JP2005135315A - Image forming apparatus and information terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To more easily select a stored document to be printed by employing the display section of an information terminal to display easily understandable information for a user; and to allow print instructions in accordance with the state of the user. <P>SOLUTION: A signal requesting document information including terminal proper identification information is transmitted from a PDA 20 to an image forming apparatus 10 (Step S501). The signal-received image forming apparatus 10 acquires the PDA proper identification information sent together with the signal requesting the document information from the PDA 20, specifies the user based on the proper identification information, and retrieves a stored documents information table 500 (Step S511); and transmits information on the document associated with the user out of the stored documents to the PDA 20 (Step S512). The information-received PDA 20 displays the received information on the LCD 202 of the PDA 20 (Step S502). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an information terminal apparatus having a document storage function, such as a facsimile machine or a multifunction machine having both a printer function and a copying function, and more particularly to printing of a stored document using an information terminal apparatus.

Conventionally, image data captured by a digital camera or a document created by a portable terminal device is generally sent to a printing apparatus through a communication unit and is output. For example, the image forming apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is connected to a mobile terminal, and even if the data format in the mobile terminal differs depending on the manufacturer or contract company, the image forming apparatus side determines and matches the data format. Thus, print output can be performed. On the other hand, the printing device side also has a large display unit in the user interface due to demands for product cost reduction in MFPs (multifunction peripherals) that have functions such as low-cost printing devices and copiers, facsimiles, and printing devices. It is difficult to display only numbers, alphabets, and kana on the display section. Recently, even in such an image forming apparatus, data is stored inside (referred to as an accumulated document), and the user later in front of the image forming apparatus. Many have a function that allows them to go to and give print instructions.
JP 2002-169665 A

However, when an accumulated document in the image forming apparatus is printed later, the user interface of the image forming apparatus is generally poor, so that a print instruction is often made based on information that is difficult for the user to understand such as a document number. In addition, there are passwords that can be stored on stored documents to prevent others from printing, but in this case too, there are many security problems such as passwords consisting of numbers only.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and uses the display unit of the information terminal device to show easy-to-understand information to the user, and more easily select a stored document to be printed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus and an information terminal device capable of issuing a print instruction according to a user's situation.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the invention described in claim 1 relates to a communication means for exchanging data with an information terminal device in an image forming apparatus having a document storage function, and a user of the information terminal device. Based on the identification information unique to the information terminal device that communicates using the communication means and the user information storage means that holds information, the user of the information terminal device is referred to by referring to the user information storage means User specifying means for specifying, document information transmitting means for transmitting the stored document information to the information terminal apparatus in response to the document information request of the specified user from the information terminal apparatus, and the information terminal And a print control means for printing the designated document in response to the print document designation from the apparatus.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the document information transmitting unit transmits only the stored document information related to the specified user to the information terminal device. Features.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the document information transmitting unit transmits the stored document information to the information terminal apparatus as document information including a reduced image. Features.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus having a document storage function, communication means for exchanging data with an information terminal device, and user information for holding information about a user of the information terminal device Storage means and user identification means for identifying a user of the information terminal device with reference to the user information storage means based on identification information unique to the information terminal device that is communicating using the communication means; And an apparatus information transmitting means for transmitting information on the image forming apparatus usable by the specified user to the information terminal apparatus.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the apparatus information transmitting unit transmits print setting information of a user in the usable image forming apparatus.
The invention according to claim 6 is the image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the communication means is wireless communication.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information terminal device having a communication means for exchanging data with the image forming apparatus, and a display unit for displaying transmitted or received data. Communication control means for transmitting information, apparatus information request means for requesting information on usable image forming apparatuses, and display control means for displaying information on image forming apparatuses obtained by the means on the display section. It is characterized by that.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information terminal device having a communication means for exchanging data with the image forming apparatus, and a display unit for displaying transmitted or received data. Communication control means for transmitting information, document information requesting means for requesting information relating to printable stored documents, selection means for selecting a desired document from the document information obtained by the means, and print output of the selected document And a print request means for requesting.
The invention according to claim 9 is the information terminal device according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the communication means is wireless communication.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the image forming apparatus has communication means (whether wired or wireless), is connected to the PDA, sends the stored document information to the PDA, and print candidates are displayed on the display unit of the PDA. By displaying, the user can select and print the stored document to be printed appropriately and easily without increasing the cost of the image forming apparatus.

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an operating environment of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The user establishes a connection by the communication means 30 between the image forming apparatus 10 having the stored document and the information terminal apparatus 20 (hereinafter abbreviated as PDA: Personal Data Assistants). Then, for example, a list of stored documents is sent from the image forming apparatus 10 to the PDA 20 held by the user. As the communication means 30, for example, a wired LAN such as IEEE802.3, a wireless LAN such as IEEE802.11, a wired interface such as USB, or a wireless interface such as IrDA / Bluetooth is used. It is possible to connect using.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 10 of the present invention includes a host computer (not shown) that performs a print request, a host I / F 101 for connecting the PDA 20 to the image forming apparatus 10 using the communication unit 30, and the image forming apparatus 10. An operation panel 102 for performing various setting operations, a print engine 107 having an image forming device and a paper supply / discharge mechanism, and a storage device for storing print jobs, image forming results, various programs, data, and the like HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 103 is provided. The HDD 103 stores document data read from the host I / F 101 as a stored document together with bibliographic information (name of creator, date of creation, date of accumulation, etc.).
Further, the image forming apparatus 10 according to the present invention includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 100, a ROM storing a control program for controlling the operation of the image forming apparatus 10, a printer language processing program (emulation program), and the like, and each program being executed. A memory 104 composed of a RAM used for generating a work area and an image used therein, various setting values of the image forming apparatus 10, identification information of an information terminal used with the user of the image forming apparatus 10, and further use A nonvolatile memory NVRAM 105 that stores information such as parameters set by the user at the time of printout in the form of a user information table, and a timer 106 that updates the current time and measures the time. These constitute the main part of a control unit (controller) for controlling the entire image forming apparatus. Reference numeral 108 denotes a bus, which is a path for various data.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the information terminal apparatus (PDA) of the present invention. The PDA is originally a personal computer that has been reduced in size so that it can be easily carried. Therefore, a detailed description is omitted, but the communication I / F 201 is a wired LAN such as IEEE802.3 or a wireless LAN such as IEEE802.11. Can be used, or wired communication such as USB, or wireless communication such as IrDA / Bluetooth. It can be supported. The memory 204 is composed of a ROM and a RAM, and a program for communicating with the image forming apparatus 10 of the present invention is stored in the ROM. However, a similar function can be executed by loading a program stored in the HDD 205 into the RAM. An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 202 is a display device for displaying output from a program and received data. KB (Keyboard) 206 is used for inputting characters, symbols, and the like to the PDA 20. If a transparent touch panel is provided on the surface of the LCD 202, a position on the screen can be designated, and an operation similar to a mouse can be performed.

Next, various functions and operations of the image forming apparatus and information terminal apparatus (PDA) of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation when requesting information on the image forming apparatus from the PDA 20 to the image forming apparatus 10. First, a signal requesting device information including identification information unique to a terminal is transmitted from the PDA 20 to the image forming apparatus 10 (step S401). The unique identification information may be a LAN IP address or a terminal name or terminal number determined uniquely for the area covered by the LAN. Further, the device information request signal may be a character string such as “reqPRTinf”. Receiving this, the image forming apparatus 10 acquires the unique identification information sent by the PDA 20 (step S410), searches the user information table 400 based on this unique identification information, and registers the registered use. It is judged whether it is a person (step S411). If it is unregistered unique identification information, it can be ignored without doing anything.
If the user can be identified, the apparatus information of the image forming apparatus stored in the NVRAM 105 is transmitted to the PDA 20 (step S412). As information to be transmitted, the model name of the image forming apparatus, the presence / absence of various functions (color printing availability, A3 printing availability, sorter, presence / absence of the stepper, etc.), installation location, administrator name, etc. may be returned. Receiving this, the PDA 20 displays the received image forming apparatus information on the LCD 202 of the PDA 20 (step S402). Next, the image forming apparatus 10 sets various settings for printing with the image forming apparatus stored for each user in the user information table 400 (for example, when there are a plurality of paper trays, (Printing using paper or using the function when there is a double-sided printing function) is transmitted to the PDA 20 (step S413). Receiving this, the PDA 20 displays the received print setting information on the LCD 202 of the PDA 20 (step S403).

  Note that by using Bluetooth, which is one of the wireless communications, as the communication unit 30, it is possible to select an image forming apparatus to be printed from among image forming apparatuses that are within a communicable range via Bluetooth. For example, in an office having several floors, the possibility of erroneously printing a document on an image forming apparatus on another floor is reduced. At this time, a more appropriate image forming apparatus can be selected based on the characteristics of the image forming apparatus acquired by SDP (Service Discovery Profile) which is a basic function of Bluetooth. When Bluetooth is not used, device information may be requested for all image forming devices on the same LAN. In this case, the PDA 20 needs to store addresses of all image forming apparatuses on the LAN.

Next, the operation when the stored document is output from the PDA 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a diagram for requesting information on a document stored in the image forming apparatus from the PDA, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an operation for outputting a desired stored document.
First, a signal for requesting document information including identification information unique to the terminal is transmitted from the PDA 20 to the image forming apparatus 10 (step S501). Receiving this, the image forming apparatus 10 acquires identification information unique to the PDA sent by the PDA 20 together with a signal requesting document information, identifies the user based on this unique identification information, The stored document information table 500 is searched (step S511), and the information of the document related to the user among the stored documents is transmitted to the PDA 20 (step S512). Receiving this, the PDA 20 displays the received document information on the LCD 202 of the PDA 20 (step S502). Note that the accumulated document information table 500 reads out the bibliographic information of the accumulated documents stored in the HDD 103 to the memory 104 so that it can be easily searched.
An example of document information displayed on the PDA 20 may be simply a list of file names or document numbers of stored documents, but bibliographic information (name of creator, date of creation, date of accumulation, document title, (Document classification) is more effective. It is more convenient for the user to display the document as a reduced image (thumbnail). Accordingly, the image forming apparatus 10 has a function of reading out the target document from the stored document file 600 and reducing the document image to create a thumbnail image. Creation of a reduced image can be easily implemented using techniques such as a simple thinning method and a pixel value averaging method.
Each stored document has an attribute of “who has the right to print the document” (simply, it is possible to print only the creator), and Bluetooth is used for the communication means 30 If this is the case, the correspondence between the unique address (BD address) existing in all Bluetooth interfaces and the owner is stored in the user information table 400, and when a document information request is received from a certain PDA, the PDA The owner associated with the BD address of the Bluetooth interface can be obtained, and the document information of only the stored document that the user has the right to view among the stored documents in the corresponding image forming apparatus can be sent to the PDA 20. For the identification of the user, the above-described method using the IP address, the terminal name or the terminal number may be used.

The user selects a document that he / she wants to print from the documents displayed in this way, and transmits a print request signal to the image forming apparatus 10 (step S601). The document can be selected by touching the document information (document name or thumbnail display) displayed on the LCD 202. Upon receipt of the print request, the image forming apparatus 10 identifies the user in the same manner as other requests, and in the case of an unregistered user, the user does not react to the request and ignores it, and the ID of the document included in the print request (Document name, document number, etc.) are acquired (step S611), the document data is read from the stored document file 600 and printed out (step S612). At this time, the user's print setting parameters may be taken out from the user information table 400, and printing may be performed by using the parameters. Alternatively, when a print output request is made, the user may set printing parameters (such as paper type, The number of copies to be printed may be specified.
In the embodiment, the image forming apparatus assuming a printer has been described. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to a multi-function machine having both functions of a printer, a facsimile machine, and a copier. In addition, if the present invention is applied to a facsimile apparatus having a proxy reception function, handling of stored received documents becomes easy, and it is desired to improve confidentiality.

1 is a diagram illustrating an operating environment of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the image forming apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the information terminal device of this invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an operation when requesting information of an image forming apparatus from a PDA to the image forming apparatus. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an operation when requesting information on a document stored in the image forming apparatus from the PDA. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a desired stored document is output from the PDA to the image forming apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming apparatus 20 Information terminal device 30 Communication means 100 CPU (Central Processing Unit)
101 Host I / F
103 HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
104 Memory 105 NVRAM (Non Volatile RAM)
400 User information table 500 Accumulated document information table 600 Accumulated document file

Claims (9)

  In an image forming apparatus having a document storage function, communication means for exchanging data with an information terminal apparatus, user information storage means for holding information about a user of the information terminal apparatus, and communication using the communication means A user specifying means for specifying a user of the information terminal device with reference to the user information storage means based on the identification information unique to the information terminal device being used, and the specified use from the information terminal device A document information transmitting means for transmitting the stored document information to the information terminal device in response to a document information request from the user, and a printing for printing the specified document in response to the print document designation from the information terminal device And an image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document information transmitting unit transmits stored document information related to the specified user to the information terminal device.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document information transmitting unit transmits the stored document information as document information including a reduced image to the information terminal apparatus.   In an image forming apparatus having a document storage function, communication means for exchanging data with an information terminal apparatus, user information storage means for holding information about a user of the information terminal apparatus, and communication using the communication means A user specifying means for specifying a user of the information terminal device by referring to the user information storage means based on the identification information unique to the information terminal device, and an image usable by the specified user An image forming apparatus comprising: apparatus information transmitting means for transmitting information on a forming apparatus to the information terminal apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the apparatus information transmitting unit transmits print setting information of a user in an available image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit is wireless communication.   An information terminal device having a communication means for exchanging data with an image forming apparatus and a display unit for displaying transmitted or received data, and a communication control means for transmitting terminal-specific identification information during communication An information terminal device comprising: device information requesting means for requesting information relating to an image forming apparatus; and display control means for displaying information relating to the image forming apparatus obtained by the means on the display unit.   An information terminal device having a communication unit for exchanging data with an image forming apparatus and a display unit for displaying transmitted or received data, a communication control unit for transmitting terminal-specific identification information during communication, and printing is possible Document information requesting means for requesting information on a stored document, selection means for selecting a desired document from document information obtained by the means, and print requesting means for requesting print output of the selected document An information terminal device.   9. The information terminal device according to claim 7, wherein the communication unit is wireless communication.

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