JP2011244317A - Advertisement selection method and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To selectively print a plurality of advertisement images prepared for printing together with an original image and to print each advertisement image so that the cumulative number of prints of each advertisement image in a set period is a set value or more.SOLUTION: In an advertisement selection method for selecting one of the plurality of advertisement images as advertisement information to be printed on a paper, when an image forming apparatus prints an image on the paper, the cumulative number of prints being the number of papers on which the advertisement image is printed is counted whenever the advertisement image is printed, to obtain an achievement rate being the ratio of the cumulative number of prints to the target number of prints of each of the plurality of advertisement images and a time passage rate being the ratio of the length of a range before the present time point in an advertisement period to the advertisement period. When one of the plurality of achievement rates is smaller than the time passage rate, the advertisement image whose achievement rate is the smallest is selected and when all of the plurality of achievement rates are larger than the time passage rate, at least one of the plurality of advertisement images is selected according to a previously set procedure.

Description

  The present invention relates to an advertisement selection method for selecting any one of a plurality of advertisement images as advertisement information to be printed on a sheet, and an image forming apparatus that implements the advertisement selection method. The image forming apparatus includes a copying machine, a multifunction peripheral device (MFP) called a multifunction peripheral, and a printer.

  Copy services that allow unspecified customers to use copiers for a fee are being implemented in various stores including convenience stores. In this copy service, there is a form in which an advertisement is placed on a sheet (hereinafter, this form is referred to as “copy service with advertisement”). Instead of paying all or part of the copy fee, the advertiser can perform a desired advertisement using a copy taken by the customer as a medium. Advertising includes not only advertising for profit, but also public relations and other non-profit activities.

  The copy service with advertisement includes a method of printing an advertisement image on paper in advance and a method of printing an advertisement image when copying a document. The former is a simple method that can be implemented with a general copying machine. Although the latter requires a copying machine having a function of storing advertisement images, it is only necessary to prepare general-purpose blank paper, and it has an operational convenience that it is easy to switch advertisement images flexibly. .

  Regarding the copy service with advertisement by the above method for printing an advertisement image at the time of copying, there is the following prior art. Patent Document 1 describes an image forming apparatus for responding to an advertiser's desire to keep an advertisement fee per fixed period (for example, one month) constant. The image forming apparatus selects an advertisement image to be printed from a plurality of advertisement images so that the number of printed advertisement images per predetermined period is a preset number. Further, Patent Document 2 describes a copying machine for making an advertisement that matches a customer's request. This copying machine recognizes a character string of a document by OCR (optical character recognition), and automatically selects advertisement information to be printed based on a keyword extracted from the character string of the document. Furthermore, a technology for selecting a notation language for advertisement information according to the display language setting of the operation panel (Patent Document 3) and an advertisement image related to an area near the installation location of the image forming apparatus are transmitted from the server to the image forming apparatus There is technology (Patent Document 4).

JP 2000-284659 A JP 2002-290706 A JP 2001-350598 A JP 2003-281012 A

  In the copy service with advertisement, it is expected that the printing of the number of sheets determined by the contract between the service provider and the advertiser will be completed within a predetermined period, and then the advertisement will be more effectively performed at each printing. . From the viewpoint of advertising effectiveness, as disclosed in the above Patent Documents 2, 3, and 4, information such as character strings described in manuscripts, contents of operations performed by customers, or areas where copiers are installed is used to estimate the customer base. Compared to printing advertisement images at random, it is more proactive to select and print advertisement images that are presumed to attract customers' attention from multiple advertisement images based on the acquired information. It is valid. However, if an advertisement image is selected with emphasis on the advertising effect, the selected advertisement image is biased, and there is a possibility that the number of prints for a period determined by the contract for some advertisement images may be less than the predetermined target number. .

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention selectively prints a plurality of advertisement images prepared for printing together with a document image, and the cumulative number of printed images of each advertisement image in a set period is equal to or greater than a set value. The purpose is to realize an apparatus and a system for printing each advertisement image.

  The method for achieving the above object is an advertisement selection method for selecting one of a plurality of advertisement images as advertisement information to be printed on the paper when the image forming apparatus prints the image on the paper. For each advertisement image, each time the advertisement image is printed, the cumulative number of printed sheets, which is the number of sheets on which the advertisement image is printed, is counted, and the preset print target number of each of the plurality of advertisement images An achievement rate that is a ratio of the cumulative number of printed sheets to a predetermined period of time and a period elapse rate that is a ratio of a length of a range before the current period in the advertisement period to a predetermined length of the advertisement period, and the plurality of advertisement images When any one of the corresponding achievement rates is smaller than the period elapsed rate, an advertisement image having the smallest achievement rate is selected, and any of the plurality of achievement rates is less than the period elapsed rate If larger, and selects at least one of the plurality of advertisement images according to a predetermined procedure for effective advertising.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the target of the number of sheets regarding the printing of an advertisement decided beforehand within the period which implements an advertisement, and the apparatus and system which implement | achieve a more effective advertisement can be provided.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an appearance of an image forming apparatus. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a main part of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a main routine showing an outline of the operation of the image forming apparatus. It is a flowchart of an input routine. It is a flowchart of a whole control routine. It is a flowchart of an advertisement selection routine. It is a flowchart of a number priority selection routine. It is a flowchart of an effect priority selection routine. It is a flowchart of a reading routine. It is a flowchart of a printing routine.

  As an embodiment, an image forming apparatus used for a free copy service with an advertisement in which an advertiser bears the entire fee is exemplified. However, it is not necessarily free, and it may be a low-cost copy service in which the advertiser bears a part of the fee and the customer bears the rest. Pricing is a matter that service providers should decide.

  An image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a multifunction peripheral (MFP) capable of color printing. The image forming apparatus 1 is installed in a convenience store, for example, and is used in a self-service manner by an unspecified customer. Hereinafter, an unspecified customer who is a temporary user of the image forming apparatus 1 is referred to as a user for convenience. If the user approves that the advertisement information is printed on the paper on which the document image is copied, the user can copy the document free of charge by specifying the advertisement print mode on the operation panel 20. However, in the present embodiment, it is assumed that the original of the copy service with advertisement is limited to a single-sided original. Further, the user can designate a normal printing mode in which the advertisement information is not printed if a fee is charged in a charging device (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 1 includes an operation panel 20, an image scanner 21, a printer 22, a paper stocker 23, a control circuit 25, an image processing circuit 26, a storage 27, a communication interface 28, and an external connection interface 30. . The operation panel 20 is provided with a liquid crystal display (LCD) for displaying an operation screen. A touch panel for operating buttons arranged on the operation screen is overlaid on the liquid crystal display. The image scanner 21 includes an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) that automatically conveys a document set on a document tray onto a document glass. The printer 22 includes a paper discharge mechanism 22A capable of face-down paper discharge and face-up paper discharge, and a double-sided unit 22B for double-sided printing. Monochrome is provided on both or one side of the paper supplied from the multi-stage paper stocker 23. Or print a color image. The control circuit 25 includes a ROM 251 that stores a control program, a CPU 252 that executes the control program, and a RAM 253 that is used as a work area for executing the program. The image processing circuit 26 performs various image processing including bitmap development of image data. The storage 27 is a mass storage device such as a hard disk drive. The storage 27 is provided with an advertisement storage unit 271 that is a memory area for storing advertisement information as well as a memory area for storing data related to the control of the image forming apparatus 1. The communication interface 28 is used for facsimile communication and LAN communication. The external connection interface 30 is used for data exchange with a removable storage medium. For example, it is possible to connect a USB memory 31 to the external connection interface 30 and input advertisement information or a document that the user wants to print from the USB memory 31 to the image forming apparatus 1. The removable storage medium includes an SD card, a compact flash (registered trademark), a semiconductor memory such as a memory stick, and a magnetic disk.

  FIG. 3 shows a functional configuration of a main part related to the copy service with advertisement in the image forming apparatus 1. The image forming apparatus 1 includes a setting information acquisition unit 41, a situation information acquisition unit 42, an advertisement selection unit 43, an advertisement management unit 44, and a print processing unit 45 as functional components. These elements are realized by the CPU 252 of the control circuit 25 loading a computer program from the ROM 251 or the storage 27 to the RAM 253 and executing it.

  The setting information acquisition unit 41 acquires setting information indicating the contents of the settings negotiated by the contract between the provider of the copy service with advertisement and the advertiser. The setting information includes a print target number that is the number of sheets on which an advertisement is to be printed in a unit period (for example, monthly). The setting information is input using the operation panel 20 by the administrator (service provider) of the image forming apparatus 1. However, setting information may be input through network communication or data exchange via a removable storage medium.

  The situation information acquisition unit 42 acquires situation information for estimation of a customer segment such as a character string described in a document brought by the user, contents of an input operation by the user, or a place where the image forming apparatus 1 is installed. The character string described in the document is acquired by optical character recognition (OCR) for the document read by the image scanner 21. The place where the image forming apparatus 1 is installed is input by the service provider using the operation panel 20, for example.

  The advertisement selection unit 43 is based on information acquired by the setting information acquisition unit 41 and the situation information acquisition unit 42 when a plurality of advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 are stored in the advertisement storage unit 271 of the storage 27. Then, one of the advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 is selected as advertisement information to be printed on the paper on which the document image is printed. The term “advertisement image” means an electronic document for an advertisement composed of visual elements such as characters, figures, patterns, backgrounds, and the like. The selection of the advertisement image is not limited to the selection of one of the plurality of images. If the output size of the advertisement image is smaller than the paper size, two or more may be selected from a large number.

  The advertisement management unit 44 manages advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 input from a removable storage medium or an external device connected via a LAN. When advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 are input individually or collectively as advertisement information, the advertisement management unit 44 stores the advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 in the advertisement storage unit 271 of the storage 27. When the advertisement selection unit 43 selects any one of the advertisement images c1, c2, and c3, the advertisement management unit 44 reads the selected advertisement image from the storage 27 and delivers it to the print processing unit 45.

  The print processing unit 45 causes the printer 22 to print the document image and the advertisement image. The print format of the advertisement image in the present embodiment is a format in which the document image is printed on one side of the paper and the advertisement image is printed on the remaining one side. However, a format in which an advertisement image is arranged in the peripheral area of the paper and the document image and the advertisement image are printed on the same sheet may be adopted. When the print processing unit 45 detects the discharge of the sheet by the signal from the paper discharge mechanism 22A, the print processing unit 45 counts up the cumulative number of printed advertisement images.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described in more detail with reference to flowcharts.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the CPU 252 responsible for controlling the image forming apparatus 1 executes an initialization process in response to a power-on or reset operation (S100). When the initialization process is completed, the CPU 252 starts a timer for determining the routine execution period (S200), executes the input (S300), overall control (S400), reading (S500), and printing (S600) routines in order. And waits for the timer to expire (S700). When the timer expires, the CPU 252 starts the timer again and executes the routines S200 to S700 in the same order as before. In the power-on state, the routines S200 to S700 are repeatedly executed.

  The processing of the input routine (S400 in FIG. 4) is shown in FIG. In the input routine, input from the operation panel 20 is accepted. The CPU 252 that executes the input routine functions as the setting information acquisition unit 41, the situation information acquisition unit 42, and the advertisement management unit 44.

  As shown in FIG. 5, if there is no operation input (NO in S301), the process flow returns to the main routine, and the input routine is substantially through. If there is any operation input (YES in S301), processing according to the input is executed as follows.

  If the operation input is a feature input (YES in S302), the input information is stored as a user feature by the situation information acquisition unit 42 (S303). In the image forming apparatus 1, user information such as gender, age, and hobbies can be input in accordance with the operation guidance as reference information for causing the image forming apparatus 1 to print an advertisement preferable to the user. However, feature input is not essential, and the user can start the copy operation without performing feature input.

  If the operation input is an advertisement number input (YES in S304), the input advertisement number is stored in a memory area that temporarily holds the operation content (S305). The advertisement number is entered by the administrator. In the image forming apparatus 1, an advertisement list can be displayed on the operation panel 20, and an advertisement image for which setting information can be input can be designated by inputting a number.

  When the operation input is a print target number input (YES in S306), the input print target number is stored by the setting information acquisition unit 41 (S307). The print target number is the number of sheets of paper on which an advertisement is to be printed in a unit period of advertisement execution (for example, monthly pole), and is based on the number of copies during a period that is predicted within a predetermined error range based on past results. Each advertisement image is determined based on a contract between the service provider and the advertiser. The print target number input is performed by the administrator, and the input print target number is stored in association with the advertisement number stored when the latest advertisement number is input.

  When the operation input is an advertisement attribute input (YES in S308), the input advertisement attribute is stored by the setting information acquisition unit 41 (S309). The advertisement attribute includes the type of the product / store / service to be advertised and the customer group (gender, age group, hobby, etc.) designated by the advertiser, and is input for each advertisement image. The advertisement attribute input is performed by the administrator, and the input advertisement attribute is stored in association with the advertisement number stored when the latest advertisement number is input.

  If the operation input is an installation location input (YES in S310), the input installation location information is stored by the status information acquisition unit 42 (S311). The installation location information is information regarding the location where the image forming apparatus 1 is installed. In addition to the area, classifications that characterize the customer base such as the station premises and the university campus correspond to the installation location information. The installation location is input by the administrator.

  When the operation input is the advertisement print mode input (YES in S312), the advertisement selection unit 43 sets the advertisement print mode to ON. In the present embodiment, the advertisement print mode input is performed by the user. However, when the copy service by the image forming apparatus 1 is limited to a copy service with an advertisement, the advertisement print mode is input by the administrator, and the operation is performed so as to maintain the advertisement print mode unless a release operation is performed. Is set.

  If the operation input is display language selection (YES in S314), the selected display language is stored by the status information acquisition unit 42 (S315). Then, the display language applied to the screen display on the operation panel 20 is switched (S316). The image forming apparatus 1 can select one of a plurality of languages including Japanese and English. The display language is selected by the user. The administrator can also select the display language. For example, when many users use a specific language other than the default Japanese, the administrator may change the display language setting for the convenience of the user.

  If the operation input is none of the above (NO in S314), other input processing is executed (S317).

  The processing of the overall control routine (S400 in FIG. 4) is shown in FIG. In the overall control routine, the status indicating the progress of a series of copying operations from reading the original to discharging the paper is switched.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the CPU 252 that executes the overall control routine confirms whether there is a start request from the input routine (S401). If there is a start request, the CPU 252 turns off the start request (S402), requests the reading routine to start reading a document by the image scanner 21 (S403), and sets the status to “reading” (S404). If there is no start request (NO in S401), the CPU 252 checks whether reading is in progress (S410). If reading is in progress, the CPU 252 checks whether the reading has been completed (S411). If the reading is completed, the CPU 252 sets the status to “reading completed” (S412), and sets an advertisement determination request (S413). If the reading has not been completed (NO in S411), the processing flow returns to the main routine.

  If not being read (NO in S410), the CPU 252 checks whether or not there is an advertisement determination request (S420). If there is an advertisement determination request, the CPU 252 turns off the advertisement determination request (S421), and checks whether it is in the advertisement print mode (S422). In the advertisement print mode, the CPU 252 executes an advertisement selection routine (S423), and then turns on the print request (S424). When not in the advertisement print mode, the CPU 252 turns on the print request without performing the process of the advertisement selection routine.

  If there is no advertisement determination request (NO in S420), the CPU 252 checks whether there is a print request (S430). If there is a print request, the CPU 252 turns off the print request (S431), requests the print routine to start printing (S432), and sets the status to “printing” (S433). If there is no print request (NO in S430), the CPU 252 checks whether the status is “printing” (S440). If it is not “printing”, the process flow returns to the main routine. If the status is “printing” (YES in S440) and printing is completed (YES in S441), the CPU 252 sets the status to “printing completed” (S442).

  FIG. 7 shows the processing of the advertisement selection routine (S423 in FIG. 6), which is a subroutine of the overall control routine. In the advertisement selection routine, an advertisement image to be printed is selected. There are two conditions that restrict the selection. One is to prevent the cumulative number of prints of each advertisement in a unit period from falling below the number of sheets contracted with the advertiser (print target number), that is, to achieve the number target. The other is to print an advertisement image suitable for the user in order to perform an effective advertisement. In consideration of these two conditions, an advertisement image is selected for each page to be printed in a copy job for printing a document image as follows. Note that the number of sheets used in the copy job is determined by the number of originals and the number of copies.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the CPU 252 that functions as the advertisement selection unit 43 by executing the advertisement selection routine first prints the product of the number of originals read by the image scanner 21 and the number (default is 1) designated by the user. The number N is acquired (S801), and the processing variable n is set to an initial value of 1 (S802). Then, the CPU 252 executes a number priority selection routine for achieving the number target (S803), and checks whether execution of effect priority selection effective from the viewpoint of advertisement effect is requested in the number priority selection routine. (S805). When effect priority selection should be performed (YES in S804), the CPU 252 executes an effect priority selection routine (S805), and sets the advertisement number selected in the effect priority selection routine to the nth page (S806). . On the other hand, if the effect priority selection should not be performed (NO in S804), the advertisement selection subroutine sets the advertisement number selected in the number priority selection routine to the nth page (S807). The advertisement image corresponding to the nth page (to be printed on the nth sheet) is determined by the set of advertisement numbers. Thereafter, the CPU 252 increments the variable n by 1 (S808), and repeats the process of determining the advertisement image corresponding to the next page in the same procedure as the previous page until n> N (S809, S803 to S808).

  The processing of the number priority selection routine (S803 in FIG. 7), which is a subroutine of the above advertisement selection routine, is shown in FIG. In the number priority selection routine, the ratio between the target print number for each advertisement image and the current cumulative number of prints is obtained, and the advertisement image with the smallest degree of achievement of the target determined from this ratio is selected as the advertisement information to be printed. Is done. In addition, if the ratio between the number of days in the unit period and the number of elapsed days is calculated and it is determined that the target can be achieved for all advertising images based on this ratio and the degree of achievement of the target, priority is given to the effect. Implementation of the selection is required. Details are as follows.

  The CPU 252 that executes the number priority selection routine first acquires the number of advertisements K that is the number of registered advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 (S901), and initializes processing variables R, k, and kmin. (S902). R is set to 1, k is set to 1, and kmin is set to 0.

  After completing the initialization of the variables, the CPU 252 calculates an achievement rate R (k) (S903). The achievement rate R (k) is the ratio of the current cumulative print number Z of the kth advertisement image to the print target number A of the kth advertisement image. That is, R (k) = Z / A.

  When the achievement rate R (k) obtained by the calculation is smaller than the variable R (YES in S904), the CPU 252 substitutes the achievement rate R (k) for the variable R, and at the present time the most achievement rate R (k). The variable k is substituted into the variable kmin representing the small advertisement image number (S905). By this temporary selection process, the k-th advertisement image of interest becomes a temporary selection result.

  On the other hand, if the achievement rate R (k) obtained by the calculation is not smaller than the variable R (NO in S904), the target number of sheets has already been achieved for the k-th advertisement image of interest, so the CPU 252 Does not perform provisional selection processing (S905). That is, the k-th advertisement image of interest is excluded from the options.

  The CPU 252 calculates the achievement rate R (k) by paying attention to the remaining (K-1) advertisement images one by one in order, and the achievement rate R (k) is smaller than the advertisement image noticed before. The result of temporary selection is updated (S906, S907, S903 to S905). As a result, the k-th advertisement image of interest is used as a new provisional selection result.

  The CPU 252 that has calculated the achievement rate R (k) for all advertisement images compares the variable R corresponding to the minimum value of the achievement rate R (k) with the period elapsed rate T (S908). The period elapsed rate T is the ratio of the number of elapsed days (the number of days from the start date of the period to the current day) to the number of days H of the unit period (T = h / H). The period elapsed rate T takes a value in the range from 0 to 1.

  When the variable R is not smaller than the period elapsed rate T (NO in S908), the CPU 252 requests the advertisement selection routine to execute effect priority selection (S911). That is, when the variable R is not smaller than the period elapsed rate T, it is considered that the progress of achieving the goal is smooth for all the advertisement images. Smooth means that the goal is likely to be achieved within the remainder of the unit period. Therefore, a request for executing an effect priority selection which is advantageous in enhancing the advertisement effect is set here.

  On the other hand, when the variable R is smaller than the period elapsed rate T (YES in S908), the CPU 252 confirms that the variable kmin is not the initial value 0 (YES in S909), and then temporarily selected kmin The th advertisement image is selected as the advertisement image to be printed (S910). If the variable kmin is 0 (NO in S909), since the achievement rate R (k) of all advertisement images is 1 or more and the number of sheets target has already been achieved, the CPU 252 requests execution of effect priority selection. (S911).

  FIG. 9 shows the processing of the effect priority selection routine (S805 in FIG. 7) which is a subroutine of the advertisement selection routine. In the effect priority selection routine, based on the situation information collected for the purpose of inferring what kind of advertisement the user pays attention to and the advertisement attribute stored in association with the advertisement image, the situation information and the advertisement attribute The advertisement image having the highest degree of coincidence with is selected as the advertisement information to be printed. Details are as follows.

  The CPU 252 that executes the effect priority selection routine first acquires the number of advertisements K, which is the number of registered advertisement images c1, c2, and c3 (S920), and initializes processing variables P, k, and kmax. (S921). P is set to 0, k is set to 1, and kmax is set to 0.

  The CPU 252 that has completed the initialization of the variables takes in the situation information and the advertisement attributes stored in the above-described input routine (S922, S923), and calculates the fitness P (k) (S924). The situation information includes a feature input by the user, a keyword extracted by OCR from the nth document, a display language of the operation panel 20, and an installation location of the image forming apparatus 1. The fitness P (k) is the number of matches between a plurality of data constituting the status information of the kth advertisement image and a plurality of data constituting the advertisement attribute of the kth advertisement image. It is considered that the greater the value of the fitness P (k), the greater the advertising effect of the advertisement image on the user. Here, a weight may be given to the item of the advertisement attribute, and when the data of a specific item matches, the number of matches may be counted up more than other cases. For example, it is possible to increase the weight of the attribute item “language” so that an advertisement image whose attribute item “language” data matches the data of the status information item “display language” is almost certainly selected. That is, a match of a specific item may be regarded as more important than a match of another item.

  When the obtained fitness P (k) is larger than the variable P (YES in S925), the CPU 252 substitutes the fitness P (k) for the variable P, and the advertisement having the highest fitness P (k) at the present time. The variable k is substituted for the variable kmax representing the image number (S906). By this temporary selection process, the k-th advertisement image of interest becomes a temporary selection result.

  On the other hand, if the obtained fitness P (k) is not greater than the variable R (NO in S925), the CPU 252 does not perform the provisional selection process (S926). That is, the k-th advertisement image of interest is excluded from the options.

  The CPU 252 obtains the fitness P (k) by paying attention to the remaining (K-1) advertisement images one by one in order, and when the fitness P (k) is larger than the previously noticed advertisement image. The result of temporary selection is updated (S927, S928, S922 to S926). As a result, the k-th advertisement image of interest becomes a new provisional selection result.

  CPU252 which calculated | required the adaptability P (k) about all the advertisement images should print the kmaxth advertisement image temporarily selected, after confirming that the variable P is not the initial value 0 (it is YES at S929). Select as advertisement information (S930). If the variable P is 0 (NO in S929), it is regarded that there is no difference in the advertising effect regardless of which advertising image is selected. In this case, the CPU 252 selects the first advertisement image as advertisement information to be printed (S931).

  FIG. 10 shows processing of a reading routine (S500 in FIG. 4) which is a subroutine of the main routine. In the reading routine, situation information used for advertisement selection is extracted from the manuscript. Details are as follows.

  If there is a reading request (YES in S501), the CPU 252 that executes the reading routine turns off the reading request (S502), starts reading by the image scanner 21 (S503), and initializes the processing variable n to 0. (S504).

  When there is no reading request (NO in S501), the CPU 252 performs OCR processing for extracting characters corresponding to a predetermined item (age, gender, hobby) every time reading of one page is completed (S510, S520) ( S511, S521), the extracted characters are stored as keywords of the nth page (S512, S522). If the page that has been read is not the last page, the CPU 252 increments the variable n by one (S513), stores the keyword of the last page, and notifies the overall control routine of the end of reading (S523). While any page is being read (NO in S510 and NO in S520), the process flow returns directly to the main routine.

  The keyword extracted from the original in such a reading routine is related to the degree of matching P (k) obtained in the above-described effect priority selection routine. For example, when keywords related to food and drink such as dishes and ingredients are extracted, the fitness P (k) of advertisement images related to restaurants and food sales increases.

  FIG. 11 shows the processing of a printing routine (S600 in FIG. 4) which is a subroutine of the main routine. In the print routine, the advertisement image selected for each page in the advertisement selection routine is printed. Each time the paper on which the document image and the advertisement image are printed is discharged, the cumulative number of printed advertisement images is counted up. Details are as follows.

  The CPU 252 functioning as the print processing unit 45 by executing the print routine first checks whether there is a print request (S601). If there is a print request (YES in S601), the CPU 252 turns off the print request (S602), acquires the number N of prints (S603), and initializes both the processing variables n and k to 1 (S604). . Subsequently, the CPU 252 checks whether or not the advertisement print mode is on (S605).

  If the advertisement print mode is not on (NO in S605), the CPU 252 sets the normal print and starts printing (S613, S613). In normal printing, advertisement images are not printed.

  If the advertisement print mode is on (YES in S605), the CPU 252 sets a document image as an image to be printed on the first surface (front surface) of the nth sheet (S606), and sets the second sheet of the nth sheet. The advertisement number selected by the advertisement selection routine is set as an image to be printed on the side (back side) (S607). Then, the CPU 252 registers the set advertisement number in the array A (n) for counting the cumulative number of printed sheets (S608).

  Thereafter, the CPU 252 increments the variable n by 1 (S609), and repeats the processing from step S606 to step S610 until the variable n becomes larger than the number N of prints, thereby setting images to be printed on all sheets. If print images are set for all sheets and n is larger than N, the advertisement print mode designated by the current user is turned off (S611), and printing is started (S612).

  On the other hand, if there is no print request in the first check (NO in S601), the CPU 252 confirms the discharge of the paper (S620). When the sheet is discharged (YES in S620), the CPU 252 extracts the advertisement number from the array A (n) and increments the cumulative number of printed advertisement images. Subsequently, the CPU 252 increments the variable k (S622), and checks whether k is greater than N (S622). If k is greater than N, the discharge of all sheets has been completed, so the CPU 252 notifies the overall control routine of the end of printing (S624). If k is not greater than N, the process returns. If the paper has not been discharged (NO in S620), the process returns.

  In the above embodiment, an example in which advertisement selection is performed inside the image forming apparatus 1 has been described. However, the selection method of the present invention is implemented in a copy service system in which the image forming apparatus and the advertisement server are connected via a network. be able to. There is a system configuration in which an advertisement server selects an advertisement image based on the situation information obtained from the image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus prints the selected advertisement image. The advertisement image data may be transferred from the advertisement server to the image forming apparatus together with the selection result of the advertisement image, or the advertisement image may be stored in the image forming apparatus in advance. Regardless of whether the advertisement image is stored in the advertisement server or the image forming apparatus, it is necessary to select an advertisement so as to achieve the number target.

  In the above-described embodiment, the operation of printing advertisement information when copying a document is illustrated. However, when the image forming apparatus 1 is used as a printer that prints electronic data such as a photograph taken with a digital camera or a document created with a personal computer. By applying the present invention, a plurality of advertisement information can be selectively printed. The target print number may be set without distinguishing between the operation as a copier and the operation as a printer.

1 Image forming device 27 Storage (memory)
c1, c2, c3 Advertising image (advertisement information)
43 Advertising selection section 45 Print processing section

Claims (2)

When the image forming apparatus prints an image on a sheet, the advertisement selecting method selects any one of a plurality of advertisement images as advertisement information to be printed on the sheet.
For each of the plurality of advertisement images, each time the advertisement image is printed, the cumulative number of printed sheets, which is the number of sheets on which the advertisement image is printed, is counted,
The achievement ratio, which is the ratio of the cumulative number of prints to the preset print target number of each of the plurality of advertisement images, and the ratio of the length of the range before the current time in the advertisement period to the length of the predetermined advertisement period For a period elapsed rate of
If any of the plurality of achievement rates corresponding to the plurality of advertising images is smaller than the period elapsed rate, select the advertising image with the lowest achievement rate,
If any of the plurality of achievement rates is greater than the period elapsed rate, selecting at least one of the plurality of advertisement images according to a predetermined procedure for performing an effective advertisement. A featured advertisement selection method. An image forming apparatus that prints an arbitrary image and advertisement information prepared in advance,
An advertisement management unit that stores in a memory a plurality of advertisement images that are individually or collectively input as the advertisement information;
For each of the plurality of advertisement images, a print processing unit that counts the cumulative number of printed sheets that is the number of sheets on which the advertisement image is printed;
The plurality of advertisements based on a print target number set in advance for each of the plurality of advertisement images and a cumulative number of prints of each advertisement image counted by the print processing unit in a predetermined advertisement period. An advertisement selection unit that selects at least one of the images,
The advertisement selection unit
An achievement rate that is a ratio of the cumulative number of printed sheets to a print target number of each of the plurality of advertisement images, and a period elapsed rate that is a ratio of a length of a range before the current time in the advertisement period to the length of the advertisement period. Seeking
If any of the plurality of achievement rates corresponding to the plurality of advertising images is smaller than the period elapsed rate, select the advertising image with the lowest achievement rate,
If any of the plurality of achievement rates is greater than the period elapsed rate, selecting at least one of the plurality of advertisement images according to a predetermined procedure for performing an effective advertisement. An image forming apparatus.

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