JP2018171709A - Image formation apparatus, image formation system and image formation method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation apparatus which enhances the user's convenience with the job spool.SOLUTION: A job spool unit 100 acquires a job 400 from a terminal 2 to spool the job. An attendance management information acquisition unit 110 acquires attendance management information 403 of a user associated with the job 400 from a server 3. A spool adjustment unit 130 adjusts the spool time limit 402 of the spooled job 400 with the acquired attendance management information 403. A job deletion unit 140 deletes the spooled job 400 after the elapse of the spool time limit 402 of the adjusted job 400.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and an image forming method, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and an image forming method corresponding to a job spool function.

Conventionally, there are image forming apparatuses such as multifunction peripherals (MFPs) capable of printing documents and images.
Further, in a conventional image forming apparatus, a job such as print data is transmitted in advance to the image forming apparatus or server and stored in a state where it can be output (hereinafter referred to as “spool”). Some have a function of outputting after the user logs in to the image forming apparatus. This function is called a stored job, stored printing, pull-print, or job spool by those skilled in the art (hereinafter simply referred to as “job spool”).
The job spool can shorten printing time, prevent wasteful printing by reducing costs, and manage printed matter by improving security.

Here, in a typical job spool function, a job is held until the user logs in to the image forming apparatus or the server.
However, if the user does not log in within a set time limit (hereinafter referred to as “spool time limit”) after the job is stored in the image forming apparatus or server, the spooled job is deleted. This is for security and useless printing suppression.

Here, as an image forming apparatus having a function like a conventional job spool, with reference to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-133620, for a stored job that is a print job stored in the RAM, a print instruction for the stored job is accepted. As a condition, an MFP that performs printing based on the stored job is described. This MFP sets a storage time for storing the stored job. When the stored job is stored in the RAM beyond the storage time, the MFP deletes the stored job from the RAM. When the MFP receives a “specific operation”, the MFP performs at least one of extending the storage time and holding the deletion of the stored job.
With this configuration, it is possible to ensure both the confidentiality of the stored job and the improvement of user convenience.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-137583

Here, with the technique described in Patent Document 1, as a “specific operation”, it is possible to extend the spool time limit of a job during user login and in the non-power saving mode.
However, for users who are often absent during business trips, outings, meetings, etc., the time for logging in to an image forming apparatus installed in an office or the like often becomes irregular in the first place.
For this reason, while the user is absent, the spooled job is deleted beyond the spool deadline, and it has to be executed again from the job output.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming system that solves the above-described problems.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a job spool unit that acquires and spools a job, a time management information acquisition unit that acquires user time management information associated with the job spooled by the job spool unit, Based on the time management information acquired by the time management information acquisition unit, a spool adjustment unit that adjusts the spool time limit of the spooled job, and the spool time limit of the job adjusted by the spool adjustment unit is exceeded. And a job deletion unit that deletes the spooled job.
In the image forming apparatus according to the aspect of the invention, when the user is absent in the acquired attendance management information, the spool adjustment unit adds a time obtained by adding a specific time to the absence time to the spool expiration time. Features.
The image forming apparatus according to the aspect of the invention further includes an excess notification unit that notifies the user of the expiration of the spool expiration time in response to the spool expiration time adjusted by the spool adjustment unit.
In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the attendance management information acquisition unit acquires the attendance management information of the user from attendance acquisition information included in the job.
The image forming system of the present invention is an image forming system including a terminal and an image forming apparatus, and the terminal includes a job transmission unit that transmits a job to the image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus includes the terminal A job spool unit that acquires and spools the job transmitted from the job transmission unit; a time management information acquisition unit that acquires user time management information associated with the job spooled by the job spool unit; A spool adjustment unit that adjusts a spool expiration time of the spooled job based on the attendance management information acquired by the attendance management information acquisition unit, and a spool expiration time of the job adjusted by the spool adjustment unit. And a job deletion unit that deletes the spooled job after the excess.
In the image forming system of the present invention, the terminal includes time acquisition information for acquiring the time management information in the job, and the time management information acquisition unit of the image forming apparatus is included in the job. The attendance management information of the user is obtained from the attendance acquisition information.
The image forming method of the present invention is an image forming method executed by the image forming apparatus, acquires and spools a job, and acquires and acquires user attendance management information associated with the spooled job. The spool time limit of the spooled job is adjusted according to the time management information that has been set, and the spooled job is deleted after the spool time limit of the adjusted job is exceeded. .

  According to the present invention, even if a user is often absent by acquiring attendance management information and adjusting the spool expiration time of a spooled job, the job is prevented from being deleted beyond the spool expiration time. It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the above.

1 is a system configuration diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of the image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart of the job spool process which concerns on embodiment of this invention. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of job spool processing shown in FIG. 4.

<Embodiment>
[System configuration of image forming system X]
First, a system configuration of an image forming system X according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
The image forming system X of the present embodiment includes an image forming apparatus 1, a terminal 2, and a server 3. Each device is connected by a network 5.

The image forming apparatus 1 is a document reading apparatus such as an MFP, a network scanner, a document scanner, a network FAX, and a printer with a scanner function. The image forming apparatus 1 may be capable of installing and executing various application software (hereinafter simply referred to as “applications”). The image forming apparatus 1 operates a general-purpose OS (Operating System) such as Linux (registered trademark) or Windows (registered trademark), an embedded OS, a real-time OS, and the like, and controls each unit by a control program on the OS. Is running.
Further, the image forming apparatus 1 has a job spool function. In the job spool function of the present embodiment, the job transmitted from the terminal 2 is temporarily stored (spooled) in the storage unit 19 as an output waiting, and the job 400 is output when the user logs in to the image forming apparatus 1. Start.

The terminal 2 is an information processing apparatus such as a PC, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a PDA (Personal Data Assistant), a business terminal, and a dedicated terminal for the image forming apparatus 1.
The terminal 2 operates various general-purpose OSs. The terminal 2 can install a control program such as a device driver for the image forming apparatus 1. Accordingly, various functions such as printing, scanning, FAX transmission / reception, and network FAX by the image forming apparatus 1 can be used from the OS and various applications.
The terminal 2 can also use the job spool function by setting the device driver. For example, the terminal 2 can spool a job 400 (FIG. 3) such as printing or network FAX transmission to the image forming apparatus 1 and output it after logging in the image forming apparatus 1.

  The server 3 is a time management server that performs time management. Specifically, the server 3 executes a time management service for managing the time status used in offices, schools, and the like as time management. This attendance management service includes, for example, a schedule similar to a program such as Microsoft Outlook (registered trademark), a so-called cloud schedule service, attendance management service used in schools, attendance management, etc. It may be a service such as groupware.

  In this embodiment, the network 5 is a local area network (LAN) such as an intranet, a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet (registered trademark) or a mobile phone network, and the like. When the network 5 is a WAN, it may be connectable to another server via a router or a gateway. The network 5 may constitute a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

  In the image forming system X, a plurality of image forming apparatuses 1, terminals 2, and servers 3 may be provided. A configuration without the server 3 is also possible.

  2, the image forming apparatus 1 includes an image processing unit 11, a document reading unit 12, a document feeding unit 13, a sheet feeding unit 14, a network transmitting / receiving unit 15, an operation panel unit 16, and an image forming unit 17 ( Image forming means), a FAX transmission / reception unit 18, a storage unit 19, and the like. Each unit is connected to the control unit 10 and controlled in operation by the control unit 10.

The control unit 10 includes a general purpose processor (GPP), a central processing unit (CPU), a micro processing unit (MPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a graphics processing unit (GPU), an application specific processor (ASIC). An information processing unit such as a processor for a specific application).
The control unit 10 reads out a control program stored in the ROM or HDD of the storage unit 19, develops the control program in the RAM, and executes it, thereby operating as each unit of a functional block described later. The control unit 10 controls the entire apparatus in accordance with predetermined instruction information input from the terminal 2 or the operation panel unit 16.
In addition, the control unit 10 acquires time information from a clock IC having a battery backup function such as a real-time clock (not shown) or a time server (not shown) on the network 5 to obtain the current time. Can be grasped.

The image processing unit 11 is an information processing unit such as a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The image processing unit 11 performs predetermined image processing on the image data. The image processing unit 11 performs various types of image processing such as enlargement / reduction, density adjustment, gradation adjustment, and image improvement.
Further, the image processing unit 11 can store the image read by the document reading unit 12 in the storage unit 19 as a job 400 (FIG. 3). At this time, the image processing unit 11 can also convert the print data into a file unit in a format such as PDF or TIFF.

The document reading unit 12 reads a set document. The document reading unit 12 is disposed on the upper part of the main body of the image forming apparatus 1.
The document reading unit 12 includes a scanner, a platen glass, and a document reading slit. When reading a document placed on the platen glass, the document reading unit 12 moves the scanner to a position facing the platen glass and reads the document placed on the platen glass while scanning to obtain image data. The acquired image data is stored in the storage unit 19 as a job 400 (FIG. 3).

  In addition, when reading the document fed from the document feeding unit 13, the document reading unit 12 moves the scanner to a position facing the document reading slit. Then, the document reading unit 12 reads the document in synchronization with the document transport operation by the document feeding unit 13 through the document reading slit, and acquires image data. The document reading unit 12 outputs the acquired image data to the control unit 10.

The document feeding unit 13 conveys a document read by the document reading unit 12. The document feeding unit 13 is disposed on the document reading unit 12.
The document feeding unit 13 includes a document placing unit and a document transport mechanism. The document feeding unit 13 feeds the documents placed on the document placing unit one by one by the document transport mechanism in order, and feeds them to the document reading unit 12.

  The paper feed unit 14 feeds the recording sheets one by one toward the image forming unit 17. The paper feeding unit 14 is provided in the main body unit.

The network transmission / reception unit 15 is a network connection unit including a LAN board, a wireless transmission / reception device, and the like for connecting to an external network such as a LAN, a wireless LAN, a WAN, and a mobile phone network.
The network transmission / reception unit 15 transmits / receives data on a data communication line and transmits / receives voice signals on a voice telephone line.

The operation panel unit 16 is disposed on the front side of the image forming apparatus 1 and serves as a user interface for various operations on the image forming apparatus 1 by the user.
Details of the configuration of the operation panel unit 16 will be described later.

The image forming unit 17 causes an image to be formed on recording paper from data stored in the storage unit 19 and read by the document reading unit 12 or acquired from an external terminal according to a user output instruction.
The image forming unit 17 includes a photosensitive drum, an exposure unit, a developing unit, a transfer unit, a fixing unit, and the like. The image forming unit 17 records a toner image on a recording sheet by executing an image forming process including charging, exposure, development, transfer, and fixing.

  The FAX transmission / reception unit 18 performs facsimile transmission / reception. The FAX transmission / reception unit 18 can receive a facsimile from another FAX apparatus (not shown) via a voice line, store it in the storage unit 19, and cause the image forming unit 17 to form an image. Further, the FAX transmission / reception unit 18 converts the document read by the document reading unit 12 or the data of the network FAX transmitted from an external terminal into image data, and transmits it to another FAX apparatus by facsimile via a voice line. Is possible.

The storage unit 19 is a non-temporary recording medium such as a semiconductor memory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM (Random Access Memory) or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
A control program for controlling the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 is stored in the ROM and HDD of the storage unit 19. In addition to this, the storage unit 19 also stores user account settings 440 (FIG. 3). The storage unit 19 may include a storage folder area for each user.

  The operation panel unit 16 includes an input unit 26, a display unit 27, and an authentication unit 28.

The input unit 26 includes buttons (keys) for acquiring various instructions from the user, various sensors, a pointing device, and the like.
Further, the buttons of the input unit 26 are buttons for giving instructions related to the ten key, start, cancel, operation mode switching, and job 400 output. This operation mode may include types of modes such as copying, FAX transmission, scanner, and network scanner. The output of the job 400 includes printing, transmission, storage, recording, and the like. It is also possible to input and change information of each user according to user instructions acquired from the operation panel unit 16.
The pointing device of the input unit 26 includes a touch panel, a digitizer, a touch pad, and the like.

The display unit 27 is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an organic EL display, an FED (Field Emission Display), a flat display panel such as a fluorescent display tube, a projector, a status display LED, or the like. The display unit 27 can display various operation screens related to the GUI.
The input unit 26 and the display unit 27 may be integrally formed as a display with a touch panel, a digitizer, or the like.

The authentication unit 28 is a device or the like for performing user authentication.
The authentication unit 28 may perform authentication by inputting a user ID (Identification) and a password from the terminal 2 or the touch panel or numeric keypad of the input unit 26 described above.
The authentication unit 28 may perform authentication by reading the user's ID card. This ID card may be a magnetic card or an IC card. Further, the IC card may be a contact type card having a card terminal or a non-contact type card such as an RFID (Radio Frequency ID) card.
The authentication unit 28 may include a biometric authentication unit that performs biometric authentication using biometric information such as fingerprint authentication, vein pattern authentication, voice authentication, face authentication, iris authentication, and the like.
The authentication unit 28 may perform user authentication from the input user ID, ID card information, biometric information, and the like using the account setting 440 (FIG. 3) stored in the storage unit 19.

In the image forming apparatus 1, the control unit 10 and the image processing unit 11 may be integrally formed, such as a CPU with a built-in GPU or a chip-on-module package.
The control unit 10 and the image processing unit 11 may include a RAM, a ROM, a flash memory, and the like.

[Functional configuration of image forming system X]
Here, the functional configuration of the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The control unit 10 of the image forming apparatus 1 includes a job spool unit 100, an attendance management information acquisition unit 110, an excess notification unit 120, a spool adjustment unit 130, a job deletion unit 140, and a job output unit 150.
The storage unit 19 of the image forming apparatus 1 stores a job 400, management data 410, notification data 420, reply data 430, and account setting 440.
The terminal 2 includes a job creation unit 200, a job transmission unit 210, and a job 400.
The server 3 includes an attendance management unit 300 and an attendance management DB 500.

  The job spool unit 100 acquires the job 400 transmitted from the job transmission unit 210 of the terminal 2, stores it in the storage unit 19, and spools it by making it ready for output after login.

The attendance management information acquisition unit 110 acquires the attendance management information 403 of the user associated with the job 400 spooled by the job spool unit 100.
At this time, the attendance management information acquisition unit 110 may acquire the attendance management information 403 of the user based on the attendance acquisition information 401 included in the job 400.

The excess notification unit 120 notifies the user that the spool expiration time 402 has been exceeded in response to the spool expiration time 402.
At this time, the excess notification unit 120 may notify the user of the excess of the spool expiration time 402 in response to the spool expiration time 402 of the job 400 acquired by the job spool unit 100.
Further, the excess notification unit 120 may notify when the spool expiration time 402 adjusted by the spool adjustment unit 130 elapses.
Further, when the spool expiration time 402 is exceeded, the excess notification unit 120 may notify the registered user's absence notification destination when the user is absent in the attendance management information 403. At this time, the excess notification unit 120 may notify the user by e-mail, messenger, telephone voice response, or the like. Therefore, the excess notification unit 120 can also execute an SMTP server and a POP server and client that perform transmission and reception of e-mails, a messenger server and client, and a push button frequency recognition or voice recognition program that performs telephone voice response. May be.
In addition, the excess notification unit 120 may adjust the timing for notifying the user based on the acquired attendance management information 403.

The spool adjustment unit 130 adjusts the spool expiration time 402 of the spooled job 400 based on the attendance management information 403 acquired by the attendance management information acquisition unit 110.
Further, when the user is absent in the acquired attendance management information 403, the spool adjustment unit 130 may add a time obtained by adding a specific time to the absence time to the spool expiration time 402. As this specific time, a typical time in which a user who has many business trips, going out, meetings, etc. is absent, for example, several hours to one week may be set.
Further, the spool adjustment unit 130 may analyze a reply to the notification to the user by the excess notification unit 120 and adjust the spool time limit corresponding to the attendance management information 403.

  The job deletion unit 140 deletes the spooled job 400 after the spool expiration time 402 of the job 400 adjusted by the spool adjustment unit 130 is exceeded.

  The job output unit 150 outputs the job 400 spooled by the job spool function after user authentication by the authentication unit 28 of the user operation panel unit 16. This output is output to the document box after printing from the image forming unit 17, facsimile transmission from the FAX transmission / reception unit 18, transmission by e-mail or FTP, or conversion to an electronic document file such as PDF (Portable Document Format). May be stored.

The job creation unit 200 creates a job 400 spooled by the image forming apparatus 1.
Further, the job creation unit 200 may include the attendance acquisition information 401 for acquiring the attendance management information 403 in the job 400.

  The job transmission unit 210 transmits the job 400 created by the job creation unit 200 to the image forming apparatus 1.

The attendance management unit 300 executes an attendance management service for managing the attendance status of the user.
Also, the attendance management unit 300 can transmit the attendance management information 403 of the user corresponding to the attendance acquisition information 401 transmitted from the attendance management information acquisition unit 110 to the image forming apparatus 1.

The job 400 is document data to be output by the image forming apparatus 1 output by the device driver of the terminal 2. The job 400 is, for example, a file such as PDL (Page Description Language) or PS (Post Script, registered trademark), a structured document file such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) or HTML (HyperText Markup Language), for the terminal 2, or image formation. Various application files such as word processor, spreadsheet software and presentation software for device 1, image data including bitmap images, compressed image data such as jpg, TIFF, PNG and jBIG, electronic book data such as ePUB, plain It may be a text file (Plain Text) file or the like.
The job 400 may include attendance acquisition information 401 in the terminal 2.

The management data 410 is data for managing the spool of the job 400.
The management data 410 includes attendance acquisition information 401, spool deadline time 402, and attendance management information 403 described below.
The management data 410 includes a job ID of the job 400, a spool time that is a time when the job 400 is acquired and spooled, whether or not the job 400 is output, an output method and an output time, a contact information of the user of the job 400, and the job 400. May include information such as the location of the storage destination document box.

The attendance acquisition information 401 is information for acquiring attendance management information 403. Specifically, the attendance acquisition information 401 may be an account name, a password, or the like (hereinafter referred to as “login information”) for logging in to the attendance management service of the server 3.
Further, the attendance acquisition information 401 may include information such as a user ID and a user contact information.

  The spool deadline time 402 is a time indicating the spool deadline until the job 400 spooled by the job spool unit 100 can be deleted by the job deletion unit 140. For example, the spool expiration time 402 is set to a time of several hours to several months depending on the capacity of the HDD of the storage unit 19 of the image forming apparatus 1, the number of users, the capacity of the job 400 per user, and the spool frequency. May be. Further, the spool expiration time 402 may be set to, for example, several hours to several months. The spool expiration time 402 may be set to a different value depending on the user authority, position, job type, group, and the like. In addition, the spool expiration time 402 may be adjusted by the spool adjustment unit 130 for users who are often absent during business trips, outings, meetings, and the like.

  The attendance management information 403 is information such as a schedule of attendance management services. The attendance management information 403 may be, for example, HTML data, a text file of a table indicating a schedule, binary data, or the like. Also, the attendance management information 403 includes information that can analyze whether a specific user is present, absent from a business trip, going out, a meeting, or the like, or when not present, until the user is present. May be.

The notification data 420 is an e-mail notifying the user that the spool time limit is exceeded, messenger character data, synthesized voice data, and the like.
The notification data 420 may include a field for replying by the user or a blank part such as a blank timing regarding whether or not to extend the spool deadline of the job 400, and in the case of the extension. Good.
Further, the notification data 420 may be created from template data in a specific format.

The reply data 430 is reply data for the notification data 420.
The reply data 430 may be, for example, e-mail or messenger character data returned by the user in a reply location, voice data including a push sound or a user response voice, or the like.

  The account setting 440 is a database including information for user authentication for each user. The account setting 440 may include, for example, a user ID and a password, an encryption key, or biometric information. Further, the account setting 440 may include an e-mail address, a messenger ID, a telephone number, and the like as the contact information of the user. This user contact information can be used as an absence notification destination when the user is absent.

  The attendance management DB 500 is a database that stores attendance management information 403 in the attendance management service of the server 3. The attendance management DB 500 may store attendance management information 403 such as a schedule for each user account, for example.

Here, the control unit 10 of the image forming apparatus 1 executes a control program stored in the storage unit 19, so that the job spool unit 100, the attendance management information acquisition unit 110, the excess notification unit 120, the spool adjustment unit 130, It functions as the job deletion unit 140 and the job output unit 150.
The terminal 2 is caused to function as a job creation unit 200 and a job transmission unit 210 by executing a control program stored in a storage unit (not shown) by a control unit (not shown). The storage unit may store the job 400 and attendance acquisition information 401.
The server 3 is caused to function as the attendance management unit 300 by executing a control program stored in a storage unit (not shown) by a control unit (not shown). In addition, the attendance management DB 500 may be stored in this storage unit.
Each unit of the image forming apparatus 1, the terminal 2, and the server 3 described above is a hardware resource that executes the image forming method of the present invention.
Note that a part or any combination of the above-described functional configurations may be configured in hardware by an IC, programmable logic, or the like.

[Processing by image forming system X]
Next, with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the job spool processing by the image forming apparatus 1 of the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the job spool process of this embodiment, the job 400 is acquired from the terminal 2 and spooled. For the spooled job 400, the user's attendance management information 403 may be acquired and the spool expiration time 402 may be adjusted. Further, the spool expiration time 402 may be adjusted by notifying the user of the excess of the spool expiration time 402 and analyzing a reply to the notification. Then, the job 400 is output after user authentication within the adjusted spool expiration time 402 or deleted after the user authentication is exceeded.
In the job spool processing of this embodiment, the control unit 10 of the image forming apparatus 1 mainly executes a program stored in the storage unit 19 using hardware resources in cooperation with each unit.
In the following, details of the job spool processing of this embodiment will be described step by step with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

(Step S201)
First, the job creation unit 200 and the job transmission unit 210 of the terminal 2 perform job creation and transmission processing.
The job creation unit 200 creates a job 400 by executing a device driver or the like when an application instructs the output of the job 400 to the image forming apparatus 1. At this time, the job creation unit 200 can instruct the image forming apparatus 1 to execute the job spool function from the setting of the device driver or the like.

In addition, the job creation unit 200 sets, in the setting information such as an attribute area included in the job 400, settings such as a user who can output the job 400, an output method, the number of copies, single-sided or double-sided printing, color or monochrome. It may be included.
Further, the job creation unit 200 may include the attendance acquisition information 401 for acquiring the attendance management information 403 in the job 400. At this time, the job creation unit 200 sets the job 400 by acquiring the account information of the time management service of the server 3 already stored in the storage unit or by allowing the user to input an account name and password. The attendance acquisition information 401 may be included in the information.
The attendance acquisition information 401 included in the job 400 may be encrypted.

(Step S101)
Here, the job spool unit 100 of the image forming apparatus 1 performs job spool processing.
The job spool unit 100 acquires the job 400 transmitted from the job transmission unit 210 of the terminal 2, stores it in the storage unit 19, and spools it by making it ready for output after login.
At this time, the job spool unit 100 may add a job ID to the stored job 400, set and associate the management data 410, and record the spool time. The job spool unit 100 may be set as the job ID based on, for example, the file name of the acquired job 400 and a unique number. The job spool unit 100 sets the spool expiration time 402 in the management data 410 based on the current time when the job 400 is acquired. In addition, the job spool unit 100 may move the attendance acquisition information 401 included in the job 400 into the management data 410.

(Step S102)
Next, the attendance management information acquisition unit 110 performs attendance management information acquisition processing.
The attendance management information acquisition unit 110 refers to the attendance acquisition information 401 of the management data 410 in association with the job 400 and logs in to the server 3 using the login information to the server 3. The attendance management information acquisition unit 110 then instructs the attendance management information 403 of the user to be transmitted.

(Step S301)
Here, the attendance management unit 300 of the server 3 performs attendance management information transmission processing.
The attendance management unit 300 transmits the attendance management information 403 of the login information user to the image forming apparatus 1.
Upon receiving this, the attendance management information acquisition unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 1 acquires attendance management information 403 and stores it in the storage unit 19. At this time, the attendance management information acquisition unit 110 includes the attendance management information 403 in the management data 410 of the corresponding job 400.

(Step S103)
Next, the spool adjustment unit 130 of the image forming apparatus 1 performs spool notification adjustment processing.
The spool adjustment unit 130 refers to the management data 410 and adjusts the spool expiration time 402 based on the acquired attendance management information 403.
Specifically, the spool adjustment unit 130 confirms the attendance management status and extends the spool expiration time 402.
For example, when the spool adjustment unit 130 analyzes the attendance management information 403 of the user, if the user is absent on a business trip, outing, meeting, or the like, the current time to the end time of the business trip, outing, meeting, etc. The spool expiration time 402 in the management data 410 may be extended by adding several hours as a specific time to the time. That is, when the user is absent, the spool adjustment unit 130 may add a time obtained by adding a specific time to the absence time to the spool expiration time 402. At this time, the spool adjustment unit 130 may notify the user that the spool expiration time 402 has been extended by an e-mail or a message from a messenger.

(Step S104)
Next, the excess notification unit 120 performs an excess notification process.
The excess notification unit 120 notifies the user using the notification data 420 by e-mail, messenger, telephone, etc., when the spool expiration time 402 of the job 400 is about to be exceeded, by a predetermined time before the excess. Also good. This predetermined time can be set, for example, a time from several minutes to several days ago, as a time that the user can sufficiently afford to reply.

FIG. 5A shows an example in which the notification data 420 is an email. This example includes a user name, a spool time, a job name based on the spooled job ID, a spool deadline time based on the spool deadline time 402, a reply column, and the like.
At this time, the excess notification unit 120 notifies that the time limit information 402 is likely to be exceeded if the attendance management information 403 indicates that the user is present, especially if there is no plan. Also good.
In addition, when the user is not in the presence state, the excess notification unit 120 may adjust the timing of notifying the user and notify when the time when the specific time is added to the absence time.
Note that the excess notification unit 120 indicates that if there is no login information to the time management server 3 in the management data 410, or if the user cannot log in to the server 3 or cannot connect via the network 5, the user Notification may be made at the same timing as in the presence state.

Here, the user who has received the notification replies from the terminal 2, another portable terminal, a telephone, or the like. That is, when the user is absent from the office or the like and cannot execute the job 400, the user indicates the intention to extend by replying to the received notification.
In the case of an e-mail or a messenger, this reply may be sent to the same address as the transmission address by checking the reply column for the notification e-mail. In the case of a telephone call, the telephone push button may be pushed in response to the voice guidance, or the user may respond with his / her own voice.

The excess notification unit 120 stores the reply data 430 that received the reply to the notification in the storage unit 19.
FIG. 5B shows an example when the reply data 430 is an e-mail. In this example, “1 day extension” is checked in the reply column.

(Step S105)
Next, the spool adjustment unit 130 performs a reply analysis process.
When there is a reply, the spool adjustment unit 130 analyzes the reply data 430 and adjusts the spool time limit corresponding to the attendance management information 403 according to a user instruction.
As an analysis, the spool adjustment unit 130 checks whether or not the reply column is checked when the reply data 430 is an email or a messenger. Further, in the case of a telephone response, the spool adjustment unit 130 performs analysis by push button frequency recognition or voice recognition. As a result, the spool adjustment unit 130 acquires information indicating whether or not the spool prayer is extended, and when the spool prayer is extended, information indicating the extension period.

(Step S106)
Next, the spool adjustment unit 130 performs spool extension adjustment processing.
The spool adjustment unit 130 extends the spool expiration time 402 of the attendance management information 403 of the management data 410 according to the analysis result of the reply data 430.
At this time, the spool adjustment unit 130 refers to the attendance management information 403 and does not extend the spool expiration time 402 if the user is absent or the user does not have the authority to extend. Also good.
Further, the spool adjusting unit 130 may notify the user when the spool expiration time 402 is extended or not.

(Step S107)
Next, the job output unit 150 performs job output processing.
The job output unit 150 outputs the spooled job 400 in response to a user's output instruction.
When the user authenticates the user by the user authentication unit 28 of the operation panel unit 16, the job output unit 150 is spooled by the input unit 26 and the display unit 27 of the operation panel unit 16. A job 400 and an output method are selected. When the user selects, the job output unit 150 may output the job 400 corresponding to the selection. As described above, this output method may be printing, facsimile transmission, transmission by e-mail or FTP, saving in a document box after being converted to an electronic document file, or the like.

(Step S108)
Next, the job deletion unit 140 performs job deletion processing.
The job deletion unit 140 refers to the spool expiration time 402 of the management data 410 of each job 400 and deletes any job 400 that has exceeded the spool expiration time 402. In addition, the job deletion unit 140 may delete the output job 400.
Thus, the job spool processing according to the embodiment of the present invention is completed.

With the configuration described above, the following effects can be obtained.
Conventionally, an efficient use of an image forming apparatus has been demanded in an office environment. Therefore, the optimal arrangement of the image forming apparatus is performed by MPS (Managed Printing System). Specifically, in the MPS, the use of the image forming apparatus is made efficient by outputting a job from the image forming apparatus to which the user has logged in by the job spool function.
However, with the conventional job spool as in Patent Document 1, for users who frequently travel and go out, there are no jobs spooled while the office is absent, and there is a situation where a job must be created again. In contrast, the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention is an image forming system including the image forming apparatus 1 and the terminal 2 and has the following characteristics. The terminal 2 includes a job transmission unit 210 that transmits the job 400 to the image forming apparatus 1. The image forming apparatus 1 acquires the job 400 transmitted from the job transmission unit 210 of the terminal 2 and spools it, and the user's attendance management associated with the job 400 spooled by the job spool unit 100 A time management information acquisition unit 110 that acquires information 403, a spool adjustment unit 130 that adjusts the spool expiration time 402 of the spooled job 400 based on the time management information 403 acquired by the time management information acquisition unit 110, and spool adjustment A job deletion unit 140 that deletes the spooled job 400 after the spool expiration time 402 of the job 400 adjusted by the unit 130 has been exceeded.
With this configuration, even a user who is often absent during a business trip, outing, meeting, or the like can prevent the job 400 from being deleted beyond the spool expiration time 402. For this reason, it is possible to improve the usability of the user using the job spool function.

Further, in the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal 2 includes the time acquisition information 401 for acquiring the time management information 403 in the job 400. Also, the attendance management information acquisition unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 1 acquires the attendance management information 403 of the user from the attendance acquisition information 401 included in the job 400.
With this configuration, it is not necessary to store login information for the attendance management service in the account setting 440 of the image forming apparatus 1. Even when the login information is updated at the terminal 2, it is not necessary to change the account setting 440 and the like of the image forming apparatus 1. For this reason, the adjustment of the spool time limit of the job 400 can be ensured, and the labor of the user can be reduced.

Further, in the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, the spool adjusting unit 130 of the image forming apparatus 1 adds a specific time to the absent time when the user is absent in the acquired attendance management information 403. This time is added to the spool expiration time 402.
With this configuration, it is possible to extend the spool expiration time 402 for a specific period exceeding the absence period when the user is absent based on the attendance management information 403 of the attendance management service. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the spooled job 400 from being unintentionally lost in the absence, and to improve the user-friendliness.

Further, in the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention, the image forming apparatus 1 notifies the user of the excess of the spool expiration time 402 in response to the spool expiration time 402 adjusted by the spool adjustment unit 130. An excess notification unit 120 is further provided.
With this configuration, it becomes possible for the user to surely understand that the spool expiration time 402 has been exceeded, and the user-friendliness can be improved.

[Other Embodiments]
In the job spool process described in the above embodiment, some processes may not be performed.
Specifically, for example, either the spool notification adjustment process or the spool extension adjustment process in FIG. 4 may be executed. The excess notification process, the reply analysis process, and the extension of the spool deadline time 402 may not be performed. Further, the spool expiration time 402 may be extended only by analyzing the reply by notification without acquiring the attendance management information 403.
With this configuration, the spool period can be flexibly adjusted according to the user's environment.

Moreover, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the attendance acquisition information 401 is included in the e-mail has been described.
However, the time acquisition information 401 associated with each user may be included in the account setting 440 of the storage unit 19 of the image forming apparatus 1.
With this configuration, it is possible to acquire the attendance management information 403 from the server 3 only by performing user authentication with the image forming apparatus 1 without adding the attendance acquisition information 401 to the job 400.

In the embodiment described above, the job 400 is spooled in the image forming apparatus 1.
However, the job 400 may be spooled to the server 3 or a separate document management server (not shown, hereinafter referred to as “management server”). In the case of such a configuration, the server 3 or the management server may be an information processing apparatus that can transmit and receive various data to and from the image forming apparatus 1 and manages the job 400. Further, the server 3 or the management server may be able to store, manage, charge, authorize, etc. the job 400. In this case, the server 3 or the management server may be a general-purpose machine, a PC (Personal Computer) server, a NAS (Network Attached Storage), or the like.
With this configuration, the spool of the job 400 and the management of attendance information can be flexibly linked.
The server 3 or the management server may be able to perform transmission processing to a business or office DMS (Document Management System) or the like.

  The present invention can also be applied to an information processing apparatus other than the image forming apparatus. That is, a configuration using a network scanner, a server in which the scanner is separately connected by a USB, or the like may be used.

  Further, the configuration and operation of the above-described embodiment are examples, and it goes without saying that they can be appropriately modified and executed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Terminal 3 Server 5 Network 10 Control part 11 Image processing part 12 Original reading part 13 Original feeding part 14 Paper feeding part 15 Network transmission / reception part 16 Operation panel part 17 Image formation part 18 FAX transmission / reception part 19 Storage part 26 Input unit 27 Display unit 28 Authentication unit 100 Job spool unit 110 Time management information acquisition unit 120 Excess notification unit 130 Spool adjustment unit 140 Job deletion unit 150 Job output unit 200 Job creation unit 210 Job transmission unit 300 Time management unit 400 Job 401 Time Acquired information 402 Spool deadline time 403 Time management information 410 Management data 420 Notification data 430 Reply data 440 Account setting 500 Time management DB
X image forming system

Claims (7)

A job spool section that retrieves and spools jobs, and
A time management information acquisition unit for acquiring user time management information associated with the job spooled by the job spool unit;
A spool adjustment unit that adjusts a spool expiration time of the spooled job according to the time management information acquired by the time management information acquisition unit;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a job deletion unit that deletes the spooled job after the spool expiration time of the job adjusted by the spool adjustment unit is exceeded. The spool adjusting unit is
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the user is absent in the acquired attendance management information, a time obtained by adding a specific time to the absence time is added to the spool expiration time. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an excess notification unit that notifies the user of an excess of the spool expiration time in response to the spool expiration time adjusted by the spool adjustment unit. apparatus. The attendance management information acquisition unit
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the attendance management information of the user is obtained from attendance acquisition information included in the job. An image forming system including a terminal and an image forming apparatus,
The terminal
A job transmission unit for transmitting a job to the image forming apparatus;
The image forming apparatus includes:
A job spool unit that acquires and spools the job transmitted from the job transmission unit of the terminal;
A time management information acquisition unit for acquiring user time management information associated with the job spooled by the job spool unit;
A spool adjustment unit that adjusts a spool expiration time of the spooled job according to the time management information acquired by the time management information acquisition unit;
An image forming system, comprising: a job deletion unit that deletes the spooled job after the spool expiration time of the job adjusted by the spool adjustment unit is exceeded. The terminal
Including time acquisition information for acquiring the time management information in the job;
The attendance management information acquisition unit of the image forming apparatus,
The image forming system according to claim 5, wherein the attendance management information of the user is obtained from the attendance acquisition information included in the job. An image forming method executed by an image forming apparatus,
Get the job and spool it,
Acquire user time management information associated with the spooled job,
Adjust the spool expiration time of the spooled job according to the acquired time management information,
An image forming method, wherein the spooled job is deleted after the spool expiration time of the adjusted job is exceeded.

Images