JP2010244198A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus for contributing to the improvement of the convenience of a user. <P>SOLUTION: A period extension permission document extraction unit 77 applies a prescribed period extension rule to a storage period arrival document, and extracts a period extension permission document from the storage period arrival document. On the basis of owner information related to a period extension permission document, a storage management unit 79 notifies the destination of each owner of the period extension permission document that the extension of a storage period is permitted, makes an inquiry related to whether to extend the storage period of the pertinent period extension permission document, limits to the period extension permission document whose extension registration has been performed in the prescribed procedure following the inquiry, and updates and manages the storage period information related to the pertinent document. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a document management function, and in particular, a request from an administrator who intends to appropriately use and manage storage capacity resources, and a request from a user who wants to accumulate a necessary quantity of necessary documents. Further, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that contributes to improving the convenience of the user by balancing the two at a high level.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been provided an image forming apparatus called a so-called MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) having various functions such as copying, facsimile, scanner, and printer. Such MFPs are known to have a document management function, and a document relating to a facsimile received image or an image read through a scanner is stored and managed in a predetermined place called a document box, for example. A user can access a document stored and managed in a required document box via an operation panel or a network, browse the contents, and print out the contents on a recording sheet.

  As an example of an image forming apparatus having such a document management function, the applicant of the present application has disclosed a watermark decoding means for recognizing the presence or absence of a watermark by decoding image data in which a watermark is embedded, and the absence of the decoded watermark. A notification means for notifying the image manager of specific contents based on the fact that the image has been printed by the printing means, even if the image is not embedded with a watermark, The technique which makes it possible to form a state in which the eyes can be reached has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Incidentally, an image forming apparatus having a document management function includes a document storage unit for storing and managing documents, but its storage capacity resources are limited. For this reason, if a large number of users accumulate their documents in the document accumulating section without limitation, the document accumulating section falls into a memory full state in an instant.

  In order to avoid such a situation, an operation for setting a storage deadline for each managed document is performed. This operation is based on a balance between the request from the administrator who intends to properly utilize and manage the storage capacity resource and the request from the user who wants to accumulate the required quantity of documents.

  However, when the operation of setting the storage deadline for each managed document is simply performed, the document whose storage deadline has come is uniformly excluded from the management target. In this way, when the user related to the document excluded from the management target desires to return the document to the management target, the user has to start the registration operation from the beginning, resulting in a loss of convenience for the user.

JP 2007-258945 A

  The problem to be solved is that the conventional document management technology that simply performs the operation of setting the storage deadline for each management target document may impair the convenience of the user.

  The present invention achieves a high level balance between the request of the administrator who is oriented to the appropriate utilization management of the storage capacity resource and the request of the user who wants to accumulate the necessary quantity of necessary documents. For the purpose of providing an image forming apparatus that contributes to improving user convenience, a plurality of documents to be managed are accumulated, and the owner information and the storage deadline associated with each document are associated with the plurality of documents. Based on the document storage unit in which information is stored, the storage deadline information related to each of the plurality of managed documents stored in the document storage unit, and the date / time information at the time of extraction, until the respective storage deadline is reached A document with an expiration date that is within the predetermined value is extracted from the management target document, and a document with an expiration date that has been extracted by the extraction document with an expiration date is extracted. A deadline extension permission document extracting unit that extracts a deadline extension permission document that permits extension of the storage deadline of each person from the storage deadline documents by applying a predetermined deadline extension rule, and the deadline extension permission Based on the owner information related to the time extension permission document extracted by the document extraction unit, the corresponding extension extension permission is notified to each owner of the time extension permission document together with the notice that the storage time limit extension is permitted. Inquiries regarding whether or not to extend the storage period of a document, and storage management that updates and manages the storage period information related to the document only for documents that have been registered for extension according to the prescribed procedure in accordance with the inquiry The main feature is that it is configured to include a portion.

  In the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, in view of the possibility that the convenience of the user may be impaired if the storage deadline documents are uniformly excluded from the management targets among the management target documents for which the storage deadlines are set. By applying a predetermined extension rule to a document that has reached its storage deadline, a document that allows the extension of its own storage deadline is extracted from the documents that have reached the storage deadline, and thus extracted. Based on the owner information related to the time extension permission document, the storage time limit of the applicable time extension permission document is extended to each owner of the time extension permission document with a notice that the extension of the storage time limit is permitted. To inquire about whether or not, and update and manage the storage period information related to the applicable documents, limited to the extension extension permission documents that have been registered for extension in the prescribed procedure according to the inquiry. It was.

  Therefore, by balancing the demands of the administrator who wants to properly utilize and manage storage capacity resources and the demands of the user who wants to accumulate the required quantity of documents in a high level, the user's request An image forming apparatus that contributes to improved convenience can be obtained.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram around an image forming apparatus (digital color multifunction peripheral) according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is an external view of an operation panel unit mounted on the image forming apparatus. FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the image forming apparatus. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen for administrators in which the list of documents with a storage expiration date which can be browsed only by a document manager was represented.

  The purpose of providing an image forming apparatus that contributes to improving the convenience of the user is to address each owner of the time extension permission document based on the owner information related to the time extension permission document extracted by the time extension permission document extraction unit. In addition to the notification that the extension of the storage deadline is permitted, an inquiry regarding whether or not to extend the storage deadline of the applicable extension of the expiration date is made, and the extension for which the extension registration was made in the prescribed procedure in accordance with the inquiry This is realized by the storage management unit that updates and manages the storage expiration information related to the document, only for permitted documents.

  Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following, a digital color multifunction peripheral having a document management function will be described as an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

[Schematic configuration around the digital color MFP]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram around the digital color multifunction peripheral, and FIG.

  The digital color MFP can use various functions including print output, scanner, fax transmission, mail transmission, and data transmission, and is controlled by the main control unit 11 including a microcomputer and a dedicated hardware circuit. Is done. As an input / output device connected to the main control unit 11 and responsible for various functions, this machine includes a scanner unit 21, an image processing unit 31, an engine unit 41, an operation panel unit 51, a facsimile communication unit 61, and an HDD (hard disk drive) 63. And a network I / F (interface) unit 65.

  The main control unit 11 includes a scanner controller 13 that performs operation control for realizing a scanner function, a facsimile controller 15 that performs operation control for realizing a facsimile function, and a printer controller that performs operation control for realizing a printer function. 17 and a copy controller 19 for controlling the operation for realizing the copy function are incorporated, and the overall operation of the apparatus is controlled.

  The scanner unit 21 includes an image irradiation lamp 23 and a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor 25 constituting a scanner (not shown). The scanner unit 21 irradiates the document with the image irradiation lamp 23, receives the reflected light with the CCD sensor 25, reads an image from the document, and outputs image data corresponding to the read image to the image processing unit 31. .

  The image processing unit 31 includes a correction unit 33, an image processing unit 35, and an image memory 37. The image processing unit 31 processes the image data read by the scanner unit 21 with the correction unit 33 and the image processing unit 35 as necessary, and stores the processed image data in the image memory 37, the engine unit 41, Output to the facsimile communication unit 61 or the like. The correction unit 33 performs predetermined correction processing such as level correction and gamma correction on the image data read by the scanner unit 21. The image processing unit 35 performs various types of processing such as image data compression or expansion processing and enlargement or reduction processing.

  The engine unit 41 includes a sheet conveying unit 43 including a sheet feeding cassette and a sheet feeding roller (not shown), an image forming unit 45 including a photosensitive drum, an exposure device, a developing device, and the like, a transfer roller (not illustrated), and the like. And a fixing unit 49 including a fixing roller (not shown). The engine unit 41 stores image data read by the scanner unit 21, image data transmitted from a client PC (personal computer) or the like by a LAN (Local Area Network) via the network I / F unit 65, and a facsimile communication unit 61. The image is printed on a sheet using image data such as fax data received from an external facsimile machine. Specifically, the paper transport unit 43 transports the paper to the image forming unit 45, the image forming unit 45 forms a toner image corresponding to the image data, the transfer unit 47 transfers the toner image to the paper, The fixing unit 49 fixes the toner image on a sheet to form an image.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel unit 51 includes a touch panel unit 53 and an operation key unit 55. The operation panel unit 51 is used for a user to perform operations related to a scanner function, a facsimile function, a printer function, a copy function, and the like, and gives an operation command and the like by the user to the main control unit 11.

  The touch panel unit 53 includes a touch panel unit that combines a touch panel and a color LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and displays various operation screens, for example, information regarding the document size, copy size, number of copies, and the like when executing the copy function. In addition, operation buttons for inputting various operation commands are displayed by the user touching the corresponding part. In addition, the touch panel unit 53 is used when displaying a screen for an administrator displaying a list of documents whose storage deadlines have arrived, as will be described later.

  The operation key unit 55 includes a plurality of operation keys for receiving user operation inputs. For example, a key input operation of a required function can be performed from various functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. This is used when the user selectively executes, or when the user inputs a copy number or a copy execution command. The operation key unit 53 is used when performing an input operation related to extension of the storage period.

  The facsimile communication unit 61 includes an encoding / decoding unit (not shown), a modem unit (not shown), and an NCU (Network Control Unit) (not shown). The facsimile communication unit 61 transmits image data of a document read by the scanner unit 21 to a facsimile apparatus or the like via a telephone line, or receives image data transmitted from the facsimile apparatus or the like.

  An HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 63 serving as a document storage unit in the present invention has a storage area (for example, having a storage capacity of about 50 GB) for a plurality of document boxes, and is read by the scanner unit 21. The stored image data and various data such as the output format set in the image data are stored. The image data stored in the HDD is not only used inside the image forming apparatus, the program, and the recording medium, but also can be confirmed from a client PC or the like via the network I / F unit 65 if necessary. It is transferred to a predetermined folder such as a PC or FTP server.

  The network I / F unit 65 uses a network interface (10 / 100Base-TX) or the like, and controls transmission / reception of various data to / from a client PC connected via the LAN.

  An object of the present invention is to obtain an image forming apparatus that contributes to user convenience by avoiding sudden exclusion from the management target due to expiration even if it is a management target document with a storage expiration date The main control unit 11 accumulates a plurality of documents and associates each document with the owner information, storage expiration information, and additional information (for example, the priority of the document). Information and confidential rank information), an operation information acquisition unit 71 for acquiring various types of operation information by the user, and identification information relating to the user who has accessed the device. A user authentication unit 73 that performs authentication related to the legitimacy of the access user based on the identification information related to the regular user, and a plurality of management target sentences stored in the document storage unit 63 Based on the storage deadline information related to the storage date and the date and time information at the time of extraction, a storage deadline document whose remaining time until the storage deadline is within a predetermined value is extracted from the managed documents. The expiration extension permission that allows the extension of the storage period of each person by applying a predetermined extension rule to the expiration date document extraction unit 75 and the storage period arrival document extracted by the storage period arrival document extraction unit 75 The term extension permission document extraction unit 77 that extracts documents from the documents whose storage deadline has arrived, and the extension extension permission based on the owner information related to the term extension permission document extracted by the term extension permission document extraction unit 77 Along with notification to each document owner that the extension of the storage period is permitted, an inquiry is made regarding whether or not to extend the storage period of the applicable document for extension of the above-mentioned expiration date. Extension register by a predetermined procedure according to the Align is limited to made a period extension authorization document is configured to include a storage management unit 79 to update managing storage limit information according to the relevant document, the.

[Operation of Image Forming Apparatus According to Embodiment of Present Invention]
Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the image forming apparatus, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an administrator screen on which a list of documents with a storage expiration date that can be browsed only by the document administrator is displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the main control unit 11 extracts a document at a time schedule (for example, every day 24:00 exactly) related to the document extraction process stored in a storage area of a RAM (not shown) built therein. By always referring to the current date and time by referring to the current date and time, such as automatically executing batch processing, the time schedule can be monitored to see if the start time related to extraction processing of documents that have reached the storage deadline has arrived. (Step S11).

  During the monitoring, when it is determined that the start time related to the extraction process of the document with the storage expiration date has arrived ("Yes" in step S11), the main control unit 11 extracts the document with the storage expiration date. Inform the department 75. Upon receipt of this, the document due to storage expiration 75 extracts the storage expiration of each of the documents based on the storage expiration information relating to each of the plurality of managed documents stored in the document storage 63 and the date / time information at the time of extraction. A document with an expiration date that is within a predetermined value (for example, a value that can be appropriately changed, such as two days remaining until the expiration date) is extracted from the managed documents. Then, the extraction result is sent to the term extension permission document extraction unit 77.

  Next, the expiration date extension permitted document extraction unit 77 applies extension of a predetermined expiration date rule to the storage expiration date document extracted by the storage expiration date document extraction unit 75, thereby permitting the extension of the respective storage time limit. The term extension permission document is extracted from the documents with the storage expiration date (step S13), and the extraction result is sent to the storage management unit 79.

  In the time limit extension rule applied in step S13, for example, the time limit extension permitted document is obtained through a permission determination operation of a document manager who has the authority to determine whether or not each storage time limit document should be permitted to be extended. Can be configured to be extracted. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the document administrator extracts the extension extension permission document by performing a determination operation related to the extension permission on the administrator screen 91 displaying a list of documents whose storage expiration date has been displayed. To do. In addition to the determination operation related to the time limit extension permission, the determination operation related to the extension period may be performed.

  Further, instead of the above example, the term extension rule applied in step S13 adopts a configuration in which, for example, a term extension permitted document having a high priority based on additional information added in advance to a document is automatically extracted. can do. Further, for example, a configuration may be adopted in which a term extension permission document having a high confidentiality rank based on additional information added in advance to the document is automatically extracted. Note that the content of the additional information added to each document is not limited to the above-described example, and for example, content reflecting the owner's intention to extend the document can be appropriately adopted.

  Now, the storage management unit 79 that has received the extraction result from the expiration date extension permission document extraction unit 77 makes a determination on the presence or absence of a corresponding document that is subject to extension extension of the storage limit based on the extraction result (step S14). .

  As a result of the determination in step S14, when it is determined that the corresponding document that is subject to storage period extension permission is not extracted (“No” in step S14), the storage management unit 79 ends the flow of a series of processes. Let

  On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S14, when it is determined that the corresponding document has been extracted (“Yes” in step S14), the storage management unit 79 sets each of the corresponding documents that are subject to storage period extension permission. The owner is notified via e-mail that the extension of the storage period of the document is permitted (step S15), and an inquiry is made as to whether or not to register the extension of the storage period of the document (step S16). .

  The owner of the corresponding document that has received the notification in step S15 or the inquiry in step S16 is permitted to have a document with a short remaining period until the storage deadline, and to extend the storage deadline for the document. Knowing that, if you wish to extend it, perform the prescribed procedure, but if you do not wish to do so, do not carry out the procedure, by choosing whether to extend the storage period of the document Can be done along.

  Therefore, for those who do not wish to extend the storage deadline for the owner of the relevant document, as a result of eliminating the useless storage deadline, a request from the administrator oriented to appropriate utilization management of storage capacity resources, An image forming apparatus that contributes to improving the convenience of the user can be obtained by balancing the demands of the user side who wants to accumulate the necessary quantity of necessary documents at a high level.

  For the inquiry in step S16, for example, a hyperlink capable of accessing the management page of the storage management unit 79 of this apparatus is provided in the notification message in step S15, and registration of the extension of the storage period of the corresponding document is desired. In this case, it can be performed by prompting that the management page of the storage management unit 79 should be accessed via the hyperlink.

  When accessing this management page, it is preferable to ask for the input of a password in view of the fact that only limited users need to be allowed to register for extension of the storage period. Therefore, the password required for accessing the management page for each owner of the document subject to permission for extension of the storage deadline is appropriately encrypted by e-mail different from the notification in step S15. Notify in the processed state.

  If the person who received the notification or inquiry in steps S15 to S16 wishes to register the extension of the storage period for the document subject to the extension of the storage period, it is registered for the extension of the storage period according to the predetermined procedure as described above. Will do. In addition, it may be configured such that a desired extension period can be registered together with the extension registration for storage period. Then, the storage management section 79 is notified via the management page that the storage period extension registration has been made.

  The storage management unit 79 determines whether or not each owner of the document subject to permission for extension of storage expiration has registered for extension of storage expiration based on whether or not a notification of extension of storage expiration has been received. Is performed (step S17).

  As a result of the determination in step S17, when it is determined that the owner of the corresponding document has registered for the storage expiration extension ("Yes" in step S17), the storage management unit 79 extends the storage expiration for the corresponding document. According to the registration information, the storage deadline information related to the document is updated and managed (step S18), and after this update management, the series of processing flow is terminated.

[Effect of Example]
As described above, in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, first, the storage expiration arrival document extraction unit 75 includes storage expiration information on each of the plurality of management target documents stored in the document storage unit 63, and Based on the date and time information at the time of extraction, a document with a storage deadline whose remaining time until the storage deadline is within a predetermined value is extracted from the management target documents. Next, the expiration date extension permitted document extraction unit 77 applies extension of a predetermined expiration date rule to the storage expiration date document extracted by the storage expiration date document extraction unit 75, thereby permitting the extension of the respective storage time limit. A term extension permission document is extracted from the documents with the storage expiration date. Then, the storage management unit 79 permits the extension of the storage period to each owner of the period extension permission document based on the owner information regarding the period extension permission document extracted by the period extension permission document extraction unit 77. Along with the notice to the effect, an inquiry regarding whether or not to extend the storage period of the applicable extension of time limit permission document will be made. Update and manage the storage expiration information related to the document.

  In short, in the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, if a document that has reached the storage deadline is uniformly excluded from the management target documents among the management target documents for which the storage deadline is set, the convenience of the user may be impaired. In view of this, by applying a predetermined extension rule to a document that has reached its storage deadline, a document that allows the extension of the storage deadline is extracted from the documents that have reached their storage deadline, and thus extracted. Based on the owner information related to the permitted extension of time limit document, the owner of the permitted extension of time limit document is notified of permission to extend the storage time limit, and the storage time limit of the applicable extension of time limit permission document is set. Make an inquiry about whether to extend the extension, and update the expiration date information related to the applicable document only for the extension extension permission document that has been registered for extension in the prescribed procedure according to the inquiry. It decided to.

  Specifically, the owner of the corresponding document that has received the notification in step S15 or the inquiry in step S16 has the existence of a document with a short remaining period until the storage deadline, and the extension of the storage deadline for the document. If the applicant wishes to extend the document, he / she will carry out the prescribed procedure when he / she wishes to extend it, but when he / she does not wish to do so, he / she will choose not to extend the storage period of the document. Can be carried out according to one's intention.

  Therefore, for those who do not wish to extend the storage deadline for the owner of the relevant document, as a result of eliminating the useless storage deadline, a request from the administrator oriented to appropriate utilization management of storage capacity resources, An image forming apparatus that contributes to improving the convenience of the user can be obtained by balancing the demands of the user side who wants to accumulate the necessary quantity of necessary documents at a high level.

  Further, as the time limit extension rule applied in step S13, the time limit extension permitted document is obtained through a permission determination operation of a document manager who has the authority to determine whether or not the extension of the storage time limit of each document should be permitted. In the case of adopting a configuration in which the storage period is extracted, it is possible to flexibly operate the extension of the storage period limit through the permission determination operation of the document manager.

  Further, when the configuration is adopted in which the term extension permission document having a high priority based on the additional information added in advance to the document is automatically extracted as the term extension rule applied in step S13, the document manager's It is possible to save time and to practically operate a storage period extension permission for a high priority document.

  In addition, when the time limit extension rule applied in step S13 adopts a configuration in which a time limit extension permitted document having a high confidentiality rank based on the additional information added in advance to the document is automatically extracted, the document manager's It is possible to save time and to practically operate a storage period extension permission for a document with a high confidentiality rank.

[Others]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist of the invention read from the claims and the entire specification or the technical idea, and image formation accompanied by such changes The apparatus is also included in the scope of the technical scope of the present invention.

  Finally, the “owner” in the present invention naturally includes an individual user, and it is needless to say that the concept also includes, for example, a department user that comprehensively means a member of a certain department. .

11 Main control unit 53 Touch panel unit 63 HDD (document storage unit)
71 Operation Information Acquisition Unit 73 User Authentication Unit 75 Storage Expiration Document Extraction Unit 77 Expiration Date Permitted Document Extraction Unit 79 Storage Management Unit

Claims (6)

A document storage unit that stores a plurality of documents to be managed and stores owner information and storage expiration information related to each document in association with each of the plurality of documents.
Storage in which the remaining time until reaching the storage deadline is within a predetermined value based on the storage deadline information related to each of the plurality of management target documents stored in the document storage unit and the date / time information at the time of extraction An expiration document extraction unit that extracts an expiration document from the management target document; and
By applying a predetermined extension rule to the storage expiration document extracted by the storage expiration document extraction unit, the extension extension permission document for permitting extension of the storage expiration date of each document is obtained. A term extension permission document extraction unit to extract from the inside,
Applicable together with a notice to permit the extension of the storage period to each owner of the period extension permission document based on the owner information related to the period extension permission document extracted by the period extension permission document extraction unit Make an inquiry about whether or not to extend the storage deadline of the above-mentioned extended term permit document, and update the storage deadline information related to the relevant document only for the extended term allowance document that has been registered for extension according to the prescribed procedure according to the inquiry Storage management department to manage,
An image forming apparatus comprising: The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
In the time limit extension rule, the time limit extension permitted document is extracted through a permission determination operation of a document manager who has a decision authority regarding whether or not to allow extension of the storage time limit for each document whose storage time limit has come.
An image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
In the time limit extension rule, the time limit extension permitted document having a high priority based on the additional information added in advance to the document is extracted.
An image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
In the time limit extension rule, the time limit extension permitted document having a high confidentiality rank based on the additional information added in advance to the document is extracted.
An image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The extension registration in accordance with the predetermined procedure according to the inquiry is to request the operation input of the password information notified in advance at the time of extension registration of the storage period of the document.
An image forming apparatus. An image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
The fact that the extension of the storage deadline is permitted is notified to each owner of the applicable extension of the expiration date by email.
An image forming apparatus.