JP4534179B2 - How to order digital print - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a digital print ordering method, and more particularly, to a digital print ordering method in the case where a digital image print registered in a server of a service provider and published to a viewer is received from the viewer. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a digital print order receiving method in the case where an order for a digital image print registered in a service provider's server and privately disclosed to a predetermined range of viewers is received from the predetermined range of viewers.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A service based on a method in which a digital image is registered together with a password, is disclosed to at least one viewer who has input the password via a communication means such as the Internet, and a digital print creation order is received from the viewer has started.
[0003]
The method has an advantage that each viewer can select a desired image from the registered images and order a digital print. When a print of a meeting photo of a plurality of people is distributed to each meeting participant, It is supposed to be used when you want to give a recent photo to a remote acquaintance.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The distribution of prints of multi-person meeting photos is often covered as part of the meeting fee. In particular, it is customary for the meeting organizer to pay a print fee for meeting participants invited to the meeting.
[0005]
In addition, when handing a recent photo to an acquaintance at a remote location, it may be inconvenient to pay the print fee to the other party.
[0006]
However, according to the conventional method, an image print fee designated by each viewer is charged to the viewer himself.
[0007]
An object of the present invention is to provide a digital print ordering method in which an image for creating a digital print is designated by a viewer and a print fee is charged to a registrant of the digital image.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Means of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object includes the steps of receiving digital image data to be paid by a print fee image registrant from a digital image registrant; and Registering the data as data in a storage device, exposing the image based on the registered digital image data to at least one viewer accessing with a predetermined password, and charging a print order from the at least one viewer In the digital print order receiving method comprising the steps of accepting as a registrant-paid order and charging the digital image registrant with a print fee for the registrant-paid order, the step of setting an upper limit for the registrant-paid order And the order for payment by the registrant Only when rates registrant paid is within orders limit, which is a digital print order method which comprises further the step of enabling the rates registrant pay orders.
[0011]
Further, a step of automatically receiving a print charge for a print order within the upper limit from the image registrant may be further included.
[0015]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a system that implements the method of the present invention. The service provider 1 includes a server computer (hereinafter referred to as a server) 10. The server 10 includes a CPU 11, a storage device 12, an Internet connection unit 13, an output interface (output I / F) 14, and the like connected to the bus line. The server 10 is connected to the Internet network 6 via the Internet connection means 13 and can exchange information with an information device such as an external personal computer. Digital image data (image data) is stored in the storage device 12, and the image data is output to a digital image printer (image printer) 5 connected via an output I / F 14. The CPU 11 controls each of the components to perform the operation.
The image printer 5 creates a digital image print (digital print) based on the image data.
[0016]
The Internet network 6 includes a personal computer 21 of the image registrant 2 who registers digital images in the server 10 of the service provider 1 via the Internet network 6, and a viewer who browses the registered digital images via the Internet network 6. PC is connected. There may be a plurality of viewers, and here, an example is shown in which the personal computer 31 of the viewer A (3) and the personal computer 41 of the viewer B (4) are connected.
[0017]
The personal computer 21 of the image registrant 2 stores digital image data such as an image taken with a digital camera.
[0018]
FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a schematic procedure of the digital print order receiving method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0019]
In step 10, the image registrant 2 transmits the digital image data together with the album name and password to the server 10 of the service provider 1 via a communication means such as the Internet and registers it. At that time, the payer of the print fee is designated as the image registrant 2.
[0020]
In step 20, the image registrant 2 notifies the viewer A and the viewer B of the album name and password.
[0021]
In step 30, the viewer A and / or the viewer B (hereinafter referred to as the viewer) accesses the album browsing request screen of the digital print order receiving site established by the service provider 1 via the Internet and notifies the image registrant 2 of the album. The album name and password thus entered are entered in a predetermined field and transmitted to the server 10 to request the service provider 1 to view the album. At that time, a method for picking up the completed digital print, for example, home delivery, a service window to receive, etc. is designated. Also, the service provider 1 is notified of the e-mail address, FAX number, and the like. Alternatively, user registration is performed in advance, and the contents are notified at that time. The server 10 stores the collection method and the notified content.
[0022]
In step 40, the server 10 displays a list of reduced images of digital images corresponding to the transmitted album name and password on the viewer's personal computer.
[0023]
In step 50, the viewer selects an image for ordering a digital print from the displayed list of reduced images, and orders it from the service provider 1.
[0024]
In step 60, the server 10 receives the print order as an image registrant payment order.
[0025]
In step 70, the server 10 calculates the print fee for the image registrant-paid order, and bills the payer designated in step 10, that is, the image registrant.
[0026]
In step 80, the server 10 transmits image data of a digital image for which a digital print order has been received to the image printer 5, and causes the image printer 5 to produce a digital print of the digital image.
[0027]
In step 90, the server 10 outputs delivery data for delivering the digital print to the orderer of the digital print. If the receiving method specified in step 30 is home delivery, the home delivery slip is printed out on the printer. If it is received at the service window, a voucher is sent to the viewer who ordered the digital print by e-mail or FAX.
[0028]
The image registrant 2 may be a viewer at the same time.
[0029]
Next, steps that require more detailed description will be described.
[0030]
First, the details of step 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
[0031]
The registrant 2 accesses the digital image registration screen of the digital print order receiving site established by the service provider 1 via the Internet (S11).
[0032]
Then, the image data of the digital image stored in the personal computer 21 is transmitted to the server 10 in accordance with the instruction on the digital image registration screen displayed on the personal computer 21. The digital image registration screen is composed of a plurality of pages, a page for inputting a directory and a file name on the personal computer 21 in which image data of the digital image to be registered is stored, and a file of the image data are designated, and the digital image to be registered A page (FIG. 4) displaying an input field for inputting an album name to be attached to and a password for permitting viewing of the registered digital image, and a selection field for designating a payer for digital printing of the registered digital image; The information of these pages is also sent to the server. Here, the registrant payment in the selection field is clicked with the mouse to designate image registrant payment (hereinafter referred to as registrant payment) (S12). When the browser payment is clicked with the mouse, the viewer payment is designated. This is a conventional digital print ordering method.
[0033]
The server 10 determines whether or not the payment is made by the registrant (S13). If the payment is by the registrant, the order restriction setting screen (FIG. 5) is displayed on the personal computer 21 (S14).
[0034]
The image registrant 2 inputs restriction conditions such as the accumulated order amount paid by the registrant, the accumulated order count, the accumulated order quantity, and the order acceptance deadline on the order restriction setting screen, and transmits them to the server 10 (S15). Only the necessary items need to be entered for the restriction conditions. The upper limit of the cumulative order amount, the cumulative order number, and the cumulative order number may be any of cumulative orders from all viewers and / or cumulative per viewer. FIG. 5 shows an order restriction setting screen when both can be set.
[0035]
The order restriction setting screen is for excluding the risk that print orders from viewers are accepted without restriction, and the print charges are all borne by the image registrant. If the viewer is very close, there will be no problem even if there is no order restriction, but there is an order restriction setting screen that can restrict registrant-paid orders in case that is not the case .
[0036]
The server 10 receives the transmitted digital image data, album name, password, restriction condition, and presence / absence of registrant payment, and stores and registers them in the storage device 12 (S16).
[0037]
If it is determined in step 13 that the payment is not made by the registrant, the server 10 registers as payment by the viewer as in the conventional order receiving method (S17).
[0038]
The registration of the digital image does not depend on the image registration screen of the service provider 1, but the image registrant registers the digital image image data, album name, It is also possible to create an image registration file in which a password, whether or not a registrant payment is specified, and send the image registration file to the server 10. Alternatively, the recording medium on which the image registration file is recorded can be transferred to the service provider 1 and read by the server 10 by the service provider 1.
[0039]
When order restriction conditions are set in step 15, it is preferable to notify the order restriction conditions set to the viewer in step 20. Furthermore, in steps 40 and 50, it is preferable that the server 10 displays the contents of the set order restriction conditions together with a list of reduced images.
[0040]
Next, details of step 40 will be described. The server 10 searches the digital image registered in the storage device 12 for a digital image having an album name and password that matches the transmitted album name and password. Then, an image browsing screen (FIG. 6) including a list of reduced images of the extracted digital images is displayed on the viewer's personal computer. Furthermore, when an arbitrary reduced image is clicked with the mouse, the original image (enlarged image) of the reduced image is displayed, and the image quality and details of the digital image are confirmed and viewed.
[0041]
Next, details of step 50 will be described. In FIG. 6, in the vicinity of the reduced image 61 displayed on the image browsing screen 60, a print order instruction column 62 for instructing an order for digital printing of a corresponding digital image is provided. The desired print size and order quantity are entered in the print order instruction field 62 of the digital image for ordering the digital print. Then, a digital print is ordered by clicking the transmission button 63 included in the image browsing screen 60 with a mouse. Reference numeral 64 denotes a display of the order restriction content described in the description of step 15.
[0042]
Next, details of step 60 will be described. When the server 10 receives the order paid by the registrant, the server 10 adds the value of the current registrant-paid order to the cumulative value of the past registrant-paid orders and updates the cumulative value. Then, the updated cumulative value is compared with the upper limit set in step 15. The order acceptance deadline determines whether or not the order acceptance date is before the order acceptance deadline. The process is performed for all restriction items for which an upper limit is set, and only when all the restriction items are within the upper limit, they are accepted as registrant payment orders.
[0043]
If even one of the restricted items exceeds the upper limit, it will not be accepted as a registrant-paid order and a display to that effect will be displayed on the viewer's personal computer. The display will be described in detail later.
[0044]
Next, details of step 70 will be described. The server 10 calculates the print fee based on the received print size and number of orders. Then, based on the credit card information notified in advance by the image registrant 2, the credit card company is charged for the calculated printing fee, and the image data of the digital image that has been ordered is sent to the image printer 5. Make a digital print.
[0045]
Alternatively, the server 10 transmits an invoice for the calculated print fee to the image registrant 2, and when there is a receipt input indicating that the print fee has been received, the digital image of the order received by the image printer 5 is received. Send image data to create a digital print. The receipt input is input from, for example, a billing server of the service provider 1 that receives payment by electronic money or the like from the personal computer 21 of the image registrant 2 or its keyboard, or a computer of a charge collection company such as a convenience store or bank.
[0046]
The above is the basic processing procedure of the first embodiment.
[0047]
The display indicating that the registrant payment order is not accepted in step 60 is preferably a display prompting the change of the order contents so that the registrant payment order can be accepted, such as reducing the number of print orders. Furthermore, it is more preferable to display a display for ordering an order part exceeding the upper limit as a payment by a viewer. An example of such display is shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 7, when the order button 71 is clicked with a browser, the number of sheets exceeding the upper limit, the number of sheets displayed in the amount column 72, and the digital print corresponding to the amount of money are ordered as a conventional method.
[0048]
In addition, on the image browsing screen 60 in step 50, as the send button 63, two types of a registrant payment button 64 and a viewer payment button 65 are displayed as shown in FIG. Even a digital image may be able to be ordered by paying a viewer. In the case of such a display, after step 50, step 55 for determining whether the order is registrant-payment or browser-payment, and accepting as a browser payment order for charging the viewer for the print fee Step 60A is added (see FIG. 9), and if it is a registrant payment order, the process proceeds to step 60, and if it is a viewer payment order, the process proceeds to step 60A. Then, step 70 is changed so that the print fee billing destination (image registrant or viewer) determined based on the determination is charged to the server 10 for the print fee of the order.
[0049]
Before the step 80, the server 10 is provided with a step 75 for obtaining the total quantity of the registrant-paid order quantity and the viewer-paid order quantity as the total print processing data for each digital image. The total print processing data is output to the printer 5, and the total quantity of digital prints is produced in a batch. Since digital print creation of print orders for registrant-paid orders and browser-paid orders can be collectively processed, digital prints can be created efficiently.
[0050]
Furthermore, when the set registrant payment acceptance deadline has arrived, the processing of step 70 can be performed collectively for the registrant payment orders accepted by the acceptance deadline. Specifically, before step 70, step 65 for determining whether or not the set registrant payment acceptance deadline has arrived is provided (see FIG. 9), and if the acceptance deadline has not yet arrived, the process returns to step 30. Then, the step of accepting the print order from the viewer is repeated, and if the acceptance time limit has come, the process proceeds to step 70.
[0051]
In this case, the process for obtaining the total quantity in step 75 includes a process for creating the total print processing data by summing up the quantity of the registrant-paid orders received before the acceptance deadline and the quantity of the viewer-paid orders for each digital image. Become. When the browser payment button is not provided as the transmission button 63, the total print processing data is created only from the quantity of the registrant payment order.
[0052]
Since digital print creation of a plurality of print orders from a viewer can be processed in a lump, digital prints can be created efficiently.
[0053]
The order restriction registrant payment order deadline in step 10 can be a deadline that repeats every predetermined period, for example, the end of every month.
[0054]
The second embodiment is a digital image print order receiving method in which the processes related to the password in the first embodiment are excluded from all the steps. As a result, all viewers who access the album browsing request screen of the digital print ordering site established by the service provider 1 can browse the registered digital images. The viewer can select an arbitrary digital image from the digital images registered in the storage device 12 and obtain a print of the digital image at the burden of the image registrant.
[0055]
The usage form of the second embodiment is, for example, an image registrant = tour travel agent, a viewer = tour travel participant, a registered digital image = a digital image obtained by photographing a traveler on a tour trip. The tour travel agent can provide a service to a tour travel participant who is a customer, from a photograph of the tour travel participant taken during the tour travel, to print a photograph desired by the tour traveller. By setting order restriction conditions such as order quantity and order deadline, it is possible to set an upper limit of the cost to be borne.
[0056]
Another form of use is a digital image obtained by photographing an image registrant = tourist-related business in a tourist area, a viewer = a tourist applicant, a registered digital image = a scenery in a tourist area, and a sightseeing object. Tourism-related businesses in tourist areas can effectively promote tourist sites to tourists.
[0057]
Still another form of use is an image registrant = seller, in particular a high-end merchant, a viewer = a merchandise purchaser, a registered digital image = a digital image taken of the product. The seller can effectively promote the product. It can be suitably used for products having delicate colors and extremely fine structures, such as dyed products and jewelry products.
[0058]
Also in the second embodiment, the registrant payment order deadline for order restriction in step 10 can be a deadline that repeatedly arrives every predetermined period, for example, at the end of every month.
[0059]
Further, in step 60, when the server 10 receives an order for a digital print, a process for storing the information related to the viewer 2 in the storage device 12 is added, and after the subsequent appropriate position, for example, after step 10, the server 10 stores the information. A step of notifying the image registrant 2 every predetermined period can be added. The image registrant 2 can easily obtain information of a viewer who is interested in the registered digital image.
[0060]
【The invention's effect】
According to the digital print order receiving method of the present invention, the viewer designates an image for creating a digital print, and the digital print fee is charged to the digital image registrant. The digital print of the digital image desired by the viewer can be obtained without any problem.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a digital print order receiving system in which a method of the present invention is implemented.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a basic processing procedure of the method of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing details of step 10 in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is an input screen for setting a password or the like.
FIG. 5 is an input screen for inputting order restriction conditions.
FIG. 6 shows an input screen for ordering a digital print.
FIG. 7 is a screen for allowing a viewer to place an order when the order limit is exceeded.
8 is a diagram when the send button in FIG. 6 is a registrant payment button and a viewer payment button.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a method obtained by modifying the method of FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 …… Service provider 2 …… Image registrant 3 …… Browser A
4 …… Browser B
5 ... Digital printer 6 ... Internet network 10 ... Server computer 12 of service provider ... Storage device 21 of server computer ... Personal computer 31, 41 of image registrant ... Personal computer of viewer

Claims (10)

Receiving from the digital image registrant digital image data to be paid by the print fee image registrant;
Registering the received digital image data in a storage device as print fee image registrant payment target image data;
Publishing an image based on the registered digital image data to at least one viewer accessing with a predetermined password;
Receiving a print order from the at least one viewer as a charge registrant payment order;
In the digital print ordering method , comprising: charging the digital image registrant with a print fee for the charge registrant payment order ;
Setting an upper limit for the charge registrant payment order;
The digital print order receiving method, further comprising: allowing the charge registrant payment order only when the charge registrant payment order is within an upper limit of the charge registrant payment order. The method of claim 1 , wherein
The digital print order receiving method, further comprising the step of automatically receiving the print fee of the charge registrant-paid order by a method notified in advance by a service provider receiving an order for the digital print. The method of claim 1 , wherein
A step of setting an upper limit of a cumulative print charge of the charge registrant payment order;
Measuring a cumulative print charge of the charge registrant payment order;
And further comprising the step of enabling the charge registrant payment order only when the measured charge registrant payment order cumulative print charge is within an upper limit of the charge registrant payment order cumulative print charge. Digital print ordering method. The method of claim 1 , wherein
Setting an upper limit of the number of times the fee registrant payment order is received;
Measuring the number of times the fee registrant payment order is received;
The digital print further includes the step of enabling the charge registrant payment order only when the measured number of charge registrant payment orders is within the upper limit of the charge registrant payment orders. Ordering method. The method of claim 1 , wherein
Setting an upper limit of the number of prints of the charge registrant payment order;
Measuring the total number of prints of the charge registrant payment order;
And further comprising the step of enabling the fee registrant payment order only when the measured total number of fee registrant payment orders is within the upper limit of the number of prints of the fee registrant payment orders. How to order digital prints. The method of claim 1 , wherein
The upper limit of the fee subscribers pay orders, how orders digital print, characterized in that, which is the upper limit of the fee subscribers pay orders from one of the visitors. The method of claim 6 , wherein
Calculating a print fee for a print order exceeding the upper limit of the charge registrant payment order if the charge registrant payment order from a single viewer exceeds the upper limit of the charge registrant payment order ;
Billing the viewer with the calculated print fee. The digital print ordering method, further comprising: The method according to claims 1 to 7,
Receiving a print order from the at least one viewer as a fee viewer payment order;
And further comprising the step of charging the viewer with a print fee for the fee-browser payment order. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 8 , wherein
Determining the total quantity of the subscriber-paid order quantity and the viewer-paid order quantity for each digital image;
And a step of causing the print creating apparatus to create a digital print based on the total quantity. The method of claim 1 , wherein
Setting an acceptance period for the charge registrant payment order;
The digital print order receiving method, further comprising the step of allowing the charge registrant payment order only during the reception period.

Images