when the ink amount status is insufficient, and may not present the ink amount status in stages. If a user needs to master the current ink volume state information, the user can only operate a menu of the ink-jet printer and search the related information to know the related information of the ink box, which brings inconvenience to the user in mastering the related information of the ink box or applying the ink-jet printer.

In view of the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a printing material container, and a sound-generating prompt time (i.e., a preset time) is preset; the control device acquires the consumption or the residual amount information of the printing materials in the printing material container detected by the printing material consumption or residual amount detection device at a preset moment, determines a target prompt sound corresponding to the acquired consumption or residual amount information of the printing materials according to the corresponding relation between the consumption or the residual amount information of the printing materials and different preset prompt sounds, and controls the sound-generating prompt device to generate the target prompt sound so as to prompt the current state of the ink box to a user in a mode of generating the target prompt sound corresponding to the current state, so that the user can conveniently master the current ink amount state information without operating a menu of the ink-jet printer. Optionally, the preset time is after the recording apparatus completes each printing operation, or when the printing material container is mounted to the recording apparatus, or in a periodic or periodic manner.

The printing material container installation detection device may be a circuit part that detects an installation state of the ink cartridge, and detects the installation state of the ink cartridge in a manner that the inkjet printer detects electrical contact; alternatively, a light detection member is provided in the ink cartridge to detect the mounted state of the ink cartridge so that the ink jet printer detects whether or not the light is blocked.

In the prior art, some recording devices, such as inkjet printers, which have been introduced into the market, can only indicate, according to the detected current value when different ink cartridges are mounted in the inkjet printer, that the ink cartridge is mounted at the corresponding mounting position, but cannot indicate whether the different ink cartridges are correctly mounted according to the magnitude of the current value. For example, if a user mounts an ink cartridge containing black ink into a mounting position of an ink cartridge containing red ink, the black ink may mix with the residual red ink and even chemically react to clog a print head and damage an ink jet printer, which may cause inconvenience to the user in applying the ink jet printer.

To solve the technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a printing material container, where the installation state information of the printing material container is: a mounting current value detected when the printing material container is mounted to the recording apparatus; the control device acquires the current value detected by the printing material container installation detection device when the printing material container is installed on the recording device, judges whether the printing material container is installed on the printing material container of the recording device, and judges whether the printing material container is installed correctly according to the corresponding relation between the type of the printing material container and preset different current value intervals and the current value interval to which the detected current value falls; if the printing material container is judged to be installed wrongly, determining target prompt sounds corresponding to the installation mistakes of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds, and controlling the sound-producing prompt device to emit the target prompt sounds so as to prompt the current state of the ink box to a user in a mode of emitting the target prompt sounds corresponding to the current state, so that the user is prompted to adjust the installation positions of the different ink boxes or install the ink boxes again, and damage to the ink-jet printer caused by the installation mistakes of the printing material container during use is avoided.

The above-described detected amount or remaining state of ink in the ink cartridge and the mounted state of the ink cartridge are all the states of the ink cartridge, and a component or device for detecting the corresponding state of the ink cartridge may be referred to as a corresponding printing material container state detecting device, such as an ink remaining amount state detecting device, a mounted state detecting device of the ink cartridge, or the like. Moreover, the manner of detecting the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge or the mounting state of the ink cartridge is not limited to the above embodiments, the corresponding printing material container state detecting device is not limited to the above components or devices, and the state of the detected ink cartridge is not limited to the above two types.

The control device 202 may be an electrical device, and acquires the state of the ink cartridge by detecting an electrical signal representing the state of the ink cartridge detected by the printing material container state detection device 201, so as to control the speaker or the buzzer to emit a target prompt sound corresponding to the state of the ink cartridge; for example, the control device 202 detects the ink amount response signal fed back by the piezoelectric sensor to obtain the remaining ink amount status of the ink cartridge, and then controls the speaker to emit a target prompt sound corresponding to the remaining ink amount status of the ink cartridge to prompt the user of the current ink amount level (i.e., remaining ink amount) of the ink cartridge.

The control device 202 may also be an optoelectronic device, which detects an optical signal representing the state of the ink cartridge detected by the printing material container state detection device 201, and converts the optical signal into an electrical signal through an optoelectronic device disposed inside, so as to obtain the state of the ink cartridge, and further control the speaker or the buzzer to emit a target prompt sound corresponding to the state of the ink cartridge.

The control device 202 may also be a physical structure device such as a whistle, which converts the change of the ink level into the change of the air intake of the whistle by providing a physical quantity transmission device such as a float lever in the ink cartridge, and the whistle generates different prompting sounds to prompt the user of the current ink level of the ink cartridge by the change of the air intake when the ink cartridge moves with the carriage.

The sound prompting device 203 may be an electrical sound device such as a speaker or a buzzer, or may be a physical sound device such as a whistle.

It is understood that the control device 202 and the audible prompting device 203 can also be disposed in a single audible prompting device, for example, the control device 202 and the audible prompting device 203 can be integrated into a chip having a monitoring function and an audible prompting function.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the implementation devices specifically adopted by the control device and the sound-emitting prompting device are not limited to the several implementation manners described in the above embodiments; the control device and the sounding prompt device can be arranged on the ink box in an undetachable mode and can also be arranged on the ink box in a detachable mode; the prompting sound sent by the sounding prompting device can be a voice prompt or other easily-distinguished sound prompts, and the prompting sounds in different states can be different or the same; the invention aims to provide the ink box with the function of voice prompt for the current state of the ink box or the change of the state of the ink box.

Example two

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of another structure of the printing material container according to the embodiment of the present invention. The printing material container 300 is detachably mounted to a recording apparatus (not shown in the drawings), and the printing material container 300 is not provided with a printing material container status detecting means for detecting the status of the printing material container. As shown in fig. 3, the printing material container 300 includes:

a consumable chip 301 for storing information representing a state of the printing material container 300;

the control device 302 is used for acquiring the state information of the printing material container by monitoring the information which is stored in the consumable chip 301 and represents the state of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; a status alert instruction including the target alert sound is sent to the sound emission alert device 303.

And the sound-emitting prompting device 303 is configured to receive the state prompting instruction including the target prompting sound sent by the control device 302, and emit the target prompting sound.

Optionally, the status of the printing material container includes at least one of: consumption of printing material; the balance of the printing material; a mounting state of the printing material container; color information of the printed material, and the like.

It is understood that the control device 302 and the audible prompting device 303 can also be disposed in one control audible prompting device, for example, the control device 302 and the audible prompting device 303 can be chips with monitoring function and audible prompting function integrated together.

In the prior art, due to the arrangement of the internal circuit of the prompting function of the ink-jet printer, the ink-jet printer only selectively prompts the ink box state information to a user for the detected ink box state, and the ink-jet printer does not prompt the user for some detected ink box states. For example, when a brand new ink cartridge with a consumable chip is first installed in an inkjet printer, the inkjet printer writes a first installation date into the consumable chip of the ink cartridge, but does not prompt the user with information about the brand new ink cartridge or the first installation. If the user needs to check whether the ink box is brand new, the user can only operate the menu of the ink-jet printer and search the related information to know the related information of the ink box, which brings inconvenience to the user to master the related information of the ink box or to apply the ink-jet printer.

In view of the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a printing material container, in which a control device and a sound-generating prompting device are added to the printing material container, and status information of the printing material container is first installation information of the printing material container; a control device for judging whether the printing material container is installed for the first time (namely, an unused printing material container) by detecting whether the recording device writes first installation information into the consumable chip or monitoring the date when the recording device writes the first installation information into the consumable chip of the printing material container when the printing material container is installed into the recording device; if so, determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container for the first installation according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds, and controlling the sound-generating prompt device to generate the target prompt sound, so that the first installation state of the printing material container is prompted to a user in a mode of generating the target prompt sound corresponding to the state.

Aiming at the situation that a printing material container state detection device for detecting the state of a printing material container is not arranged in the printing material container, but a consumable chip for storing information representing the state of the printing material container is arranged, the embodiment of the invention adds a control device and a sounding prompt device in the printing material container, wherein the control device acquires the state information of the printing material container by monitoring the information representing the state of the printing material container stored in the consumable chip, determines a target prompt sound corresponding to the acquired state of the printing material container according to the acquired state information of the printing material container and the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds, and controls the sounding prompt device to send the target prompt sound so as to prompt the current state of the printing material container to a user, therefore, the user can master the state information of the current printing material container and timely perform corresponding processing. The defect that in the prior art, due to the fact that the prompting function of the ink-jet printer is limited, the corresponding state of the ink box cannot be prompted to a user, the user cannot master the state information of the current printing material container, and inconvenience is brought to the user to use the ink-jet printer is effectively overcome.

EXAMPLE III

Fig. 4 is a schematic view of another structure of a printing material container according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printing material container 400 is detachably installed in a recording apparatus (not shown in the drawings), and the printing material container 400 is provided with both a printing material container state detecting apparatus for detecting the state of the printing material container and a consumable chip storing information representing the state of the printing material container. As shown in fig. 4, the printing material container 400 includes:

printing material container state detection means 401 for detecting the state of the printing material container;

a consumable chip 402 for storing information characterizing a state of the printing material container;

a control device 403, configured to obtain status information of the printing material container by monitoring the status of the printing material container detected by the printing material container status detection device, and/or monitoring information stored in the consumable chip and representing the status of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; a status alert instruction including the target alert sound is sent to the audible alert device 404.

And an audible prompting device 404, configured to receive the state prompting instruction including the target prompting sound sent by the control device 403, and to emit the target prompting sound.

Aiming at the scene that a printing material container state detection device for detecting the state of a printing material container and a consumable chip for storing information representing the state of the printing material container are arranged in the printing material container at the same time, the embodiment of the invention adds a control device and a sound-generating prompting device in the printing material container, the control device acquires the state information of the printing material container by monitoring the state of the printing material container detected by the printing material container state detection device and/or monitoring the state information representing the printing material container stored by the consumable chip, determines a target prompting sound corresponding to the state of the printing material container according to the acquired state information of the printing material container and the preset corresponding relationship between different prompting sounds and different states of the printing material container, and controls the sound-generating prompting device to generate the target prompting sound, so as to prompt the state of the current printing material container to the user, so that the user can master the state of the current printing material container and timely perform corresponding processing.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of the association between the consumable chip and the control device and the sounding prompt device according to the embodiment of the present invention. The following describes in detail the structures of the consumable chip 402, the control device 403 and the sound emission prompting device 404 shown in fig. 4 with reference to fig. 5; among them, the printing material container is an ink cartridge, and the recording apparatus is an ink jet printer. As shown in FIG. 5, consumable chip 402 includes: a memory module 501, a read/write control module 502, and a communication module 503, wherein:

the communication module 503 is connected to the read/write control module 502 for performing data communication between the consumable chip 402 and the inkjet printer, and the communication module 503 may include a plurality of terminals for maintaining the consumable chip 402 in contact with the contact mechanism on the inkjet printer side, and a control circuit for controlling the terminals to exchange signals with the circuit on the inkjet printer side to transmit data, such as a signal analysis and control circuit for performing data transmission by using a transmission protocol such as an integrated circuit bus (IIC), to perform the functions of sending and receiving data of the consumable chip. The communication module 503 may also include a wireless communication signal transceiver for holding the chip in wireless communication with the control circuitry in the inkjet printer, and control circuitry for controlling the wireless communication signal transceiver, such as a Wi-Fi wireless communication module or an RFID communication module, to accomplish the transmission and reception of data with the inkjet printer.

The storage module 501 is connected to the read/write control module 502 and stores data relating to the ink cartridge, including rewritable data such as ink amount data and read-only data such as ink cartridge color and ink cartridge production date, which are information representing the state of the ink cartridge. The memory module 401 may adopt a common non-volatile memory, such as an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a FLASH memory (FLASH), a ferroelectric memory, and the like.

The read/write control module 502 is respectively connected to the storage module 501 and the communication module 503, and is configured to perform read and write operations, write data received by the communication module 503 into the storage module 501, or read and send data stored in the storage module 501 to the communication module 503.

Wherein the inkjet printer stores the ink consumption amount or remaining amount state information of the ink cartridge detected by the printing material container state detection device 401 into the consumable chip 402, and stores the state information of the ink cartridge calculated by the inside of the inkjet printer into the consumable chip 402.

The control device 403 is configured to monitor a state of the ink cartridge or monitor information representing the state of the ink cartridge, so as to obtain the state of the ink cartridge, and control the sound-generating prompting device 404 to generate a target prompting sound corresponding to the state of the ink cartridge according to the state of the ink cartridge and a preset corresponding relationship between different prompting sounds and different states of the ink cartridge.

The sound emission prompting device 404 is used for emitting the target prompting sound according to the control of the control device 403.

Specifically, the control device 403 acquires the state of the ink cartridge by monitoring the information representing the state of the ink cartridge stored in the storage module 501 of the consumable chip 402; alternatively, the control device 403 acquires the state of the ink cartridge by monitoring the data information representing the state of the ink cartridge, which is communicated with the ink jet printer by the communication module 503 of the consumable chip 402; alternatively, the read/write control module 502 of the consumable chip 402 analyzes the information representing the state of the ink cartridge stored in the storage module 501 or the data information representing the state of the ink cartridge communicated with the inkjet printer by the communication module 503, and sends the information representing the state of the ink cartridge to the control device 403, so that the control device 403 acquires the state information of the ink cartridge.

Specifically, the control device 403 may also acquire the status information of the ink cartridge by monitoring the status of the ink cartridge detected by the printing material container status detection device 401; alternatively, control device 403 acquires the status information of the ink cartridge by monitoring the status of the ink cartridge detected by printing material container status detection device 401 and information of consumable chip 402 that characterizes the status of the ink cartridge.

It is understood that the control device 403 and the sound prompt device 404 may be provided in a single sound prompt control device, which simultaneously implements the functions of the control device 403 and the sound prompt device 404. For example, controlling means and sound production suggestion device can be two functional module of the control sound production suggestion chip that has monitor function and sound production suggestion function of integrated on one, and this control sound production suggestion chip detachably sets up to the ink horn on, and this control sound production suggestion chip passes through the inside controlling means control and acquires the status information of ink horn to and according to the corresponding relation between the different states of different predetermined suggestion sounds and ink horn, the sound production suggestion device of this control sound production suggestion chip inside of control sends target suggestion sound in order to indicate the user.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the manner of acquiring the state of the ink cartridge by the control device is not limited to the manner of monitoring the consumable chip or monitoring the printing material container state detection device, and the object of the present invention can be achieved as long as the current state of the ink cartridge can be acquired and the sound-generating prompt device is controlled to generate the corresponding target prompt sound to prompt the user according to the current state of the ink cartridge.

Example four

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of still another structure of the printing material container according to the embodiment of the present invention. The printing material container 600 according to the embodiment of the present invention is detachably mounted to a recording apparatus (not shown in the drawings). As shown in fig. 6, the printing material container 600 includes a sound prompt consumable device 610, in which:

the audible cue consumable device 610 includes:

a communication module 601, configured to perform data communication with the recording apparatus;

a storage module 602 for storing information characterizing a state of the printing material container;

a control module 603, which is respectively connected to the storage module 602, the communication module 601, and the sound prompt module 604, and is configured to control reading and writing of information representing the state of the printing material container stored in the storage module 602, and control data communication between the communication module 601 and the recording apparatus;

the control module 603 is further configured to monitor information, stored in the storage module 602, representing the state of the printing material container, and/or monitor data information, stored in the communication module 601, representing the state of the printing material container, of the communication with the recording apparatus, so as to obtain the state of the printing material container, determine a target prompt sound corresponding to the state of the printing material container according to the monitored state information of the printing material container and a preset corresponding relationship between different prompt sounds and different states of the printing material container, and send a state prompt instruction including the target prompt sound to the sound-emitting prompt module;

the sound-generating prompt module 604 is configured to receive the state prompt instruction including the target prompt sound sent by the control module 603, and send the target prompt sound.

In the printing material container 600 provided by the embodiment of the present invention, a consumable chip for storing information representing the state of the printing material container is not separately provided, but the consumable chips are integrated and designed into the sound-generating prompt consumable device 610, so that a control module of the consumable chip is incorporated, the information interaction time delay is saved, and the complexity of implementing the device is reduced.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the technical solutions with the sounding prompt function described in the above embodiments are also applicable to other types of printing material containers and corresponding recording devices, and similarly, the ink cartridge may also be other containers for containing printing materials, such as a toner cartridge, and the like. The control device and the sound prompt device are arranged on the toner cartridge, and corresponding sound prompts are sent according to the state of the toner cartridge so as to prompt the state information of the toner cartridge to a user, and the invention also belongs to the aim of the invention.

Obviously, by adopting the above technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the control device and the sound-generating prompting device are provided on the printing material container, and different prompting sounds are respectively set for each state of the printing material container in advance, so that when the printing material container is installed in the recording device, no matter the recording device has no corresponding printing material container state prompting function, the printing material container can autonomously generate a target prompting sound corresponding to the current state of the printing material container according to the state of the printing material container, and prompt the current state of the printing material container to the user, so that the user can master the state information of the current printing material container and make corresponding processing in time; the method and the device effectively solve the defect that in the prior art, the prompting function of the recording device is limited, so that the state of the corresponding printing material container cannot be prompted to a user, the user cannot master the state information of the current printing material container, and the recording device is inconvenient to use for the user.

EXAMPLE five

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 7, a recording apparatus 700 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a recording apparatus main body 701, and a printing material container 702; the printing material container 702 may adopt the structure of the printing material container provided in any embodiment of the present invention, and the implementation principle and the technical scheme thereof are similar, and are not described herein again.

EXAMPLE six

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip for controlling sounding prompt according to an embodiment of the present invention. The control sound prompt chip is removably mounted to a printing material container (not shown). As shown in fig. 8, the chip 800 for controlling sounding prompt includes:

a control device 801 configured to monitor a status of the printing material container and/or monitor information representing the status of the printing material container to obtain status information of the printing material container; determining a target prompt sound corresponding to the state information of the printing material container according to the corresponding relation between the state information of the printing material container and different preset prompt sounds; sending a state prompting instruction comprising the target prompting sound to a sound-producing prompting device;

the sound-generating prompting device 802 is configured to receive the state prompting instruction including the target prompting sound sent by the control device 801, and send out the target prompting sound.

Optionally, the target prompt sound is a voice prompt.

In the embodiments provided in the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, or in a form of hardware plus a software functional unit.

The integrated unit implemented in the form of a software functional unit may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The software functional unit is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor (processor) to execute some steps of the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

It is obvious to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the foregoing division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be performed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the above described functions. For the specific working process of the device described above, reference may be made to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, which is not described herein again.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and not to limit the same; while the invention has been described in detail and with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A printing material container detachably mountable to a recording apparatus, characterized by comprising:

2. The printing material container according to claim 1, wherein the status information of the printing material container includes at least one of: consumption or balance of printing material; a mounting state of the printing material container; color information of the printed material.

3. The printing material container according to claim 1, further comprising:

4. A printing material container according to claim 3, wherein the printing material container status detecting means includes:

5. The printing material container according to claim 1, further comprising:

6. The printing material container according to claim 1, further comprising:

7. The printing material container according to claim 6,

the consumable chip includes: the communication module is connected with the read/write control module and is used for finishing data communication between the consumable chip and the recording device; the storage module is connected with the read/write control module and is used for storing information representing the state of the printing material container; the read/write control module is respectively connected with the storage module and the communication module and is used for executing read and write operations and writing the write data received by the communication module into the storage module or reading and sending the data stored by the storage module to the communication module;

the read/write control module of the consumable chip analyzes the information which is stored by the storage module and represents the state of the printing material container, or analyzes the data information which is communicated with the recording device by the communication module and represents the state of the printing material container, and sends the information which represents the state of the printing material container to the control device, so that the control device obtains the state information of the printing material container;

or, the control device is specifically configured to:

monitoring the information which is stored in the storage module of the consumable chip and represents the state of the printing material container, and acquiring the state information of the printing material container; or monitoring data information which is used for representing the state of the printing material container and is communicated with the recording device by the communication module of the consumable chip, and acquiring the state information of the printing material container;

or, the control device is specifically configured to:

8. The printing material container according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the target cue sound is a voice cue.

9. A printing material container detachably mountable to a recording apparatus, characterized by comprising: sound production suggestion consumptive material device, sound production suggestion consumptive material device includes:

10. The printing material container according to claim 9, wherein the target cue sound is a voice cue.

11. A recording apparatus, characterized by comprising: a recording apparatus main body, and the printing material container according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. A chip for controlling audible prompts, removably mountable to a container of printing material, comprising:

13. The chip of claim 12, wherein the target alert sound is a voice alert.