JP2017177724A - Apparatus management system, apparatus control system, apparatus management method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the following problem: a technique is known that improves the convenience for a user by detecting, with a detection sensor or a wireless tag mounted on an image forming apparatus, the user's approaching so as to restore the apparatus from energy saving mode in advance; however, in the prior art, when a plurality of MFPs and other apparatuses are installed close to each other and human detection ranges of those apparatuses thus overlap with each other, even the apparatuses that are not actually used are restored to normal mode, consequently posing a problem that power is wasted while the apparatuses that are not actually used remain in the normal mode.SOLUTION: If a server receives, from each of image forming apparatuses 11, 12, approach information indicating that a person has approached the image forming apparatuses 11, 12, and if the server further receives, from the image forming apparatus 11, authentication execution information indicating that the image forming apparatus 11 has performed authentication of the user, the server transmits, to the image forming apparatus 12, a transfer instruction for switching from the normal mode to the energy saving mode.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a device management system, a device control system, a device management method, and a program.

  By detecting the proximity of the user with the detection sensor and wireless tag installed in the MFP (Multifunction Peripheral / Product / Printer) and returning to the normal mode from the energy saving mode (hereinafter referred to as “energy saving mode”) in advance, A technique for improving convenience for users is already known.

  However, in the conventional technology, when a plurality of devices such as MFPs are installed nearby and the human detection ranges of each device overlap, the devices that are not actually used are returned to the energy saving mode. Resulting in. Therefore, there is a problem that power is wasted while the device that is not actually used is restored to the energy saving mode.

  The invention according to claim 1 is an apparatus management system that manages a plurality of apparatuses, and is capable of receiving access information indicating that a user has approached the predetermined apparatus from the predetermined apparatus, A receiving unit capable of receiving authentication execution information indicating that the predetermined device has performed authentication of the user in order for the user to use the predetermined device; A transmission unit that transmits a transition instruction indicating that the mode is shifted to the energy saving mode, and after the reception unit receives the approach information from each of the first device and the second device, A device that transmits the migration instruction to the second device when the authentication information indicating that the first device has performed authentication of the user is received from the device; It is a management system.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the problem that power is wasted can be solved as much as possible.

It is a schematic diagram of the whole device control system concerning this embodiment. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. It is a block diagram of the server of this embodiment. It is the figure which showed the outline of the process or operation | movement of this embodiment. It is the figure which showed the detail of the process or operation | movement of this embodiment.

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

<< Configuration of the Embodiment >>
First, the outline of the entire apparatus control system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the entire apparatus control system according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus control system is constructed by a plurality of image forming apparatuses 11, 12, 13 and a server 15. The plurality of image forming apparatuses 11, 12, 13 and the server 15 are communicably connected via a network 14 such as a LAN (Local Area Network). In FIG. 1, for convenience of explanation, three image forming apparatuses are shown, but two or four or more may be used. The image forming apparatus includes an MFP, a copier, a FAX, a scanner, a printer, and the like.

  The server 15 is an example of a device management system. The device management system includes not only a case where the server 15 is constructed by a single server but also a case where the device 15 is constructed by a plurality of servers.

  Note that a recording medium such as a CD-ROM storing each program of each image forming apparatus 11, 12, 13 and server, and a hard disk storing these programs are all program products. Or it can be provided abroad.

  Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, each of the image forming apparatuses 11, 12, and 13 includes a communication unit 21, a CPU 22, a storage device 23, an energy saving control unit 24, an engine 25, an operation unit 26, an authentication unit 27, and a human detection unit. 28, a long-distance authentication unit 29, a power supply unit 30, and a bus 20 for electrically connecting them.

  Among these, the communication unit 21 has a function of communicating with the server 15 of FIG. 1 via the network 14 of FIG. The CPU 22 executes a program stored in the storage device 23 to control the image forming apparatus, a program for controlling the image forming apparatus, and a network of the server 15 required when communicating with the server 15 in FIG. Stores an address. The energy saving control unit 24 performs control for shifting or returning the image forming apparatus to the energy saving mode. The engine 25 is hardware that realizes a reading operation or a printing operation, and realizes a copy function. The operation unit 26 is an operation unit of the image forming apparatus, and is also used to determine whether or not a user (user) has performed an operation. The authentication unit 27 authenticates the user of the image forming apparatus by performing authentication using an NFC (Near Field Communication) or IC (Integrated Circuit) card, and determines whether or not the user has performed an operation. Also used to do. The human detection unit 28 includes a human detection sensor or the like. The long-distance authentication unit 29 performs authentication when performing long-distance communication by wireless or the like. The power supply unit 30 is configured by a power supply unit or the like.

  Note that the operation unit 26 and the authentication unit 27 both detect the operation of the user's device (device). In addition, both the human detection unit 28 and the long-distance authentication unit 29 are factors for returning to the energy saving mode.

  Subsequently, the configuration of the server according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a server according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the server 15 includes an IP address storage unit 31, a trigger timing comparison unit 32, a device operation presence / absence determination unit 33, an energy saving transition return instruction unit 34, a communication unit 35, and these components electrically. A bus 40 is provided for connection.

  Of these, the IP (Internet Protocol) address storage unit 31 is a type of memory that stores the IP addresses of the plurality of image forming apparatuses 11, 12, and 13 connected to the network 14 in FIG. 1. Since the trigger timing comparison unit 32 returns from the energy saving mode to the normal mode, an input of a trigger that is generated when the image forming apparatus 11 or the like in FIG. 1 detects a person with the person detection unit 28 and the wireless authentication unit 29 is input. This is a module for storing timing and comparing when a trigger occurs in a plurality of image forming apparatuses 11 and the like. The device operation presence / absence determination unit 33 has the presence / absence of device operation in the image forming apparatus 11 or the like after the trigger timing comparison unit 32 finds that the triggers are simultaneously generated in the plurality of image forming apparatuses 11 or the like. It is a module that determines whether or not. The device operation presence / absence determination unit 33 is a module that determines whether or not a device operation has been performed using detection information indicating a detection result of a user's device operation by the operation unit 26 and the authentication unit 27 in FIG. The energy saving transition return instruction unit 34 is a module that instructs the image forming apparatus 11 or the like to shift to the energy saving mode or return from the energy saving mode. The communication unit 35 is a module that communicates with the communication unit 21 such as the image forming apparatus 11 of FIG.

<< Process or Operation of this Embodiment >>
Next, the outline of the processing or operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of the processing or operation of the present embodiment. Note that the image forming apparatuses 11 and 12 in FIG. 4 are installed next to each other, and the image forming apparatuses 12 and 13 are installed next to each other. In addition, there are overlapping portions in the human detection ranges of the image forming apparatuses 11 and 12, and there are overlapping portions in the human detection ranges of the image forming apparatuses 12 and 13. Further, the sensor detection presence / absence determination table and the device operation presence / absence determination table shown in FIG. 4 are stored in the IP address storage unit.

  First, as shown in FIG. 4A, the user is in the overlapping portion of the human detection ranges a1 and a2 of the image forming apparatus 11 and the image forming apparatus 12 (step S1). . As a result, each of the image forming apparatuses 11 and 12 returns from the energy saving mode to the normal mode and waits for an authentication operation from the user (step S2). Each of the image forming apparatuses 11 and 12 transmits access information indicating that the user has approached to the server 15 at the same timing, whereby the server 15 receives the image forming apparatus (identification information). Each time, the contents of the sensor detection presence / absence determination table are managed as “present” indicating that they are approaching and the reception time of the approach information.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4B, the user performs an operation for authenticating the user with the image forming apparatus 11 (step S4). Accordingly, the image forming apparatus 11 transmits authentication execution information indicating that the image forming apparatus 1 has performed user authentication to the server 15 (step S5). Then, the server 15 changes the authentication presence / absence information associated with (identification information) of the image forming apparatus 1 to “with authentication” in the device operation presence / absence determination table.

  Next, as illustrated in FIG. 4C, the server 15 determines that the normal mode is restored from the energy saving mode even though the authentication operation is not performed in the image forming apparatus 2. The image forming apparatus 2 performs a process of shifting to the energy saving mode by transmitting to the image forming apparatus 2 a transition instruction indicating that the mode is shifted from the normal mode to the energy saving mode (step S7).

  Next, the processing or operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing details of processing or operation of the present embodiment.

<Processing of Image Forming Apparatus 11 Used>
The image forming apparatus 11 waits for the person detection unit 28 to detect a person (step S11). When a person is detected (YES), the image forming apparatus 11 returns from the energy saving mode to the normal mode (step S12), and transmits approach information to the server (step S13). Next, when the image forming apparatus 11 returns from the energy saving mode, the image forming apparatus 1 waits for authentication / key touch from the user (step S14), and when authentication / key touch is performed (YES), as usual. The printing function of the image forming apparatus 11 is activated (step S15). Then, the image forming apparatus 11 notifies the server 15 of authentication execution information indicating that the user has been authenticated by performing the authentication / key touch operation (step S16). The processing of the server 15 ends.

<Flow of server 15>
On the other hand, the server 15 waits for whether each of the image forming apparatuses 11, 12, and 13 connected via the network 14 has returned from the energy saving mode (S101). If there is an image forming apparatus that has returned from the energy saving mode, the server 15 determines whether there are a plurality of image forming apparatuses (step S102). If there are a plurality of units (YES), the authentication / key touch is performed from the image forming apparatus, and a specific image forming apparatus that transmits the authentication execution information is waited (step S103). Then, the server 15 determines a specific image forming apparatus that transmits the authentication execution information when the authentication / key touch is performed (step S104). Server 15
In order to return to the energy saving mode, an instruction to shift to the energy saving mode is transmitted to the image forming apparatus (in this case, the image forming apparatus 2) that has been authenticated and touched and has not transmitted the authentication execution information (step S2). S105). Thereby, the processing of the server 15 ends.

<Flow of Image Forming Apparatus 12 Standing Up Although Not Used>
After returning from the energy saving mode to the normal mode by human detection, the image forming apparatus 12 determines whether a shift instruction for shifting to the energy saving mode is received from the server 15 (step S111). When the image forming apparatus 12 receives the shift instruction (YES), the image forming apparatus 12 shifts to the energy saving mode (step S1112). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S111 that the transition instruction is not received, the image forming apparatus 12 determines whether a predetermined time (for example, 3 minutes) has elapsed since the return from the energy saving mode to the normal mode (for example, 3 minutes). Step S113). If the predetermined time has elapsed (YES), the image forming apparatus 2 shifts to the energy saving mode by a normal energy saving function that has been conventionally provided without receiving a shift instruction (step 114). If the predetermined time has not elapsed (NO), the process returns to step S14. In other determination processes, if NO, the process returns to each process shown in FIG.

<< Main effects of this embodiment >>
As described above, according to the present embodiment, when a plurality of image forming apparatuses are installed nearby and the human detection ranges of the respective apparatuses overlap, the image forming apparatuses that are not used are in the energy saving mode. Even after returning to the normal mode, it is possible to shift to the energy saving mode without waiting for the processing of the conventional energy saving function. Therefore, there is an effect that the problem can be solved if the power is wasted while the unused device is returned to the energy saving mode.

11 Image forming apparatus (example of first apparatus)
12 Image forming apparatus (example of second apparatus)
13 Image forming apparatus 15 Server (an example of an apparatus management system)
31 IP address storage (including device management means)
32 Trigger timing comparison unit 33 Device operation presence / absence determination unit (an example of a determination unit)
34 Energy saving transition return instruction part (part of transmission means)
35 Communication unit (an example of receiving means, part of transmitting means)

JP 2014-59186 A

Claims (7)

A device management system for managing a plurality of devices,
Access information indicating that a user has approached the predetermined device can be received from the predetermined device, and the predetermined device is used by the user in order to use the predetermined device. Receiving means capable of receiving authentication execution information indicating that the authentication has been performed;
Transmitting means for transmitting a transition instruction indicating that the predetermined apparatus is to be shifted to the energy saving mode;
Have
After the receiving means receives the approach information from each of the first device and the second device, authentication is performed indicating that the first device has performed authentication of the user from the first device. When receiving information, the transmission unit transmits the migration instruction to the second device. The apparatus management system according to claim 1,
When a user approaches, it has a device management means for managing a plurality of devices that can detect that the same user has approached,
Authentication indicating that the first device has performed user authentication from the first device after the receiving means has received the access information from each of the first device and the second device. When the implementation information is received, if the first device and the second device are managed in association with each other by the device management unit, the transmission unit transmits the execution information to the second device. A device management system that transmits a migration instruction. The device management means associates and manages each device identification information for identifying each of a plurality of devices that can detect that the same user has approached when the user approaches,
The receiving means receives device identification information of the predetermined device when receiving the approach information and the authentication execution information from a predetermined device,
The receiving means receives first device identification information for identifying the first device when receiving the approach information from the first device, and receives the approach from the second device. When receiving the information, the second device identification information for identifying the second device is received, and then the fact that the first device has performed user authentication from the first device. Whether the second device identification information is managed in association with the first device identification information by the device management means when the first device identification information is received when the authentication execution information is received. Having a judgment means for judging whether
When the determination unit determines that the second device identification information is managed in association with the first device identification information, the transmission unit issues the migration instruction to the second device. The apparatus management system according to claim 2, which transmits the apparatus. The device management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The first device;
The second device;
A device control system having:   The apparatus control system according to claim 4, wherein the first apparatus and the second apparatus are image forming apparatuses. A device management method executed by a device management system that manages a plurality of devices,
The device management system includes:
Access information indicating that a user has approached the predetermined device is received from the predetermined device, and the predetermined device authenticates the user so that the user can use the predetermined device. A receiving step of receiving authentication implementation information indicating the effect;
A transmission step of transmitting a transition instruction indicating that the predetermined apparatus is to be shifted to the energy saving mode;
Run
After the reception step receives the approach information from each of the first device and the second device, an authentication is performed indicating that the first device has performed authentication of the user from the first device. In the case of including a process of receiving information, the transmission step includes a process of transmitting the migration instruction to the second apparatus.   The program which makes a computer perform the method of Claim 6.

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