JP2008119992A - Information processor and information processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor which can identify a printed document by giving no large influence to the look of the printed document. <P>SOLUTION: The information processor 50 comprises an input unit 51 for receiving the electronic document of an object to be printed and the set input of a printing format, an image converter 52 for converting the electronic document into an image from a setting of the printing format, and an ID embedding part 54 embedding an ID for identifying the printed document from the electronic document as a mechanically readable electronic watermark in a predetermined position to the image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing program.

  A technique for embedding or overlaying information on an image is known.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an image processing apparatus that generates an image in which additional information is embedded, generates a cell in which additional information is embedded, and corresponds to a gradation value represented by the additional information embedded cell and a code value of the additional information. Thus, only a cell in which additional information is embedded is binarized.

  Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a printing system that overlays a form, field data, and a tint block, which determines an optimum region for placing a tint block and places the tint block in the obtained optimum region. Yes.

JP 2002-135556 A JP 2006-11938 A

  The present invention provides an information processing apparatus that makes it possible to identify a printed document without greatly affecting the appearance of the printed document.

  An information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes: an input unit that receives input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting; an image conversion unit that converts the electronic document into an image based on the print format setting; On the other hand, an identification information embedding unit that embeds identification information for identifying a document to be printed based on the electronic document at a predetermined position as a machine-readable digital watermark is provided.

  In one aspect of the present invention, a superimposed position search unit that searches for a position that satisfies a predetermined condition for superimposing the identification information as a human-readable image within a predetermined region of the image, and the superimposed position search And an identification information image superimposing unit that superimposes the identification information as a human-readable image on the searched position when a position satisfying the predetermined condition is searched for by the unit.

  An information processing program according to the present invention includes: a step of accepting an input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting; a step of converting the electronic document into an image based on the print format setting; On the other hand, a step of embedding identification information for identifying a document to be printed based on the electronic document at a predetermined position as a machine-readable digital watermark is executed.

  In one aspect of the present invention, the computer further includes a step of searching for a position that satisfies a predetermined condition for superimposing the identification information as a human-readable image within a predetermined region of the image; When a position satisfying the above condition is searched, the step of superimposing the identification information as a human-readable image on the searched position is executed.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that can identify a printed document without significantly affecting the appearance of the printed document.

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

[System overall configuration]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a system 1 including an information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, the system 1 includes a print requesting device 10, a printing device 20, and an information management device 30. The printing apparatus 20 includes a print engine 40 and an information processing apparatus 50.

  In the present embodiment, the print request apparatus 10, the information management apparatus 30, and the information processing apparatus 50 are realized by cooperation of hardware resources and software. Here, the hardware resources include a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a main memory, an external storage device, an input device, a display device, and a communication device. The software includes an operating system and various application programs. Specifically, the function of each of the above devices is realized by reading a program recorded on a recording medium into a main memory and executing it by a CPU. The programs of the above devices can be provided by being recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, or can be provided by communication means. However, some or all of the functions of the above-described devices may be realized only by hardware.

  In the present embodiment, the print requesting apparatus 10 and the information processing apparatus 50 of the printing apparatus 20 are connected to each other via a LAN (Local Area Network) or the like. The information processing apparatus 50 and the information management apparatus 30 are connected to each other via a LAN or the like.

  The print requesting device 10 is a device that requests the printing device 20 to print an electronic document, and is a computer, for example. Specifically, the print requesting apparatus 10 sends a print job including an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting to the printing apparatus 20.

  The printing apparatus 20 is an apparatus that prints an electronic document according to the request on a print medium such as paper in response to a request from the print request apparatus 10. As described above, the printing apparatus 20 includes the print engine 40 and the information processing apparatus 50.

  The print engine 40 receives an input of a printing image (for example, a bitmap image) from the information processing apparatus 50, and the input printing image is printed on a printing medium such as paper by an appropriate printing method such as an electrophotographic method or an inkjet method. It is a device that prints on.

  The information processing apparatus 50 receives an input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting from the print requesting apparatus 10, generates a print image based on the input electronic document and print format setting, and the print image Is output to the print engine 40. In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 50 converts an electronic document into an image based on the print format setting, and identifies information (hereinafter referred to as “identification information”) for identifying the document to be printed based on the electronic document with respect to the image. The image having the ID added is output to the print engine 40 as a print image. The information processing apparatus 50 is, for example, a printer controller that controls the entire printing apparatus 20. As the ID, for example, a UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is adopted. The UUID is a 128-bit binary value that is guaranteed to be unique and unique throughout the world.

  The information management device 30 is a device that manages information related to print processing by the printing device 20, and is, for example, a computer.

[Functional Configuration of Information Processing Device 50 and Information Management Device 30]
Hereinafter, functional configurations of the information processing apparatus 50 and the information management apparatus 30 will be described in more detail.

  The information processing apparatus 50 includes an input unit 51, an image conversion unit 52, an ID image superimposing unit 53, and an ID embedding unit 54 as functional blocks.

  The input unit 51 receives input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting. Here, an electronic document to be printed is document data of application software (for example, document creation software, spreadsheet software, presentation software, PDF (Portable Document Format), etc.) or PDL (Page Description) generated from the document data. Language: Page description language) data. The print format settings include margin settings and settings related to a function for printing N pages (N is an integer of 2 or more) on a single print sheet (settings related to the so-called N-up function). It is a setting related to appearance. Specifically, the input unit 51 receives a print job including an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting from the print request apparatus 10.

  The image conversion unit 52 converts the electronic document input to the input unit 51 into an image based on the print format setting input to the input unit 51. In other words, the image conversion unit 52 renders the electronic document based on the print format setting to generate a rendered image. Here, the image generated by the image conversion unit 52 is image data, and is typically a bitmap image. Hereinafter, an image generated by the image conversion unit 52 is referred to as a “rendering image”.

  The ID image superimposing unit 53 includes a superimposition position searching unit 53a. The superimposition position search unit 53a searches for a position that satisfies a predetermined condition for superimposing an ID as a human-readable image within a predetermined region of the rendered image generated by the image conversion unit 52. Hereinafter, an image representing an ID in a human-readable manner is referred to as an “ID image”.

  In the present embodiment, the superimposition position search unit 53a accepts designation of a superimposition area from the user and performs a search within the designated superimposition area. However, the predetermined area to be searched may be fixedly determined in advance.

  Examples of the predetermined condition include that the ID image does not overlap with a portion other than a plain color on the rendered image, or that the ID image does not overlap with a predetermined element (such as a character or a graphic) on the rendered image. . In the present embodiment, the superposition position searching unit 53a accepts designation of superposition conditions from the user and searches for a position that satisfies the designated superposition conditions. However, the predetermined condition may be fixedly determined in advance.

  In other words, the superimposition position searching unit 53a searches for a position suitable for the superimposition of the ID image within a predetermined area of the rendering image. Here, the position suitable for the superimposition of the ID image may be appropriately defined.

  The ID image superimposing unit 53 superimposes an ID as a human-readable image on the searched position when a position satisfying a predetermined condition is searched by the overlapping position searching unit 53a. Specifically, the ID image superimposing unit 53 acquires an ID to be added, generates an ID image representing the ID in a human-readable manner, and superimposes the ID image on the searched position. For example, the ID is a 128-bit binary value, and the ID image is a text image of 32 alphanumeric characters.

  In the present embodiment, the ID image superimposing unit 53 acquires the ID to be added from the information management apparatus 30. However, the ID to be added may be generated in the printing apparatus 20.

  Examples of processing when a position satisfying a predetermined condition is not searched include not superimposing an ID image or superimposing an ID image at a predetermined position. In the present embodiment, the ID image superimposing unit 53 receives the designation of the process when the position satisfying the predetermined condition is not found from the user, and executes the designated process when the position is not found. To do. However, the processing when the search is not performed may be fixedly determined in advance.

  The ID embedding unit 54 embeds an ID in a predetermined position as a machine-readable digital watermark in the rendering image generated by the image conversion unit 52. Then, the ID embedding unit 54 outputs the rendering image in which the ID is embedded to the print engine 40 as a print image.

  In the present embodiment, the ID embedding unit 54 embeds an ID at a predetermined position of the rendered image using the digital watermark technique described in Patent Document 1. However, other digital watermark techniques may be employed. In a preferred embodiment, the ID embedding unit 54 embeds an ID without impairing the readability of the original information on the rendered image. In a more preferable aspect, the ID embedding unit 54 embeds the ID in a substantially invisible (semi-invisible) state.

  In the present embodiment, the ID embedding unit 54 acquires the ID to be embedded from the information management apparatus 30. However, the ID to be embedded may be generated in the printing apparatus 20.

  In the present embodiment, the ID embedding unit 54 accepts designation of an embedding position from the user and embeds an ID in the designated embedding position. However, the predetermined position where the ID is to be embedded may be fixedly determined in advance.

  In the present embodiment, the ID embedding unit 54 embeds IDs in the rendering image on which the ID image is superimposed by the ID image superimposing unit 53. However, the ID embedding by the ID embedding unit 54 may be executed before the ID image superimposing by the ID image superimposing unit 53.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 50 of the printing apparatus 20 specifies the superimposition region, the superimposition condition, the processing when the position satisfying the predetermined condition is not searched, and the embedding position. The specification of is accepted. These designations are input to the information processing apparatus 50 of the printing apparatus 20 via, for example, a user interface of the printing apparatus 20 or an external apparatus such as the print requesting apparatus 10. Some or all of these designations may be included in a print job from the print requesting apparatus 10.

  The information management device 30 includes an ID generation unit 31, an information storage unit 32, and an information provision unit 33.

  The ID generation unit 31 generates identification information (ID) for identifying a document printed by the printing apparatus 20 based on an electronic document. Then, the ID generation unit 31 registers the generated ID and information related to the printing process in association with the information storage unit 32. Here, the information related to the printing process is information indicating the printer, the printing date and time, the printing location, the contents of the printed document, or a combination thereof. In other words, the information relating to the printing process is log information indicating who, when, where and what was printed. Hereinafter, information related to the printing process is referred to as “print log information”.

  In the present embodiment, when the input unit 51 of the printing apparatus 20 receives a print job from the print requesting apparatus 10, it sends print log information corresponding to the print job to the ID generation unit 31. Here, the print log information includes, for example, the user name of the user who has logged into the apparatus 10 acquired from the print request apparatus 10, the current date and time based on the internal clock of the printing apparatus 20, and the IP address of the printing apparatus 20 In addition, thumbnail images of electronic documents are included. Upon receiving the print log information from the input unit 51, the ID generation unit 31 generates an ID corresponding to the print log information, and registers the ID and the print log information in association with the information storage unit 32. Further, the ID generation unit 31 sends the generated ID to the information processing apparatus 50 of the printing apparatus 20.

  The information storage unit 32 receives the ID and the print log information from the ID generation unit 31 and stores them in association with each other.

  Upon receipt of the ID, the information providing unit 33 reads the print log information associated with the ID from the information storage unit 32 and provides the print log information. For example, when receiving an ID from the information acquisition device 60 such as a personal computer, the information providing unit 33 reads out the print log information associated with the ID from the information storage unit 32 and provides the information acquisition device 60 with the print log information. To do. The information acquisition device 60 displays, for example, the print log information acquired from the information providing unit 33 on the display screen.

[Operation when printing an electronic document]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of the information processing apparatus 50 of the printing apparatus 20. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the information management apparatus 30. Hereinafter, the operation of the system 1 when printing an electronic document will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. Here, it is assumed that the information processing apparatus 50 has previously received designation of a superimposition region, designation of superposition conditions, designation of processing when a position satisfying a predetermined condition is not searched, and designation of an embedding position. To do. Here, it is assumed that it is specified not to superimpose an ID image as a process when a position satisfying a predetermined condition is not searched.

  In FIG. 2, when the information processing apparatus 50 receives a print job including an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting from the print request apparatus 10 (S 11), the information management apparatus 30 displays print log information related to the print job. (S12).

  In FIG. 3, when the information management apparatus 30 receives the print log information from the information processing apparatus 50 (S21), the information management apparatus 30 generates an ID corresponding to the print log information (S22). Then, the information management apparatus 30 registers the generated ID and the print log information in the information storage unit 32 in association with each other. Further, the information management device 30 sends the generated ID to the information processing device 50 (S23).

  In FIG. 2, the information processing apparatus 50 receives the ID from the information management apparatus 30 (S13). Next, the information processing apparatus 50 generates a rendering image from the electronic document received in step S11 and the print format setting (S14).

  Next, the information processing apparatus 50 generates a human-readable ID image from the received ID (S15).

  Next, the information processing apparatus 50 searches for a position that satisfies a preliminarily designated superposition condition in a predesignated superposition region on the generated rendering image (S16).

  As a result of the search, when a position satisfying the superposition condition can be searched (S17: YES), the information processing apparatus 50 superimposes the generated ID image on the searched position of the rendering image (S18). ).

  On the other hand, when a position satisfying the superimposition condition cannot be searched (S17: NO), the ID image is not superimposed on the rendered image.

  Next, the information processing apparatus 50 embeds the ID in the embedding position designated in advance as a machine-readable digital watermark in the rendering image using the technique described in Patent Document 1 (S19). Then, the information processing apparatus 50 outputs the rendered image in which the ID is embedded to the print engine 40 as a print image. The print engine 40 controls the on / off of the laser for forming a latent image based on the print image, for example, and prints the print image on a print medium such as paper.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a rendered image obtained by rendering an electronic document to be printed (original document) in the present embodiment. In FIG. 4, the date “2006/7/19” is described in the footer.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a printed document in the present embodiment. In the example of FIG. 5, the footer area 501 is designated as the superimposition area, and “the ID image does not overlap with characters on the document” is designated as the superposition condition. Accordingly, a position 502 where the ID image does not overlap with characters on the document is searched in the footer area 501, and the ID image (32 alphanumeric characters) is superimposed on the position 502. In the example of FIG. 5, a specific position 503 of the footer area is designated as the embedding position. As a result, an ID encoded in a machine-readable state is embedded at a specific position 503 in the footer area.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of a printed document in the present embodiment. In the example of FIG. 6, the header area 601 and the footer area 602 are specified as the overlapping area, and “the ID image does not overlap with characters on the document” is specified as the overlapping condition. Further, the information processing apparatus 50 is instructed to search in the order of the header area 601 → the footer area 602, and the information processing apparatus 50 searches according to the order. Thus, a position 603 in which the ID image does not overlap with characters on the document is searched for in the header area 601, and the ID image (32 alphanumeric characters) is superimposed on the position 603. In the example of FIG. 6, a specific position 604 of the footer area is designated as the embedding position. As a result, an ID encoded in a machine-readable state is embedded at a specific position 604 in the footer area.

[Operation when checking print log information]
When a user wants to check the print log information of a certain printed document (for example, a paper document), in simple terms, the user knows when the “printed” is “when”, “who”, or “where”. If desired, the ID added to the print document is input to the information acquisition device 60.

  In the first input method, a user visually recognizes an ID image (for example, a text character string) attached to the print document, recognizes the ID, and uses the user interface such as a keyboard as information on the ID. Manually input to the acquisition device 60.

  In the second input method, the user reads an ID embedded as a digital watermark in the print document. In this case, the information acquisition device 60 optically reads an image of the print document with a scanner or the like, analyzes the obtained image, and extracts an ID.

  The information acquisition device 60 sends an information provision request including the input ID to the information management device 30.

  When the information management device 30 receives the information provision request from the information acquisition device 60, the information management device 30 reads the print log information corresponding to the ID included in the request from the information storage unit 32 and sends the print log information to the information acquisition device 60.

  When the information acquisition device 60 receives the print log information from the information management device 30, the information acquisition device 60 presents the print log information to the user. For example, the information acquisition device 60 displays the print log information on the display screen or causes the printing device to print.

  According to the present embodiment described above, the following effects (1) to (4) can be obtained.

  (1) In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus accepts input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting, converts the electronic document into an image based on the print format setting, and performs processing on the image. An ID for identifying a document to be printed based on the electronic document is embedded at a predetermined position as a machine-readable digital watermark. For this reason, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to identify a printed document without greatly affecting the appearance of the printed document.

  Specifically, for example, based on the ID embedded in the print document, it is possible to confirm when the print was made, who printed it, and the like. Thereby, it is possible to confirm the leakage source of the leakage information.

  In addition, since the ID is embedded as a digital watermark at a predetermined position, the appearance of the document is compared with the case where the ID is embedded as a visible code such as a barcode or a two-dimensional code or when the ID is embedded as a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern code on the entire page. There is no big impact.

  Further, since the ID can be read by a machine, it is possible to automatically read the IDs of a large number of printed documents using an automatic document feeder (ADF) or the like. This reduces the burden on the user when checking log information of a large number of printed documents as compared with the case where the ID is read manually and input manually.

  (2) In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus superimposes the ID on the image as a human-readable image. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the user can recognize the ID without using a special tool such as a scanner or analysis software. For this reason, for example, the user can check log information of a print document by manual input without using a special tool.

  (3) In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus searches for a position that satisfies a predetermined condition for superimposing the ID as a human-readable image within a predetermined region of the image, and When a position satisfying the condition is searched, the ID is superimposed on the searched position as an image that can be read by a human. For this reason, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to arrange an image representing an ID in a human-readable manner at a position suitable for superposition.

  For example, in a configuration in which an ID is forcibly printed at a fixed position such as a footer, as shown in FIG. 7, when there is written information in the footer, it overlaps with the ID and both may become unreadable. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, it is possible to selectively place IDs at positions that do not overlap with the description information, and it is possible to avoid or reduce the above disadvantages.

  (4) In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus embeds the ID as a machine-readable digital watermark and superimposes the ID as a human-readable image on the image to be printed. For this reason, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to acquire an ID by both machine reading and human reading. Thereby, for example, when a machine reading tool such as a scanner or analysis software exists nearby, the user can receive a service based on the ID by an automatic operation by the tool. The service can be received manually.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, It can change variously within the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

  For example, some or all of the functions of the information processing apparatus 50 may be realized by an apparatus other than the printing apparatus 20 (for example, the print requesting apparatus 10 or the information management apparatus 30). That is, the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment may be physically configured by a plurality of apparatuses. In addition, some or all of the functions of the information management device 30 may be realized by a device other than the information management device 30 (for example, the printing device 20 or the print requesting device 10).

  In the above-described embodiment, the configuration for generating an ID for a print job is illustrated. However, an ID may be generated for each print page.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the structure which superimposes ID image was illustrated, superimposition of ID image may be abbreviate | omitted. That is, in FIG. 1, the ID image superimposing unit 53 can be omitted.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the system containing the information processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the information processing apparatus of a printing apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of an information management apparatus. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a rendered image obtained by rendering an electronic document to be printed in the embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the printed document in embodiment. It is a figure which shows another example of the printed document in embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the printed document in case ID is printed in a fixed position.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 System, 10 Print request apparatus, 20 Printing apparatus, 30 Information management apparatus, 40 Print engine, 50 Information processing apparatus, 51 Input part, 52 Image conversion part, 53 ID image superimposition part, 53a Superimposition position search part, 54 ID embedding Part, 60 information acquisition device.

Claims (4)

An input unit that accepts input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting;
An image conversion unit for converting the electronic document into an image based on the setting of the print format;
An identification information embedding unit that embeds identification information for identifying a document to be printed on the image based on the electronic document at a predetermined position as a machine-readable digital watermark;
An information processing apparatus comprising: The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
A superposition position search unit that searches for a position that satisfies a predetermined condition for superimposing the identification information as a human-readable image within a predetermined region of the image;
An identification information image superimposing unit that superimposes the identification information as a human-readable image on the searched position when a position satisfying the predetermined condition is searched by the superimposition position searching unit;
An information processing apparatus further comprising: On the computer,
Receiving an input of an electronic document to be printed and a print format setting;
Converting the electronic document into an image based on the print appearance setting;
Embedding identification information for identifying a document to be printed on the image based on the electronic document at a predetermined position as a machine-readable digital watermark;
An information processing program for executing The information processing program according to claim 3,
To the computer,
Searching for a position that satisfies a predetermined condition for superimposing the identification information as a human-readable image within a predetermined region of the image;
When a position satisfying the predetermined condition is searched, the step of superimposing the identification information as a human-readable image on the searched position;
An information processing program for executing