JP2007041699A - Small storage medium, print service system, and print service device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print service system capable of receiving print service without preparing cash, when an electronic document is brought into a store that offers print service of electronic documents and is printed. <P>SOLUTION: Charge of the print service is paid previously, and encrypted authentication information for authenticating a paid state is previously written in the small storage medium. When an electronic document to be printed is stored in the small storage medium, is brought to a print service store, and is requested to be printed, a print service can be received without payment for pay-as-you-go. Print constraint information (maximum number of sets printable by one day or once, or restriction of print collar or the like) and expiration date may be recorded in the authentication information, and the print service may be made inexpensive. When the print service is received, the electronic document for receiving the print service and the authentication information of this document for print service may be stored in the small storage medium so that print service can be received next time and later. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a small storage medium, a print service system, and a print service apparatus, and more specifically, it is troublesome to pay a price each time a user receives a service in an apparatus that requires a billing process such as a copy, a fax, and a print service. It relates to the technology to save.

For example, copiers are installed in convenience stores and other stores, and copy services are provided for use by an unspecified number of people. Many of these services are provided as part of customer service. It is a business that accompanies etc. For this reason, it is important that fee collection in a copy service can be performed simply and accurately. However, counting the number of copies made by the user and calculating the usage amount in consideration of options such as copy size and color is too time-consuming and may cause errors.
Accordingly, various copy service billing apparatuses corresponding to the purpose of such a copy service have been developed.
For example, in the technique of Patent Document 1, when a predetermined card-like sheet is inserted into a sheet insertion port of a charging apparatus connected to a copying machine, the charging apparatus detects the insertion of the card-like sheet and starts the copying machine. Send a permission signal to enable the copier.
The number of copies for each copy size used by the copying machine is transmitted from the copying machine to the accounting apparatus, and is counted and stored. When the end switch SW is pressed at the end of copying, the fee is calculated from the number of copies for each stored copy size, the usage fee is barcode printed on the card-like sheet, and discharged from the insertion slot.
If the service provider reads the bar code with a predetermined reading device, the fee is immediately registered and displayed, so that the operation of the copy service is managed securely and reliably.
Further, a prepaid card is purchased in advance and can be used by inserting the prepaid card into a copying machine, and the usage fee is deducted from the prepaid card when the copy service ends. As a result, the copy service can be managed in the same manner as the sales of the product.
JP 05-089362 A

However, in the technique of the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, the card-like sheet printed with the usage fee discharged by the copy service as a barcode is brought to the service provider, and the barcode is read by a predetermined reader. You can only pay the usage fee. In this case, it is left to the user's conscientious operation, and the copy service business is not securely managed.
In addition, it takes time and effort for the user to pay again at the cash register after printing.
Moreover, when using a prepaid card, there exists a problem that it takes the effort of purchasing a prepaid card beforehand.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and it is not necessary to prepare cash or a prepaid card or the like when bringing an electronic document to a store that provides an electronic document printing service for printing. An object of the present invention is to provide a small storage medium, a print service system, and a print service apparatus that can receive a print service.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention of the small storage medium according to claim 1 comprises a write control means for writing authentication information in which a unique identifier for identifying the storage medium is encrypted into a write-protected area of the user. It is characterized by having.
The invention according to claim 2 is the small storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the authentication information is an identifier of the storage medium.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the small storage medium according to the first aspect, the authentication information is an identifier of the storage medium and printing restriction information.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the small storage medium according to the third aspect, the print constraint information is a limitation on a maximum number of prints that can be printed in one day or once, a print color, and the like. .
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the small storage medium according to the third or fourth aspect, the print restriction information includes an expiration date of authentication information.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the small storage medium according to the third, fourth, or fifth aspect, the authentication information is stored for each electronic document.
The invention of the printing service system according to claim 7 writes the authentication information in the small storage medium according to any one of claims 1 to 6 when the fee for the printing service is paid, A printing service can be received without paying for each time an electronic document written in a small storage medium is printed.
According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, when the document when the print service is received is electronically stored in the small storage medium according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, The authentication information is written in the small storage medium in accordance with payment of the fee.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, when printing the electronic document stored in the small storage medium according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, the authentication information can be authenticated on the small storage medium. Is stored, the requested printing is performed.

According to the present invention, by using a small storage medium that includes authentication information for receiving a print service consisting of a unique ID, troubles such as user authentication when receiving a print service and payment of charges at a store, etc. Can be omitted.
In addition, by restricting the printing color etc., the side that uses the printing service can purchase a small storage medium at a low price, and the side that provides the printing service as a service that meets the restriction Since it is only necessary to prepare parts, it is possible to expect cost reduction effects and mass sales through low-cost supply.
In addition, by providing a small storage medium that includes authentication information for which a print service can be received in units of electronic documents, it is possible to use authentication information in units of storage media at a relatively low cost.
In addition, by providing an expiration date for authentication information that can be used for printing services, it is possible to provide media at a relatively low cost.
The usage method is that the coupon provider electronically documents service coupons, etc. that are limited in time limit, and places a small storage medium in the store where the printing service is provided, so that the user can obtain the desired coupon without paying the printing fee. The coupon provider can aim to reduce the labor costs and expenses for coupon printing and distribution.
Also, as a user, a paper document once used for copying or facsimile communication is converted into an electronic document and stored in a small memory document, thereby preventing deterioration of the paper document itself and occupying a space for storing the original. I don't have to. If an electronic document is stored, a fee for receiving a printing service is paid, so that it is possible to save the trouble of user authentication for the next receiving of the printing service and the fee payment at a store.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
First, a small storage medium used in the present invention will be described.
A register capable of storing a manufacturer number, a model number, a model version, and the like is prepared for the small storage medium. Values stored in the register cannot be rewritten, and a series of numbers are added from the manufacturer. This manufacturer number is used as a unique identifier (ID) of the small storage medium.
When a user wants to receive a printing service, he / she purchases it at a store (mass retailer, agency, etc.) selling this small storage medium, a store offering a printing service, or online sales. As for the purchase amount, the charge for the printing service is added to the price of the small storage medium itself.
In addition, the store side records the authentication information for receiving the printing service in an area where the user outside the system area of the small storage medium cannot easily copy / edit, and then uses the small storage medium in exchange for the purchase price. Give it to the user.
This authentication information is data obtained by encrypting the unique ID recorded on the small storage medium with the unique ID.

Next, a procedure when the user receives a printing service will be described.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a multi-function copier according to the present embodiment. The data transfer unit 10 receives a print service from a user connected to the network, decrypts the transferred authentication information, The encryption processing unit 20 that creates the authentication information, the print control unit 30 that executes the print request from the user, the reading of the authentication information and document information of the small storage medium, the writing of the authentication information, and the input of the print request It comprises an input / output control unit 40 for controlling.
After copying the electronic document to be printed on the purchased small storage medium, the user takes the small storage medium to the store that provides the printing service, and causes the multi-function copying machine to read the electronic document on the small storage medium. Request printing of electronic document.
A multi-function copier reads a unique ID and authentication information recorded on a small storage medium, and decrypts the authentication information with the unique ID.
In the multi-function copier, it is determined whether or not the unique ID matches the unique ID in the authentication information. If they do not match, an attempt is made to receive a print service using an illegal storage medium, an error message to that effect is displayed, and execution of the print service is terminated.
If they match, printing is performed for the number of sheets requested to be printed, and the small storage medium and the printed material are delivered to the user.
As described above, since the authentication information of the small storage medium is encrypted based on the unique ID for each medium, it is not possible to receive a print service simply by copying the authentication information to another storage medium.
Therefore, even if the entire image of the small storage medium is copied, it is printed on the illegally copied storage medium as long as the information stored in the area outside the system area of the small storage medium that cannot be easily copied / edited is copied. I cannot receive service.

Next, a case where a user prints an electronic document using a Web server at a print service store will be described.
First, the user connects to the Web server of the print service store, reads the unique ID and authentication information stored in the small storage medium, and transfers them and the electronic document to be printed to the Web server of the print service store. Then, a dedicated module for requesting printing is downloaded and registered in the Web browser as a plug-in.
Next, the user connects his / her PC (computer) to the Web server of the printing service store via a public line or a dedicated line, and the unique ID stored in the small storage medium is a dedicated module downloaded from the Web server. The authentication information is read, and the unique ID, the authentication information, and the electronic document to be printed are transferred to request printing.
The Web server at the print service store sends the received unique ID, authentication information, and electronic document to be printed to the multi-function copier.
As described above, in the multi-function copier, if the authentication information is decrypted with the unique ID and the unique ID and the unique ID of the authentication information are different, it can be determined that the print request is invalid.
If it is an illegal print request, it notifies the requesting PC as an error message and terminates the service.
If the authentication is successful, printing is performed for the number of sheets requested by the PC, and the printed material is picked up directly by the user at the store or delivered.

However, since the user who does not have the small storage medium of the present invention does not have the authentication information, when receiving the above printing service, he / she is settled by an invoice or by credit every time the printing service is received. Become.
The small storage medium described above includes the authentication information for receiving the print service, and the unit price of the small storage medium is high, and it seems that the user is difficult to receive the print service. Therefore, by limiting the maximum number of copies, printing colors, etc., the price can be reduced, and although there are some restrictions, it can be easily purchased, and the opportunities for receiving printing services can be increased.
This restriction also includes (1) the case where small-sized storage media packaged with restriction information that is likely to be selected by the user from the service provider side, and (2) the user freely attaches the restriction information when making a purchase. And selling it.
The purchase price of this small storage medium is the sum of the price of the small storage medium itself plus the amount calculated from the print service constraint information (maximum number of printed sheets, monochrome, two-color or full-color print color, etc.) It becomes.
The authentication information recorded in the small storage medium in this case is data obtained by encrypting the unique ID and the print constraint information recorded in the small storage medium with the unique ID.
When receiving a print service using such a small storage medium, after the authentication with the unique ID in the multi-function copier is finished, the print request is compared with the print constraint information stored in the authentication information. If it is within the constraints, a print request is executed.

On the other hand, if the constraint is not satisfied, for example, if the maximum number of printable sheets is exceeded or the print color is changed, the difference of the print service is charged by invoice settlement or credit settlement. become.
In the above-described small storage medium, the constraint information can be specified in units of media. However, when a plurality of electronic documents are recorded on this medium, the restriction information may be different for each electronic document.
For this purpose, a header for authentication information is placed in a reserved area provided outside the system area of the small storage medium, and a pointer indicating the authentication information is recorded from the header.
In the header, the document name of the electronic document and the pointer are recorded in association with each other.
The authentication information is information obtained by encrypting the unique ID, the document name of the electronic document, and the print restriction information (the maximum number of prints, monochrome, two-color or full-color print color, etc.) with the unique ID.
When receiving a print service for specific document information using such a small storage medium, the multi-function copier first obtains authentication information from the document name of the specified document and stores it in this authentication information. If the unique ID matches the unique ID of the small storage medium and the specified document name is stored in the authentication information, the print request is compared with the print constraint information stored in the authentication information. If it is within the conditions, a print request is executed.

On the other hand, if the authentication information about the specified document is not recorded or the printing restriction conditions are not satisfied, for example, when the maximum printable number of sheets is exceeded or the printing color is changed, the printing is performed. The service difference will be billed by invoice settlement or credit settlement.
In addition, by recording the expiration date in the authentication information, it is possible to provide a small storage medium at a relatively low price.
In this case, when performing a printing service, the multi-function copier checks whether the expiration date of the authentication information has passed, and then checks the above-described authentication and print constraint information. Therefore, if it is within the expiration date, the charging process is not performed. If the authentication information has passed the expiration date, charging is requested before the printing service.
As such an application, the user can obtain a coupon without paying the printing fee of the desired coupon by electronically documenting a service coupon for a limited time, etc., and placing a small storage medium in the store that performs the printing service, On the coupon provider side, it is possible to reduce printing effort and printing expenses, and labor costs for distributing coupons.

As another application, for example, there is a case where the user wants to receive a printing service again after receiving a service such as copying or faxing or digital camera printing once with a multi-function copier.
In this case, the user is inquired as to whether or not to leave the electronic document on the small storage medium before performing the printing service of the paper document by copying or faxing with a multi-function copier, digital camera printing, or the like. When the user desires to leave the document as an electronic document, the paper document is converted into an electronic document, and the authentication information and the electronic document itself are recorded in units of the electronic document on the small storage medium of the present invention. In addition, print restriction information (maximum number of prints, monochrome, two-color or full-color print color distinction, digitized document information, etc.) designated by the user may be written in the authentication information.
In addition, when the user desires to leave the document as an electronic document, if the user does not have the small storage medium of the present invention, the user is inquired whether or not to perform the charging process, and the charging specified by the user The authentication information having the constraint information added with the information and the electronic document itself are recorded in a small storage medium. This authentication information includes a unique ID recorded in the small storage medium, printing constraint information (maximum number of printed sheets, monochrome, distinction between two-color and full-color printing colors, digitized document information, necessity of charging processing, and price Etc.) is encrypted with a unique ID.
Here, the digitized document information is information about the electronic document to be written, such as a document name and size. Further, the necessity of the billing process is that a “no need” flag is set when the print service fee is settled when writing to the small storage medium. However, if the printing service fee is not settled, the “necessary” flag and the “price” are written.
Here, once the print service fee is settled and saved in a small storage medium, and converted into an electronic document, the paper document itself can be deteriorated by storing it as a paper document and a space for saving the original Can be prevented. Furthermore, since the printing service can be received without paying each time, labor can be saved.

Next, a processing procedure of a print service using the multi-function copier according to the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart of FIG.
First, it is checked whether the authentication information is stored in the small storage medium. If the authentication information is not written (step S1: NO), if the minimum fee for performing the printing service is input to the user (step S9: YES). ), The process proceeds to step S3 in order to receive a print request instruction from the user.
On the other hand, if the minimum fee that allows the user to perform the printing service has not been entered (step S9: NO), the fee entry menu is displayed (step S10), and the process waits at step S9 until it is entered.
When the authentication information is written on the small storage medium (step S1: YES), the unique ID and the authentication information recorded on the small storage medium are read, and the authentication information is decrypted with the unique ID. Authentication is performed based on whether the unique ID in the authentication information matches. If the authentication is complete and the print constraint information is recorded in the authentication information (step S2: YES), it is checked whether the print constraint information is satisfied (step S11). For example, the constraints included in the small storage medium such as billing information and the valid period during which the service can be received are checked. By checking the print constraint information in advance, a user who has a storage medium that can receive only monochrome printing can display a setting menu that cannot select other than monochrome in the “print setting menu”.
If the document data stored in the small storage medium is not printable data (step S12: NO), the small storage medium is returned to the user, and the process is terminated without providing a print service.

On the other hand, if the data is printable (step S12: YES), a print setting menu is displayed to allow the user to make fine settings such as the number of copies, print density, paper selection, color selection, and aggregation (step S3).
When the user inputs a print request, printing is started (step S4).
If printing is completed and the accounting process has already been completed (step S5: YES), the small storage medium and the printed material are delivered to the user, and the printing service is terminated.
However, if the accounting process has not been completed yet (step S5: NO), and if there is no request for writing authentication information (step S6: NO), the printed matter is delivered to the user and the printing service is terminated.
On the other hand, if there is a request for writing authentication information (step S6: YES), a charge input menu and an authentication type selection menu are displayed (step S7) in order to receive the print service again (step S7), and the print constraint information selected by the user is displayed. When the corresponding amount is input, the authentication information is written in the small storage medium, the small storage medium and the printed material are delivered to the user, and the printing service is terminated.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a multi-function copier according to an embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a print service using the multi-function copier according to the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Data transfer part, 20 ... Encryption process part, 30 ... Print control part, 40 ... Input / output control part.

Claims (9)

  A small storage medium comprising a writing control means for writing authentication information obtained by encrypting a unique identifier for identifying a storage medium into a user write-protected area.   2. The small storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the authentication information is an identifier of the storage medium.   2. The small storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the authentication information is an identifier of the storage medium and printing restriction information.   4. The small storage medium according to claim 3, wherein the print restriction information is a limitation on a maximum number of prints that can be printed in one day or once, a print color, and the like.   5. The small storage medium according to claim 3, wherein the print restriction information includes an expiration date of authentication information.   6. The small storage medium according to claim 3, wherein the authentication information is stored for each electronic document.   When the fee for the printing service is paid, the authentication information is written in the small storage medium according to any one of claims 1 to 6, and the electronic document written in the small storage medium is printed each time. A printing service system characterized in that a printing service can be received without payment.   The small storage medium according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein when the document when the printing service is received is stored as an electronic document, the small storage medium is paid in accordance with payment of a fee for the printing service from the next time. A print service system, wherein authentication information is written in a storage medium.   When printing the electronic document stored in the small storage medium according to any one of claims 1 to 6, if authentication information that can be authenticated is stored in the small storage medium, the requested printing is performed. A printing service apparatus characterized by the above.

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