JP5766319B2 - Information processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for determining whether or not content data displayed on a display device can be printed.

  Conventionally, in order to print content displayed on a display, after selecting the content, a printing device to be used for printing is designated from a menu. The printing apparatus is indicated by a name and an icon, and since the correspondence with the actual machine is not intuitive, it is difficult for a person who is not familiar with the operation to understand.

  Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a method in which an electronic pin representing a printing apparatus is prepared and a printing operation is performed by an operation such as inserting a pin into content displayed on a display.

  In addition, there are various printing apparatuses such as a stationary type and a portable type, and there may be a situation where there are a plurality of usable printing apparatuses. On the other hand, in Patent Document 2, for example, when a portable printing device is considered, a processing device is disclosed that determines the model when the portable terminal is approached and determines the operation content according to the model.

JP 2006-155194 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-20051

  However, in order to know whether the content displayed on the display can be printed, it is necessary for the user to check and judge the content type and attribute information, or to actually try printing. For this reason, it is difficult for those who are not proficient in the operation, and even if they are proficient in the operation, a complicated operation such as confirmation of attribute information is required.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily determine whether or not target content data can be printed by a printing apparatus to be used.

  An information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a detection unit that detects the approach or contact of a printing device with respect to a display device, a first acquisition unit that acquires information about the printing device detected by the detection unit, and the display device Determining whether the content data can be printed by the printing apparatus based on second acquisition means for acquiring information related to the content data displayed on the screen, information on the printing apparatus, and information on the content data And determining means for performing the processing.

  In the present invention, when the printing apparatus is brought close to or in contact with the display device, whether or not content data can be printed in the printing device based on the information on the printing device and the information on the content data displayed on the display device It is comprised so that it may determine. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the target content data can be printed by the printing apparatus to be used.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the principal part of the image display apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the whole process of the image display apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the printing availability judgment process of step S203 of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the principal part of the image display apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the printing propriety determination processing in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the principal part of the image display apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the whole process of the image display apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the print permission / prohibition judgment process of step S702 of FIG.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments to which the invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The configurations shown in the following embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated configurations.

<First Embodiment>
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of main parts of an image display apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The image display apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is a table type with a horizontal display surface, but is not limited thereto. The image display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention and the second and third embodiments to be described later is a configuration serving as an application example of the information processing device of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the user brings the printing apparatus 101 close to or in contact with the display apparatus 111. In the present embodiment, the printing apparatus 101 is preferably a small printer that can be easily carried.

  When the printing apparatus 101 approaches or contacts the display device 111, the approaching contact detection unit 102 detects this and notifies the data transmission control unit 103. Upon receiving the notification, the data transmission control unit 103 connects to the printing apparatus 101 via the communication unit 104. The connection means at this time may be wireless communication or wired communication. The approaching contact detection unit 102 is a configuration that is an application example of the detection unit of the present invention.

  The print propriety determination unit 107 determines whether or not content data (hereinafter abbreviated as content) can be printed based on a signal from the data transmission control unit 103. The printing apparatus information acquisition unit 106 acquires device information of the printing apparatus 101 via the data transmission control unit 103. The device information is information related to a print attribute that is necessary for the print propriety determination unit 107 to determine whether the content can be printed. Specifically, it may be device-specific information such as a manufacturing number or model number, or information related to a printing function such as color printing not possible and high-quality printing possible. The device information is sent to the print propriety determination unit 107 to be used as comparison information when determining the print propriety. The printing apparatus information acquisition unit 106 is a configuration that is an application example of the first acquisition unit of the present invention. The printability determination unit 107 is a configuration serving as an application example of the determination unit of the present invention.

  The data transmission control unit 103 acquires the list information of the content displayed on the screen of the display device 111 from the display control unit 110 and sends it to the printability determination unit 107. The printability determination unit 107 processes the list of contents received from the data transmission control unit 103 in order. That is, the printability determination unit 107 acquires additional attribute information such as content type and print prohibition attribute from the content type acquisition unit 108 for each content, and relates to the printing apparatus 101 received from the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 106. Compare with information. The content type acquisition unit 108 acquires attribute information of each content from content header information or the like. Thus, it is determined whether the target content can be printed. The content type acquisition unit 108 is a configuration serving as an application example of the second acquisition unit of the present invention.

  Here, when printing is not possible, not only information indicating that printing cannot be performed but also the reason why printing cannot be performed may be acquired at the same time. Further, it may be determined whether or not it is suitable for printing with the printing apparatus 101 to be used from information on the type of content. For example, when the printing apparatus 101 is a small device that is supposed to print a photograph, it can be said that content such as a document file is not suitable for printing.

  The display switching unit 109 performs display switching processing of each content according to the determination result, and displays whether the content can be printed on the display device 111 through the display control unit 110. It should be noted that the printable / non-printable display of content may be displayed with the printable content conspicuous, the content that cannot be printed may be displayed darkly, or both. Further, the conspicuous display may be a highlight display, a blinking display, a high-intensity display, an enlarged display, or a shaded display. Further, when the printable content overlaps the non-printable content, the display position of the content may be moved and displayed on the front. The display switching unit 109 is a configuration serving as an application example of the display switching unit of the present invention.

  In addition, when the reason why printing is not possible is acquired by the printability determination unit 107, the reason why printing is not possible is additionally displayed for the corresponding content in the adjacent area on the screen. The reason why printing is not possible may be displayed as character information, or may be displayed as a simplified graphic such as an icon.

  When the printability determination unit 107 determines the suitability for printing in the printing apparatus 101, the reason why the print content is unsuitable for printing may be additionally displayed in the adjacent area on the screen. The reason for being unsuitable for printing may be displayed as character information or may be displayed as a simplified graphic such as an icon.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the entire processing of the image display apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.
In step S201 and step S202, the approaching contact detection unit 102 detects the approaching or contacting of the printing apparatus 101. The approaching contact detection unit 102 checks the distance between the printing apparatus 101 and the display apparatus 111 as needed, and determines that the printing apparatus 101 has approached or contacted the display apparatus 111 if the distance is less than X.

  When the approach or contact of the printing apparatus 101 is detected, in step S <b> 203, the print availability determination unit 107 determines whether the content displayed on the screen of the display device 111 can be printed. Details of step S203 will be described later.

  In step S204, the display switching unit 109 switches the display of content in order to distinguish whether the content determined in step S203 is printable. The display switching is as described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing details of the print feasibility determination process in step S203 of FIG. In step S <b> 301, the printability determination unit 107 acquires device information of the printing apparatus 101 by the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 106. The device information is used to know content that can be printed by the printing apparatus 101. At this time, the printability determination unit 105 may acquire only the information for identifying the device, call the device information set in advance on the image display device side, or transfer all necessary information from the printing device 101. You may make it make it.

  In step S <b> 302, the printability determination unit 107 acquires a content list displayed on the screen from the display control unit 110. The content list may not be arranged in a specific order as long as there is information on all the contents.

  In step S <b> 303, the printability determination unit 107 confirms whether or not the printability of all contents in the content list has been determined. If the determination of all the contents has been completed, the printability determination process is terminated, and the content list information to which the printability determination result has been added is sent to the display switching unit 109. If there is content that has not been determined, the process proceeds to step S304.

  In step S304, the printability determination unit 107 acquires the type information of the target content by the content type acquisition unit 108. The content type information includes information such as whether the target content is a printable content such as an image or a document or a non-printable content such as a sound. If the print prohibition attribute for content is added as an additional attribute, it is acquired as part of the type information. As a method for acquiring the content type, determination may be made from the extension of the content as electronic data, or the data format of the file may be read. Further, in order to register as type information, the content type acquisition unit 108 has a correspondence table of extensions, data formats, etc., and content types.

  In step S305, the printability determination unit 107 determines whether the target content can be printed. At this time, the printability determination unit 107 performs determination by comparing the device information acquired in step S301 with the content type information acquired in step 304. If the target content has type information that can be printed from the device information and the print prohibition attribute is not defined in the type information, it is determined that printing is possible. Further, it may be determined whether it is suitable for printing with the printing apparatus 101 depending on the type of content as well as simple printability.

  In step S306, the print propriety determination unit 107 records the print propriety determination result in the content list. At this time, not only the printability but also the information indicating the reason may be recorded together when printing is not possible. When the process of step S306 is completed, the process returns to step S303, and the process is repeated until there is no unprocessed content in the content list.

  In the present embodiment, when the printing apparatus 101 is brought close to or in contact with the display apparatus 111, content printing in the printing apparatus 101 is performed based on information regarding the printing apparatus 101 and information regarding content displayed on the display apparatus 111. It is configured to determine whether or not. Therefore, it can be easily determined whether or not the target content can be printed by the printing apparatus 101 desired to be used.

  In addition, since the display of the content is switched according to the determination result of whether or not the content can be printed in the printing apparatus 101, the user can easily grasp whether or not the content can be printed.

<Second Embodiment>
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the image display device 100 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The difference between the configuration shown in FIG. 4 and the configuration shown in FIG. 1 is that an external printing device 401 is newly added to the image display device 100 in FIG. Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

  In FIG. 4, an external printing apparatus 401 is a printing apparatus connected to the image display apparatus 100 with respect to the communication unit 104 in advance other than the printing apparatus 101 that the user has approached. There may be one external printing apparatus 401 or a plurality of external printing apparatuses 401.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a print permission / inhibition determination process according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The overall process is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG.

  In step S <b> 501, the printability determination unit 107 determines whether device information acquisition processing has been performed for all external printing apparatuses 401. If all the external printing apparatuses 401 have been processed, the process proceeds to step S302, and if any unprocessed external printing apparatus 401 remains, the process proceeds to step S502.

  In step S <b> 502, the print propriety determination unit 105 acquires device information of the external printing apparatus 401 by the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 106.

  In step S <b> 503, if the printability determination result of the target content on the printing apparatus 101 that the user has approached is not printable, the printability determination unit 105 determines whether there is an external printing apparatus 401 that has not yet been determined to be printable. judge. If the result of determining whether the target content can be printed is not printable and there is an undetermined external printing apparatus 401, the process proceeds to step S504. In other cases, it is determined that the printability determination result is not printable, and the process proceeds to step S306.

  In step S504, the print propriety determination unit 105 determines whether or not printing is possible in the same manner as in step S305. At this time, not the printing apparatus 101 but the external printing apparatus 401 is set as a comparison target.

  In addition, in the printability determination in step S305 and step S504, when not only the printability is determined, but also the printability of the target printing apparatus is determined, if the determination result is unprintable or unsuitable in step S503, step S504 is performed. Transition to. Since other steps are the same as the processing shown in FIG. 3 in the first embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

<Third Embodiment>
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of main parts of an image display device 200 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The difference between the configuration shown in FIG. 6 and the configuration shown in FIG. 1 is that, in FIG. 6, a position detection unit 601 and a range setting unit 602 are newly added to the image display device 100 of FIG. Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

  In FIG. 6, when the approaching contact detection unit 102 detects the printing apparatus 101, the position detection unit 601 acquires coordinate information that specifies which position on the display device 111 the printing apparatus 101 has approached or contacted. The position detection unit 601 is a configuration serving as an application example of the detection unit of the present invention.

The range setting unit 602 sets a processing range on the display device 111 based on the coordinate information. The processing range can be set to an arbitrary shape such as a circle or polygon defined in advance with the coordinate information as the center. In addition, the size of the area to be the processing range may be designated in advance, or may be calculated using the distance between the printing apparatus 101 and the display apparatus 111 acquired by the approaching contact detection unit 102. The set processing range is sent to the data transmission control unit 103, and is used to limit the target when creating a target content list for determining whether printing is possible. The range setting unit 602 is a configuration serving as an application example of the setting unit of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the entire processing of the image display apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment.
In step S <b> 701, the position detection unit 601 acquires coordinate information of a position where the printing apparatus 101 has approached or contacted the display apparatus 111 and sends the coordinate information to the range setting unit 602. Step S702 has the same name as step S203 in FIG. The processing content of step S702 will be described later. Other processing steps are the same as those in FIG. 3 of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing details of the print feasibility determination process in step S702 of FIG. In step S801, the printability determination unit 105 calculates whether the display position of the target content is outside the processing range using coordinate information. For example, it is assumed that the processing range is set as a circle having a radius r. At this time, if the distance between the position coordinate at which the printing apparatus 101 approaches or touches and the display position coordinate of the target content is larger than the radius r, it is outside the set processing range. On the other hand, if the distance of the display position coordinates of the target content is less than or equal to the radius r, it is within the set processing range.

  In step S802, the printability determination unit 105 deletes the content information determined to be out of the processing range from the content list, and returns to step S303. On the other hand, for content determined to be within the processing range, the process proceeds from the type information acquisition process in step S304. Since the other processing steps are the same as those in FIG. 3 of the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

100, 200 Image display device, 101 Printing device, 102 Approaching contact detection unit, 103
Data transmission control unit, 104 communication unit, 106 printing device information acquisition unit, 107 print availability determination unit, 108 content type acquisition unit, 109 display switching unit, 110 display control unit, 111 display device, 401 external printing device, 601 position detection Part, 602 Range setting part

Claims (1)

Detecting means for detecting the approach or contact of the printing apparatus with respect to the information processing apparatus having the display device in a state where a plurality of content data is displayed on the display device ;
First acquisition means for automatically acquiring information relating to printing attributes of the printing apparatus in response to the approach or contact being detected by the detection means;
Second acquisition means for acquiring attribute information relating to content data displayed on the display device;
Attribute information acquired by the second acquisition unit related to the specified content data, specifying content data to be determined from the plurality of content data displayed on the display device, and the first based on the information relating to the printing attributes of the acquired by the acquisition means and said printing apparatus, and wherein a determination means for determining whether said subject to content data determined printing in the printing device Information processing apparatus.

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