JP2001096842A - Image formation unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation unit which can prevents wrong printings while being made up in a simple structure. SOLUTION: An image formation unit stores a printing prohibition time period (a time period set by a user for prohibiting printings) in a memory and judges S14, when a printing instruction for inputted images is made S11, whether the time of instruction is within the printing prohibition time period or not, and prohibits S16 the printing if the instruction is made within the prohibition time period, and makes spooling for an image information to be printed. However, if a setting is made S15 for output of black-and-white printing, the printing is allowed S19 even though the printing instruction is made within the prohibition time period. The printing is also allowed S 19 when the printing instruction is made outside the prohibition time period.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image creating apparatus for creating an image based on input image information and printing out the image, and in particular, to specify a situation at the time of image creation to prevent unauthorized printing. The present invention relates to an image creating apparatus that creates an output image by incorporating information into an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Along with recent advances in digital signal processing technology, printing apparatuses and copiers for printing and outputting high-quality images have been developed. Copiers and the like from which such high-quality images can be obtained are sometimes illegally used for counterfeiting banknotes, securities, and the like.

Conventionally, various techniques have been devised to prevent such unauthorized use. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication
Japanese Patent No. 866052 stores image features of a printed material whose printing is prohibited in order to prevent unauthorized printing,
A technique is disclosed in which printing is not performed normally when the characteristics of a printed material for which printing is instructed are the same as the characteristics of a printed material for which printing is prohibited.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, there is a need for a means for storing the characteristics of an image of a printed material for which printing of banknotes or the like is desired to be prohibited, and a means for detecting the characteristics of the image of the printed material. It gets complicated. Further, it is practically difficult to memorize all the characteristics of banknotes and other securities in various countries in the world.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of preventing unauthorized printing with an easy configuration without adding any special means. It is in.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems When illegal printing is performed using a color copying machine or a color printer installed in a company or a school, it is considered that the printing is often performed during the less popular night or holiday. . Therefore, the present invention focuses on this point, and suppresses the use of a color copying machine or a color printer for unauthorized printing by prohibiting printing at night or on holidays.

An image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an image input unit for inputting image information; a printing unit for printing the input image information; a setting unit for setting a time zone during which printing is prohibited; A print prohibition unit that prohibits printing during the time period, and a storage unit that stores the image information when there is an instruction to print the image information during the prohibition time period. The image information stored in the storage means is printed automatically or manually by the printing means outside the prohibited time.

[0008] The image creating apparatus may further include means for writing specific information including date and time information when the image data was received into the image information.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: an image input unit for inputting image information; a printing unit for printing the input image information; a setting unit for setting a date and time when printing is prohibited; During the prohibition time set by the means, there is provided a print prohibition means for prohibiting printing by the printing means except when black and white printing is set.

[0010] In the above image forming apparatus, the image input means may input image information via a network.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a digital color copying machine as an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The digital color copying machine of this embodiment has a printing function for printing out data received via a network, in addition to a general copying function for printing out read image data. This digital color copying machine can set a print prohibition time zone in which printing is not performed even when a print instruction is issued by a user.
Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the digital color copying machine will be described.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the overall configuration of a digital color copying machine according to the present invention. The digital color copying machine is roughly divided into an image reader unit 100 for reading a document image and a copying unit 200 for reproducing an image read by the image reader unit 100.

The configuration of the image reader unit 100 is the same as the conventional one. Here, the scanner 10 includes an exposure lamp 12 for irradiating a document, a rod lens array 13 for condensing light reflected from the document, and a contact-type CCD color image sensor 14 for converting the collected light into an electric signal. ing.
The scanner 10 is driven by a motor 11 at the time of reading a document and moves in the direction of the arrow (sub-scanning direction).
5 scans the original placed thereon. The image of the document surface irradiated by the exposure lamp 12 is photoelectrically converted by the image sensor 14. R, G, obtained by the image sensor 14,
The multi-valued electrical signals of the three colors B are read by the read signal processing unit 20 into yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C),
The data is converted to any of 8-bit grayscale data of black (K) and stored in the synchronization buffer (FIFO) 30.

Next, in the copying section 200, the print head section 31 performs gradation correction (γ correction) on the inputted gradation data in accordance with the gradation characteristics of the photosensitive member,
D / A conversion is performed on the corrected image data to generate a semiconductor laser drive signal, and the semiconductor laser is caused to emit light by the drive signal. The laser beam generated from the print head unit 31 by modulating the light emission intensity in accordance with the gradation data exposes the rotatably driven photosensitive drum 41 via the reflecting mirror 39.

The photosensitive drum 41 is irradiated by an eraser lamp 42 before being exposed for each copy, and is uniformly charged by a charging charger 43. When exposure is performed in this state, an electrostatic latent image of the document is formed on the photosensitive drum 41. Only one of the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toner developing units 45a to 45d is selected to develop the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 41.

The developed toner image is transferred to a transfer charger 4
6 is transferred to the copy paper wound on the transfer drum 51. This printing process is repeated for four colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K). At this time, the scanner 10 repeats the scanning operation in synchronization with the operations of the photosensitive drum 41 and the transfer drum 51.

Thereafter, the copy paper is separated from the transfer drum 51 by operating the separation claw 47, is fixed through a fixing device 48, and is discharged to a discharge tray 49.
The copy paper is fed by the paper cassette 50 and the leading end thereof is chucked by the chucking mechanism 52 on the transfer drum 51, so that no positional deviation occurs during transfer.

The digital color copying machine has an operation panel 16 on which a user makes various settings as shown in FIG.
It has. The operation panel 16 has a display panel section 16a for displaying a setting status, an operation state, and the like, and a plurality of keys such as a start key 16c for starting a copying operation. On this operation panel 16, the user sets the number of prints and the paper size when using the copy function, and also sets the output mode for determining whether to perform print output in black and white or in color. In addition, setting of a prohibited time zone, which is a time zone in which printing is prohibited, is also performed on the operation panel 16.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the print head unit 31. The print head unit 31 includes a printer control unit 31a that controls each unit of the print head unit 31.
A control ROM 32 for storing a program executed by the printer control unit 31a to implement a predetermined function;
Data ROM 3 for storing predetermined data required for control
3, a timer unit 34 for giving date and time information, and a tracking information ROM for storing information for creating a tracking pattern
35, a received image data storage unit 38 for spooling a received image, and a prohibition time information storage unit 39 for storing information on a time period during which printing is prohibited.

The print head unit 31 also has a network interface 36, and connects to an external network 100 via the network interface 36. The print head unit 31 is further connected to the operation panel 16 via the parallel I / O 37. Further, the printer control unit 31a includes a print processing unit 60 that performs predetermined processing such as γ correction on the received image and controls the operation of a laser diode for printing the image. That is, the print processing unit 60
Performs control for printing out received image data or read image data on predetermined paper based on control from the printer control unit 31a.

In the digital color copying machine configured as described above, the printer control unit 31a receives image data from the terminals 300a, 300b, 300c,. Upon receiving the image data, the printer control unit performs predetermined processing such as γ correction on the received image data, and then prints out the image. At this time, after the tracking pattern is inserted into the received image, it is printed out. When the digital color copier receives image data from the terminals 300a through the network 300,
The image data to be printed and various control information for controlling the printing are combined and received as a print job. The control information includes information for designating a print time and information for setting a color for printing and outputting, that is, an output mode of color printing or monochrome printing.

(Setting of printing prohibition time) In the digital color copying machine, prohibition time information indicating a time zone in which printing is prohibited is set. In the time zone indicated by the prohibition time information, printing is not performed even if there is a print request from the user. The prohibition time information is set by the user via the operation panel 16. In the prohibition time information, for example, a print prohibition start time and a print prohibition end time are specified, or a prohibition start time and a prohibition time width are specified. The prohibition time information is stored in the prohibition time information storage unit 39.

(Print Inhibition Judgment Processing) FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the print inhibition judgment processing in the digital color copying machine. This process is controlled by the printer control unit 31a of the print head unit 31 as follows. Hereinafter, the printing function of the digital copying machine will be mainly described.

Waiting for an image print instruction (S11), when there is a print instruction, the current time including date information is acquired from the timer section 34 (S12). here,
The print instruction is issued when the user designates the network 3
When the print request is transmitted via 00, it indicates that the print request has been received. At this time, when a print time different from the reception time is specified in the print request (print job), it is assumed that there is a print instruction at the specified time. If the print time is specified in the print job transmitted from the user, the determination is made based on the time. That is, the control unit 31a determines that the print instruction has been issued when the current time has reached the print time specified in the print job.

Next, prohibition time information is obtained from the prohibition time information storage unit 39 (S13). Refer to the prohibited time information,
It is determined whether the current time is within the print prohibition time zone (S14). If the current time is within the prohibition time, it is determined whether the output mode set in the print job at the time of the print request by the user is set to monochrome print output (S15). If the setting is not for black-and-white print output, a “print non-permission signal” is output to the print processing unit 60 (S
16). When receiving the print non-permission signal, the print processing unit 60 does not perform the print processing. Thereafter, the print data is spooled in the received image data storage unit 38 (S1).
7) Further, a message indicating that printing is not permitted is transmitted to the sender of the print job (S18).

On the other hand, if the current time is outside the prohibited time in step S14, or if the mode is set to monochrome print output in step S15, a "print permit signal" is output to the print processing unit 60 (S1).
9). At the same time, the printer control unit 31a creates a tracking pattern from the printer serial number, model data, print instruction time, and the like stored in the tracking information storage ROM 35,
Output to the print processing unit 60. When the print processing unit 60 receives the print permission signal, the print processing unit 60 prints out the image. At this time, the tracking pattern is hardly visible or invisible in the image. The tracking pattern information may include the IP address of the printer or the transmitting terminal of the image data.

By the way, when black-and-white print output is set, even if it is within the prohibition time, printing can be performed only when a document in which illegal copying is a problem is generally in color, and is output in black and white. In this case, the difference between the document and the output image can be easily determined.

(Printing Process of Data Spooled During Prohibited Time Zone) The print data spooled in the received image data storage section 38 is automatically read out and printed when the prohibition time is exceeded. You. FIG. 5 shows the received image data storage unit 38.
5 is a flowchart of spool data processing. This process is periodically executed.

In FIG. 5, the current time including the date is obtained from the timer section 34 (S31). Prohibition time information storage unit 3
9 is obtained (S32). Referring to the prohibition time information, it is determined whether or not the current time is outside the print prohibition time (S33). If the time is outside the prohibition time, a print permission signal for the image spooled in the received image data storage unit 38 is output to the print processing unit 60 (34).
At this time, an image obtained by adding a tracking mark to the image spooled in the received image data storage unit 38 is transmitted to the print processing unit 60.

The data spooled during the prohibition period is not automatically printed after the prohibition period elapses as described above, but is manually operated by an administrator having a predetermined authority. Thus, the printout may be performed.

In the description of the present embodiment, the setting of the print prohibition time zone for the printing function of the digital copying machine has been described. However, the printing prohibition time zone can be similarly set for the copy function. In this case, the start operation of the copying function (pressing of the start key) by the user on the operation panel 16 is used as a print instruction, and the image data of the original read by the image reader unit 100 is shown as data received via the network 300. The same control as the above control shown in FIG. At this time, whether to perform color printing or black and white printing is determined based on the mode setting on the operation panel 16.

[0033]

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize an image forming apparatus capable of setting a prohibition time zone for prohibiting image output with a simple configuration. With this image creating apparatus, it is possible to prevent the use of an unauthorized image creating apparatus in an unpopular time zone such as at night or on holidays.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an entire configuration of a digital color copying machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation panel of the digital color copying machine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a print head unit of the digital color copying machine.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating print prohibition determination processing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing spool data printing processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Scanner 16 Operation panel 20 Read signal processing part 31 Print head part 31a Printer control part 38 Received image data storage part 39 Prohibited time information storage part 100 Image reader part 200 Copy part 300 Network

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 1/40 H04N 1/40 Z F-term (Reference) 2C061 AP01 AP04 AQ06 AR01 AS02 BB00 CL10 2H027 EJ01 2H030 AA00 AD16 5C062 AA05 AA35 AB22 AB42 AB46 AC24 AE03 AF06 BA00 5C077 LL14 MP08 PP23 PP78 PQ08 PQ22 TT02

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image input unit for inputting image information, a printing unit for printing the input image information, a setting unit for setting a time period during which printing is prohibited, and printing prohibited during the set prohibited time period Print prohibition means, and when instructed to print image information during the prohibition period,
A storage unit for storing the image information, wherein the image information stored in the storage unit is automatically or manually printed by the printing unit outside a prohibition time period. . 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for writing specific information including date and time information at which the image data was received into said image information. 3. An image input unit for inputting image information, a printing unit for printing the input image information, a setting unit for setting a date and time when printing is prohibited, And a print prohibiting unit for prohibiting printing by the printing unit except when printing in black and white is set. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image input means inputs image information via a network.