JP7434521B2 - Image processing device and its control method and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a control method thereof, and a program.

As an image processing device, an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) is known, which includes an image reading device, a printing device, and a communication device, and has image processing applications such as copying, printing, and transmitting scanned images. Such an MFP is generally used by a plurality of users, and is equipped with a user authentication function for personalizing functions by limiting the functions used for each authenticated user. That is, in the MFP, a password (PIN number) is set for each user for the MFP, and the user is authenticated by requesting the user to input the password when logging in.

Additionally, there is a known simple login function that displays a registered user's icon on the MFP's menu screen, etc., and when the icon is selected, a login screen customized for the user is displayed. . With the simple login function, there is no need to enter a password, and the user can log in to the MFP simply by pressing the icon associated with the user. Patent Document 1 describes, as a function of the simple login function, a method of automatically registering a user by using a job owner name added to a print job instructed to be printed from a PC as a user ID for MFP user identification. Proposed.

JP2012-254618A

However, the above conventional technology has the following problems. In the above conventional technology, in the login method of logging in the selected user to the information processing device after selecting the user from the user selection screen, control is assumed in which each user is required to input a password uniformly in order to log in. do not have. On the other hand, if password entry is required, it becomes necessary to register each user's password, and it becomes necessary to require all users to perform cumbersome operations. Therefore, when inputting a password is required, it is an issue to provide a method for easily performing registration work and the like. In addition, with the above simple login function, users who have set a password are required to enter a password when logging in, but users who have not set a password are not required to enter a password. Allows you to log in. Therefore, there is room for improvement in security with the current simple login function.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and improves security by suitably requesting the setting of authentication information according to the setting status of authentication information in user authentication, and improves security and improves authentication-related settings. The purpose is to provide a mechanism that reduces user operations.

The present invention provides an image processing apparatus, comprising: a reception means for accepting a user operation corresponding to a login request, which is an operation on the image processing apparatus;
a configuration means for configuring to force setting of authentication information;
and a control means for controlling to display a setting screen for setting the authentication information when the user operation is received in a state where the setting means is set to force the setting of the authentication information. Features.

According to the present invention, security can be improved and user operations related to authentication can be reduced by suitably requesting the setting of authentication information in accordance with the setting status of authentication information during user authentication.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram related to an MFP 101 according to an embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an MFP 101 according to an embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a software configuration of an MFP 101 according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of user management in a user authentication unit 302 according to an embodiment. 3 is a flowchart of user authentication according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a user authentication screen according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a DB for operational settings for PIN numbers and passwords according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a PIN setting UI according to an embodiment. A diagram showing the flow of automatic user creation by submitting a print job according to an embodiment FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table for managing whether or not registration without setting a password is allowed for each registration entity according to an embodiment. 5 is a flowchart for checking mandatory items for a password during user registration according to an embodiment.

An embodiment of the present invention is shown below. The individual embodiments described below will be helpful for understanding various concepts such as general concepts, intermediate concepts, and sub-concepts of the present invention. Further, the technical scope of the present invention is established by the claims, and is not limited by the following individual embodiments.

<System configuration>
An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. First, the system configuration of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. This system includes an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) 101, which is an example of an image processing device, and a PC (Personal Computer) 102, which is an external device. These devices are connected to be able to communicate with each other via the LAN 100. Note that in this embodiment, the system configuration includes one MFP 101 and one PC 102, but this is merely an example and is not intended to limit the present invention. For example, a plurality of MFPs and PCs may be included, and other devices may also be included.

The MFP 101 includes a printer, a scanner, and the like, and is capable of printing, copying, scanning, and storing and transmitting scanned documents. The PC 102 can access the MFP 101 and sends a print job to the MFP 101 via a corresponding driver.

<Hardware configuration>
Next, with reference to FIG. 2, the hardware configuration of the MFP 101 according to this embodiment will be described. MFP 101 includes a control unit 200, an operation unit 209, a printer 210, and a scanner 211. Further, the control unit 200 includes a CPU 201, a ROM 202, a RAM 203, an HDD 204, an operation unit I/F 205, a printer I/F 206, a scanner I/F 207, and a network I/F 208.

A control unit 200 including a CPU 201 controls the overall operation of the MFP 101 . The CPU 201 reads a control program stored in the ROM 202 and performs various controls such as reading a document and transmitting image data. The RAM 203 is used as a temporary storage area such as the main memory and work area of the CPU 201. The HDD 204 stores image data and various programs.

The operation unit I/F 205 connects the control unit 200 with an operation unit 209 that functions as a receiving means. Printer I/F 206 connects printer 210 and control unit 200. Image data to be printed by the printer 210 is transferred from the control unit 200 via the printer I/F 206, and is printed on a recording medium by the printer 210. The scanner I/F 207 connects the scanner 211 and the control unit 200. The scanner 211 reads an image on a document, generates image data, and inputs the image data to the control unit 200 via the scanner I/F 207 . Network I/F 208 connects control unit 200 (MFP 101) to LAN 100. The network I/F 208 sends and receives various information to and from external devices on the LAN 100 (for example, receives print jobs from the PC 102).

<Software configuration>
Next, with reference to FIG. 3, the software configuration of the MFP 101 according to this embodiment will be described. The MFP 101 includes a screen display management section 301, a user authentication section 302, a copy 310, a print 311, and a scan and send 312 as software configurations.

The screen display management unit 301 controls the screen displayed on the operation unit 209. A user authentication unit 302 manages a list of users who can use the MFP 101 and provides a UI for user authentication. User authentication section 302 has a simple login function. The simple login function is to display an icon for each user on the operation unit 209, as shown in FIG. screen) is displayed. Note that if the selected user has set a password (PIN number), the user is requested to input the password. In other words, users for whom no password has been set are allowed to log in without being prompted to enter a password. Therefore, in the simple login function according to the present embodiment, it is possible to set whether or not to request the user to input a password, regardless of whether or not the user's password has been set.

The simple login function also includes an automatic registration function that automatically registers login users. The automatic registration function is a function that, when a job is submitted to the image processing apparatus, automatically registers the user corresponding to the user ID included in the job as a login user of the simple login function. Details of the automatic registration function will be described later using FIGS. 9 to 11.

According to this embodiment, when a user is newly registered using the automatic registration function, even if the password (PIN) setting in the simple login function is ON, the user can be newly registered without setting a password. is allowed. Then, when the new user logs in, the user is requested to set a password (S505 in FIG. 5). Also, when the administrator registers a new user, the administrator is allowed to register the user without setting a password. As with the automatic registration function, when the new user logs in for the first time, the user is required to set a password. On the other hand, when a user who is not an administrator manually registers a new user, the user is requested to also set a password at the time of user registration. As described above, in the present invention, if the new user registration method is administrator registration or automatic registration, password setting is not required at the time of new user registration; A password setting is also required at the time of user registration.

Copy 310, print 311, and scan and send 312 are examples of applications that operate on the MFP 101. Copy 310 is an application that executes printing according to image data obtained by reading a document. Print 311 is an application that accepts and holds print jobs submitted from the PC 102, displays a list of jobs submitted by a logged-in user, and allows the user to confirm the contents before printing. Scan and send 312 is an application that sends an image scanned by the scanner 211 to the outside by e-mail or the like.

<User table>
Next, the user table 400 managed by the user authentication section 302 will be described with reference to FIG. 4. The user table shown in FIG. 4 is an example and is not intended to limit the present invention.

The user table 400 defines, for each registered user, a user ID (UID), a personal identification number, a password, authority, an electronic mail address (e-mail), and information on the last login date and time. "uid" is a user name for uniquely identifying a user. The “password” is a character string consisting only of numbers used for user authentication when using the MFP 101 via the operation unit 209. The "password" is a character string used for user authentication when using the MFP 101 via a network. Note that although a term different from that of a PIN number and a password is used here, they are essentially the same, and are authentication information for user authentication. Settings for the use of PIN numbers and passwords are managed in a settings DB as shown in FIG.
“Authority” is information that controls whether or not a function can be operated by the user. Administrator or general is registered in the "authority" information. "e-mail" indicates an e-mail address. “Last login date and time” indicates the date and time when the corresponding user last logged in.

Note that, as shown in FIG. 4, the user whose user ID is "suzuki" has no password set and has not yet logged in, so the "last login date and time" field is also blank.

<User authentication processing procedure>
Next, with reference to FIG. 5, a user authentication processing procedure according to the present embodiment will be described. The processing described below is realized, for example, by the CPU 201 reading a control program stored in the ROM 202 or HDD 204 into the RAM 203 and executing it.

In step S<b>501 , upon receiving a login request from the user to the MFP 101 , the screen display management unit 301 displays an authentication screen provided by the user authentication unit 302 on the operation unit 209 . Note that this screen may be displayed on the display unit of the PC 102 when the user is accessing the MFP 101 via the PC 102, which is an external device. FIG. 6 shows an example of an authentication screen displayed on the operation unit 209 of the MFP 101 according to this embodiment. On the user authentication screen 600, buttons displaying user IDs of users managed by the user authentication unit 302 are displayed in a selectable manner. The user authentication screen 600 is created based on the information in the user table 400 shown in FIG. 4. Therefore, buttons 601 to 603 corresponding to the user IDs registered in the user table 400 are displayed.

Next, in S502, the user authentication unit 302 receives the user's selection of buttons 601 to 603 via the user authentication screen 600 displayed on the operation unit 209. When the button is selected in S502, the process advances to S503, and the user authentication unit 302 determines whether or not a password has not been set. Specifically, if the user's password corresponding to the selected button is not defined in the user table 400, the user authentication unit 302 determines that the password has not been set. If the password has not been set, the process advances to S504, and if it has been set, the process advances to S508.

In S504, the user authentication unit 302 determines whether to force a user who has not yet set a password to set a password. Specifically, the user authentication unit 302 refers to the setting table 700 shown in FIG. 7 in order to determine whether to force the setting of a password. In the setting table 700, values are set for each of a plurality of setting items 701 to 704. In the setting item 701, it is set whether or not to force the setting of a password. In the setting item 702, it is set whether or not to permit the use of a default password. In the setting item 703, the minimum number of characters of the password is set. In the example shown in FIG. 7, it is set to eight characters. In the setting item 704, a password validity period is set. Note that these setting information can be set by, for example, an administrator, and may be set in advance by displaying a screen on the operation unit 209 for accepting these settings. Although the setting screen is not shown, it may be any screen that allows selection of whether or not to force setting of authentication information (PIN or password). Therefore, the operation unit 209 is an example of a setting means. Further, it is desirable that these setting information be set in advance as default values when the product is shipped from the factory. In the example shown in FIG. 7, 90 days is set. The user authentication unit 302 refers to the setting item 701 and determines whether a setting is made to force setting of a password. If setting a password is to be forced, the process advances to S505; otherwise, the process advances to S507.

In S507, the user authentication unit 302 determines whether this is the first login. Specifically, if the last login date and time of the user is not defined in the user table 400, the user authentication unit 302 determines that it is the first login and proceeds to S505; It is determined that this is not the case, and the process advances to S508.

In S505, the screen display management unit 301 displays a password setting screen on the operation unit 209. FIG. 8 shows a password setting screen 800 displayed on the operation unit 209. The password setting screen 800 includes a password input area 801, a cancel button 802, and an OK button 803. A password is input into the password input area 801 by a user input via a hardware key (not shown) or the like.
If the cancel button 802 is operated with the password entered in the password input area 801, the screen of the operation unit 209 returns to the screen before displaying the password setting screen 800 without registering the password. On the other hand, when the OK button 803 is operated with the password entered in the password input area 801, the input password is confirmed. According to this embodiment, when logging in for the first time, etc., the password setting screen 800 is displayed in S505 to request setting of a password. As a result, even if the registration subject omits the setting of a PIN number, etc. at the time of user registration in the automatic registration using the simple login function described later, it is possible to request the setting of the PIN number, etc. at the time of subsequent login (S505 ).

Returning to the explanation of FIG. 5. In S506, the user authentication unit 302 stores the password received via the password setting screen 800 in the user table 400, and the process proceeds to S508. Note that if it is determined in S507 that this is not the first login and the process moves to S508, the input of the password is not required in the login process. In such a case, a password is not set at the first login, and the user is not required to enter a password or password at the time of subsequent login. Note that the present invention is not limited to such control, and may also perform control such as prohibiting not setting a password or the like at the time of first login.

In addition, when forcing the setting of a PIN number (password), control is performed so that the "OK" button 803 cannot be selected unless a PIN is entered in the PIN input area 801 on the PIN setting screen 800. You may.

Finally, in S508, the user authentication unit 302 executes login processing according to the set password, and ends the processing. The user authentication unit 302 requests the user to input authentication information such as a set password during login processing. In the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not it is the first login when the password setting is not forced (S507), and the process is branched; however, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, settings and controls may be provided to directly proceed to the login process of S508 when setting a password is not forced. In this case, the user authentication unit 302 does not request input of a personal identification number (password) during the login process. Further, the user authentication unit 302 may control the user authentication unit 302 so as not to permit the user to log in if the password is not set, even though it is essential to set the password during the login process. Note that such control may be switched according to setting information.

<User registration when submitting a print job>
Next, user registration when submitting a print job according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 11. The user authentication unit 302 provides multiple methods for user registration. For example, the user authentication unit 302 provides a function of performing user registration via an interface displayed on the operation unit 209 or an interface provided via the Web (input from the operation unit UI/Web UI). In addition, the user authentication unit 302 includes a function included in the simple login function, such as a function to perform user registration by importing user data, and a function to automatically perform user registration by using user information included in a print job received from an external device such as the PC 102. Provides the ability to register.

Below, the control and processing procedure of the automatic registration function in the simple login function will be explained in detail. According to this embodiment, the entities that can be registered can be made different depending on the registration method. For example, all users can register themselves through "input from the operation unit UI/Web UI." Furthermore, a user with "administrator" authority can register users by "input from the operation unit UI/Web UI" and "importing user data." "Automatic registration using user information included in a print job" is automatically performed by the user authentication unit 302 without the user performing an explicit registration operation. Note that the registration procedure when submitting a print job will be described later using FIG. 11.

Now, with reference to FIG. 9, "automatic registration using user information included in a print job" will be described. A print job submitted from the PC 102 to the MFP 101 is given submitter information. The print 311 that has received the print job transmits user information to the user authentication unit 302 before processing the held print. The user authentication unit 302 registers the user using the received user information as a user ID. When registering a user, items (required items) that are not allowed to overlap with other users are checked (for example, user ID).

In the setting table 700 shown in FIG. 7, if it is set to force the setting of a password, the password becomes an essential item. However, the password must be set by the user. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the user authentication unit 302 controls whether or not it is necessary to provide a password at the time of registration operation for each registered entity, according to the table 1000 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, the types of registered entities include "administrator," "general user," and "system." In Figure 10, when the "administrator" and "system" are the registration subjects, the setting is to allow automatic registration without setting a PIN code, and when the "general user" is the registration subject, Automatic registration is disabled. Note that these settings can be made by, for example, an administrator, and are made in advance by displaying a screen on the operation unit 209 for accepting these settings.

Referring to FIG. 11, a processing procedure for automatically registering the simple login function when receiving a print job in this embodiment will be described. The processing described below is realized, for example, by the CPU 201 reading a control program stored in the ROM 202 or HDD 204 into the RAM 203 and executing it.

In S1101, the user authentication unit 302 accepts a user's registration request. Subsequently, in S1102, the user authentication unit 302 determines whether the registered entity requires setting of a password. For example, the user authentication unit 302 refers to the authority of the user, the setting table 700, and the table 1000, and determines whether the user is a user who needs to set a password. If setting a password is not necessary (if the registered entity is an "administrator" or "system"), the process advances to S1103, and if necessary (if the registered entity is a "general user"), the process advances to S1104.

In step S1103, the user authentication unit 302 automatically registers the user as a new registered user in the user table 400 using the user information included in the print job without setting a password, and ends the process. do. On the other hand, in S1104, the user authentication unit 302 executes error processing without registering the user, and ends the process. In error processing, the PC 102 may be notified that the user corresponding to the user information included in the print job cannot be registered.

As described above, the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment stores setting information indicating whether to force the setting of authentication information for each user. Furthermore, upon receiving a login request from a user, the image processing apparatus displays a settings screen for setting authentication information on the display if the stored setting information indicates that setting of authentication information is mandatory. and have users set their credentials. Further, the image processing apparatus executes login processing according to the setting status of authentication information for the user. Further, when automatically registering the simple login function when receiving a print job, the image processing apparatus controls whether or not to automatically register a user according to the authority of the user who is the registration subject. As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to suitably request the setting of authentication information in accordance with the setting status of the authentication information during user authentication, thereby reducing user operations related to authentication while improving security. can do. Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, even in the case of the simple login function, it is possible to force all users to set authentication information.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention provides a system or device with a program that implements one or more of the functions of the embodiments described above via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or device reads and executes the program. This can also be achieved by processing. It can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

100: LAN, 101: MFP, 102: PC, 200: Control unit, 201: CPU, 202: ROM, 203: RAM, 204: HDD, 205: Operation unit I/F, 206: Printer I/F, 207: Scanner I/F, 208: Network I/F, 209: Operation unit 209, 210: Printer, 211: Scanner

Claims (17)

An image processing device,
a reception means for accepting a user operation corresponding to a login request, which is an operation on the image processing device;
a configuration means for configuring to force setting of authentication information;
a control unit that performs control to display a setting screen for setting the authentication information when the user operation is received in a state where the setting unit is set to force the setting of the authentication information;
An image processing device comprising: The control means is characterized in that, when the user operation is received in a state where the setting means is not set to force the setting of the authentication information, the control means performs control such that the setting screen for setting the authentication information is not displayed. The image processing device according to claim 1. The control means displays a setting screen for setting the authentication information when the setting means has not set forcing the setting of the authentication information and the user operation corresponds to an initial login request. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus performs control. The control means does not display a setting screen for setting the authentication information when the setting means is not set to force the setting of the authentication information and the user operation does not correspond to an initial login request. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus performs control. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising an authentication unit that executes a login process based on the user's authentication information. If the setting means is not set to force setting of the authentication information, the authentication means may prompt a user for whom the authentication information has not been set to input the authentication information in the login process. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein login is permitted without request. If the setting means is not set to force setting of the authentication information and the user operation does not correspond to an initial login request, the authentication means is configured to detect a user for whom the authentication information is not set. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein login is permitted without requesting input of the authentication information in the login process. A claim characterized in that, when the setting means is set to force setting of the authentication information, the authentication means does not permit login to a user for whom the authentication information is not set. The image processing device according to any one of Items 5 to 7 . The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8 , further comprising determining means for determining whether the user operation received by the accepting means is a user's first login request. . The determination means determines whether the login request received by the reception means is the user's first login request based on whether there is a login history of the user corresponding to the login request. The image processing device according to claim 9 . When the setting means is not set to force setting of the authentication information, and the determining means determines that the user operation accepted by the accepting means is the user's first login request. 11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein a setting screen for setting the authentication information is displayed. When the setting means is not set to force setting of the authentication information, and the determining means determines that the user operation received by the accepting means is not the user's first login request, The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 11 , wherein the image processing apparatus executes control not to display a setting screen for setting the authentication information. 13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the accepting means accepts a selection operation for selecting an icon corresponding to a user. 14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 13 , further comprising a management unit that manages authentication information of a user corresponding to the icon. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 14 , wherein the authentication information includes at least a password. A method for controlling an image processing device, the method comprising:
a reception step in which the reception means receives a user operation corresponding to a login request, which is an operation on the image processing device;
a setting step in which the setting means sets to force setting of authentication information;
a control step in which the control means performs control to display a setting screen for setting the authentication information when the control means receives the user operation in a state where setting of the authentication information is set to be forced in the setting step;
A method for controlling an image processing device, the method comprising: A program for causing a computer to function as each means of the image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 15 .

Images