JP2023031949A - Information processing apparatus, program, and information processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

To easily retrieve information on a printer on the Internet.SOLUTION: A printer control unit 107 is configured to: specify, as multiple search candidates, a plurality of predetermined contents from related information which is information related to a printer; cause a display unit to display a selection screen image showing the search candidates; specify, when an input unit 103 receives a selection of one or more search candidates from among the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image, one or more search keywords, using the one or more search candidates; generate one or more search URLs for searching the Internet, using the one or more search keywords; and searching the Internet using one of the one or more search URLs.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, a program, and an information processing method.

A printer driver is used to control the printer. A printer driver is a program that functions by being executed by a PC (Personal Computer).

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are printer drivers that display various information about a printer on a PC when controlling the printer. For example, the printer driver described in Patent Document 1 displays an error/warning screen on the PC when detecting an error or warning state in the printer. When the "support button" is pressed on this screen, the printer driver activates the browser and selects "Error Or access the URL corresponding to "warning status" through the Internet and display the support homepage on the PC.

This page contains support information related to the event faced by the user, such as a solution corresponding to the type of defect or failure, or FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) related to the defect or failure. When the problem is resolved, the user presses the "solve button" on the support information screen.

JP-A-2003-108355

The support homepage prepared in advance in the conventional technology has many explanations about functions and little information about defects or failures. Also, the information on the support homepage is highly likely not to be the latest information. As a result, users often cannot find the desired information about the failure.

In such a case, the user searches the Internet, but since general users are not familiar with printer-related terminology, the search keywords are not appropriate, and it is difficult to find the desired information even on the Internet. may not be possible.

Accordingly, it is an object of one or more aspects of the present disclosure to facilitate searching for printer-related information on the Internet.

An information processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a display unit that displays various screen images, an input unit that receives input of instructions, a storage unit that stores related information that is information related to a printer, and the related information. a selection screen display processing unit that identifies a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates from, generates a selection screen image showing the plurality of search candidates, and displays the selection screen image on the display unit; When the input unit receives selection of one or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image, specifying one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates, A search URL generation unit that generates one or more search URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) for searching the Internet using one or more search keywords; and a search execution unit that searches for.

A program according to an aspect of the present disclosure causes a computer to perform: a display unit that displays various screen images; an input unit that receives input of instructions; a storage unit that stores related information that is information related to a printer; a selection screen display processing unit that identifies a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates, generates a selection screen image showing the plurality of search candidates, and displays the selection screen image on the display unit; receives selection of one or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image, identifies one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates, and the one or more a search URL generator for generating one or more search URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) for searching the Internet using the search keyword of; and searching the Internet using any of the one or more search URLs. It is characterized by functioning as a search execution unit that

In an information processing method according to an aspect of the present disclosure, a selection screen display processing unit identifies a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates from related information that is information related to a printer, and performs the plurality of searches. generating a selection screen image showing candidates, displaying the selection screen image on a display unit, and performing a search when the input unit receives selection of one or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image; A URL generation unit identifies one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates, and generates one or more search URLs (Uniform Resources) for searching the Internet using the one or more search keywords. Locator), and searching the Internet using one of the one or more search URLs.

According to one or more aspects of the present disclosure, it is possible to easily search for information regarding printers on the Internet.

1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an information processing device according to an embodiment; FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a printer control section; FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a computer roughly. 4 is a flowchart for explaining processing in a GUI control unit; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a setting screen image; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a selection screen image; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a search keyword list screen image;

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of an information processing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment.
Information processing apparatus 100 includes storage unit 101 , display unit 102 , input unit 103 , communication unit 104 , and control unit 105 .

The storage unit 101 stores information and programs necessary for processing in the information processing apparatus 100 . For example, the storage unit 101 stores a printer driver for controlling a printer (not shown). The storage unit 101 also stores related information that is information related to the printer.

The related information includes, for example, one or more setting items that can be set in the printer and one or more setting values corresponding to the one or more setting items.
The related information also includes printing environment information, which is information about the environment in which the printer performs printing. Here, the print environment information includes information indicating the operating system or application used by the information processing apparatus 100 .
Furthermore, the related information includes the manufacturer name or model name of the information processing device 100 .

The display unit 102 displays various screen images.
The input unit 103 receives input of instructions.
The communication unit 104 communicates with the network. Specifically, the communication unit 104 can communicate with the Internet (not shown) or a printer (not shown).

The control unit 105 controls processing in the information processing apparatus 100 .
The control unit 105 includes an activation unit 106 and a printer control unit 107 .

The activation unit 106 activates the printer control unit 107 by executing the printer driver stored in the storage unit 101 . For example, when the user inputs a printer driver activation instruction to the input unit 103 , the activation unit 106 reads out the printer driver stored in the storage unit 101 and executes the printer driver so that the printer control unit 107 start up.

The printer control unit 107 functions when activated by the activation unit 106 . For example, the printer control unit 107 controls a printer (not shown).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the printer control section 107. As shown in FIG.
The printer control unit 107 includes a print processing unit 110 and a GUI (Graphical User Interface) control unit 120 .
The print processing unit 110 controls a printer (not shown) and causes the printer to execute printing (image formation).

The GUI control unit 120 functions as a search unit that controls the display unit 102 and the input unit 103, receives an instruction input from the user, and performs a search on the Internet (not shown).
The GUI control unit 120 includes a GUI display start unit 121, a GUI input determination unit 122, a selection screen display processing unit 123, a search URL generation unit 124, a search keyword list display processing unit 125, a search execution unit 126, and a GUI display end unit 127 .

The GUI display start unit 121 functions as a setting screen display processing unit that displays a setting screen image, which is an initial GUI screen image, on the display unit 102 when the printer control unit 107 is activated. The setting screen image is a screen image for setting setting values for the setting items of the printer driver. The setting screen image is displayed in a state in which, for example, the initial settings of the printer driver are reflected. Initial settings can be identified by referring to a registry or file stored in the storage unit 101, for example. The setting screen image also has a search instruction input area for receiving an input for instructing a search.

The GUI input determination unit 122 detects an operation performed by the user on the GUI and determines an instruction corresponding to the operation.

Selection screen display processing unit 123 identifies a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates from the related information stored in storage unit 101, and generates a selection screen image showing the plurality of search candidates. Then, the selection screen display processing unit 123 causes the display unit 102 to display the selection screen image.
For example, the selection screen display processing unit 123 causes the display unit 102 to display the selection screen image when it is determined that the Internet search is to be executed as a result of the determination of the user's instruction by the GUI input determination unit 122 .

Here, when the input unit 103 receives an execution instruction input in which the search instruction input area is selected, the selection screen display processing unit 123 displays the pair of the setting item and the setting value displayed in the selection screen image. Pairs of setting items and their setting values that are identified as search candidates and not displayed on the selection screen image are not identified as search candidates.

When the input unit 103 receives selection of one or more search candidates from multiple search candidates in the selection screen image, the search URL generation unit 124 generates one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates. and generate one or more search URLs for searching the Internet using the one or more search keywords.
For example, the search URL generation unit 124 generates a search URL, which is a URL to be searched, from the selection of search candidates made by the user via the selection screen image.

Specifically, when one search candidate is selected from a plurality of search candidates, the search URL generation unit 124 uses the one search candidate as a search keyword. On the other hand, when two or more search candidates are selected from a plurality of search candidates, the search keyword list display processing unit 125 searches each of the two or more search candidates and a combination of the two or more search candidates. Keywords.

The search keyword list display processing unit 125 generates a search keyword list screen image showing one or more search keywords specified by the search URL generation unit 124 . Then, the search keyword list display processing unit 125 causes the display unit 102 to display the search keyword list screen image.
Here, the search keyword list display processing unit 125 causes the display unit 102 to display a search keyword list screen image showing a list of search keywords linked to the search URL generated by the search URL generation unit 124 .

The search execution unit 126 searches the Internet using one or more search keywords specified by the search URL generation unit 124 . For example, when the input unit 103 receives selection of a target search keyword, which is a search keyword for executing a search from one or more search keywords in the search keyword list screen image, the search execution unit 126 corresponds to the target search keyword. Search the Internet using the search URL.
The GUI display termination unit 127 closes and terminates the GUI by the user's operation.

The information processing apparatus 100 described above can be realized by, for example, a computer 140 as shown in FIG.
The computer 140 includes an auxiliary storage device 141 such as (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive), a processor 142 such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a non-volatile or volatile memory 143, a mouse or keyboard, etc. , a display device 145 using a liquid crystal or the like, and a communication device 146 such as a NIC (Network Interface Card).

For example, the control unit 105 can be realized by the processor 142 reading a program stored in the auxiliary storage device 141 to the memory 143 and executing the program. Such a program may be provided through a network, or recorded on a recording medium and provided. That is, such programs may be provided as program products, for example.

The storage unit 101 can be realized by the auxiliary storage device 141 or the memory 143 .
The display unit 102 can be realized by the display device 145 .
The input unit 103 can be implemented by the input device 144 .
Communication unit 104 can be realized by communication device 146 .

FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the processing in the GUI control unit 120. As shown in FIG.
The flowchart shown in FIG. 4, for example, is executed in a state where the setting screen image 150 shown in FIG. It starts when the input unit 103 receives an input. Specifically, when the printer control unit 107 is activated, the GUI display start unit 121 causes the display unit 102 to display a setting screen image 150 as shown in FIG. Then, when the GUI input determination unit 122 receives the input of the execution instruction designating the search area 151 by the input unit 103, the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 is started.

Note that in the setting screen image 150, a plurality of setting items required for printing are assigned to a plurality of tabs 152a and 152b. One set value can be set. It is also assumed that the search area 151 is provided in each of the tabs 152a and 152b.

First, the selection screen display processing unit 123 acquires device information (S10). The device information is the manufacturer name and model name of the printer supported by the printer driver. It is assumed that the device information is stored in a registry or file managed by the printer driver in the storage unit 101 .

Next, the selection screen display processing unit 123 acquires printing environment information indicating the printing environment of the user (S11). The printing environment includes an operating system (OS) used by the information processing apparatus 100, an application (AP) installed in the information processing apparatus 100, and a personal computer (PC) that functions as the information processing apparatus 100. Computer) model name. The print environment is stored in a registry provided by the OS in the storage unit 101, or specified via an API (Application Programming Interface) for acquiring system information.

Next, the selection screen display processing unit 123 acquires printer driver setting information indicating setting values of printer driver settings (S12). The setting values of the printer driver settings are the setting items and their setting values assigned to the tab 152a when the input of the execution instruction specifying the search area 151 is received.

Next, the selection screen display processing unit 123 generates a selection screen image using the related information obtained in steps S10 to S12, and causes the display unit 102 to display the selection screen image (S13). . Then, the process proceeds to step S14.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a selection screen image.
Selection screen image 160 shown in FIG.

In the search candidate column 161, the device information acquired in step S10, the printing environment information acquired in step S11, and the printer driver setting information acquired in step S12 are displayed as search candidates.
In the example of FIG. 6, one AP name "DDDD" is displayed as the AP of the printing environment information. This is an example of when the printer driver is activated via the "DDDD" AP. For example, when the printer driver is started directly from the OS without going through the AP, a list of APs installed in the information processing apparatus 100 may be displayed in the search candidate column 161, for example.

The selection input column 162 has check boxes 162a to 162i, which are input columns for inputting selection instructions for each search candidate.
For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when a check is input to the check box 162a via the input unit 103, the search candidate "AAAA" which is the manufacturer name on the same line is selected.
By default, it is desirable to assume that the last changed setting item and its setting value in the corresponding tab are search candidates to be selected in advance, and keep them in a selected state. For this reason, for example, the printer control unit 107 causes the storage unit 101 to store a history of changing setting values.

The search list creation instruction input area 163 is an area for inputting an instruction to create a search keyword list.
The cancel instruction input area 164 is an area for inputting an instruction to cancel the search.

Returning to FIG. 4 , in step S<b>14 , the selection screen display processing unit 123 receives selection of search candidates in the selection screen image 160 via the input unit 103 .

Then, the selection screen display processing unit 123 determines whether or not an input of an instruction to generate a search list has been received from the user via the input unit 103 (S15). Here, when an execution instruction is input by selecting the search list creation instruction input area 163, an instruction to generate a search list is received from the user. On the other hand, when an execution instruction is input by selecting the cancel instruction input area 164, an instruction not to generate a search list, in other words, an instruction to cancel the search has been received from the user. Then, if an instruction to generate a search list has been received from the user (Yes in S15), the process proceeds to step S16, and if an instruction not to generate a search list has been received from the user (No in S15). , the process ends.

In step S16, the search URL generator 124 generates a search URL for searching for the search candidate selected in step S14.
A search URL is generated by adding a search keyword after “search?q=”, which is a common URL parameter for each search engine. Here, the search keyword is the selected search candidate and, if multiple search candidates are selected, all combinations of the multiple search candidates. Note that the search keyword is converted by URL encoding, which converts it into a code that can be used in a URL.
For example, if the selected search candidates are "AAAA", "BBBB", "DDDD" and "paper size B4" and the search engine is "Google Chrome", the search URL is "https:// www.google.co.jp/search?q=AAAA+BBBB+DDDD+%E7%94%A8%E7%B4%99%E3%82%B5%%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BA+B4".
As for the printer driver setting information, both setting items and setting values are search candidates, but the present invention is not limited to this example, and only setting values may be search candidates.

Next, the search keyword list display processing unit 125 causes the display unit 102 to display a search keyword list screen image showing search keywords linked to the search URL (S17).

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a search keyword list screen image.
As shown in FIG. 7, the search keyword list screen image 170 has a search keyword list display area 171 , a return instruction input area 172 and an end instruction input area 173 .

The search keyword list display area 171 displays search keywords linked to the search URL. By selecting a search keyword displayed in search keyword list display area 171 via input unit 103, the user can instruct execution of a search using a search URL linked to the search keyword. can.

Also, when the user inputs an execution instruction by selecting the return instruction input area 172 via the input unit 103, the selection screen display processing unit 123 displays the selection screen image 160 as shown in FIG. 102 to accept the input of selection of search candidates again.

On the other hand, when the user inputs an execution instruction by selecting the end instruction input area 173 via the input unit 103, the search processing by the GUI control unit 120 ends without performing the search.

Returning to FIG. 4, the search execution unit 126 determines whether or not a search keyword has been selected via the search keyword list screen image (S18). If a search keyword is selected, in other words, if a search keyword displayed in the search keyword list display area 171 is selected, the process proceeds to step S19, and the execution instruction for selecting the return instruction input area 172 is executed. If an input has been made, the process returns to step S14, and if an execution instruction for selecting the end instruction input area 173 has been entered, the process ends.

In step S19, the search execution unit 126 identifies the default search engine installed in the OS used by the information processing apparatus 100 from the OS-provided registry stored in the storage unit 101, or The API is used to identify and determine the identified search engine as the search engine to use.

Note that although the default search engine of the OS is used here, it is not limited to the example shown in the embodiment box. For example, when a plurality of available search engines are predetermined, search execution unit 126 causes display unit 102 to display a search engine selection screen image (not shown) for selecting a search engine. Then, the selection of the search engine to be used from the plurality of search engines may be accepted via the input unit 103 . In this case, the search URL generation unit 124 should create search URLs for all of the plurality of search engines.

Search execution unit 126 then uses the search URL corresponding to the search keyword selected in step S18 to execute a search in the search engine determined to be used in step S18, and displays the search results on display unit 102. (S20).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the user of the printer encounters a problem related to printing, the information processing apparatus 100 determines a search keyword on behalf of the user who is unfamiliar with terms related to printing. , generate a search URL, and perform a search. As a result, it is possible to easily obtain information about the target failure from the Internet.

100 information processing device, 101 storage unit, 102 display unit, 103 input unit, 104 communication unit, 105 control unit, 106 start unit, 107 printer control unit, 110 print processing unit, 120 GUI control unit, 121 GUI display start unit, 122 GUI input determination unit 123 selection screen display processing unit 124 search URL generation unit 125 search keyword list display processing unit 126 search execution unit 127 GUI display end unit.

Claims (10)

a display unit that displays various screen images;
an input unit for receiving input of instructions;
a storage unit that stores related information that is information related to the printer;
Selection screen display processing for identifying a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates from the related information, generating a selection screen image showing the plurality of search candidates, and displaying the selection screen image on the display unit Department and
When the input unit receives selection of one or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image, specifying one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates, a search URL generator that generates one or more search URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) for searching the Internet using one or more search keywords;
An information processing apparatus, comprising: a search execution unit that searches the Internet using one of the one or more search URLs. A search keyword list display processing unit that generates a search keyword list screen image showing the one or more search keywords and displays the search keyword list screen image on the display unit,
The search execution unit performs the one or more searches when the input unit receives selection of a target search keyword that is a search keyword for executing a search from the one or more search keywords in the search keyword list screen image. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the Internet is searched using a search URL corresponding to the target search keyword among URLs. When one search candidate is selected from the plurality of search candidates, the search URL generation unit sets the one search candidate as the search keyword, and selects two or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the two or more search candidates and a combination of the two or more search candidates are used as the search keywords. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the related information includes setting items that can be set in the printer and setting values corresponding to the setting items. the related information includes a plurality of setting items that can be set in the printer and a plurality of setting values corresponding to the plurality of setting items;
a search instruction input area for receiving an input instructing a search, and for setting at least one setting value included in the plurality of setting values to at least one setting item included in the plurality of setting items. further comprising a setting screen display processing unit for displaying a setting screen image on the display unit;
When the input unit receives input of an execution instruction in which the search instruction input area is selected in the setting screen image, the selection screen display processing unit generates a pair of the at least one setting item and the at least one setting value. are specified as the search candidates, and the plurality of setting items excluding the at least one setting item and the plurality of setting values excluding the at least one setting value are not specified as the search candidates. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the related information includes printing environment information that is information relating to an environment in which the printer performs printing. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the printing environment information includes information indicating an operating system or application used by the information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the related information includes a manufacturer name or a model name of the information processing apparatus. the computer,
display unit for displaying various screen images,
an input unit for receiving input of instructions;
a storage unit that stores related information that is information related to the printer;
Selection screen display processing for identifying a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates from the related information, generating a selection screen image showing the plurality of search candidates, and displaying the selection screen image on the display unit part,
When the input unit receives selection of one or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image, specifying one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates, a search URL generator that generates one or more search URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) for searching the Internet using one or more search keywords; and
A program that functions as a search execution unit that searches the Internet using any of the one or more search URLs. A selection screen display processing unit identifies a plurality of predetermined contents as a plurality of search candidates from related information that is information related to a printer, generates a selection screen image showing the plurality of search candidates, and performs the selection. Display the screen image on the display unit,
When the input unit receives selection of one or more search candidates from the plurality of search candidates in the selection screen image, the search URL generation unit generates one or more search keywords using the one or more search candidates and generating one or more search URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) for searching the Internet using the one or more search keywords,
An information processing method, comprising: searching the Internet using one of the one or more search URLs.

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