1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device such as a copying machine, a digital multi-functional device, a printer, and the like.
2. Background Information
Image forming devices such as copying machines, digital multi-functional devices, printers, and the like are now widely used in offices. When these types of image forming devices perform tasks such as copying original documents and printing data received by facsimile, noises will be generated thereby such as the sound of the transfer drum rotating and the sound of paper being transported, printed and discharged.
Because of that, it will be difficult to hear another person's voice over the telephone or during a face-to-face conversation if, for example, these conversations occur in the vicinity of an image forming device performing these types of operations.
In response to this problem, image forming devices that, for example, are able to somewhat prevent this noise from being generated, or that have high soundproofing capabilities so that noise generated during copying and printing will not leak out of the device, have recently been developed (see, for example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. H06-194885).
However, it is difficult to completely prevent the aforementioned noise from being generated, and also difficult to completely prevent this noise from leaking out of the image forming device. In addition, the cost of the image forming device will increase if a configuration that improves the soundproofing capabilities thereof or suppresses the generation of noise therein is adopted.
In addition, sounds generated by the image forming device not only include the noise generated during printing, but also include, for example, notification sounds that inform a user that the operation keys displayed on the operation panel of the image forming device have been pressed, a notification sound that indicates receipt of facsimile by the image forming device, a notification sound that indicates that printing is completed, a notification sound that warns a user of the existence of a problem such as a lack of paper, and the like. Because these sounds are not very loud, there is almost no difficulty for a person to speak to someone over the telephone or in person while in the vicinity of the image forming device. However, there are times in which these notification sounds will be drowned out by the background noise of the office because they are not loud enough. Thus, when background noise is being generated in the office, there will be times when, for example, the user will not be able to recognize that an operation key has been pushed, will not notice that data has been received by facsimile, or will not notice that the device has run out of paper.