JP2013022914A - Image processing apparatus, image processing program and image processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus, which has a simple configuration, and when printing an original, applies an appropriate advertisement to printing object data and simultaneously, reduces a processing load to shorten a printing time.SOLUTION: When a message to inhibit printing is included in all or a portion of folder names in which printing object data are stored, and/or file names of the printing object data, the advertisement is not applied, meanwhile, when the message to inhibit printing is not included, the contents of the advertisement to be applied to the printing object data are determined based on the folder name and/or the file name.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image processing program, and an image processing method, and more particularly, to advertisement control of the image processing device.

  In recent years, there has been a tendency to digitize information, and image processing apparatuses such as printers and facsimiles used for outputting digitized information and scanners used for digitizing documents have become indispensable devices. Such an image processing apparatus is often configured as a multifunction machine that can be used as a printer, a facsimile, a scanner, or a copier by providing an imaging function, an image forming function, a communication function, and the like.

  When printing such as copying or printing out a manuscript with the printer or copier described above, printing is performed by giving an advertisement to the margin of the copy paper, etc., and covering the ink or paper with the advertising fee from the advertiser A system that discounts the printing fee of the user has been proposed. As an example of such a system, a character string included in a manuscript is recognized by performing OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing on an image of a document to be printed, and the character string is given based on the character string. A technique for determining an advertisement is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  In the method as disclosed in Patent Document 1, since it is affected by the recognition accuracy of the OCR process, an advertisement having contents irrelevant to the document may be printed on the margin of the copy paper. Further, the calculation processing load for the OCR processing is large, and the calculation processing load for searching for a character string for determining an advertisement from the document data subjected to the OCR processing is also large. Will be required.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. In the case of printing a document, an appropriate advertisement is provided with a simple configuration, and at the same time, the calculation processing load is reduced and the printing time is shortened. The purpose is to do.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an aspect of the present invention is an image processing apparatus that adds advertisement information to image data to be imaged and output in an image forming apparatus, and that is effective for image forming output including the image data. A command acquisition unit for acquiring a command, a character string acquisition unit for acquiring a character string indicating a storage area in which the image data is stored, from the acquired effective command for image formation output, and the acquired character string Based on the acquired character string, an advertisement to be added to the image data when it is determined to give the advertisement information based on an advertisement grant determination unit that determines whether or not to provide advertisement information to the image data An advertisement determination unit for determining information, and an effective instruction for the image formation output so that the determined advertisement information is attached to the image data and the image formation output is executed. And having an advertisement giving unit that corrects, based on the information

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing program for providing advertisement information to image data to be subjected to image formation output in the image forming apparatus, the step of obtaining an effective instruction for image formation output including the image data. Acquiring a character string indicating a storage area in which the image data is stored from the acquired image formation output effective command; and providing advertisement information to the image data based on the acquired character string Determining whether to give the advertisement information, determining the advertisement information to be added to the image data based on the acquired character string, and the determined advertisement information Is added to the image data, and an effective instruction for the image formation output is modified based on the determined advertisement information so that the image formation output is executed. Characterized in that to execute a-up to the image processing apparatus.

  According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing method for providing advertisement information to image data to be subjected to image formation output in an image forming apparatus, wherein an effective instruction for image formation output including the image data is acquired. To obtain a character string indicating the storage area in which the image data is stored from the acquired effective instruction for image formation output, and to advertise the image data based on the acquired character string. It is determined whether or not to add information, and when it is determined to give the advertisement information, the advertisement information to be given to the image data is determined based on the acquired character string, and the determined advertisement information is The image forming output effective command is modified based on the determined advertisement information so that the image forming output is executed by being attached to the image data.

  According to the present invention, when printing an original, an appropriate advertisement can be given with a simple configuration, and at the same time, the processing load can be reduced and the printing time can be shortened.

It is a figure which shows the operation | use form of the system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a printing processing procedure according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the advertisement provision determination which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the data structure of the advertisement provision database which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the advertisement provision which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the data structure of the advertisement provision database which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the operation | use form of the system which concerns on other embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the operation | use form of the system which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, as an example of an image forming system, an explanation will be given by taking as an example a system that applies an advertisement to an image forming apparatus that executes image forming output and performs printing.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation mode of a system according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the system according to the present embodiment is configured by connecting an image forming apparatus 1, a client terminal 2, and a data management server 3 via a network 4.

  The image forming apparatus 1 is an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) that can be used as a printer, a facsimile, a scanner, and a copier by providing an imaging function, an image forming function, a communication function, and the like. In the present embodiment, the image forming apparatus 1 executes image forming output based on a print job received from the client terminal 2 via the network 4.

  Further, the image forming apparatus 1 can also execute image forming output based on a print job generated by a user directly operating the image forming apparatus 1. Note that the image forming apparatus 1 may be configured to store data to be printed. In that case, the user can select and acquire data to be printed by accessing the data management unit (not shown) of the image forming apparatus 1 from the client terminal 2 via the network 4.

  The client terminal 2 is an information processing terminal operated by a user, and is realized by an information processing apparatus such as a PC (Personal Computer). The client terminal 2 stores data to be printed, and the user can select and acquire data to be printed by operating the client terminal 2. Then, a print job for printing the acquired data can be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 1 via the network 4.

  The data management server 3 is a file sharing server that exists on the network, and stores data to be printed. The user can select and obtain data to be printed by accessing the data management server 3 from the image forming apparatus 1 or the client terminal 2 via the network 4. The network 4 in FIG. 1 is a limited network such as an office LAN (Local Area Network), but may be connected via a wide area network such as the Internet or a public line.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 1, the client terminal 2, and the data management server 3 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The image forming apparatus 1 includes an engine for realizing a scanner, a printer, and the like in addition to the hardware configuration shown in FIG. In the following description, the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described as an example, but the same applies to the client terminal 2 and the data management server 3.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a configuration similar to that of a general server or PC. That is, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 10, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 20, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 30, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 40, and an I / F 50. 80 is connected. Further, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 60 and an operation unit 70 are connected to the I / F 50.

  The CPU 10 is a calculation unit and controls the operation of the entire image forming apparatus 1. The RAM 20 is a volatile storage medium capable of reading and writing information at high speed, and is used as a work area when the CPU 10 processes information. The ROM 30 is a read-only nonvolatile storage medium and stores a program such as firmware. The HDD 40 is a non-volatile storage medium that can read and write information, and stores an OS (Operating System), various control programs, application programs, and the like.

  The I / F 50 connects and controls the bus 80 and various hardware and networks. The LCD 60 is a visual user interface for the user to check the state of the image forming apparatus 1. The operation unit 70 is a user interface such as a keyboard and a mouse for the user to input information to the image forming apparatus 1. As described in FIG. 1, the data management server 3 according to the present embodiment is operated as a shared server. Therefore, user interfaces such as the LCD 60 and the operation unit 70 can be omitted.

  In such a hardware configuration, a program stored in a storage medium such as the ROM 30, the HDD 40, or an optical disk (not shown) is read into the RAM 20, and the CPU 10 performs an operation according to the program loaded into the RAM 20, whereby the software control unit Is configured. A functional block that realizes the functions of the image forming apparatus 1, the client terminal 2, and the data management server 3 according to the present embodiment is configured by a combination of the software control unit configured as described above and hardware.

  Next, the functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a controller 100, an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) 101, a scanner unit 102, a paper discharge tray 103, a display panel 104, and a paper feed table. 105, a print engine 106, a paper discharge tray 107, and a network I / F 108.

  The controller 100 includes a main control unit 110, an engine control unit 120, an image processing unit 130, an operation display control unit 140, an input / output control unit 150, and an advertisement assignment control unit 160. Further, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 includes an advertisement assignment database 161. As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is configured as a multifunction machine having a scanner unit 102 and a print engine 106. In FIG. 3, the electrical connection is indicated by a solid arrow, and the flow of a sheet or a document bundle is indicated by a broken arrow.

  The display panel 104 is an output interface that visually displays the state of the image forming apparatus 1, and as a touch panel, when the user directly operates the image forming apparatus 1 or inputs information to the image forming apparatus 1. It is also an input interface. That is, the display panel 104 includes a function for displaying an image for receiving an operation by the user. The display panel 104 is realized by the LCD 60 and the operation unit 70 shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, the user operates the display panel 104 to instruct selection and acquisition of print target data stored in the data management server 3.

  The network I / F 108 is an interface for the image forming apparatus 1 to communicate with other devices such as the client terminal 2 and the data management server 3 via the network, and is an Ethernet (registered trademark) or USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. Is used. The network I / F 108 is realized by the I / F 50 shown in FIG.

  The controller 100 is configured by a combination of software and hardware. Specifically, a program stored in a ROM 30, a nonvolatile memory, and a nonvolatile storage medium such as the HDD 40 or an optical disk is loaded into a volatile memory (hereinafter referred to as a memory) such as the RAM 20, and the CPU 10 operates according to the program. The controller 100 is configured by a software control unit configured as described above and hardware such as an integrated circuit. The controller 100 functions as a control unit that controls the entire image forming apparatus 1.

  The main control unit 110 plays a role of controlling each unit included in the controller 100, and gives a command to each unit of the controller 100. The engine control unit 120 serves as a driving unit that controls or drives the print engine 106, the scanner unit 102, and the like. The image processing unit 130 generates drawing information based on image information to be printed out under the control of the main control unit 110. The drawing information is information for drawing an image to be formed in the image forming operation by the print engine 106 as an image forming unit.

  The image processing unit 130 processes image data input from the scanner unit 102 to generate image data. This image data is information stored in the storage area of the image forming apparatus 1 as a result of the scanner operation or transmitted to the data management server 3 via the network I / F 108.

  The operation display control unit 140 displays information on the display panel 104 or notifies the main control unit 110 of information input via the display panel 104. The input / output control unit 150 inputs information input via the network I / F 108 to the main control unit 110. The main control unit 110 also controls the input / output control unit 150 to access other devices such as the client terminal 2 and the data management server 3 via the network I / F 108 and the network.

  The advertisement giving control unit 160 determines whether to give an advertisement to the printed material based on information stored in the advertisement giving database 161 according to the control of the main control unit 110. Further, when it is determined that an advertisement is to be provided, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 determines the content of the advertisement and notifies the main control unit 110 of information describing the content of the advertisement. When it is determined that no advertisement is given, the main control unit 110 is notified of information describing the determination result.

  When the image forming apparatus 1 operates as a printer, first, the input / output control unit 150 receives a print job via the network I / F 108. That is, the input / output control unit 150 functions as a command acquisition unit and a command reception unit. The input / output control unit 150 transfers the received print job to the main control unit 110. When receiving a print job, the main control unit 110 controls the image processing unit 130 to generate drawing information based on document information or image information included in the print job.

  When drawing information is generated by the image processing unit 130, the engine control unit 120 controls the print engine 106 to form an image on the paper conveyed from the paper feed table 105 based on the generated drawing information. Let it run. That is, the image processing unit 130, the engine control unit 120, and the print engine 106 function as an image formation output unit. As a specific aspect of the print engine 106, an image forming mechanism using an ink jet method, an image forming mechanism using an electrophotographic method, or the like can be used. A document on which image formation has been performed by the print engine 106 is discharged to a discharge tray 107.

  Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, a process until a printed matter with an advertisement is output will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a printing processing procedure according to this embodiment. In the present embodiment, a case will be described where the user selects the print target data stored in the client terminal 2 by operating the client terminal 2 and prints the data on the image forming apparatus 1 via the network 4. Do

  The same processing procedure is used when printing is performed by selecting print target data stored in the image forming apparatus 1 or the data management server 3 via the network 4 by the user operating the client terminal 2. .

  Further, when the user directly operates the image forming apparatus 1, when printing is performed by selecting print target data stored in the client terminal 2 or the data management server 3 via the network 4, the user forms an image. The same processing procedure is used when printing is performed by selecting print target data stored in the image forming apparatus 1 by directly operating the apparatus 1.

  When the user determines data to be printed from the print target data stored in the client terminal 2 and selects printing, a print job is generated as an execution command for executing printing in the client terminal 2, and is transmitted via the network 4. To the image forming apparatus 1. The print job generated in the client terminal 2 includes the file name of the print target data and the folder name in which the print target data is stored, in addition to the print target data and the print setting information. These pieces of information are character strings indicating storage areas in which data to be printed are stored, and determining the advertisement to be given based on such character strings is one of the gist according to the present embodiment. .

  In the image forming apparatus 1, the main control unit 110 receives a print job from the input / output control unit 150 and transmits the print job to the advertisement assignment control unit 160. That is, here, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 functions as a command acquisition unit and a character string acquisition unit that acquire an effective command for image formation output. When receiving the print job, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 checks the name of the folder in which the print target data is stored based on the information included in the print job as shown in FIG. 4 according to the control of the main control unit 110 ( S401). At this time, the advertisement assignment determination unit 160 determines whether the advertisement can be provided. That is, here, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 functions as an advertisement assignment determination unit. This will be described in detail later with reference to FIGS.

  As a result of S401, the advertisement can be given (S402 / YES), and when the advertisement is printed (S403 / YES), the advertisement assignment control unit 160 determines the content of the advertisement to be given based on the folder name (S404). The advertisement data to be assigned is embedded in the determined print data (S405). That is, here, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 functions as an advertisement determination unit and an advertisement assignment unit. The processing of S404 and S405 will be described in detail later with reference to FIGS.

  Next, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 returns a print job including the print data in which the advertisement data is embedded to the main control unit 110, and the image forming apparatus 1 executes output (S406) and ends printing.

  On the other hand, as a result of S401, when it is determined that the advertisement cannot be given (S402 / NO), or when the advertisement is not printed (S403 / NO), the advertisement grant control unit 160 indicates that the print data and the advertisement are not given. The included print job is sent back to the main control unit 110, and the image forming apparatus 1 executes output (S406) and ends printing.

  The determination as to whether or not the advertisement can be given is performed in order to avoid printing an advertisement that is disadvantageous to the user. Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, a method for determining whether or not an advertisement can be given will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for determining the advertisement assignment according to the present embodiment.

  When the user determines data to be printed from the print target data stored in the client terminal 2 and selects printing, the main control unit 110 receives a print job from the input / output control unit 150 and prints it to the advertisement assignment control unit 160. Submit the job. When receiving the print job, the main control unit 160 obtains the folder name in which the print data is stored from the information included in the print job as shown in FIG. 5 according to the control of the main control unit 110 (S501). Note that any number of folders at any level may be acquired, but in this embodiment, the folder names from the folder storing the print target data up to three levels are acquired.

  When acquiring the folder name in which the print target data is stored, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 selects a folder name in a hierarchy in which a prohibited word comparison completed flag (to be described later) is not set among the folder names acquired in S501 ( S502). In addition, as a method for selecting a folder name, the folder names may be selected in order from the lowest level among the folder names of the hierarchy where the prohibited word comparison completed flag is not set, or may be selected as appropriate, for example, at random. An appropriate method may be adopted depending on the situation.

  Next, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 compares the print prohibition wording stored in the advertisement assignment database 161 as shown in FIG. 6 with the folder name of the hierarchy selected in S502 (S503). Then, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 sets a prohibited word comparison completed flag in the folder name of the hierarchy compared in S503 to indicate that the comparison with the predetermined print prohibition word has been completed (S504).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the advertisement granting database 161 according to the present embodiment, in which an item number for identifying a print prohibition word and a corresponding print prohibition word are registered in association with each other. In other words, the advertisement granting database 161 defines a list of print prohibition words. Note that the print prohibition wording may be registered in advance in the advertisement granting database 161, or may be configured to be updated to the latest wording as appropriate from the outside.

  As a result of S503, when the print prohibition word is included in the folder name (S505 / YES), the advertisement assignment control unit 160 notifies the main control unit 110 that the advertisement cannot be provided (S506), and the advertisement assignment determination process. Exit. As a result of S503, if the folder name does not include a print prohibition word (S505 / NO), among the folder names acquired in S501, the folder name of the hierarchy for which the prohibited word comparison flag has not been set is set. Processing similar to the processing up to S506 is executed (S507 / NO).

  If the print prohibition word is not included in all the folder names (S507 / YES), the advertisement assignment control unit 160 notifies the main control unit 110 that the advertisement can be given (S508), and the advertisement assignment determination process ends.

  In this way, since the print prohibition wording is predetermined, it is possible to avoid printing an advertisement that is disadvantageous for the user. For example, since documents such as reports and resumes are confidential information or privacy information, it is difficult to assume distribution to an unspecified number of people. Therefore, it is inappropriate to give advertisements to these documents. Such a situation can be avoided by the above processing. Also, it is inappropriate to give advertisements for official documents. Therefore, the convenience of the user can be improved by automatically prohibiting the application of an advertisement when a character string indicating an official document is included.

  Next, the procedure for determining the contents of the advertisement in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure for providing an advertisement according to the present embodiment. If it is determined that the advertisement can be given by the operation shown in FIG. 5, first, as shown in FIG. 7, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 acquires the total number of pages of the print data according to the control of the main control unit 110 (S701). Then, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 selects a page on which a selected flag (to be described later) is not set from the pages to be printed (S702).

  As a method for selecting a page, an appropriate page may be selected depending on the embodiment, such as selecting pages in order of increasing number of pages from pages with no selected flag set, or selecting them in a random order. The method should be adopted. A selected flag is set on the page selected in S702 to indicate that it has been selected (S703).

  Next, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 selects a folder name of a hierarchy in which a determination word comparison flag (to be described later) is not set among folder names in which print target data is stored (S704), as shown in FIG. Among the advertisement data determination words stored in the advertisement granting database 161, the advertisement data determination word corresponding to the item number for which a used flag is not set, which will be described later, is compared with the folder name selected in S704 (S705). . Then, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 sets a determined word / phrase compared flag to indicate that the comparison with the predetermined advertisement data determination word / phrase is completed in the folder names of the layers compared in S705 (S706). .

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the advertisement granting database 161 according to the present embodiment. Here, the item number for identifying the advertisement data, the corresponding advertisement data determination text, the advertisement title, and the storage location of the advertisement data are registered and associated with the advertisement data. The advertisement data describes the contents of the advertisement to be added to the print target data. That is, here, the advertisement granting database 161 functions as a character string correspondence table. The advertisement data, the corresponding advertisement data determination text, and the storage location of the advertisement data may be registered in advance in the advertisement granting database 161, or may be updated to the latest one from the outside as appropriate. May be.

  As a result of S705, when all or a part of the folder name matches one of the advertisement data determination words stored in the advertisement granting database 161 (S707 / YES), the advertisement granting control unit 160 matches. The advertisement data corresponding to the advertisement data determination word is set in the page selected in S702 (S708).

  The advertisement giving control unit 160 sets a set flag for a page for which advertisement data has been set (S709). This is to prevent the advertisement data from being set again on the page once the advertisement data is set.

  The advertisement assignment control unit 160 sets a used flag for the item number corresponding to the advertisement data set in S708 (S710). This is a process for preventing once adopted advertisement data from being adopted by other pages. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the same advertisement from being set on a plurality of pages, and it is possible to set more types of advertisements.

  On the other hand, as a result of S707, when all or a part of the folder name does not match any of the advertisement data determination words stored in the advertisement granting database 161 (S707 / NO), the advertisement granting control unit 160 Of the folder names acquired in S501, the same processing as that in S704 to S710 is executed for the folder names of the hierarchy for which the decision word comparison completed flag is not set (S711 / NO). The processing here is performed so that the default advertisement data need not be set as much as possible. That is, the possibility of setting advertisement data other than the default can be increased each time the folder name hierarchy acquired in S501 is increased, and a more appropriate and effective advertisement can be set.

  When the processing of S710 is completed, or all folder names acquired in S501 have been compared with the advertisement data determination word stored in the advertisement granting database 161 (S711 / YES), the advertisement granting control unit 160 The same processing as S702 to S711 is performed for the number of pages acquired in S701 (S712 / NO).

  When the processing of S702 to S711 is completed for all the pages acquired in S701 (S712 / YES), the advertisement assignment control unit 160 determines whether or not the advertisement data is set for all the pages acquired in S701 ( S713). If there is a page for which advertisement data is not set (S713 / NO), the advertisement assignment control unit 160 sets default advertisement data for the page (S714), and the advertisement data is embedded in the main control unit 110. The print job including the print data is transmitted (S715), and the advertisement providing process is terminated.

  When advertisement data is set for all pages (S713 / YES), or when the process of S714 is completed, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 transmits a print job including print data in which advertisement data is embedded to the main control unit 110. (S715), and the advertisement granting process is terminated.

  In S708 and S714, the advertisement assignment control unit 160 sets the advertisement data by editing the print job so that the selected advertisement image is formed in the empty space or the back surface of the print target data. The print target data is stored as data in a format called, for example, PDL (Page Description Language) in a print job. The advertisement giving control unit 160 sets the advertisement data so that an image in which the advertisement is inserted in the empty space is formed by editing the data in the PDL format. With such an advertisement data setting mode, the advertisement data can be set without any change in the image processing unit 130 that generates the drawing information based on the print job.

  In addition, the advertisement data can be set by adding advertisement data and information indicating the insertion position of the advertisement to the print job. In such a case, the image processing unit 130 has a function of generating drawing information based on the advertisement data added to the print job as described above, in addition to the general drawing information generation processing based on the print job. Cost.

  In the above embodiment, the content of the advertisement data is determined based on the name of the folder in which the print target data is stored. However, the file name of the print target data is not based on the folder name alone. The contents of the advertisement data may be determined based on the content itself, or the contents of the advertisement data may be determined based on both the folder name and the file name.

  The folder name often captures the characteristics of the contents of the file stored there, and the same applies to the file name. Therefore, in the present invention in which the content of the advertisement data is determined based on the folder name or the file name, an optimal advertisement can be given to the print target data.

  In the above embodiment, the case where a print job is transmitted from the client terminal 2 to the image forming apparatus 1 via the public line 4 has been described as an example. However, as shown in FIG. However, the print job may be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 1 via the network 4.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an operation mode of a system according to another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, in addition to the image forming apparatus 1, the client terminal 2, and the data management server 3, a tablet terminal 5 and a mobile phone terminal 6 are connected via a network 4.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the advertisement information processing apparatus 7 is independent of the image forming apparatus 1, and the image forming apparatus 1 has no function of giving an advertisement. Receives a print job, adds advertisements Performs the process described in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, and transmits the edited print job to the image forming apparatus 1 so that advertisement data is added. It may be configured.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an operation mode of a system according to another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 10, in addition to the image forming apparatus 1, the client terminal 2, the data management server 3, the tablet terminal 5, and the mobile phone terminal 6, an advertisement information processing apparatus 7 is connected via the network 4. .

  The hardware configuration and the advertisement giving process in the configuration as shown in FIG. 10 will be described. Here, detailed description of the same configuration and processing as those in the above embodiment is omitted. The advertisement information processing apparatus 7 has the hardware configuration shown in FIG. 2, and includes a network I / F 108, a main control unit 110, an input / output control unit 150, an advertisement assignment control unit 160, and an advertisement assignment database 161 as functional configurations. Yes.

  In the case of such a configuration, the image forming apparatus 1 does not have the advertisement assignment control unit 160 and the advertisement assignment database 161. Therefore, the advertisement information processing apparatus 7 executes the process of giving the advertisement to the print data.

  First, the advertisement information processing apparatus 7 receives a print job transmitted from the client terminal 2 or the like via the network 4. For this reason, in the client terminal 2 and the like, the network address of the advertisement information processing apparatus 7 is set as a print job transmission destination even if it is an output command in the image forming apparatus 1 by setting a printer driver or the like. The advertisement information processing apparatus 7 that has received the print job performs the same processing as in FIGS. 5 and 7 described in detail in the above embodiment. The print job notified in S716 is transmitted to the image forming apparatus 1 via the network 4, and the image forming apparatus 1 executes printing based on the received print job.

  With such a system operation mode, only one set of advertisement granting functions such as the advertisement granting control unit 160 and the advertisement granting database 161 may be provided, and the functions can be shared by a plurality of image forming apparatuses 1. The configuration can be made more efficient.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Client terminal 3 Data management server 4 Public line 5 Tablet terminal 6 Mobile phone terminal 7 Advertising information processing apparatus 10 CPU
20 RAM
30 ROM
40 HDD
50 I / F
60 LCD
70 Operation unit 80 Bus 100 Controller 101 ADF
102 Scanner unit 103 Paper discharge tray 104 Display panel 105 Paper feed table 106 Print engine 107 Paper discharge tray 108 Network I / F
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 110 Main control part 120 Engine control part 130 Image processing part 140 Operation display control part 150 Input / output control part 160 Advertisement provision control part 161 Advertisement provision database

JP 2010-136332 A

Claims (6)

An image processing apparatus for providing advertisement information to image data to be imaged and output in an image forming apparatus,
An instruction obtaining unit for obtaining an effective instruction of an image forming output including the image data;
A character string acquisition unit that acquires a character string indicating a storage area in which the image data is stored, from the acquired image formation output effective command;
Based on the acquired character string, an ad grant determination unit that determines whether or not to add ad information to the image data;
An advertisement determination unit that determines advertisement information to be added to the image data based on the acquired character string when it is determined to give the advertisement information;
An advertisement giving unit that modifies an effective command of the image formation output based on the decided advertisement information so that the decided advertisement information is attached to the image data and image formation output is executed. A featured image processing apparatus.   The advertisement granting determination unit determines whether or not the prohibition word is included in the acquired character string based on the list information of the prohibition wording that is a character string for which prohibition of advertisement information is provided. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the advertisement information is added to the image data by determining.   The advertisement determination unit is configured to obtain the acquired character string based on a character string correspondence table storing information in which identification information for identifying the advertisement information is associated with a character string related to the advertisement information. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image information is determined to be provided with the advertisement information identified by the identification information associated with the image data.   The character string acquisition unit acquires at least one of a file name of the image data and a folder name of the image data as a character string indicating a storage area in which the image data is stored. 4. The image processing device according to any one of items 3 to 3. An image processing program for providing advertisement information to image data to be imaged and output in an image forming apparatus,
Obtaining an effective command of image formation output including the image data;
Obtaining a character string indicating a storage area in which the image data is stored from the acquired image formation output effective command;
Determining whether to provide advertising information to the image data based on the acquired character string;
Determining the advertisement information to be added to the image data based on the acquired character string when it is determined to give the advertisement information;
The image processing apparatus executes a step of modifying an effective instruction of the image formation output based on the determined advertisement information so that the determined advertisement information is attached to the image data and the image formation output is executed. An image processing program characterized in that An image processing method for providing advertisement information to image data to be imaged and output in an image forming apparatus,
An image forming output effective command including the image data is acquired and stored in a storage medium,
Obtaining a character string indicating a storage area in which the image data is stored from the acquired image formation output effective command,
Based on the acquired character string, determine whether to give advertising information to the image data,
When it is determined to give the advertisement information, based on the acquired character string, determine the advertisement information to be given to the image data,
An image processing method for correcting an effective command for image formation output based on the determined advertisement information so that the determined advertisement information is attached to the image data and image formation output is executed. .

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