JP2006227795A - Network print system equipped with radio lan - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print system in network system equipped with a radio LAN, the print system which has an increased processing speed thereby enabling a user with mobile equipment coming to receive a print output to receive the output immediately. <P>SOLUTION: The print system is equipped with a network printer which is communicatively connected through a predetermined network to a host computer and which is adaptive to a radio LAN. The print system is characterized in that it is provided with a means which uses a means for sensing that a user who has performed print output from mobile equipment mounted with the radio LAN to the printer is approaching the printer while carrying mobile equipment to verify that the print for print output performed by the user is the print job transmitted by the user approaching the printer, and a means for changing the sequence of processing of the printer job in a hard disk device inside the printer according to a distance to the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a network printing system equipped with a wireless LAN, and more particularly to a printing apparatus equipped with a wireless LAN that can process and print information such as characters, graphics, and raster images based on information from a host device via the network. It is.

  Conventionally, in printing via a LAN, for example, when a plurality of users send print jobs to a printing apparatus, the print jobs are placed in a print queue in the order in which they arrived at the printing apparatus, and printing processing is performed in that order.

On the other hand, in the case of printing from a mobile device equipped with a wireless LAN function, similarly, print jobs received by a printing apparatus equipped with a wireless LAN function are sequentially placed in a print queue, and printing processing is performed in the order placed ( (See Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-259089 A

  However, in the above conventional example, the characteristic unique to a mobile device that can be used while moving is not exhibited effectively. This is because a user carrying a mobile device may approach the printing device as it is, and if there are a large number of queues in the print queue, the front of the printing device will be used until his print job is processed. I have to wait at.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a network printing system including a wireless LAN in which the processing speed of the printing system in the network system including the wireless LAN is improved.

  Therefore, in order to achieve the above object, the network printing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.

  That is, in a network printing system communicably connected to a host computer via a predetermined network and provided with a wireless LAN, a user who performs print output from a mobile device equipped with a wireless LAN to the printing device Means for verifying that the print job which the user has printed out is a printer job transmitted by the user who has approached the printing apparatus by means of detecting that the printing apparatus has been approached by carrying the printer And a means for changing the order in which the printer jobs are processed in the hard disk device inside the printing apparatus according to the distance that the user approaches.

  According to the present invention, in a printing system including a network printing apparatus that is communicably connected to a host computer via a predetermined network and that supports a wireless LAN, a print output is output from the mobile device equipped with the wireless LAN to the printing apparatus. A printer job sent by a user who has approached the printing device by a user who has performed the print output by means of detecting that the user who has performed the mobile device has approached the printing device And a means for changing the order in which the printer job is processed in the hard disk device inside the printing apparatus according to the distance the user approaches. , The processing speed until the user prints the print job sent from the mobile device It is possible to provide a printing system with improved.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are block diagrams that preferably illustrate the configuration of a printing system according to the present embodiment.

  The printing system according to this embodiment includes a network printing apparatus 101 having a wireless LAN and a mobile device 102 that is carried by a user 103 and transmits a print job to the printing apparatus 101.

  A distance A between the printing apparatus 101 and the mobile device 102 carried by the user 103 is defined as a distance A.

  Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the HDD buffer unit in the printing apparatus 101.

  This figure will be described in the flowchart of FIG. 4 below.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a print job transmitted from the mobile device 102 carried by the user 103 to the printing apparatus. The mobile device recognition header 301 is a header for determining whether the mobile device that is approaching the job transmission source mobile device is the same, and is attached to the head of the print job 302.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows an operation procedure when a print job is transmitted from the mobile device 102 to the printing apparatus 101 and the user 103 approaches the printing apparatus 101 to pick up a printed matter. This is a flowchart, which will be described below. Further, the flowchart of FIG. 4 is a view for suitably explaining FIGS. 1 and 2.

  In the drawing, the step is denoted as S.

  First, a print job is transmitted from the mobile device 102 carried by the user 103 to the printing apparatus 101. (Step 401) The printing apparatus 101 receives this print job, analyzes the header, and knows that the print job is transmitted from the mobile device 102. (Step 402) Subsequently, the distance between the mobile device 102 and the printing apparatus 101 is known by calculating the distance from the mobile device 102 from the intensity of the radio wave. Then, the distance is constantly measured to detect whether it is going away or approaching. (Step 403) For example, assume that the mobile device 102 carried by the user 103 is approaching. The buffer in FIG. 2 has priority, and the print job of the user 103 is queue 4. However, as the printing apparatus 101 is approached, the priority of the queue increases and the priority becomes highest in the closest state. (Step 404, Step 405) When the printing apparatus 101 keeps the highest priority for a certain period of time (the radio wave intensity continues to be detected as the maximum intensity for a certain period of time), it is developed and printed out by the memory development unit. The process ends (step 406).

  Next, the configuration of the image processing control unit inside the printing apparatus 101 is shown in FIG.

  Wireless LAN circuit unit 501, control unit 502 for controlling the inside of the image processing control unit and analyzing commands, an image development unit 503 for developing the received print job, a bus 504 inside the image processing control unit, and the received print job A memory that temporarily stores and stores a program for controlling the image processing control unit, a buffer unit 505 for determining the priority order as a print queue, and for storing status information of the image processing control unit in advance 506, an engine interface unit 507 for exchanging data signals with the transport system control unit, and an engine interface bus 508.

  Note that a central processing unit (CPU) is used as the control unit 502, and the control unit 502 performs overall operation control of the apparatus such as information reading / writing processing for each component.

  The memory unit 506 is a nonvolatile memory.

[Other embodiments]
Next, the present invention will be described with reference to other embodiments having different system configurations.

  In FIG. 1, a print job is directly transmitted and received between the printing apparatus 101 and the mobile device 102 carried by the user 103 via a wireless LAN. However, a print job via a wired LAN in a state where each is connected to the wired LAN. Similar effects can be obtained by transmission and reception. That is, it may be considered that the printing apparatus 101 and the mobile device 102 are each equipped with an interface that can be connected to a wired LAN.

  In the embodiment, the method of changing the priority order in the buffer in the printing apparatus 101 is described. However, by providing a plurality of image expansion units 503 at the end of the buffer, several print jobs having a higher priority order can be obtained. It is also possible to develop the image by the image development unit before the user approaches.

  Further, the output unit of the printing apparatus 101 may be an ink jet printing apparatus, a thermal transfer printing apparatus or the like in addition to the laser printing apparatus. Furthermore, the present invention can be similarly applied to color printing.

  In the embodiment, the wireless LAN is used, but the present invention can also be applied to a case of one-to-one such as Bluetooth, IrDA, and a wireless chip (tag).

  Further, it may be a multi-function device having a copy function and a FAX function.

  Further, the printing apparatus is not limited to a binary output printing apparatus, and may be a multi-value output printing apparatus.

It is a block diagram which shows the outline | summary of the printing system by an Example. 2 is a block diagram of an HDD buffer unit in the printing apparatus 101 according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a print job transmitted from the mobile device 102 carried by the user 103 to the printing apparatus 101 according to the embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure for inquiring of the server 102 after turning on the power of the printing apparatus 101 according to the embodiment and turning on or off the wireless LAN circuit unit in the printing apparatus 101. is there. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an image processing control unit inside the printing apparatus according to an embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Printing apparatus 102 Mobile device 103 User 301 Mobile device recognition header 302 Print job 501 Wireless LAN circuit unit 502 Control unit 503 Image development unit 504 Internal bus 505 Buffer unit 506 Memory unit 507 Engine interface unit 508 Engine interface bus

Claims (3)

  In a network printing system communicably connected to a host computer via a predetermined network and provided with a wireless LAN, a user who has performed printing output from a mobile device equipped with a wireless LAN to the printing device carries the mobile device. And means for checking that the print job that the user has printed out is a printer job transmitted by the user who has approached the printing apparatus by means for detecting that the printing apparatus has been approached, and Network printing with wireless LAN, characterized in that it comprises means for changing the order in which printer jobs are processed in a hard disk device inside the printing apparatus according to the distance that the user approaches system. A network printing system comprising the wireless LAN according to claim 1,
While the approximate relative distance is detected based on the radio wave intensity of the wireless LAN emitted from the mobile device carried by the user, the ID of the mobile device is added to the print job that the approaching user previously sent from the mobile device. The print job that the user has printed out from the mobile device is compared with the ID of the user's mobile device approaching at any time, and the print job transmitted by the user's mobile device approaching the printing apparatus The network printing system having a wireless LAN according to claim 1, further comprising means for collating with the wireless LAN. A network printing system comprising the wireless LAN according to claim 1,
The print job collated in claim 2 is temporarily stored in a hard disk in the printing apparatus, and the priority of print job processing is increased depending on the distance between the mobile device carried by the user and the printing apparatus. The network printing system having a wireless LAN according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for lowering.