JP4709004B2 - Image processing apparatus, method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, method, and program capable of receiving and executing a driver from an external device, for example.

  A distributed type that provides a composite function that combines the functions of these single function devices by connecting a single function device such as an image scanner, digital camera, or facsimile receiver to a single function device such as a printer or facsimile transmitter. Research and development of document processing systems is actively conducted. Similarly, in a so-called multi-function product (MFP) in which the functions of a plurality of the above-mentioned single function devices are integrated in a single casing, the internal single functions are cut out and combined with the functions of other devices via a network. Therefore, various composite functions are required to be flexibly realized as appropriate, and research and development of distributed document processing systems are actively conducted.

  As a programming model for facilitating provision of functions across information processing apparatuses distributed in a network, remote procedure call (RPC) and distributed object techniques are widely known. A distributed object is an extension of an object-oriented software model to a distributed system, and is performed on another network node (transparently) by a procedure equivalent to a procedure in which an object on one network node calls an object operation on the same node. The object operation can be called.

  In order to use the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device scan service, PDL print service, and print service using the distributed object technology, a stub driver may be downloaded from each distributed object environment compatible image input / output device. it can.

  However, for this purpose, the user using the client computer must know in advance that the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device exists on the network 11.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and information processing that enables a user who uses a client computer to download a driver corresponding to a service of a peripheral device that the user wants to use without knowing the network configuration. An object is to provide an apparatus, a method, and a program.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is, an image processing apparatus connected to an external information processing apparatus and a scanner apparatus via a network, wherein the external information processing apparatus obtains a stub driver by making a request to the scanner apparatus from the external information processing apparatus. after the obtaining means for obtaining said stub driver transmitted from the external information processing apparatus, in a printing method executed in the image processing apparatus, the read methods for executing the scan processing of the scanner device Execution means for executing, and control of the stub driver obtained by the acquisition means for obtaining data obtained by scanning processing in the scanner device performed in response to execution of the reading method in order to cause the image processing apparatus to perform print output And receiving means for receiving below .

  According to the present invention, the functions of a device can be managed centrally, and even a user who has no knowledge about a system or a device can use the device.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, connected to the network 11 are two image input / output devices 12-1, 12-2, a client computer 13, and a service driver server computer 14 that are compatible with a distributed object environment such as Java (registered trademark) or CORBA. Has been. The distributed object environment compatible image input / output devices 12-1 and 12-2 can transfer respective data via the network 11. Further, the distributed computer environment-compatible image input / output devices 12-1 and 12-2 can be remotely operated from the client computer 13, respectively.

  The service driver server computer 14 is registered with service drivers necessary for remotely operating the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device 12 from the client computer 13.

<Configuration of image input / output device>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the distributed object environment compliant image input / output devices 12-1 and 12-2 of FIG.

  In the figure, a reader unit 1 reads an image of a document and outputs image data corresponding to the document image to an image input / output control unit 3. The printer unit 2 records an image corresponding to the image data from the image input / output control unit 3 on a recording sheet. The image input / output control unit 3 is connected to the reader unit 1 and the printer unit 2, and includes a facsimile unit 4, a storage unit 5, a computer interface unit 7, a RIP (Raster Image Processor) unit 8, an operation unit 9, a core unit 10, and the like. Consists of.

  The facsimile unit 4 decompresses the compressed image data received via the telephone line, transfers the decompressed image data to the core unit 10, and compresses and compresses the image data transferred from the core unit 10. The compressed image data is transmitted via a telephone line. Image data to be transmitted and received can be temporarily stored in the hard disk 6 connected to the storage unit 5.

  A hard disk 6 is connected to the storage unit 5, and the storage unit 5 compresses the image data transferred from the core unit 10 and stores it in the hard disk 6 together with an ID number for retrieving the image data. Further, the storage unit 5 searches the compressed image data stored in the hard disk 6 based on the code data transferred through the core unit 10, reads out the compressed image data that has been searched, decompresses the decompressed image, Data is transferred to the core unit 10. The computer interface unit 7 is an interface between the network 11 and the core unit 10, and exchanges data with the client computer 13 and other distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12.

  The RIP unit 8 develops code data (PDL) representing an image transferred from the network 11 into image data that can be recorded by the printer unit 2.

  The operation unit 9 includes a touch panel display and hard keys, and performs operation instructions, operation settings, and the like to the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device through a user interface.

  Although the core unit 10 will be described later, the core unit 10 indicates the data flow between the reader unit 1, the printer unit 2, the facsimile unit 4, the storage unit 5, the computer interface unit 7, the RIP unit 8, and the operation unit 9. It is something to control.

  FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the reader unit 1 and the printer unit 2. The document feeder 101 of the reader unit 1 feeds documents one by one to the platen glass 102 in order from the top, and discharges the documents on the platen glass 102 after the document reading operation is completed. When the original is conveyed onto the platen glass 102, the lamp 103 is turned on, and the movement of the scanner unit 104 is started to expose and scan the original. The reflected light from the original at this time is guided to a CCD image sensor (hereinafter referred to as CCD) 109 by mirrors 105, 106, 107 and a lens 108. Thus, the scanned image of the original is read by the CCD 109. Image data output from the CCD 109 is transferred to the core unit 10 of the image input / output control unit 3 after being subjected to predetermined processing.

  The laser driver 221 of the printer unit 2 drives the laser emission unit 201, and causes the laser emission unit 201 to emit laser light corresponding to the image data output from the core unit 10 of the image input / output control unit 3. The laser beam is irradiated onto the photosensitive drum 202, and a latent image corresponding to the laser beam is formed on the photosensitive drum 202. A developer is attached to the latent image portion of the photosensitive drum 202 by the developing unit 203. Then, at the timing synchronized with the start of laser light irradiation, the recording paper is fed from either the cassette 204 or the cassette 205 and conveyed to the transfer unit 206, and the developer attached to the photosensitive drum 202 is transferred to the recording paper. To do. The recording paper on which the developer is placed is conveyed to the fixing unit 207, and the developer is fixed on the image recording paper by the heat and pressure of the fixing unit 207. The recording sheet that has passed through the fixing unit 207 is discharged by the discharge roller 208, and the finisher 220 bundles the discharged recording sheets to sort the recording sheets or staple the sorted recording sheets. If double-sided recording is set, the recording paper is conveyed to the discharge roller 208, and then the rotation direction of the discharge roller 208 is reversed and guided to the refeed conveyance path 210 by the flapper 209. The recording paper guided to the refeed conveyance path 210 is fed to the transfer unit 206 at the timing described above.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the core unit 10. Image data from the reader unit 1 is transferred to the data processing unit 121 via the interface 122. The data processing unit 121 performs image processing such as image rotation processing and scaling processing, and compression and decompression of image data, and has a page memory for a plurality of pages of image data equivalent to A4 / Letter size. The image data transferred from the reader unit 1 to the data processing unit 121 is temporarily stored in the page memory, then compressed, and transferred to the storage unit 5 via the interface 120. Further, code data (PDL) representing an image input via the computer interface unit 7 is transferred to the data processing unit 121 via the interface 120 and then transferred to the RIP unit 8 to be developed into image data. The image data is transferred to the data processing unit 121, temporarily stored in the page memory, and then compressed and transferred to the storage unit 5. The image data from the facsimile unit 4 is transferred to the data processing unit 121, temporarily stored in the page memory, and then compressed and transferred to the storage unit 5. The image data from the storage unit 5 is transferred to the data processing unit 121, decompressed and temporarily stored in the page memory, and then transferred to the printer unit 2, facsimile unit 4, and computer interface unit 7. The Incidentally, after inputting various image data to the data processing unit 121 described above and temporarily storing it in the page memory, before transferring the image data to the storage unit 5, the printer unit 2, the facsimile unit 4, the computer interface unit 7 can also be transferred by switching the internal selector.

  The CPU 123 performs such control according to the control program stored in the memory 124 and the control command transferred from the operation unit 9. The memory 124 is also used as a work area for the CPU 123. As described above, functions such as reading of a document image, printing of an image, transmission / reception of an image, storage of an image, and input / output of data from a computer are mainly performed by the core unit 10 via the data processing unit 121 and the storage unit 5. Can be combined.

<Job control>
Next, job control in the distributed object environment compliant image input / output apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 logically shows the unit of job control. The unit of job control is input and output processing for a group of image data including a plurality of pages. Jobs controlled in this way are roughly divided into image input jobs and image output jobs. The image input job is received by the image input job 411 for sequentially recording the image data read by the reader unit to the storage unit 5, the image input job 412 for sequentially recording the image data developed by the RIP unit to the storage unit 5, and the facsimile unit. The image input job 413 for sequentially recording the image data to the storage unit 5 and the image input job 414 for sequentially recording the image data input from the computer interface unit to the storage unit 5 are further classified. The image output job includes an image output job 401 that sequentially outputs image data read from the storage unit 5 to the printer unit, an image output job 403 that sequentially outputs image data read from the storage unit 5 to the facsimile unit, and the storage unit 5. The image data read out from the image data is classified into an image output job 404 that sequentially outputs to the computer interface unit.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of a unit combining a plurality of jobs (hereinafter referred to as a session). The copy session 501 controls the image input job 411 and the image output job 401 in combination as a session. The PDL print session 502 is a combination of the image input job 412 and the image output job 401 and is controlled as a session. The facsimile reception session 503 is controlled as a session by combining the image input job 413 and the image output job 401. The printer session 504 controls the image input job 414 and the image output job 401 in combination as a session. The facsimile transmission session 505 controls the image input job 411 and the image output job 403 in combination as a session. The scan session 506 is controlled as a session by combining the image input job 411 and the image output job 404. A FAX modem reception session 507 is controlled as a session by combining the image input job 413 and the image output job 404. The FAX modem transmission session 508 is controlled as a session by combining the image input job 414 and the image output job 403. The session is a control unit including one or more jobs. For example, the image input job 412 is treated as one session, the image output job 401 is treated as a session, the image input job 412 and the image output job 401 are The image output job 403 may be combined and handled as one session.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the computer interface unit 7. A service driver group 601 corresponding to each session is registered in the computer interface unit 7. Here, the session including the image input job 414 or the image output job 404 in which the computer interface unit 6 serves as a data transfer path is targeted. In addition, the image input job 412 from the RIP unit 8 is exceptionally included in the computer interface unit 7 as a path for transferring PDL data to the RIP unit 8, so that a session including the image input job 412 is also targeted. In other words, the PDL print session 502, the printer session 504, the scan session 506, the FAX modem reception session 507, and the FAX modem transmission session 508 are targeted in the session in FIG. 6, and the corresponding PDL print service driver 602, printer service driver 603, scan Service drivers such as a service driver 604, a FAX modem reception service driver 605, and a FAX modem transmission service driver 606 are registered in the computer interface unit 7. Further, the service driver is divided into a skeleton service driver and a stub service driver. For example, the PDL print service driver 602 is divided into a PDL print service skeleton driver 607 and a PDL print service stub driver 608. Similarly, the other service drivers include the printer service skeleton driver 609 and the printer service stub driver 610, the scan service skeleton driver 611 and the scan service stub driver 612, the FAX modem reception service skeleton driver 613 and the FAX modem reception service stub driver 614, and the FAX modem transmission. Like the service skeleton driver 615 and the FAX modem transmission service stub driver, the skeleton driver and the stub driver are configured as a set.

  The relationship between the skeleton driver and the stub driver is shown using FIG. The relationship between the skeleton driver and the stub driver is already used in various situations as a known technique as a remote procedure call in a distributed object environment. For example, Java (registered trademark) language RMI, CORBA ORB, and the like. As an example of a skeleton driver and a stub driver, a PDL print service skeleton driver 607 and a PDL print service stub driver 608 will be described. The PDL print service skeleton driver 607 is a software component that remains in the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 that provides the service. On the other hand, the PDL print stub driver 608 is called and executed from a device (here, the client computer 13) that wants to use the service.

  When the PDL print service skeleton driver 607 has a service 2001 “printing”, the PDL print service stub driver 608 has an interface 2002 for calling the service.

  The client computer 13 that wants to use the “print” service of the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 calls the interface 2002 of the PDL print service stub driver 608, thereby inputting the distributed object environment compatible image with the PDL print service skeleton driver 607. It becomes possible to perform printing on the output device 12.

<Remote print procedure>
A procedure for PDL printing from the client computer 13 according to the present embodiment to the distributed object environment compliant image input / output device 12 will be described with reference to FIG. In order to perform PDL printing from the client computer 13 to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12, the client computer 13 uses the service driver group 601 registered in the computer interface unit 7 from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12. The PDL print service stub driver 608 of the PDL print service driver 602 needs to be downloaded. The client computer 13 includes a virtual machine 801. The PDL print service stub driver 608 is described in an intermediate language (for example, Java (registered trademark) language) that operates on the virtual machine 801 and can operate regardless of the CPU or operating system of the client computer 13.

  The structure of the PDL print service stub driver 608 can be divided into a user interface unit 901 and a program interface unit 902 as shown in FIG. A user interface unit 901 is a program in charge of how the user wants to use the PDL print service, for example, an interactive part with the service such as the size of the output paper and the number of copies. An example of these user interface units 901 is shown in FIG. The program interface unit 902 is a remote procedure call interface with the PDL print service skeleton driver 607. When the program interface is called, the interface of the corresponding PDL print service skeleton driver 607 is called. The program interface unit 902 requires two interfaces, that is, reception (pull) 903 and transmission (push) 904 as minimum interfaces.

  First, the procedure for PDL printing from the client computer 13 to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 will be described with reference to the event trace diagram of FIG.

  In step (S1201), the client computer 13 requests the PDL print service stub driver 608 from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 in order to perform PDL printing on the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12.

  In step (S1202), the distributed object environment compliant image input / output device 12 responds to the request (S1201) from the client computer 13 and passes the PDL print service stub driver 608 to the client computer 13.

  In step (S1203), a print command of the distributed object environment compliant image input / output device 12 is called.

  In step (S1204), the actual data of the document is transferred and the data is printed out.

<Remote scan procedure>
Next, a case will be described in which image data is captured by the client computer 13 using the scan service of the image input / output device 12 that supports the distributed object environment as shown in FIG. The client computer 13 takes in the scan service stub driver 612 from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 in order to use the scan service of the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12. The actual operation flow will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step (S1401), the client computer 13 requests the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 for the scan service stub driver 612 in order to scan the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12.

  In step (S1402), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 responds to the request (S1401) from the client computer 13 and passes the scan service stub driver 612 to the client computer 13.

  In step (S1403), the scan command of the image input / output device 12 corresponding to the distributed object environment is called.

  In step (S1404), the distributed object environment compliant image input / output device 12 responds to the request (S1403) from the client computer 13, and the scanned actual data is transferred to the client side.

<Remote copy procedure (1)>
Next, in the configuration as shown in FIG. 15, the remote copy of the original image is scanned by the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 and printed by the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2. Explain the procedure.

  As shown in FIG. 15, there are two distributed object environment compatible image input / output devices 12 on the network 11 (referred to as distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 and distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2, respectively). A client computer 13 is connected. The client computer 13 uses the scan service of the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device 12-1 and uses the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device 12-, and uses the print service of the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device 12-1. -1 to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2. The client computer 13 takes in the scan service stub driver 612 from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 in order to use the scan service of the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1. Further, in order to use the print service of the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2, the print service stub driver 610 is fetched from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2. The actual operation flow will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step (S1601), the client computer 13 requests the scan object stub driver 612 from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 in order to scan the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1. .

  In step (S1602), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 responds to the request (S1601) from the client computer 13 and passes the scan service stub driver 612 to the client computer 13.

  In step (S1603), the client computer 13 requests the print object stub driver 610 from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2 in order to print to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2. .

  In step (S1604), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2 responds to the request (S1603) from the client computer 13 and passes the scan service stub driver 610 to the client computer 13.

  In step (S1605), the client computer 13 passes the stub driver of the image input device 12-2 that is the writing destination to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1.

  In step (S1606), the image input / output device 12-1 activates its scan method to read document data, and then calls the write method of the image input / output device 12-2.

  In step (S1607), data is actually transferred from the image input / output device 12-1 to the image input / output device 12-2. This data is printed out by the image input / output device 12-2.

<Remote copy procedure (2)>
The following example will be described as another remote copy procedure. Also in this example, in the configuration as shown in FIG. 15, the original image is scanned by the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device 12-1, and is printed by the distributed object environment-compatible image input / output device 12-2. The actual operation flow will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step (S2101), the client computer 13 requests the scan object stub driver 612 to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 in order to scan the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1. .

  In step (S <b> 2102), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 responds to the request (S <b> 2101) from the client computer 13, and passes the scan service stub driver 612 to the client computer 13.

  In step (S2103), the client computer 13 requests the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2 for the print service stub driver 610 to print to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2. .

In step (S2104), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2 responds to the request (S2103) from the client computer 13 and passes the print service stub driver 610 to the client computer 13.

  In step (S2105), the client computer 13 passes the stub driver of the image input device 12-1, which is the reading destination, to the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2.

  In step (S2106), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2 activates its own print method and calls the read method of the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1.

  In step (S2107), the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-1 scans the document in response to the read method call request (S2106) from the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12-2, and reads the read document. The actual data is transferred.

  The image input / output device 12-2 prints data received from the image input / output device 12-1.

  As described above, the host computer that mediates the stub driver does not have the stub driver, but the device that reads and writes the document data has the stub driver of the partner device, and the partner device is controlled by the stub driver. To read or write data. As a result, the host computer computer that mediates is freed from the transmission and reception of document data, saving resource consumption, and the processing executed by the host computer is delayed or cannot be performed by the mediation load. Can be prevented.

  In particular, when the object for document input processing and the object for document output processing provided by the same MFP are combined by a client application, it is not necessary to use network resources for document data transfer at all. In addition, by making this transparent from the client application and the document input and document output objects, it is possible to achieve this without losing the flexibility and expandability of the combination of distributed objects.

[Second Embodiment]
In order to use the scan service, PDL print service, and print service of the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 in S1201, FIG. 14, S1401, FIG. 16, S1601, S1603, or S2101, S2103 of FIG. In addition, stub drivers have been downloaded from the respective distributed object environment compatible image input / output devices 12. However, in the method of the first embodiment, the user using the client computer 13 must know that the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 exists on the network 11 in advance.

  A mechanism for downloading a stub driver corresponding to a service of a peripheral device desired to be used by the user using the client computer 13 without knowing the configuration of the network 11 will be described with reference to FIG. Unlike the configuration of FIG. 15, a driver server 14 exists on the network. First, the distributed object environment compatible image input / output devices 12-1 and 12-2 connected to the network register the stub driver groups 617-1 and 617-2 in the driver server 14, respectively.

  In the driver server 14, the registered stub driver is managed in the stub driver management table 1801 shown in FIG. 18 by the registered date and time, the contents of the service, and the peripheral device name. When there is a request that the client computer 13 wants to receive a print service or a scan service, the client computer 13 first looks at the management table 1801 of the driver server 14 and what services are registered. And the service requested by the user is downloaded from the driver server 14.

  FIG. 19 illustrates a process until the stub driver is uploaded from the peripheral device to the driver server 14, and FIG. 20 illustrates a process until the driver is downloaded from the driver server 14 to the client computer 13.

  In FIG. 19, first, at the moment when the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 is connected to the network 11, a broadcast packet indicating whether or not a driver server exists on the network 11 is thrown (1). Upon receiving the packet, the driver server 14 notifies the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 of the presence of the driver server 14 (2). Thereafter, the distributed object environment-compliant image input / output device 12 registers the driver 617 with the found driver server 14 (3). In this way, the management table 1801 is created and stored in the driver server 14.

  Similarly, when a device included in the peripheral device is disconnected from the network 11, the server 14 is notified of the driver that has stopped functioning due to the device disconnection. The server receives this and updates the management table. In addition, when the peripheral device itself is disconnected from the network, it is determined that the peripheral device has been disconnected from the network when the data that is regularly sent over the network is interrupted, and the device of the peripheral device is The stub driver is registered in the management table 1801 as unusable.

  In FIG. 20, when the client computer 13 uses the distributed object environment-compliant image input / output device 12, first, the driver server 14 is searched for a driver corresponding to what service (1). ). Then, the client computer 13 downloads a driver that is deemed necessary (2), and communicates with the distributed object environment compatible image input / output device 12 that provides the target service (3). The steps (1) and (2) may be a procedure in which the client downloads the management table 1801 from the server 14, searches the contents thereof, and requests the server 14 for a necessary driver program. The device identifier (peripheral device name) required by the client and the required service content may be transmitted to the server 14, and the server 14 may search the management table 18 for a stub driver that meets the conditions and transmit it to the client. .

  As described above, the stub driver of the device connected to the network is centrally managed by the management table of the driver server, so that the stub driver that can be used can be known by referring to this management table. However, even if there is no knowledge other than the driver server 14 regarding the network resource, the network resource can be used.

[Other Embodiments]
Note that the present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, and a printer), and a device (for example, a copying machine and a facsimile device) including a single device. You may apply to.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium (or recording medium) that records a program code of software for executing the procedure of FIG. 16 or FIG. Alternatively, it is also achieved by supplying to the apparatus and reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium by the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. A case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is determined based on the instruction of the program code. This includes a case where the CPU or the like provided in the expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

It is a figure of the network configuration of the Example of this invention. 1 is a block diagram of an image input / output device for a distributed object environment according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is sectional drawing of a reader part and a printer part. It is a block diagram of a core part. It is a block diagram of an image input job and an image output job. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a session. It is a figure which shows the structure of a computer interface part. It is a figure which shows the structure of the network of Example 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of a stub driver. It is a figure which shows the example of the user interface of a stub driver. It is a figure which shows the relationship between a skeleton driver and a stub driver. It is an event trace figure of remote printing. It is a figure which shows the structure of a network. It is an event trace figure of remote scanning. It is a figure which shows a network. It is an event trace figure (1) of remote copy. It is a figure which shows the acquisition method of the stub driver in an image input / output device. It is a figure which shows the structure of the management table in a driver server. It is the figure which showed the method in which a peripheral device registers a driver in a driver server. It is the figure which showed the method in which a client computer acquires a driver from a driver server. It is an event trace figure (2) of remote copy.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Reader part 2 Printer part 3 Image input / output control part 4 Facsimile part 5 Storage part 7 Computer interface part 8 RIP part 9 Operation part 10 Core part 11 Network 12-1 Image input / output apparatus 1 corresponding to distributed object environment
12-2 Image Input / Output Device 2 for Distributed Object Environment
13 Client computer 14 Driver server 601 Service driver 607, 609, 611, 613, 615 Service skeleton driver 608, 610, 612, 614, 616 Service stub driver 617 Service skeleton driver group

Claims (3)

An image processing apparatus connected to an external information processing apparatus and a scanner apparatus via a network,
An acquisition means for acquiring the stub driver transmitted from the external information processing apparatus after the external information processing apparatus makes a request to the scanner apparatus and the external information processing apparatus acquires the stub driver;
Execution means for executing a read method for executing a scan process of the scanner device among print methods executed in the image processing apparatus;
Reception for receiving data obtained by scanning processing in the scanner device performed in response to execution of the reading method under the control of the stub driver obtained by the obtaining unit in order to perform printing output in the image processing device And an image processing apparatus. An image processing method in an image processing apparatus including an acquisition unit, an execution unit, and a reception unit, connected to an external information processing device and a scanner device via a network,
An acquisition step of acquiring a stub driver transmitted from the external information processing apparatus after the external information processing apparatus acquires a stub driver by making a request to the scanner apparatus from the external information processing apparatus;
An execution step of executing a reading method for causing the scanner device to execute a scanning process among print methods executed in the image processing apparatus;
Under the control of the stub driver obtained by the obtaining step, the receiving means obtains the data obtained by the scanning process in the scanner device performed in response to the execution of the reading method in order to cause the image processing device to perform print output. An image processing method comprising: a receiving step of receiving at A computer-readable storage medium storing a program executable by a computer connected to an external information processing device and a scanner device via a network,
An acquisition means for acquiring a stub driver transmitted from the external information processing apparatus after the external information processing apparatus makes a request to the scanner apparatus and the external information processing apparatus acquires the stub driver;
Execution means for executing scanning processing of the scanner device in a print method executed in the image processing device;
Reception for receiving data obtained by scanning processing in the scanner device performed in response to execution of the reading method under the control of the stub driver obtained by the obtaining unit in order to perform printing output in the image processing device A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as means.

Images