JP2005141361A - Print processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print processing system for surely executing charging by notifying the completion of print when the printing operation of a pay part is completed. <P>SOLUTION: This text document file is configured by adding a marker to identify that there is a charge to the description of a pay entity part in the text document file, and a printing device 104 notifies the start of print to an authenticated charging server 102, and notifies the completion of print to the authenticated charging server 102 when the printing operation of the pay entity part added with the marker is completed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print processing system capable of printing a file on a network.

In recent years, it has become possible to easily print characters and images with high quality by improving the performance and price of printing apparatuses. In addition, the development of Internet technology has made it easier to obtain the data that you want to print. The description of the homepage includes HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and XHTML (extensible).
As represented by HyperText Markup Language), a markup language that expresses a document structure with tags is used, and various information can be easily obtained by browsing a home page.

  However, printing of valuable value data, for example, printing of a copyrighted work or a talent photo file, does not allow unlimited printing, but requires some limitation such as billing. The billing timing should be when printing is completed, not when data is downloaded, unlike when downloading to a personal computer (PC) or mobile phone because jams may occur during printing. is there.

  (Patent Document 1) proposes to charge by notifying a server that printing has been successful in a system for acquiring and printing print data of a server. In this system, the success of printing is notified when there is no printing failure such as a jam.

In addition, other methods for detecting completion of printing include a method in which the host computer finishes transferring the print data to the printer, a method in which the printer internal buffer is released, and a method for predicting the printing time. However, these do not accurately represent the completion of printing and cannot deal with jams. As another method, (Patent Document 2) proposes a method in which a print completion confirmation mark is printed on the last line and read by a reading device to detect the completion of printing.
JP 2002-14796 A (18th page, 33rd stage-20th page, 37th stage) JP-A-3-34881 (2nd page, 4th stage)

  The method for detecting the completion of printing as described above has a time gap between the actual printing completion of a necessary portion and the time when the printing is judged to be completed. That is, although it is not specified in (Patent Document 1), it is clear that the printing is judged to be completed when the paper is normally ejected. In (Patent Document 2), printing is performed after printing a necessary portion. The completion of printing is determined by reading the mark.

  In such a printing completion detection method, when printing of a necessary part is completed, an action that forcibly interrupts the notification of printing completion, for example, forcibly generating a jam, It is impossible to take measures against actions such as disconnecting or forcibly disconnecting the network. If such a forced print canceling action is possible, even if an attempt is made to charge for paid print data, it is possible to illegally escape from the charge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a print processing system capable of reliably charging by notifying the completion of printing when a printing operation for a paid part is completed.

  In order to solve the above problems, a print processing system according to the present invention stores a content including a text document file described in a markup language and a printable file such as an image file linked in the text document file. And a data receiving means connected to the server via the network and acquiring the content from the server, a printing means for printing the content acquired by the data receiving means, and a printing means if the content printing is provided for a fee In a print processing system configured with authentication and charging means for performing authentication and charging of a user who has requested printing by the text document file, if the content printing is charged, the text document file is a charged entity part in the text document file. A marker identifying the charge is added to the description. The printing means sends a print start notification means for notifying the authentication charging means of the start of printing and a printing completion to the authentication charging means at the time when the printing operation of the charged entity part to which the marker is added is completed. And a print completion notifying means for notifying.

  According to the print processing system of the present invention, it is possible to reliably charge by notifying the completion of printing at the time when the printing operation of the paid portion is completed, and it is possible to prevent a charge omission due to unauthorized forcible cancellation of printing. A simple print processing system can be realized.

  The invention of claim 1 of the present application is a server for storing contents including a text document file described in a markup language and a printable file such as an image linked in the text document file, and the server connected by a network. A data receiving means for acquiring content from the server, a printing means for printing the content acquired by the data receiving means, and a user who has requested printing by the printing means if content printing is provided for a fee In the print processing system configured with the authentication / billing means for performing authentication and billing, the text document file is charged for the description of the charged entity part in the text document file when the content printing is charged. Is added, and the printing means A print start notifying means for notifying the authentication charging means, and a print completion notifying means for notifying the authentication charging means of the completion of printing at the time when the printing operation of the charged entity part to which the marker is added is completed. This is a print processing system characterized by the fact that it is possible to reliably charge by notifying the completion of printing when the printing operation of the paid part is completed, and it is possible to prevent omissions due to illegal forced printing suspension A simple print processing system can be realized.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the authentication / billing unit exits from the print completion waiting state and requests the print when the print completion notification cannot be received within a predetermined time from the reception of the print start notification. Individual information that can identify the user who has received, the cumulative number of print start notifications received and the total number of print completion notifications received for that user's paid content, and the received individual information and print start notifications received If it is determined that the user has intentionally canceled the printing process based on the total number of times received and the total number of times the print completion notification has been received, and the fee-based content of the user is The print processing system is characterized in that the print request is restricted, and the cumulative number of print start notifications received for paid content and the print completion notification received. By taking the number of times of history, when the printing of paid content is judged to have been stopped illegally, so as not to perform the authentication for the print request of the subsequent paid content. In this way, even for the act of forcibly obstructing the notification of the completion of printing before the paid part is printed, by restricting the printing to the addict of fraud by analyzing the frequency, etc. Therefore, it is possible to realize a print processing system capable of preventing an increase in damage due to charging omission due to illegal forced forced gaze.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a print processing system as an embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the print processing system according to the present embodiment includes a data server 101 storing data, an authentication / billing server 102, a host device 103 on the client side, and a printing device 104. The data server 101, the authentication / billing server 102, the host device 103, and the printing device 104 are each connected to the Internet.

  The data server 101 is a server that stores content composed of a text document file described in a markup language such as HTML or XHTML, an image file that is linked in the text document file, and the like. The number of data servers 101 is not necessarily one, and the text document file and the image file may be stored in different data servers. The authentication / billing server 102 may be a server in which different functions are assigned to authentication and billing, or the data server 101 may be used.

  The host device 103 only needs to have a function of specifying a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that is the location of content on the Internet, and may be a personal computer or an Internet-compatible television. However, in the form of processing after accumulating all the contents in the host device 103, secondary use of the contents becomes possible easily, which may cause a problem in billing. Therefore, the pull printing form in which the printing apparatus 104 with relatively small memory resources accesses the data server 101 and acquires necessary contents each time is more suitable.

  When printing paid content, the host device 103 acquires the URL of the text document file to be printed stored in the data server 101 by browsing the Internet or the like. The host device 103 transfers identification information that can identify the user to the authentication / billing server 102. The authentication billing server 102 authenticates the user and notifies the host device 103 of the authentication result. When authenticated, access to the data server 101 by the user is permitted, and when not authenticated, it is not permitted.

  If authenticated, the host device 103 transfers the URL of the text document file to be printed to the printing device 104 with the authentication result. The printing apparatus 104 requests the data server 101 for access permission by adding the authentication result to the URL of the desired text document file. If the authentication contents match, the data server 101 permits access from the printing apparatus 104, and the printing apparatus 104 can obtain a desired text document file.

  The printing apparatus 104 analyzes the description contents of the text document file described in the markup language, and if a link to the image file is pasted in the text document file, the URL to the link destination for the data server 101 is set. Request access permission with authentication result. If the authentication matches, the data server 101 permits access from the printing apparatus 104, and the printing apparatus 104 can obtain a desired image file.

The printing apparatus 104 generates print data based on the acquired text document file and image file and performs printing. When printing is completed, the printing apparatus 104 notifies the authentication / billing server 102 of the completion of printing together with the authentication result, and the authentication / billing server 102 charges and prohibits access to the data server 101. Since the present invention focuses on a method for detecting completion of printing, the specific method and procedure for authentication and accounting are not limited to the above method.

  FIG. 2 shows a system configuration diagram of the printing apparatus 104. As shown in FIG. 2, the printing apparatus 104 includes a system management unit 201 that manages the entire system of the printing apparatus 104, a communication management unit 202 that communicates with an external network (such as the Internet), and markup such as HTML and XHTML. A text document analysis unit 203 that analyzes a text document file described in a language, an image data generation unit 204 that generates image data, and a head data generation unit 205 that generates head data suitable for an actual print head are provided.

  The text document analysis unit 203 further includes a parser unit 206 that analyzes the syntax of the text document file, and a layout unit 207 that determines the layout on the printing paper based on the analysis result of the parser unit 206. The image data generation unit 204 further includes a rasterization unit 208 that creates a bitmap development image according to the layout determined by the layout unit 207, and a decoding unit 209 that decodes image file data. In an actual system, blocks for performing job management and memory management are required, but are omitted in the figure.

  Hereinafter, the processing flow of the printing apparatus 104 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3.

  First, the printing apparatus 104 acquires a text document file described in a markup language via the communication management unit 202 (STEP 300). Then, the parser unit 206 analyzes the syntax of the acquired text document file (STEP 301), the layout unit 207 adjusts the layout to fit on the printing paper, and generates a display list including the adjusted layout information ( (STEP 302). In the display list, position coordinates of objects such as characters, graphics, and images, object-specific information, and the like are described. In the image display list, not the entity of the image file but the URL where the image file is located is described. When the layout for at least one page is determined, the display list is transferred to the image data generation unit 204.

  The image data generation unit 204 acquires the band memory (STEP 303), analyzes the display list, and extracts objects included in the band memory (STEP 304). Next, the type of the object is determined (STEP 305), and if the object is not an image, the rasterizing unit 208 performs the rasterizing process on the band memory as it is (STEP 308). On the other hand, if the object is an image, the image file is obtained by accessing the data server 101 based on the URL (STEP 306), decoded by the decoder unit 209 (STEP 307), and then rasterized to the band memory by the rasterizing unit 208 in band units. Rasterization processing is performed (STEP 308).

  The rasterized band data is transferred to the head data generation unit 205 (STEP 309), and it is determined whether the next band is necessary (STEP 310). If the next band is necessary, the process repeats from the acquisition of the band memory (STEP 303), and if not necessary, the process is terminated (STEP 311).

The head data generation unit 205 converts the band data into head data suitable for the actual print head structure. The conversion to head data is that rasterized image data is generally expressed in full color of about 8 bits (RGB) for each color of RGB (Red-Green-Blue), and this is represented by CMY (Cyan-Magenta-) which is an ink color. Yellow) or CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-blackK) color conversion processing, pseudo gradation processing such as dithering and error diffusion to reduce the number of gradations that can be expressed by the head, and physical head resolution Conversion processing to multi-pass scanning head data for obtaining the above print resolution.

  Of these, conversion to multipath head data will be described with reference to FIG. Assuming that the image data is 1200 dpi and the print head is 300 dpi, each scan pass is shifted four times by 1200 dpi in the sub-scanning direction. 1200 dpi printing is possible. At this time, the head data is data obtained by thinning image data lines every three lines. Note that the multi-pass scanning method itself is not particularly limited in the present invention.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of a text document file of paid content. FIG. 4A shows an image after printing. In the paid content in this example, the truly valuable part (the actual part to be charged) is displayed in the image xxx. It is assumed that there is only a portion of xxx, and there is nothing particularly worthy for other header portions and footer portions (for example, title, date, data provider information, etc.).

  FIGS. 5B and 5C show examples of the text document file of the paid content expressed in HTML. In order to specify the valuable value portion in the text document file, a tag as a marker for identifying a charge of <charge> </ charge> is defined in FIG. 5B, and the same is applied in FIG. 5C. Defines an attribute as a marker of charge = “on”. In either of FIGS. 5B and 5C, the value portion can be specified and expressed, and either method may be used.

  FIG. 5D shows an example in which the text document file shown in FIG. 5B or FIG. 5C is converted into a display list by the layout generation unit 207. The upper part of the display list describes items common to each object, and the lower part describes information specific to each object type. In the display list, information for identifying whether the object file is paid or free is described. In other words, the layout generation unit 207 describes that there is a charge in the display list if there is a <charge> </ charge> tag or charge = “on” attribute in the text document file, and it is free otherwise. Is described. Therefore, in the text document file in the example of FIG. 5B or FIG. 5C, information regarding charge or free can be set for each object as shown in the display list of FIG.

  Next, rasterizing processing by the rasterizing unit 208 will be described using the example of FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, rasterization is performed in band units based on the display list. The rasterization process for each band is performed in order to save memory resources, and is normally performed in printers that are commonly used at home such as inkjet printers other than page printers. With the display list and band processing, it is easy to know where the object is in the band. For example, if a paid object is included in each line of each band, 1 indicates that the object is not included. The identification information can be easily stored. For example, if this identification information is represented by an array C in which the number of lines of the band is the number of elements, and the element number (= line number) is represented by Y, in the example of FIG. 6, bands 1, 5 and 6 include paid objects. Therefore, the array C [Y] is all 0, the band 2 is Y = 0 to a and C [Y] = 0, the Y = a + 1 to b is C [Y] = 1, and the band 3 is the array C [Y]. Y] is all 1, band 4 is C [Y] = 1 when Y = 0 to d, and C [Y] = 0 when Y = d + 1 to e. In this way, it is possible to determine whether a fee is charged or not for each line.

Next, a printing start detection method by the printing apparatus 104 will be described with reference to the example of FIG. In FIG. 7, shaded portions represent pay objects. The value of the array C [Y] indicating whether or not the pay object is included in the line is as shown in the figure. When performing multi-pass scanning based on this print data, paid objects are not included in the first pass and second pass scanning, and charged objects are included from the third pass. Therefore, if the authentication charging server 102 is notified of the start of printing at the same time as the start of the third pass, it is possible to accurately know the start of printing of the pay object. Note that the printing start can be the printing start of the entire content, not the printing start of the paid object. In this case, accuracy is lost, but there is no functional problem. This printing start notification is performed by the system management unit 201 of the printing apparatus 104.

  Next, a method for detecting completion of printing by the printing apparatus 104 will be described using the example of FIG. In FIG. 8, shaded portions represent paid objects. When C [Y] is examined, the pay object is included in the first to third passes, and the pay object is not included in the fourth pass. Therefore, at the same time as the start of the fourth pass, it is only necessary to notify the authentication / billing server 102 of the completion of printing of the pay object. This notification of printing completion is performed by the system management unit 201 of the printing apparatus 104. As described above, in this embodiment, since it is possible to determine whether or not a pay object is included for each print pass, in combination with the above-described print start detection method, a print operation start for a pay object in units of print passes, Completion can be reliably detected. The authentication / billing server 102 performs billing at the timing when the pay object print completion notification is received, so that even if the printing is illegally stopped at the footer portion, it is possible to reliably charge.

  Next, a description will be given of a print processing system capable of adding a print restriction to an act of forcibly obstructing a print completion notification before printing of a paid portion of content is completed. As shown in FIG. 9, if printing is illegally stopped before printing of the paid object is completed, charging is not possible because completion of printing of the paid object is not detected. The print result in this case is the result that the end of the paid object is faint, but if you use it or cut off only the normal part of the printed matter, there is no problem in practical use You may be able to use it without any problems.

  Therefore, the authentication / billing server 102 starts the timer operation when receiving the start of printing of the paid object, and waits for the paid object to be printed. The authentication billing server 102 releases the waiting state and prints the pay object of the user as a history of the use state of the user based on the authentication information when the print completion of the pay object cannot be received even after a predetermined time has elapsed. Information on the total number of received requests and information on the total number of received paid object prints are stored. Here, the fixed time does not require a particularly accurate time, and may be more than the time required for printing almost common sense. When the paid object has been normally printed, the cumulative number of paid object print requests and the total number of paid object print completions are counted up. However, when printing is canceled halfway, the cumulative number of received pay object print requests is counted up, but the total number of paid object print completions does not change. If it is determined from the information on the cumulative number of received print requests and the cumulative number of received print completions that the print process has been illegally interrupted, the user will respond to subsequent paid object print requests. By adding a restriction that authentication is not performed by the authentication / billing server 102, it is possible to prevent unauthorized printing from being expanded. As a fraud determination method, a method for determining fraud when the ratio between the cumulative number of received print requests and the cumulative number of received print completions is equal to or greater than a certain value, or the cumulative number of received print requests (= the total number of received print requests). A method may be considered in which it is determined that the number of times of printing is equal to or greater than a certain number of times.

The print processing system of the present invention is useful as a system for charging for printing of a file on a network, and is particularly suitable as a print processing system for preventing an omission of charging due to illegal forced printing stop.

1 is a system configuration diagram of a print processing system as an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a system configuration diagram of the printing apparatus of FIG. The flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the printing apparatus of FIG. Explanatory drawing of multi-pass printing by the printing apparatus of FIG. Diagram showing an example of paid content Explanatory drawing of the band process by the printing apparatus of FIG. Explanatory drawing about the detection method of the printing start of a paid object by the printing apparatus of FIG. Explanatory drawing about the detection method of the printing completion of the paid object by the printing apparatus of FIG. Explanatory drawing of paid object printing stop status

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Data server 102 Authentication billing server 103 Host apparatus 104 Printing apparatus 201 System management part 202 Communication management part 203 Text document analysis part 204 Image data generation part 205 Head data generation part 206 Parser part 207 Layout generation part 208 Rasterization part 209 Decoder part

Claims (2)

A server for storing content consisting of a text document file described in a markup language and a printable file such as an image file linked in the text document file;
Data receiving means connected to the server via a network and acquiring the content from the server;
Printing means for printing the content acquired by the data receiving means;
An authentication charging unit for performing authentication and charging of a user who has requested printing by the printing unit when printing of the content is provided for a fee;
In the print processing system composed of
The text document file is obtained by adding a marker for identifying that there is a charge to the description of the charged entity part in the text document file when the content printing is charged.
The printing unit notifies the authentication / billing unit of the completion of printing when the printing start notifying unit for notifying the authentication / billing unit of printing start and the printing operation of the charged entity part to which the marker is added are completed. Printing completion notification means
A print processing system. When the authentication billing unit cannot receive the print completion notification within a predetermined time from the reception of the print start notification, the authentication billing unit exits from the print completion waiting state and can identify the user who has requested the printing, and the user The cumulative number of print start notifications and the total number of print completion notifications received for paid content are stored, and based on the stored individual information, the total number of print start notifications, and the total number of print completion notifications. The claim, wherein if it is determined that the user intentionally cancels the printing process and the fee-paying content is illegally printed, a restriction is imposed on the user-paid content printing request. The print processing system according to 1.

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