JP2007199155A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance reliability by surely preventing leakage of classified information. <P>SOLUTION: An image forming system comprises: an image data encrypting means 8 for encrypting image data; an image data dividing means 9 for dividing the image data encrypted by the image data encrypting means 8 into a plurality of image data; a portable storage medium 10 for storing at least one image data of the plurality of image data divided by the image data dividing means 9; an image data storage means 13 for storing the other image data of the plurality of of image data divided by the image data dividing means 9; an image data combining means 16 for combining the image data stored in the portable storage medium 10 and the image data stored in the image data storage means 13; and an image data decrypting means 17 for decrypting the image data combined by the image data combining means 16. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming system including a host computer that generates image data and an image forming apparatus that is connected to the host computer and outputs an image based on the image data.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming system in which an image forming apparatus outputs an image based on image data transmitted from a host computer connected to the image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine via a communication network has been widely used. ing. Then, in this image forming system, in order to maintain the confidentiality when outputting a highly confidential image, image formation with a so-called secure print function is permitted, which allows image output only to authenticated users. The system is known.

In such an image forming system, image data generated in a host computer is transmitted to the image forming apparatus together with a password, and stored in a storage device of the image forming apparatus. When the user who has transmitted the image data selects the image data from the operation panel of the image forming apparatus and inputs the password, the image forming apparatus outputs an image based on the image data. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-308194 A

  However, in the above-described conventional image forming system, even a person who has stolen a password from a communication network by an unauthorized operation or the like can output a highly confidential image. Therefore, there is a problem that confidential information may be leaked relatively easily, and it is difficult to improve the reliability of the system.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming system capable of reliably preventing leakage of confidential information and improving reliability. Is.

  To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming system comprising a host computer that generates image data and an image forming apparatus that is connected to the host computer and outputs an image based on the image data. The image data encryption means for encrypting the image data, the image data dividing means for dividing the image data encrypted by the image data encryption means into a plurality of image data, and the image data dividing means. A portable storage medium for storing at least one of the plurality of image data, and an image data storage unit for storing the remaining image data of the plurality of image data divided by the image data dividing unit Image data stored in the portable storage medium, and image data stored in the image data storage means An image data combining means for combining the data, characterized in that it comprises an image data decoding means for decoding the image data combined by the image data combining means.

  The image data storage means may be provided in a server connected to the host computer and the image forming apparatus via a communication network.

  The image data dividing unit may also divide the image data so that the amount of image data stored in the portable storage medium is larger than the amount of image data stored in the image data storage unit. Good.

  According to the present invention, an image cannot be output unless all of the password used when encrypting image data, a portable storage medium, and an image forming apparatus are available. Even if any one of the possible storage media and storage means of the image forming apparatus encounters theft, leakage of confidential information can be prevented. Therefore, various excellent effects can be obtained, such as improvement of system reliability.

  Hereinafter, an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, the configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image forming system according to the present embodiment.

  In the image forming system according to the present embodiment, a host computer 1 that generates image data and an image forming apparatus 2 that outputs an image based on the image data are connected via a communication network 3 such as a local area network (LAN). Connected and configured.

  The host computer 1 is, for example, a personal computer, and includes an operation unit 4 such as a mouse and a keyboard, a display unit 5 such as a liquid crystal display device, a storage unit 6 such as a hard disk drive and a RAM (Random Access Memory), and an operation. The control unit 7 that controls the display unit 5, the storage unit 6, and the like based on the image data input from the unit 4, and the connection unit 18 of the portable storage medium 10 (see FIGS. 2 and 3). Yes. The control unit 7 includes an image data encryption unit 8 that encrypts the image data, and an image data division unit 9 that divides the image data encrypted by the image data encryption unit 8 into a plurality of image data. ing.

  Further, the image forming apparatus 2 is, for example, a printer and has a server function, and displays an operation unit 11 having operation keys and the like, and various data setting states and operation states of the image display apparatus 2. A display unit 12 such as a display panel, a storage unit 13 such as a hard disk drive or a RAM, and a control unit 14 that controls the display unit 12 and the storage unit 13 based on a command input from the operation unit 11 are portable. It is schematically composed of a connection portion 19 of the storage medium 10 (see FIGS. 2 and 3). The control unit 14 includes an authentication unit 15 that performs user authentication, an image data combination unit 16 that combines a plurality of image data, and an image data decoding unit that decodes the image data combined by the image data combination unit 16. Part 17.

  Next, the operation of the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference mainly to FIG. 2 and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation on the host computer 1 side of the image forming system according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation on the image forming apparatus 2 side of the image forming system.

  First, as shown in FIG. 2, when the user inputs image data from the operation unit 4 and performs an encryption password setting operation on the host computer 1 side (S101), the image data encryption unit 8 displays the image forming apparatus. The encryption password is embedded in the image data generated in step 2 to encrypt the image data (S102). Thereafter, the image data dividing unit 9 divides the encrypted image data into image data A and image data B, and adds association information such as division date and time to each of the divided image data A and B (S103). ).

  When the portable storage medium 10 is connected to the connection unit 18 of the host computer 1 and the user performs a predetermined operation, the control unit 7 converts the image data A into an image via the communication network 3 (see FIG. 1). The image data B is transmitted to the forming apparatus 2 and stored in the storage unit 6 (S104), while the image data B is stored in the portable storage medium 10 (S105). At this time, information regarding the storage location of the image data A is added to the image data B.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3, on the image forming apparatus 2 side, when the user connects the portable storage medium 10 to the connection unit 19 (S201) and selects the image data B from the operation unit 11, the image data combination unit 16 analyzes the data stored in the image data B, and based on the information about the storage location of the image data A and the association information of both the image data A and B, the image data A stored in the storage unit 13 And the image data A and the image data B are combined to create encrypted image data (S202).

  When the user inputs a decryption password from the operation unit 11 (S203), the authentication unit 15 determines whether the password matches the encryption password embedded in the image data B in step 102. As a result, when the authentication unit 15 determines that both passwords match, the image data decryption unit 17 decrypts the encrypted image data (S204). Thereafter, the control unit 14 outputs an image based on the decoded image data (S205), and then the image data A stored in the storage unit 13 and the image stored in the portable storage medium 10 are stored. Each data B is erased.

  As described above, according to the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention, an image cannot be output unless the encrypted password, the portable storage medium 10 and the image forming apparatus 2 are all available. That is, even if any one of the encrypted password, the portable storage medium 10 and the storage unit 13 of the image forming apparatus 2 is stolen, the leakage of confidential information can be prevented, so that the reliability of the system can be improved. Improvements can be made.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the divided image data A is stored in the storage unit 13 of the image forming apparatus 2 has been described. However, this is merely an example, and the host computer 1 and the image forming apparatus 2 have the same configuration. The image data A may be stored in a storage device of a server connected via the communication network 3.

  Further, the number of the image data dividing unit 9 that divides the image data is not limited to two as described above, and may be three or more.

  Furthermore, the ratio of the data amount of each image data divided by the image data dividing unit 9 can be arbitrarily set. For example, the data amount of the image data stored in the portable storage medium 10 is the image formation. The image data can also be divided so as to be larger than the amount of image data stored in the storage unit 13 of the apparatus. In this case, the present invention can be easily applied to the image forming apparatus 2 having a small storage capacity of the storage unit 13.

  Furthermore, the image forming apparatus 2 of the image forming system according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described printer, and may be another type of image forming apparatus such as a facsimile machine, a copying machine, or a multifunction machine. Needless to say.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation on the host computer side of the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation on the image forming apparatus side of the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host computer 2 Image forming apparatus 3 Communication network 8 Image data encryption part 9 Image data division part 10 Portable storage medium 16 Image data connection part 17 Image data decoding part

Claims (3)

An image forming system comprising: a host computer that generates image data; and an image forming apparatus that is connected to the host computer and outputs an image based on the image data.
Image data encryption means for encrypting the image data;
Image data dividing means for dividing the image data encrypted by the image data encryption means into a plurality of image data;
A portable storage medium for storing at least one of a plurality of image data divided by the image data dividing means;
Image data storage means for storing the remaining image data of the plurality of image data divided by the image data dividing means;
Image data combining means for combining image data stored in the portable storage medium and image data stored in the image data storage means;
Image data decoding means for decoding the image data combined by the image data combining means;
An image forming system comprising: The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the image data storage unit is provided in a server connected to the host computer and the image forming apparatus via a communication network. 3. The image data dividing unit divides the image data so that a data amount of image data stored in the portable storage medium is larger than a data amount of image data stored in the image data storage unit. The image forming system described.

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