JP2015060265A - Schedule cooperation printing service device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically determine whether or not paper-medium conference materials are necessary for participants of a conference in cooperation with a conference schedule, and to execute the printing of only the necessary number of copies of materials.SOLUTION: A schedule cooperation printing service device 10 includes: a conference determination part 11 for determining conference rooms, participants and conference materials of a conference by referring to a conference database 101; a mobile equipment determination part 12 for determining mobile equipment owned by the participants and the connection method of the mobile equipment by referring to a user database 102; a notification part 15 for notifying the participants who own the mobile equipment connectable to the facility of the conference room of conference guide including link destination information of the conference materials before the conference is held; and a printing execution part 16 for, when the printing of the conference materials is instructed, executing the printing of the conference materials of the number of participants who do not own the mobile equipment connectable to the facility of the conference room.

Description

  The present invention relates to a schedule linkage printing service apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for printing a required number of copies to be printed in cooperation with a user's schedule.

  The conference organizer needs to know the schedule of the conference and the number of participants when preparing the conference material used in the conference of a company or the like, in particular, printing. However, there may be changes in the schedule, increase / decrease of participants, addition / replacement of meeting materials, etc. just before the meeting, and it is not easy to reliably print the necessary materials in response to such changes. Absent.

  In order to solve such a problem, for example, in Patent Document 1 below, the information management server sets a print job schedule to be executed in accordance with the schedule specified by the schedule information, and the printer reports the arrival of the print job schedule. A printing system is disclosed that assists in printing meeting materials in time for a meeting schedule by monitoring and executing a scheduled print job.

JP 2006-72470 A

  In recent years, companies that lend mobile devices such as notebook PCs and tablet devices to each employee, or introduce BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) that employees bring their own mobile devices into the company for business use Has increased rapidly. In addition, network environments such as wired / wireless LANs are also established in conference rooms other than office rooms. Therefore, it is not always necessary to distribute paper-based meeting materials to all participants in a meeting, and it is sufficient to notify participants who have mobile devices that can connect to the network of the link destination information of the materials. is there. Participants can freely browse the materials by accessing the link destination of the materials from their mobile devices at the meeting.

  In the conventional printing system, it is necessary for the user (meeting organizer) to set the number of copies when printing the conference material, which causes inconvenience to the user. Also, participants having mobile devices that can be connected to the network waste paper because they print conference materials.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible for a user to print a truly necessary number of copies when a document is used in a certain place.

A schedule linkage printing service apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a schedule including a combination of information indicating an event, an execution place of the event, a user, a document, and link destination information indicating a storage location of the document. An event determination unit that refers to a schedule database that stores information and determines an implementation location, a user, and a document associated with a specified event and link destination information thereof;
A mobile device determination unit that determines a mobile device associated with the determined user with reference to a user database that manages user information;
Prior to use of the implementation location, the user associated with the determined mobile device is notified of guidance information including the determined implementation location and link information of the determined document. A notification unit;
A print execution unit that executes printing for the number of users not associated with the mobile device when an instruction to print the determined document is issued.

  According to the present invention, when a document is used in a certain place of execution, only the number of documents truly necessary for the user can be printed. As a result, the user is free from the inconvenience of calculating and inputting the truly necessary number of copies by himself / herself, and the waste of paper can be eliminated by avoiding unnecessary printing of documents.

1 is a configuration diagram of an entire system including a schedule linkage printing service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the information stored in the meeting database. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the information stored in the user database. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the information stored in the facility database. It is a processing flowchart which shows an example of the schedule cooperation printing process by a schedule cooperation printing service apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the schedule cooperation printing service screen displayed on a user terminal.

  Hereinafter, a schedule cooperation printing service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an entire system including a schedule cooperation print service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In this system, the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 refers to various databases (conference database (schedule database) 101, user database 102, facility database 103) and cooperates with the conference schedule to send paper media to the conference participants. It is automatically determined whether or not the conference material is necessary, and the image forming apparatus 20 is instructed to print the material for the necessary number of copies. The schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 10 is composed of, for example, a server computer, and the server operates according to a computer program for the schedule cooperation printing service to execute schedule cooperation printing.

  The image forming apparatus 20 is, for example, a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine, or a printer or multifunction machine having these functions. The image forming apparatus 20 is connected to the schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 10 by wired or wireless communication means via an intranet and / or the Internet.

  Further, the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 is connected to the user terminal 100 by wired or wireless communication means via an intranet and / or the Internet. The user terminal 100 is, for example, a PC, a tablet terminal, a smartphone, or the like. The schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 10 executes the schedule cooperation printing process in accordance with an instruction transmitted from the user terminal 100 based on the operation of the user terminal 100 by the user. The user terminal 100 does not need to have a computer program for schedule-linked printing processing installed. For example, the user can operate the schedule-linked printing service apparatus 10 from the user terminal 100 using a web browser application or the like. .

  The schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 10 is connected to the conference database 101, the user database 102, and the facility database 103 by wired or wireless communication means via an intranet and / or the Internet.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of information stored in the conference database 101. For example, in the conference database 101, for each conference ID for identifying each conference, each of the organizer, the conference room number, the date and time of the conference, the participants, the conference material (document), the link destination information indicating the storage location, etc. Conference information (schedule information) consisting of information is stored.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of information stored in the user database 102. For example, the user database 102 stores, for each user, information such as the type of mobile device owned and the connection method of the mobile device to the network in association with each other. In addition to this, the user database 102 stores user information for user authentication.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of information stored in the facility database 103. For example, in the facility database 103, facility information indicating what facility status the conference room has is recorded for each conference room number indicating the conference room.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the details of the configuration of the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 will be described. The schedule linkage print service apparatus 10 includes a conference determination unit 11, a mobile device determination unit 12, an equipment determination unit 13, a connectivity determination unit 14, a notification unit 15, and a print execution unit 16.

  The conference determination unit (event determination unit) 11 refers to each conference information stored in the conference database 101, and the conference room (conducted in the scope of claims) for the conference designated by the user from the user terminal 100 Example of “location”), meeting date, participant (example of “user” in claims), material, link information of the material (for example, IP address, URL (Uniform Resource Locator), etc.) . For example, in the conference database 101 shown in FIG. 2, when the user A requests a reference by specifying the conference ID 0001, the conference determination unit 11 holds the conference in the conference room with the conference room number 101, and the date and time of the conference is determined. January 22, 2013 16: 00 to 17:00, the participants are users B, C, and D, and the conference materials are A. doc, it is determined that the link destination information of the conference material is “Y: \ sales department \ Osaka area \ work schedule”.

  The mobile device determination unit 12 refers to the user database 102 to determine the mobile device owned by the conference participant and its connection method. For example, for the users B, C, and D who are scheduled to attend the conference with the conference ID 0001 in the conference database 101 shown in FIG. 2, the mobile device determination unit 12 refers to the user database 102 shown in FIG. B owns a notebook PC, can connect to wireless WiFi (registered trademark) and wired LAN, user C owns a tablet, can connect to wireless WiFi (registered trademark), and user D owns a mobile device Judge that it is not.

  The facility determination unit 13 refers to the facility database 103 to determine the facilities provided in the conference room. For example, in the conference database 101 shown in FIG. 2, when there is a request for referring to the conference ID 0001 from the user A, the equipment determination unit 13 determines that the equipment of the conference room number 101 is a wireless WiFi (registered trademark) and a wired LAN. judge.

  The connectivity determination unit 14 determines whether a mobile device owned by a conference participant can be connected to a conference room facility. For example, each connection method of the notebook PC owned by the user B who will be attending the meeting with the meeting ID 0001 in the meeting database 101 shown in FIG. Therefore, the connectivity determination unit 14 determines that the mobile devices owned by the users B and C can be connected to the conference room facility with the conference room number 101.

  Prior to the conference, the notification unit 15 provides the conference guidance (guidance information) including the conference room number, the date and time of the conference, and the link information of the conference material to participants who own mobile devices that can be connected to the conference room facilities. ). The term “before the meeting” refers to, for example, the day before the meeting or several hours before the meeting. The notification unit 15 transmits the notification to the personal computer of each user or the user terminal 100 of each user that is network-connected to the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 via a LAN or the like. The notification unit 15 performs the notification using an e-mail or the like. For example, in the case of the meeting with the meeting ID 0001 in the meeting database 101 shown in FIG. 2, the notification unit 15 sends the meeting information A.B. Include link destination information of doc. On the other hand, the notification unit 15 notifies the user D who does not own the mobile device of the conference guidance that does not include the link destination information of the conference material.

  The print execution unit 16 executes printing for the number of participants who do not have the connectable mobile device determined by the connectivity determination unit 14. For example, in the case of the conference with the conference ID 0001 in the conference database 101 shown in FIG. 2, there are three conference participants, users B, C, and D. Of these, it is possible to connect to the equipment of the conference room with the conference room number 101. Since there is only one user D who does not own the mobile device, the print execution unit 16 is responsible for the A. Only one copy of doc is printed.

  The mobile device determination unit 12 determines the mobile device associated with each participant and the connection method thereof with reference to the user database 102 even after the notification of the conference guidance, and the notification unit 15 After the notification of the guidance, the conference guidance may be notified to the user who is associated with the mobile device that can be connected to the facility at the implementation location by the mobile device determination unit 12. In this case, the print execution unit 16 acquires information indicating the change of the connection status from the mobile device determination unit 12, and the user who has been associated with the mobile device that can be connected to the facility at the implementation location. Reduce the number of copies of meeting materials by the number of people.

  For example, in the case of the conference with the conference ID 0001 in the conference database 101 shown in FIG. 2, the user D possesses a tablet having wireless WiFi (registered trademark) after the notification unit 15 notifies the user D of the conference guidance. Is registered in the user database 102, and when this is determined by the mobile device determination unit 12, the notification unit 15 notifies the user D of A.A. The link destination information of doc is notified.

  In this way, unnecessary printing can be suppressed by notifying the participants who have mobile devices that can be connected to the equipment in the conference room again with the link destination information of the conference material.

  In addition, the conference determination unit 11 refers to the conference database 101 even after the notification of the conference guidance, and determines the conference material and the link destination information of the conference designated by the user, and the participant. When it is determined by the conference determination unit 11 that the conference material or link destination information (not limited to the link destination information of the conference material) has been added and / or changed after the notification of the guidance information, the mobile device determination unit 12 Thus, the added and / or changed conference material or link destination information may be notified to a user who is associated with a mobile device that can be connected to the facility at the implementation location. In this case, the print execution unit 16 acquires information indicating the content of the change from the conference determination unit 11 and the mobile device determination unit 12, and executes the printing of the conference material after the change, or the link destination information is If added, the number of print copies is reduced by the number of users who are associated with the mobile device that can be connected to the facility at the above-mentioned place at this time.

  For example, in the case of the meeting with the meeting ID 0001 in the meeting database 101 shown in FIG. doc and its link information are registered in the conference database 101, and when this is determined by the conference determination unit 11, the notification unit 15 displays the B.B. The link destination information of doc is notified to the users B and C. Note that the print execution unit 16 performs the B.D. Doc meeting materials are to be printed.

  In this way, when meeting materials are added and / or changed after notification of the meeting information, the meeting materials added and / or changed for the participants who own mobile devices that can be connected to the facilities in the meeting room. As the link destination information is notified again, the participant having the mobile device can know the change of the conference material in advance, and access to the conference material after the change becomes easy.

  In addition, the conference determination unit 11 refers to the conference information in the conference database 101 even after printing by the print execution unit 16, and the conference room, the date and time, the participants, and the conference associated with the specified conference. When each item of the document is determined, and the notification unit 15 determines that any one of the items associated with the designated conference has been changed by the conference determination unit 11 after the printing is performed, You may make it notify the organizer (an example of an administrator) of the said meeting, or a participant of the said change.

  For example, when the user designates a meeting with the meeting ID 0001 in the meeting database 101 shown in FIG. After the printing of doc, it is registered in the conference database 101 that the conference location has been changed to the conference room with the conference room number 202, and when this is determined by the conference determination unit 11, the notification unit 15 is the conference organizer. Notify a certain user A to that effect. In this case, since the conference room number 202 has no equipment (FIG. 4), the user A can determine that additional printing of conference materials for the two users C and D is necessary.

  In this way, when meeting information is updated after the meeting material is printed, the meeting organizer notifies the meeting organizer that the change has occurred, so that the meeting organizer can determine whether additional printing of the meeting material is necessary. Judgment can be made. In addition, the participant can know the change of the conference room by the notification.

  Next, a series of processes until the user who is the meeting organizer prints the meeting material will be described. FIG. 5 is a process flow diagram illustrating an example of schedule cooperation printing processing by the schedule cooperation printing service apparatus.

  The user operates the user terminal 100 to log in to the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 by inputting a user ID and password on a screen of a web browser, for example (1). The schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 10 inquires the user database 102 about the input user ID and password and performs user authentication (1.1). As a result, the user can operate the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 via the user terminal 100.

  When the user authentication is completed, the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 refers to the conference database 101 and acquires conference information stored in association with the logged-in user (1.2). In addition, the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 notifies the user terminal 100 of the initial print condition (1.3) if there is no previously set print condition (number of copies, printer that executed printing, etc.). In response to the notification of each piece of information from the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10, the user terminal 100 displays the user's meeting information, printing conditions, and the like on the screen of the display unit of the terminal (1.4).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schedule cooperation print service screen displayed on the user terminal 100. This example is a screen example that displays various types of information about the conference indicated by the conference ID 0001 for the user A in the conference database 101 shown in FIG. There are three print conditions: “print for all participants”, “do not print if there is a projector in the conference room”, and “do not print to participants who hold mobile devices that can connect to the network”. Also, the user terminal 100 receives a designation instruction for the printer when a printer to which the conference material is output is designated based on an operation of the user terminal 100 by the user. The “printer selection” image displayed on the screen is a display for providing the operation instruction.

  In the user terminal 100 on which the screen shown in FIG. 6 is displayed, (a) an instruction to select the displayed conference ID (conference) or conference material by the operation of the user terminal 100 by the user, and (b) When an instruction to specify the displayed printing condition as it is or an instruction to change the printing condition is input to the selected meeting material or the meeting material associated with the meeting ID, the user terminal 100 displays the instruction. (2).

  For example, when the user operates the user terminal 100 and presses a “print” button on the screen shown in FIG. 6, a print instruction is accepted by the user terminal 100 (3).

  Then, the user terminal 100 has a conference ID 0001, A.1 which is a conference material. The schedule linked print service apparatus 10 is notified that the doc is to be printed and that the printing condition is “do not print to a participant who holds a mobile that can be connected to the network” (3.1).

  Based on this, the schedule cooperation print service apparatus 10 starts processing for calculating the necessary number of copies (3.1.1).

  First, the conference determination unit 11 of the schedule linkage printing service apparatus 10 refers to the conference database 101 and acquires conference information regarding the conference ID 0001 (or conference material) specified by the user (3.1.1). .1). In addition, the facility determination unit 13 refers to the facility database 103 and acquires the facility information of the conference room number 101 (3.1.1.2). In addition, the mobile device determination unit 12 refers to the user database 102 and acquires information on mobile devices owned by the users B, C, and D participating in the conference (3.1.1.3).

  Subsequently, the print execution unit 16 calculates the number of copies of the conference material using various information related to the conference ID 0001 acquired from the conference database 101, the user database 102, and the facility database 103 (3.1.1.4). For example, the print execution unit 16 calculates the number of users who do not have a mobile device that can be connected to the equipment of a conference room used for a conference, and sets the calculated number of people as the number of print copies. In the case of the conference with the conference ID 0001, the print execution unit 16 calculates the number of copies to be 1 because only the user D needs conference material on paper media.

  Further, the print execution unit 16 refers to the conference database 101 and acquires the conference material used in the conference with the conference ID 0001 (3.1.2). In this example, A.I. doc is obtained.

  When acquiring the meeting material, the print execution unit 16 issues a print instruction to the image forming apparatus 20 designated by the user so as to print the required number of copies (3.1.3). In the case of the conference with the conference ID 0001, the conference material A. Only one copy of doc is printed by the image forming apparatus 20 (3.1.3.1).

  For example, the print execution unit 16 determines the image at a certain time before the conference start time of the conference ID 0001 based on the conference information acquired from the conference database 101 by the conference determination unit 11 as described above. A print instruction for the forming apparatus 20 is transmitted.

  In addition, the notification unit 15 is acquired by the mobile device determination unit 12 at a time before the conference time of the conference ID 0001 (which may be the same time as the print instruction time or a different time). Based on the information of the mobile device, for each user participating in the conference, as described above, either the conference guidance notification including the link destination information of the conference material or the conference guidance not including the link destination information of the conference material. Notify

  After printing the conference material, the print execution unit 16 stores the printing conditions used this time (3.1.4). This is because the printing conditions are the same every time in a conference where the participants and the day of the week are determined as in the regular conference, and only the conference material changes each time. Therefore, for such a conference, the print execution unit 16 saves the printing conditions, so that the user can simplify the input of the printing conditions when printing the material of the next meeting.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is determined whether paper conference materials are required for the conference participants in cooperation with the conference schedule, and depending on whether or not the participants have mobile devices. Therefore, it is possible to print the conference material with the number of copies really limited to the participants. As a result, the user (for example, the conference organizer) does not need to perform an operation such as setting the number of copies of the conference material according to the presence or absence of the participant's mobile device. It is possible to print meeting materials by narrowing down, and it is possible to prevent unnecessary material printing and eliminate paper waste.

  The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the facility determination unit 13 refers to the facility database 103 to determine the conference room facilities, and the connectivity determination unit 14 determines that each user-owned mobile device is a facility of the conference room. When the notification unit 15 determines that the user can own the mobile device, the notification unit 15 determines the conference number indicating the conference room and the conference material before the conference using the conference room is held. The print execution unit 16 prints and executes the meeting material for the number of users who do not have such a mobile device. Is not limited to this. For example, the schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 10 does not have the equipment determination unit 13 and the connectivity determination unit 14, and the print execution unit 16 determines whether the mobile device is owned by each user by the mobile device determination unit 12. The print execution unit 16 may print the meeting material for the number of users who do not own the mobile device.

  In the above embodiment, according to the designation of the conference ID or conference material by the user, the conference material associated with the conference ID or the designated conference material is only for the number of users who do not own the mobile device. The conference information is a combination of the conference, the location of the conference, the participants, the conference material, and the link destination information of the conference material. The designation of the ID or the designation of the conference material indicates that the conference (event) is designated by the user.

  The configuration and processing shown in the above embodiment using FIGS. 1 to 6 are only one embodiment of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention to the configuration and processing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Schedule cooperation printing service apparatus 11 Conference determination part 12 Mobile device determination part 13 Equipment determination part 14 Connectivity determination part 15 Notification part 16 Print execution part 20 Image forming apparatus 101 Conference database 102 User database 103 Facility database

Claims (5)

Specified by referring to a schedule database that stores schedule information composed of a combination of information indicating an event, an event execution location, a user, a document, and link destination information indicating a storage location of the document. An event determination unit that determines an execution location, a user, and a document associated with an event and link information thereof;
A mobile device determination unit that determines a mobile device associated with the determined user with reference to a user database that manages user information;
Prior to use of the implementation location, the user associated with the determined mobile device is notified of guidance information including the determined implementation location and link information of the determined document. A notification unit;
A schedule cooperation print service apparatus comprising: a print execution unit that executes printing for the number of users not associated with the mobile device when an instruction to print the determined document is given. A facility determination unit that determines the facility at the designated execution location with reference to a facility database that manages facility information provided in each of the implementation locations;
A connectivity determination unit that determines whether the mobile device can be connected to the facility at the implementation location determined by the facility determination unit;
The mobile device determination unit refers to the user database, further determines a connection method of a mobile device associated with a user,
The notification unit notifies the guidance information to a user associated with a mobile device that is determined to be connectable to the facility at the location before using the location,
2. The schedule linkage printing according to claim 1, wherein the print execution unit executes printing for the number of users not associated with a mobile device connectable to the facility at the execution place when a print instruction for the document is given. Service device. The schedule database further stores the use date and time of the execution place in addition to the execution place, user, document and link destination information thereof,
The mobile device determination unit refers to the user database even after the notification of the guidance information, determines the mobile device associated with the user and the connection method thereof,
The schedule cooperation according to claim 2, wherein the notification unit notifies the guide information to a user who is associated with a mobile device connectable to the facility at the implementation location after the notification of the guide information. Print service device. The event determination unit refers to the schedule database even after the notification of the meeting guidance, determines a document associated with the designated implementation location and its link destination information, and a user,
When the event determination unit determines that the document or link destination information has been added and / or changed after the notification of the guidance information, the notification unit associates with the mobile device that can be connected to the facility at the implementation location The schedule cooperation printing service apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the added user and / or changed document or link destination information is notified to a given user. In addition to the implementation location and its use date and time, the user, the document and its link destination information, the schedule database associates and stores the event manager at the implementation location,
The event determination unit refers to the schedule database even after the print execution by the print execution unit, determines each item associated with the designated execution location,
If it is determined by the location determination unit that any of the items associated with the designated execution location has been changed after the printing is performed, the notification unit indicates that the change has been made. The schedule cooperation printing service apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which notifies the administrator associated with the designated execution location.

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