CA1240505A

CA1240505A - Electronic print board

Info

Publication number: CA1240505A
Application number: CA000483009A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Seiji Araki; Joji Tadokoro
Original assignee: Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd
Current assignee: Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd
Priority date: 1984-06-04
Filing date: 1985-06-03
Publication date: 1988-08-16
Also published as: JPH0371996B2; DE3583965D1; US4670794A; EP0164084B1; KR860000160A; EP0164084A2; EP0164084A3; JPS60257295A; KR880000412B1

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
The electronic copy board is provided with an endless or continuous writing medium, on which a transparent sheet-shaped writing medium is removably mounted. Any characters and figures written on both the writing media are combined, scaled down, and copied on recording paper by means of a recording device. In addition, another document can be inserted between both the writing media. Thus, the characters and figures written on the document and the transparent writing medium can be combined, scaled down, and copied on the recording paper by means of the recording device.

Description

The present invention relates to an electronic print board provided with an endless writing medium.
A prior electronic print board is disclosed in Canadian patent No. 1,211,495 issued September 16, 1986.
An electronic print board is used in conferences, explanation meetings, and preliminary meetings, etc.
The electronic print board is capable of having written thereon various results yielded during the progress of a confer-ence, the contents of a preliminary arrangement, or information such as symbols and figures and the like, and of displaying them for the participants.
Various items of information are written on a large-sized writing medium equipped with a scene movable by a roller by using a writing tool such as an aqueous felt pen. In addition, such items of information can be scaled down onto recording paper, copied onto the required number of sheets, and distributed to the participants.
The electronic print board is provided with a very effec-tive function capable of recording a picture image which has been already written on a writing medium on recording paper for the required number of copies as described before. But, it is diffi-cult to say at present that the electronic print board is sufficiently demonstrating its function, thus presenting the possibilities of more versatile uses thereof as problems remained for future development.
It is an object of the present invention to extend the --1-- `. ,,~
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uses of the electronic:e~ board to more versatile fields based on the above-description.
According to the present invention, the above objects can be achieved by a large-sized writing medium comprising an opaque parent sheet and a transparent sheet which is removable with respect to the parent sheet. The transparent sheet described above is formed by a raw material at least capable of allowing a picture image to be erasably written thereon.
According to the device described above, it is possible not only to write a picture image on a parent sheet or a trans-parent sheet constituting a writing medium by means of a writing tool and to record it on recording paper, but also to scale down onto recording paper a picture image which has been previously written on a large-sized document by handwriting or printing by inserting said document between the parent and transparent sheets.
In addition, it is also possible to record any document such as a map or the like on recording paper after the insertion thereof between the parent and transparent sheets and the addition of any picture from the upper side of the transparent sheet.
Further, according to the present invention, it is possible, besides its ordinary uses, to scale down a large-sized map and a design drawing onto recording paper, and record any document such as a map and a music sheet on recording paper as a picture image after its insertion between the parent and trans-parent sheets and further to correct it from the upper side of the transparent sheet, thus leading to more versatile applications of ~Z40SOS

the electronic print board.
Thus, in accordance with a broad aspect of the invention, there is provided an electronic print board comprising:
a housing;
a driving roller and a supporting roller rotatably mounted on said housing;
an opaque parent sheet trained over said driving roller and said supporting roller so as to be moved by said driving roller on said housing, said parent sheet being formed of a material which facilitates writing letters and drawing patterns on the parent sheet and erasing the letters written and the patterns drawn on the same;
a transparent sheet capable of being separated from said parent sheet, said transparent sheet being formed of a material capable of carrying letters and patterns and allowing easily erasing the letters and patterns, and including means for holding a removable document between said transparent sheet and said parent sheet;
a readout sensor disposed in said housing so as to receive said reduced image, said readout sensor including means capable of providing image signals representing said reduced image; and recording means connected to said readout sensor to receive image signals from said readout sensor and capable of recording an image on a recording paper.
The foregoing and other objects, features, and attendant advantages of the present invention will be appreciated as the same become better understood by means of the following description '~

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and accompanying drawings wherein;
Figure 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an electronic print board, Figure 2 is a perspective view of a portion of the internal structure of the electronic print board of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a perspective view further illustrating a portion of Figure 2, Figure 4 is a partially enlarged side elevational view of a writing medium, and Figure 5 is a perspective view of a portion of another embodiment.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
-According to Figures 1 through 4, a first embodiment is described. Figure 1 illustrates a body of an electronic print board mounted on a housing. Designated as 1 in figures 2 and 3 is -3a-a large-sized writing medium constructed by an endless parent ~ r e rJ 7L
sheet 2 and a rectangular transparent sheet 3. The ~ransparc~
sheet 2 is, as illustrated in Figure 4, formed by arranging a surface film 2b on a semitranslucent or opaque substrate film 2a and joining them, while the transparent film 3 is constructed by arranging a surface film 3b on a transparent substrate film 3a and joining them. Here, for the substrate film 2a of the parent sheet

2, a whitened polyester film, etc., can be preferably used. In the same way, for the substrate film 3a of the transparent sheet

3,a transparent polyester film, and for the surface films 2b, 3b, a fluorine film facilitated to be erasably written thereon by a writing tool such as a felt pen and cloth, etc., can be used. In the present invention, the parent sheet 2 is trained around a driving roller 4 and a supporting roller 5 arranged in parallel to each other and spaced in a prescribed interval, and is moved in circulation by rotating the driving roller 4 by a motor 6.
By contrast, the transparent sheet 3 is sized to corres-pond to one screen of the writing medium. The sheets 3 are removably arranged respectively on the two planes of the parent t~
sheet 2 between said ~h rollers 4, 5. Namely, the transparent sheet 3 is made mountable/demountable on/from the parent sheet 2 using as a means therefor a mounting means 2C such as an adhesive or a magic fastener. Accordingly, the writing medium 1 in the present invention provides two screens A and B each from the parent sheet 2 and the transparent sheet 3, and these screens can be alternated with each other to be exposed ahead of the device by moving the writing medium 1 by the motor 6.

s Designated as 7 is a fluorescent lamp being a light source, 8 a beam of light, 9 a lens, 10 a readout sensor, 11 a recording device equipped with a thermal head, and 12 recording paper. Designated as 13 is a document such as one handwritten or printed onto which a picture image has been previously written.
Operation of the above device is described below.
First, upon writing a picture image such as characters, numerals, symbols, and patterns, etc., on the writing medium 1 and recording it on the recording paper 12, the transparent sheet 3 is removed from the parent sheet 2, then the picture image is written by a writing tool such as a felt pen. After the completion of the writing, the movement of the writing medium 1, i.e., the parent sheet 2 toward the lamp 7 by the rotation of the driving roller 4 by the motor 6 causes a beam of light 8 produced by the fluor-escent lamp 7 to be projected onto the readout sensor 10 through the lens 9. The readout picture image is recorded on the recording paper 12 by the recording device 11, and the recording paper 12 is then sent out from the device. Although the operation described above is the same as that of a conventional electronic prin~
~e~y board, the present invention can further provide the follow-ing remarkable functions. Namely, as shown in Figure 3, the upper side of the transparent sheet 3 is mounted on the parent sheet 2 of the writing medium 1 by the adhesive or detachable means 2c ~f~g 4) such as a magic fastener, etc., and a document 13 is held between the parent sneet 2 and the transparent sheet 3. Thereafter, as shown in Figure 2, the lower side of the transparent sheet 3, and both right and left sides thereof are mounted on the parent sheet ~V5~5 2 by the detachable means. In this case, the contents previously handwritten or printed on said document 13 can be similarly read out as in the description and recorded on the recording paper 12.
Thus, it is made possible, in case of the document 13 being a large-sized map or a musical sheet or a design drawing and the like, to simply scale down and record it.
Further, it is also possible to hold said map or musical sheet of a schedule in which only dates have been previously written, etc., between the parent sheet 2 and the transparent sheet 3, and add any symbol, musical note, scheduled item and the like thereto from the upper side of the transparent sheet 3 and further record it on the recording paper 12 as a picture image, enabling the document 13 to be repetitively employed any number of times since the document 13 has not yet been directly corrected.
Moreover, the present invention can be subjected to various modifications without any limitation to the aforementioned embodiment. For example, although in the embodiment described above, the transparent sheet 2 is made possible for a picture image to be erasably written thereon, it may be also used for merely mounting the transparent sheet 3. Namely, the same effect can be attained by using, as the parent sheet 2, only the sub-strate film 2a such as whitened polyester and the like. In that case, the transparent sheet 3 is made to be always mounted on the substrate film 2a via a removing means, and upon ordinary use thereof a picture image is erasably written on the transparent sheet 3, and upon use of a document 13 it is held between it and said substrate film 2a. Thus, a function for erasably writing a Q5~S

picture image may be provided only by the transparent sheet 3.
~igure 5 illustrates another embodiment.
Moreover, in the embodiments described above the whole of the writing medium l was made endless, but a long material may be also used. In that case, one of the two rollers 4', 5' may be made to deliver the writing medium and the other to wind it.
In addition, although the writing medium l was longitudinally moved as shown in the figure, transversal movement may be also allowed.
Still more, although the embodiments described above were constructed to read out a picture image by the readout sensor lO and to record it on the recording paper 12 by means of the recording device ll equipped with a thermal head, it may be also possible instead of the use of such a recording means to employ an electronic photography system recording means.

Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. An electronic print board comprising:
a housing;
a driving roller and a supporting roller rotatably mounted on said housing;
an opaque parent sheet trained over said driving roller and said supporting roller so as to be moved by said driving roller on said housing, said parent sheet being formed of a material which facilitates writing letters and drawing patterns on the parent sheet and erasing the letters written and the pat-terns drawn on the same;
a transparent sheet capable of being separated from said parent sheet, said transparent sheet being formed of a material capable of carrying letters and patterns and allowing easily erasing the letters and patterns, and including means for holding a removable document between said transparent sheet and said parent sheet;
a readout sensor disposed in said housing so as to receive said reduced image, said readout sensor including means capable of providing image signals representing said reduced image; and recording means connected to said readout sensor to receive image signals from said readout sensor and capable of recording an image on a recording paper.

2. An electronic print board according to claim 1, wherein said parent sheet is endless.

3. An electronic print board according to claim 1, wherein a material is held between said parent sheet and said transparent sheet.