JPH11177787A - Image storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] To automatically erase image data stored in a personal box provided in a copying apparatus. A copying apparatus connected to a host computer via a network includes a large-capacity hard disk. Hard disk 3
04, there is a personal box area 901 having a plurality of personal boxes. In the control unit of the copying apparatus, the image data output from the external device is stored in a personal box, and a period or time until the image data is automatically erased in association with each personal box is set. Control is performed to delete the image data stored in the personal box based on the time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image storage device having storage means for storing image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a large-capacity hard disk (HD)
There is a digital copier equipped with. A digital copying machine can receive PDL (Page Description Language) data from a host computer via a network, develop it into a bitmap image from the PDL, temporarily store it on a hard disk, read out the image from the memory and print it out. is there.

Further, it has been proposed to divide the storage area of the hard disk into individuals, temporarily store the image received from the host computer in an area (personal box) designated by the host computer, and print the image from the personal box. Have been. The image stored in the personal box is printed by inputting a password for accessing his / her area from the operation unit of the copying machine. If only the owner of the personal box knows the password, the image of the owner of the personal box is not printed out from the copier without permission. Therefore, there is no concern that data other than the owner of the personal box can view the data.

[0004]

However, since the host computer can arbitrarily designate a personal box and send image data, image data from various people is stored in the personal box. Since the stored image data is present unless the user instructs the operation unit of the copier to delete the image data from the hard disk, the personal box is likely to become full,
Each time the personal box became full, the owner of the personal box instructed the operation unit of the copying machine to delete the image data from the hard disk. As described above, there has been a problem that the state in which the personal box can be used cannot be maintained unless the user always manages the personal box.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems,
The present invention has a first storage unit that has a plurality of storage areas and stores image data output from an external device in the storage area, and automatically erases the image data in association with each of the storage areas. An image storage device, comprising: setting means for setting a period or time of the image forming apparatus; and erasing means for erasing image data stored in the storage area based on the period or time set by the setting means. Is provided.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a copying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which 100 is a copying apparatus main body, and 180 is an automatic document feeder (DF).

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a platen glass serving as a document mounting table, 102 denotes a scanner, and includes a document illumination lamp 103, a scanning mirror 104, and the like. The scanner is reciprocated in a predetermined direction by a motor (not shown),
The reflected light 107 from the original on the platen glass 101 passes through the scanning mirrors 104 to 106 and the lens 108,
An image is formed on a sensor (image sensor unit) 109.

Reference numeral 120 denotes an exposure control unit constituted by a laser, a polygon scanner, or the like. The exposure control unit 120 irradiates the photosensitive drum 110 with a laser beam 129 which is converted into an electric signal by the image sensor unit 109 and modulated based on an image signal on which predetermined image processing described later has been performed.

Around the photosensitive drum 110, a primary charger 112, a developing device 121, a transfer charger 118, a cleaning device 116, and a pre-exposure lamp 114 are provided. In the image forming unit 126, the photoconductor drum 110 is rotated in a direction indicated by an arrow by a motor (not shown), and is charged to a desired potential by the primary charger 112. Light 129 is irradiated to form an electrostatic latent image. The electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 110 is developed by the developing device 121,
It is visualized as a toner image. On the other hand, the upper cassette 13
Transfer paper fed from the lower cassette 132 by the pickup rollers 133 and 134 is sent to the main body by paper feed rollers 135 and 136,
The toner image which is fed to the transfer belt 130 by the 37 and is visualized is transferred to the transfer paper by the transfer charger 118. After the transfer, the photosensitive drum 110 is cleaned of residual toner by the cleaner device 116, and the pre-exposure lamp 1
14 erases the residual charge.

The transfer paper after the transfer is separated from the transfer belt 130, the toner image is recharged by the pre-fixing chargers 139 and 140, and sent to the fixing device 141. The toner image is fixed by pressure and heat in a fixing device 141, and is discharged out of the main body 100 by a discharge roller 161.

The main body 100 is equipped with a deck 150 capable of storing, for example, 4000 transfer papers. The lifter 151 of the deck 150 rises according to the amount of transfer paper so that the transfer paper always contacts the paper feed roller 152. In addition, a multi-bypass tray 15 capable of storing 100 sheets of transfer paper
3 are equipped.

Further, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 154 denotes a paper discharge flapper, which switches between a double-side recording side or a multiple recording side and a paper discharge side. The transfer paper fed from the paper discharge roller 142 is switched by the paper discharge flapper 154 to either the paper discharge side or the double-sided recording / multiple recording side. Also,
The lower transport path 158 guides the transfer paper sent from the paper discharge roller 142 to the paper discharge tray 156. 159 is route 16
0 is a paper feed roller for feeding the transfer paper to the photosensitive drum 126 side. A discharge roller 161 is disposed near the paper discharge flapper 154 and discharges the transfer paper switched to the discharge side by the paper discharge flapper 154 to the outside of the main body 100. At the time of double-sided recording (double-sided copying), the discharge flapper 154 is raised upward, and the copied transfer paper is turned upside down via the transport paths 155 and 158 and the re-feed tray 1 is turned over.
56.

When the transfer sheet is inverted and discharged from the main body, the discharge flapper 154 is raised upward, and the multiple flapper 1
57 to the right and transport the copied transfer paper to transport path 15
5 and the rear end of the transfer paper is
Is transferred to the second feed roller 162 a side by the reversing roller 163, and the transfer paper is turned over and discharged out of the main body 100 by the discharge roller 161. Further, the paper discharge processing device 190 aligns and staples the transfer paper discharged from the copier 100 on the processing tray 193. Then, the stapled transfer paper is transferred to the discharge tray 19.
1, 192. Output tray 1
The motors 91 and 192 are moved up and down by a motor (not shown).

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the copying apparatus 100. The CPU 171 that performs basic control of the copying apparatus 100 includes a ROM 174 in which a control program is written, a work RAM 175 for performing processing, and an input / output port (I
/ O) 173, the operation unit 172 of the copier, and the like. The input / output port 173 is connected to various loads (not shown) such as a motor and a clutch for controlling the copying apparatus 100, and a sensor (not shown) for detecting the position of paper.
The CPU 171 is connected to the image processing unit 1 that processes the signal converted into the electric signal by the image sensor unit 109 and the image memory unit 3 that stores the processed image data. Further, the external I / F processing unit 4 develops the PDL output from the external host computer 1000 into a bitmap image, and outputs it to the image memory unit 3 as image data. Further, the CPU 171 has a clock function for recognizing the current time based on a signal output from the clock signal generator 176.

The printer unit 2 includes a smoothing unit 506 and an exposure control unit 120 such as a laser as described with reference to the sectional view of FIG.
In step 06, the data is interpolated so that the line ends of the binarized image are smoothed, and image data is output to the exposure control unit 120. The exposure control unit 120 converts the image on the transfer paper based on the input image signal. Record.

Next, the details of the image processing section 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The original image formed on the CCD sensor 109 via the lens 108 is converted by the CCD sensor 109 into an analog electric signal. The converted image information is A / D
After being input to the converter 501 and subjected to sample & hold, dark level correction, etc., it is subjected to analog / digital conversion (A / D conversion). The digitized signal is subjected to shooting correction (correction of variations in a sensor for reading a document and light distribution characteristics of a document illumination lamp).

The log conversion unit 502 stores an LUT (look-up table) for converting input luminance data into density data, and outputs a table value corresponding to the input data. The luminance data is converted into density data. After that, the image data scaled to the desired magnification by the scaling unit 503 is input to the γ correction unit 504. When outputting the density data, the γ correction unit 504 performs conversion using an LUT in consideration of the characteristics of the printer unit 2 and adjusts the output according to the density value set by the operation unit 172.

Thereafter, the density data is sent to the binarizing unit 505. In the binarization unit 505, the multi-value density data is “0”
Alternatively, it is converted to "255", and the 8-bit density data is further converted to 1-bit binary data of "0" or "1". This reduces the amount of image data stored in the memory.

The binarized image data is sent to the image memory unit 3. Also, the PDL output from the host computer 1000 input from the external I / F processing unit 4
Is processed as binary image data by the external I / F processing unit 4 and is thus output to the image memory unit 3 as it is.

The image data output from the image memory unit 3 is sent to a smoothing unit 506 in the printer unit 2. The smoothing unit 506 interpolates the data so that the line ends of the binarized image are smooth, and the exposure control unit 1
20 to output image data. The exposure control unit 120 records an image on a transfer sheet according to the input image signal.

Next, the details of the image memory unit 3 will be described with reference to FIG. The image memory unit 3 is a page memory unit 3
01, a memory controller 302, a compression unit 303,
The hard disk (HD) 304 has a large capacity. In the image memory unit 3, the external I / F processing unit 4 or the image processing unit 1 is stored in the page memory unit 301 via the memory controller unit 302 according to the instruction of the CPU 171.
For example, writing of a binarized image from the printer unit 2, reading of an image to the printer unit 2, access to the hard disk 304 for image input / output, and the like are performed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the operation unit 172 of the copying apparatus. A power lamp 621 indicates whether or not the power of the copying apparatus is turned on. When the power switch 613 is pressed to turn on the power, the power lamp 621 is turned on. A numeric keypad 622 is used to set the number of images to be formed and to input numerical values for mode setting. On the facsimile setting screen, it is used to input a telephone number. The clear key 623 is used to invalidate the settings entered with the ten keys 622. The reset key 616 is used to return the set image forming number, operation mode, selected paper feed stage, and other modes to default values.

A start key 614 is a key that is pressed to start image formation. In the center of the start key 614, red and green LEs indicating whether image formation can be started are displayed.
D (not shown), and if image formation cannot be started,
The red LED is turned on, and when image formation can be started, the green LED is turned on. To stop the copying operation, a stop key 615 is used. The guide key 617 is a key that is pressed when a certain key function is unknown, and displays a description of the key whose function is unknown on the display panel 620. A user setting key 618 is used to change the setting of the copying apparatus. The interrupt key 619 is a key pressed when the user wants to perform another operation during the image forming operation.

The display panel 620 is composed of a liquid crystal or the like, and the display content changes according to the setting mode to facilitate detailed mode setting. The surface of the display panel 620 is a touch sensor, and the function is executed by touching the inside of the frame of the function displayed in the panel. The paper selection key 627 is a key used to select a copy paper. Keys 628 to 630 are used to set the copy magnification.

The two-sided operation setting key 624 is, for example, a "one-sided mode" for outputting two single-sided originals as a two-sided original, a "two-sided mode" for outputting a two-sided original as a two-sided original, and a two-sided original for two single-sided originals. Are used to make settings such as "two-sided mode" output by. The sort key 625 is a key used to set the operation mode of the sheet discharge processing device 190 and set the output paper sorting mode.

Keys that cannot be used among the keys displayed on the display panel 620 are indicated by dotted lines (shaded) to indicate that the keys cannot be operated. In the upper part of the display panel 620, the contents of the set copy operation and the current operation state are displayed. The operation states of the other function modes are displayed below the display panel 620 within a range that can be displayed in one line.

An application mode key 626 is a key used to set an application function mode such as a multiplex operation, a reduced layout mode, and a cover / interleaf mode.
By pressing 26, a screen for setting each applied function mode as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display panel 620, for example. The user sets the application function mode on this screen. A personal box key 634 according to the present invention, which will be described later, is a button to be pressed when printing out image data stored in the hard disk 304 in the image memory unit 3.

A personal box according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The hard disk 304 in the image memory unit 3 includes a temporary area 900 and a personal box area 901. The temporary area 900 is an area for temporarily storing image data in order to perform electronic sorting, and the image data is deleted after the job is completed.

The personal box area 901 is an area for storing image data in which a PDL image from the host computer 1000 is expanded, in the personal box in the personal box area 901 corresponding to the personal box number received from the host computer 1000. .

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, in the case of a 1 GB hard disk, 300 MB is allocated to the temporary area 90.
0 and 700 MB are used in the personal box area 901 separately. When the number of personal boxes is 10, the area of each personal box is 70 MB. Each personal box has a number. For example, boxes 902, 903, and 904 have personal box numbers 0, 1, and 2, respectively. Also,
A personal box in which image data to be printed is stored is designated from the personal box area 901 by the operation unit 172, and stored in the personal box area 901 in response to input of a password corresponding to the designated personal box. The read image data is read and printed.

FIG. 8 shows a basic screen 901a of the personal box of the operation unit. Reference numeral 901a denotes an operation unit 17 of the copying apparatus
2 is a main screen of the personal box displayed on the screen 2 when the personal box key 634 of the operation unit 172 is pressed. The screen 901a is a screen that indicates that the image data input from the host computer 1000 is stored in each personal box. Each personal box is assigned a personal box number.

For example, in the case of personal box number 1, the name is "Tanaka's box", which indicates that Mr. Tanaka is registered as a personal box to be used. Then, only Tanaka himself who knows the password associated with the personal box can print the image data stored in the personal box.

The percentage displayed at the right end of the column of each personal box indicates the ratio used by the personal box with respect to the hard disk capacity of the entire personal box area. For example, if the hard disk capacity of the personal box area 901 is 700 MB, 2% of the personal box with the personal box number 1 uses about 14 MB.

Buttons 902a, 903a, and 904a are used to enter a mode for displaying the job contents stored in the personal boxes of personal box numbers 0, 1, and 2. Reference numerals 906 and 907 denote up and down scroll keys. By pressing these keys, the screen can be scrolled, and the name and used capacity of the personal box not displayed on the screen can be viewed. Reference numeral 909 denotes a fax status key. By pressing this key, the status of fax transmission / reception can be confirmed.

The validity period of each personal box is set by the user. Then, based on the set validity period and the time at which the image data was stored in the personal box, the time at which the image data is erased is calculated. Each of the stored image data is automatically deleted from the hard disk 304 based on the calculated deletion time.

The erasing time is calculated by the CPU 171. The unit of the validity period to be set can be selected from year, month, day, time, etc.

For example, assuming that the validity period set for the personal box owned by Mr. Tanaka having personal box number 1 is 10 days, data is stored in the image stored in the personal box owned by Mr. Tanaka. Automatically deleted 10 days after the time.

The time at which the stored image data is erased may be calculated based on the time at which the stored image data was printed and the validity period. In this case, assuming that the validity period is 10 days, the image data is automatically deleted 10 days after the time when the image data was printed.

As described above, the image data stored in the personal box is automatically deleted from the hard disk 304 based on the validity period set in the personal box. Therefore, even if the user does not instruct the operation unit to delete the image data stored in the operation unit every time the personal box becomes full, the personal box becomes full. Can be used.

Next, a method of setting a valid period in the personal box will be described with reference to FIGS. 9, 10 and 11.

FIG. 9 is a basic screen 1100 of a personal box validity period setting screen. This screen displays a personal box validity period setting item on a screen (not shown) displayed by pressing a user setting key 618. This is a screen displayed by selecting.

In FIG. 9, reference numerals 1101, 1102, 11
03 is a personal box selection key. For example, as shown in FIG.
The personal box corresponding to 2, 1103 indicates that it is a personal box already used by an individual.

Reference numerals 1106 and 1107 denote up and down scroll keys, which are keys for scrolling the screen when displaying a large number of job contents that cannot be displayed on one screen.
To close the screen, a close key 1109 is pressed. A delete key 1105 is a button used when deleting a personal box that has already been registered. When deleting a personal box used by an individual, an input of a password corresponding to the personal box is required.
When the correct password is input, the image data stored in the personal box is deleted from the hard disk 304 and displayed on the screen as an unregistered personal box.

When setting the validity period in the personal box, first, the personal box selection keys 1101 to 1
A personal box for which the validity period is to be set is selected from the list 103, and an OK button 1108 is pressed. And OK
By pressing a button 1108, the screen shifts to a password input screen 910 in FIG.

On the password input screen 910 of FIG. 10, a password corresponding to the personal box selected on the screen of FIG. 9 is input. The password to be entered corresponds to each personal box. Therefore, if only the owner of the personal box knows, there is no fear that the validity period is set by a person other than the owner of the personal box.

The password can be entered using the numeric keypad 622 of the operation unit.
Do with. In 911, the input digit is indicated by an asterisk (*) and the unentered digit is indicated by a. A cancel key 913 is pressed to cancel the input of the password and return to the basic screen for setting the validity period of the personal box in FIG. An OK key 912 is pressed to start collation of the entered password. Upon completion of the comparison, the screen shifts to the validity period setting screen of FIG.

FIG. 11 shows a screen 1300 for setting the valid period of the selected personal box. Here, the valid period is set for the personal box selected on the screen of FIG. In the present embodiment, the unit of the validity period to be input is the number of days. However, the other unit may be year, month, or time. The validity period is set in the selected personal box by pressing the OK key 1302 after inputting the validity period with the ten keys 622 of the operation unit.

For example, if the validity period is set to 10 days, the image data in the personal box will be stored in the hard disk 304 after 10 days from the date of storage.
Automatically deleted from. Therefore, the personal box does not become full without the user instructing to delete the stored image data.

In this embodiment, the time at which the image data is stored in the personal box and the time at which the image data is deleted are stored in association with the image data. The erasing time is calculated based on the validity period set in the personal box and the time when the image data is stored.

It should be noted that one hour from the time when the image data is printed
In the case of automatic deletion after 0 days, the time when the image data is printed and the time when the image data is deleted are stored in association with the image data. The erasing time is calculated based on the validity period set in the personal box and the time when the image data is printed.

FIG. 12 is a screen for displaying information stored in the personal box designated on the screen 901a (the stored date, time, document name, and whether or not printing has been completed). A screen 930 displays information stored in the personal box. On this screen, a password corresponding to the personal box selected on the basic screen 910a is displayed on the personal box.
It is displayed by inputting with.

For example, Mr. Tanaka, the owner of the personal box number 1, inputs a password known only to him / herself, and can collate the password to view the screen 930. The password matching process is executed by the CPU 171 of the copying machine. Reference numerals 923 and 924 indicate information stored by designating the personal box number from the host computer 1000. Here, it is assumed that the validity period of the personal box is set to 10 days.

At 923, at 11:30 on March 8,
The document “A plan” is transferred to the host computer 100
0 indicates that the data is stored in the personal box. In this embodiment, the time at which this document is erased is determined by the CPU 171 based on the time at which the document was stored and the validity period.
And is stored in association with this document.

In 923, the time when the document "Plan A" is stored is 11:30 on March 8, and the validity period of this personal box is 10 days. It will be 11:30 on March 18.
The time is not limited and may be deleted at any time on March 18.

In addition, "7 days until erasure" in 923 means that the validity period of this personal box is 10 days. Therefore, three days have passed since this document was stored, and after seven days, this document is automatically deleted. Which indicates that. This allows the user to recognize how many days later the image data stored in his / her personal box will be deleted. Here, “printed” at the right end indicates that the document has been printed at least once since it was stored in the personal box.

At 924, at 21:14 on March 11, a document called “B meeting material” is stored in the host computer 1.
000 indicates that the data is stored in this box.
Here, the rightmost “unprinted” indicates that the document has not been printed since this document was stored in the personal box.

By touching this line 924, the line 924 of this job is inverted as shown in the figure. A detail key 916 is a key for displaying details of the job of the reversed line. This is a key for displaying information such as "copy three copies on both sides of A4 paper" set in the host computer 1000 in detail. Further, it is possible to change job information such as changing the number of print copies from three to five on the displayed screen.

Reference numeral 917 denotes a print key. Pressing this button starts printing of the print data of the job on the reversed line in accordance with the content of the print job setting. A delete key 918 is pressed when the user instructs the hard disk 304 to delete the image data corresponding to the reversed line. Up and down scroll keys 919 and 920 are used to scroll the screen when displaying a large number of job contents that cannot be displayed on one screen. 922 can check the status of fax transmission and reception. A close key 921 is pressed to return to the personal box screen 901a of FIG.

Next, FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are flowcharts showing processing performed on a personal box for which a valid period is set.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a process when image data is stored in a personal box for which a valid period is set.

First, image data is stored in a personal box designated by the host computer 1000 (step S1). At this time, the current time is recognized (step S2). The valid period set in the personal box is read (step S3). The time at which the image data is erased is calculated based on the read validity period and the recognized current time (step S4). The calculated time is stored in association with the image data (step S5).

These processes are executed by the CPU 171 of the copying machine, and are executed each time image data is stored in the personal box. Therefore, even when the image data in the personal box has the same validity period, the erasing time is different based on the stored time.
The validity period is set for each personal box.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a process performed for each personal box for which a valid period is set at regular intervals.

First, the current time is checked (step S1).
1). Next, it is determined whether or not the current time has passed the time when the image data is to be deleted (step S12). If the current time has not passed the time to erase the image data, the process ends.

If the current time has passed the time to be erased, the corresponding image data is erased (step S13). These processes are executed by the CPU 171 of the copying apparatus.
This is performed for all the image data stored in the personal box.

[0066]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The image data output from the external device is stored in the storage area, and the period or time until the image data is automatically erased is set in association with the storage area, and stored in the storage area based on the set period or time. By erasing the image data stored in the storage area, the image data can be stored for a period or time set in the storage area even if the user does not instruct the operation unit to delete the image data from the storage area every time the storage area becomes full. Automatically deleted based on As a result, it is possible to maintain a state in which the personal box can be used even if the user does not always manage the personal box.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a copying apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a copying apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of an image processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of an image memory unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation unit of the copying apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a screen of an operation unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a personal box.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a screen of an operation unit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a screen of an operation unit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a password input screen.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a screen for setting a validity period.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a screen of an operation unit.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of processing of image data.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of processing of image data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image processing part 2 Printer part 3 Image memory part 304 Hard disk 171 CPU 172 Operation part 1000 Host computer

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued from the front page (72) Inventor Yoshito Nagatoshi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc.

Claims (11)

[Claims] A first storage unit that has a plurality of storage areas and stores image data output from an external device in the storage area; and automatically erases the image data in association with each of the storage areas. Image storing means for setting a period or time until the image storing means, and an erasing means for erasing image data stored in the storage area based on the period or time set by the setting means. apparatus. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the erasing unit erases the image data in response to a lapse of a period or time set by the setting unit after the image data is stored in the storage area. Item 2. The image storage device according to Item 1. 3. An image forming unit for forming an image on a sheet based on image data stored in the first storage unit, wherein the erasing unit forms an image of the image data by the image forming unit. 2. The image storage device according to claim 1, wherein the image data is erased in accordance with a lapse of a period or time set by the setting unit. 4. A clock means for recognizing a current time, and a time for erasing image data stored in the storage area is calculated based on a period or time set by the setting means and a time recognized by the clock means. And an erasing time calculated by the calculating means in association with the image data. The erasing means stores the current time recognized by the clock means in the second memory. 2. The image storage device according to claim 1, wherein the image data associated with the deletion time is deleted from the storage area when the deletion time stored by the means has passed. 5. The image storage device according to claim 4, further comprising: an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet based on the image data stored in the first storage unit. 6. The clock means recognizes the time at which the image data was stored in the storage area, and the calculating means determines the time at which the image data was stored in the storage area recognized by the clock means and the setting means. 5. The image storage device according to claim 4, wherein a time at which the image data is deleted is calculated based on a set period or time. 7. The clock means recognizes the time at which the image data is formed by the image forming means, and the calculating means sets the time at which the image data recognized by the clock means is formed and the setting means. 6. The image storage device according to claim 5, wherein a time at which the image data is erased is calculated based on a period or time. 8. The image storage device according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying a time at which the image data stored in the storage area is deleted. 9. A step of storing image data output from an external device in a storage area, and a step of setting a period or a time until the image data is automatically erased in association with the storage area. Erasing the image data stored in the storage area based on a period or time. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of erasing the image data comprises erasing the image data when a set period or time has elapsed since the image data was stored in the storage area. Item 10. The image data processing method according to Item 9. 11. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of forming an image on a sheet based on the image data, wherein the step of erasing the image data is performed when a set period or time has elapsed since the image data was formed. 10. The image data processing method according to claim 9, wherein the image data is deleted according to the following.