JP6051609B2 - Information processing apparatus, electronic device, information processing system, program, method, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology for accessing an information processing device using a sound signal, and more specifically, the present invention relates to an information processing device, an electronic device, and an information processing device that acquire access authentication and information on an external device using a sound signal. The present invention relates to a system, a program, a method, and a recording medium.

  In recent years, the frequency of information access by users has increased, and in addition to conventional desktop personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) and notebook PCs, highly portable information such as tablet PCs and so-called smart phones. Processing equipment is widespread. Hereinafter, a highly portable information processing apparatus is simply referred to as a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal has excellent portability and can be carried by the user at all times. Therefore, depending on the information access environment of the user, the user desires to print image data, a web page, etc. on an image forming apparatus that is not normally used. Needs have arisen.

  Various forms of printing from a mobile terminal can be assumed, but due to its high portability, it is considered that a user must print to a printer that is not normally used in many usage scenes. In such cases, for example, when it is necessary to print when going to other offices in the company, or in companies that introduce a seat-free work environment, seats are not decided, so daily work For example, the printer and the image forming apparatus to be used change every day because the positions are different. Further, it may be assumed that the user must use a printer installed in a convenience store or a public place while going out.

  So far, a protocol for searching for an arbitrary image forming apparatus from a mobile terminal has been proposed, and Bonjour (registered trademark) or the like is already known as a typical protocol. Access to an image forming apparatus using a conventional protocol such as Bonjour makes it possible to recognize that a plurality of image forming apparatuses are placed and can be used in the case of printing from a mobile terminal. It was just something. For this reason, the user cannot obtain device information such as the environment, conditions, and performance of the image forming apparatus, such as which of the image forming apparatuses can be used for printing and processing in a desired environment. There was a problem.

  For this reason, there is no authority to use the image forming apparatus after the user has connected to the image forming apparatus to start processing, and the desired printing function has failed, and execution of the process intended by the user has failed. Inconvenience will occur. That is, if the image forming apparatus used every day is fixed, the mistake is only the first, but printing tends to fail every time the image forming apparatus to be used changes. In such a case, the user must search for the next image forming apparatus and repeat access to the image forming apparatus in a trial-and-error manner, and using the image forming apparatus itself is troublesome. There was also the problem of making them recognize.

  More specifically, when the use of the image forming apparatus from the mobile terminal is restricted, if the user is not registered in the address book with the image forming apparatus for which access restriction is set, the user can form an image from the mobile terminal. You cannot print because you cannot access the device at all. In addition, when the user desires to perform color printing, if the image forming apparatus that can be accessed does not have a color printing function or has a color printing function, the setting is set to force monochrome printing by setting. Therefore, there are cases where color printing is not possible.

  Also, when searching for an image forming apparatus from a mobile terminal, if the image forming apparatus returns a plurality of responses, the user cannot understand the correspondence between the returned identification value and the image forming apparatus as hardware. Since it is normal, after all, it may not be easy to specify a device for executing intended printing. Furthermore, there is a problem in that an image forming apparatus connected to a different network across network devices to which a mobile terminal is connected cannot be searched using a protocol limited within a conventional LAN.

  There has been known a technique in which a user notifies the availability of a specific function of a specific image forming apparatus. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-123058 (Patent Document 1), printing from a specific printer is known. And a technology that allows a user to know in advance before printing whether or not the use of a specific printing function is permitted. Patent Document 1 enables a user to acquire information on an image forming apparatus from the image forming apparatus.

  However, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 instructs printing in the case where it is required to manually input an IP address of the image forming apparatus in advance, or when a large number of image forming apparatuses are found in a search. It is not easy for the user to specify the device, such as the user having to select the image forming apparatus. Furthermore, the technique described in Patent Document 1 does not solve the problem that the mobile terminal cannot designate an image forming apparatus connected over another network via a network device such as a specific router.

  Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-079639 (Patent Document 2) describes that a mobile terminal and an image forming apparatus are connected by short-range communication. Although Patent Document 2 can enable limited communication to a certain extent, a means for knowing in advance the IP address of a portable terminal, such as an IC card, and the IP address and physical address of an image forming apparatus to be targeted is provided in advance. There is also a problem that it is necessary to carry unnecessary members and means.

  As described above, when printing is performed from the mobile terminal to the image forming apparatus, a problem different from a desktop type or notebook type PC may occur only with a conventional access protocol. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and the present invention provides a novel access protocol between a mobile terminal and an image forming apparatus, thereby enabling a smart phone or a tablet PC. It is an object to improve the usability of the image forming apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention employs an access protocol that uses acoustic communication between an information processing apparatus such as a mobile terminal and an electronic device such as an image forming apparatus. When the mobile terminal accesses the image forming apparatus, the mobile terminal sends a sound signal to the image forming apparatus arbitrarily selected as the target to confirm the connection. After the connection confirmation is successfully performed, the mobile terminal acquires device information including various settings of the image forming apparatus, access authority, network address, and the like from the image forming apparatus as a sound signal. At this time, since the device information includes information for notifying the availability of the image forming apparatus by the mobile terminal and network information, the user of the mobile terminal can easily use the image forming apparatus when executing printing. Therefore, it is easy to select and certify usable image forming apparatuses. Furthermore, according to the present invention, the device information of the image forming apparatus acquired by the mobile terminal is registered as a device information list so that the user can browse the information as necessary. Is solved.

  In the present invention, an access protocol based on a sound signal is adopted, so that the output of the sound signal can be controlled to reach the device at hand. As a result, IEEE802.11x, Bluetooth (registered trademark), iRDa can be controlled. Compared with near field communication such as the above, communication between the mobile terminal and the image forming apparatus is made possible within a more limited range. For this reason, the user can acquire the attribute information of the image forming apparatus selected as the target. Further, according to the present invention, when a plurality of mobile terminals are accessing the image forming apparatus, it is possible to prevent the QOS of acoustic communication from being lowered due to acoustic interference.

  Further, in the present invention, when the mobile terminal has an audio function, it is possible to realize a proximity access protocol by using the audio function of the image forming apparatus only by supplying an application from the outside. Since printing via the Internet is possible without providing a large processing capacity, it is possible to provide a mobile terminal with more flexible access to the image forming apparatus.

1 is a diagram showing a hardware block 100 of an image forming apparatus that is an embodiment of an information processing apparatus that constitutes an information processing system of the present embodiment. The figure which shows the hardware block 200 of the mobile terminal which is another information processing apparatus which comprises the information processing system of this embodiment. 2 is a diagram showing a software block of the information processing system 300 and the image forming apparatus 310 according to the present embodiment. FIG. The figure which shows the software block of the mobile terminal 410 mounted as a smart phone or a tablet type PC used for the information processing system 400 of this embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a sound signal 500 transmitted and received between a mobile terminal and an image forming apparatus in the present embodiment. 6 is a diagram showing an embodiment of data 600 transferred in a voice transaction transmitted and received by a connection request and response established between a mobile terminal and an image forming apparatus in the present embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an embodiment of information 700 managed by the mobile terminal 410 and the image forming apparatus 401 that can be used in the present embodiment. FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a sequence when a mobile terminal 410 such as a smart phone 301 and a tablet PC 302 sends a connection request to the image forming apparatus 401 using the functional blocks illustrated in FIG. 4. The figure explaining the sequence in case the image forming apparatus 310 processes the connection request signal produced | generated in FIG. 8 using the functional block of FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a processing sequence executed by the mobile terminal 410 that has received a response signal from the image forming apparatus 401 after the processing in FIG. 9 according to the functional blocks in FIG. 4. The figure which showed embodiment of the apparatus information list 1100 of this embodiment. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 1200 when a response signal is received from the image forming apparatus 1120 in FIG. 11 and the mobile terminal 1110 displays a user I / F. The figure which shows embodiment of the information processing system 1300 of this embodiment.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. FIG. 1 shows a hardware block 100 of an image forming apparatus which is an embodiment of an electronic apparatus constituting the information processing system of the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus includes a hardware function unit 101 that enables image formation such as an operation panel 102, a sound module 103, and a print engine 104, and a control unit 110 that controls operations of various hardware function units. It consists of The operation panel 102 is configured as a touch panel including an LCD panel, and receives a manual input for causing the image forming apparatus to function from a user and operates the image forming apparatus.

  The sound module 103 can be configured to include a microphone, a speaker, an amplifier, and the like, and enables sound input / output used by the image forming apparatus. Further, the print engine 104 provides a function of forming an image by an electrophotographic method or an ink jet method, and makes a hard copy of data acquired by a function of a printer, a copy, a facsimile, an image reader, or the like.

  The control unit 110 controls the operation of each hardware function unit described above, and includes a CPU 116, a RAM 117, and a ROM 111. The CPU 116 executes this program by executing a program stored in the ROM 111 or the HDD 115. Each of the functional means is implemented on the image forming apparatus. Further, the control unit 110 includes a network interface card (NIC) 112, a panel I / F 113, and an NVRAM 118. The NIC 112 connects the image forming apparatus to the network 105 via Ethernet (registered trademark) or the like, and enables data transfer, file access, HTTP communication, and the like by the image forming apparatus.

  The panel I / F 113 receives a user input from the operation panel 102 and causes the control unit 110 to start an operation corresponding to the user input. The NVRAM 118 also provides a storage area for storing data that requires faster access than the HDD 115, data that can be easily deleted from the outside, such as a USB memory, and the like. In addition to this, the control unit 110 includes a font ROM 114 and an engine I / F 119 to ensure character quality when performing hard copy, and can also instruct the print engine 104. The functional units described above are interconnected by an internal bus 120 and can communicate with each other.

  FIG. 2 shows a hardware block 200 of a mobile terminal, which is an embodiment of an information processing apparatus constituting the information processing system of the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the term “mobile terminal” means an information processing apparatus with improved portability, and examples of the mounting format include a smart phone, a tablet PC, and a personal data assistant (PDA). For example, a smart phone or an ipad (registered trademark) that operates on an Android (registered trademark) OS can be used.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile terminal includes a CPU 206, a RAM 207, and a ROM 201 as the hardware block 200. The CPU 206 realizes functional means for providing the function of the mobile terminal in the present embodiment on the mobile terminal by executing a program stored in the ROM 201, the nonvolatile memory 205 such as an SD card, or the like. . In addition, the mobile terminal can be configured to include a NIC 202, a user interface (hereinafter referred to as a user I / F) 203, and a sound module 204.

  The NIC 202 uses a protocol such as IEEE802.11x in the mobile terminal of the present embodiment, and enables data communication by wireless communication that may be referred to as so-called Wi-Fi in recent years. The user I / F 203 provides a function of receiving input from the touch panel of the mobile terminal and issuing various commands to the CPU 206 and graphically displaying the processing result of the CPU 206 to the user. The sound module 204 includes a speaker, a microphone, an amplifier, and the like, and enables telephone communication and other acoustic access. These functional units are interconnected via an internal bus 208 and perform various data communications.

  FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the information processing system 300 according to the present embodiment and software blocks of the image forming apparatus 310. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 310 according to the present exemplary embodiment includes an audio I / F 311, a control unit 312, and a storage unit 313. The audio I / F 311 is configured to include a microphone 311a, a speaker 311b, and a D / A / A / D converter 311c. A sound signal is sent to the mold PC 302. In the preferred embodiment, the distance between the image forming apparatus 310 and the smart phone 301 or the tablet PC can be about 1 m to 2 m.

  The control unit 312 includes a connection / authentication control unit 312a and a print data processing unit 312b. In accordance with the present embodiment, the connection / authentication control unit 312a establishes an access protocol using a sound signal, and enables access authentication from the smart phone 301 or the tablet PC 302 as a mobile terminal to the image forming apparatus 310. The print data processing unit 312b converts image data acquired from the scanner, facsimile data, or print data sent from another information processing apparatus via a network into a format that can be output by the print engine, and sends the print data to the print engine 104. Execute the passing process.

  Further, the storage unit 313 is a functional unit including the functions of the HDD 115 and the NVRAM 118 in the hardware block diagram of FIG. 1. In the present embodiment, the hardware unit 313 exemplarily authenticates the hardware information 313 a and the user access authority. The authentication information 313b is included. The hardware information 313a includes hardware functions that can be provided by the image forming apparatus and its restriction information. The hardware information 313a is provided when the access authority is taken into consideration for the remotely accessed smartphone 301, tablet PC 302, and the like. Information for searching for and notifying possible hardware functions.

  The authentication information 313b is information for registering authority when the user accesses the image forming apparatus. In many cases, the authentication information 313b stores a table of authentication information such as a user ID and a password.

  Further, the image forming apparatus includes a sound control unit 314, a communication control unit 315, an engine control unit 316, and a user I / F control unit 318. The sound control unit 314 includes a sound analysis unit 314a that analyzes a sound signal received by the audio I / F 311. The sound control unit 314 converts the sound signal received from the mobile terminal into a binary signal, such as authentication information about the user of the mobile terminal. Allows extraction. On the contrary, the sound generation unit 314b receives the result of the connection / authentication process executed by the connection / authentication control unit 312a as a binary signal, and generates a drive pulse train for generating a signal sound from the binary signal. The drive pulse train generated at this time is sent to the audio I / F 311 and is output as a sound signal from the speaker 311b after passing through a filter, an amplifier and the like.

  In addition, the sound control unit 314 of the present embodiment monitors the process of the sound generation unit 314b, and the subsequent sound signal comes in while the sound generation unit 314b executes the process of generating the response signal. In this case, until the end of the incoming sound signal is determined, the response signal generated by the sound generation unit 314b is temporarily held, and the QOS is reduced due to interference between the transmitted sound wave and the incoming sound wave. It is preventing. If it is determined that the incoming sound signal has ended, the sound control unit 314 resumes the processing of the sound generation unit 314b and resumes the transaction with the mobile terminals 301 and 302 that sent the connection request.

  The communication control unit 315 controls external communication via a network and supports communication using protocols such as Ethernet (registered trademark) and IEEE802.11x. The engine control unit 316 and the user I / F 318 correspond to the software function unit of the engine I / F 119 and the software function unit of the panel I / F 113 in FIG. 1, receive user commands, and send print data to the print engine 104. To enable execution of printing.

  FIG. 4 shows a software block of the mobile terminal 410 implemented as a smart phone or a tablet PC used in the information processing system 400 of the present embodiment. The mobile terminal 410 receives a sound signal from the image forming apparatus 401 and allows the user to determine whether the image forming apparatus 401 can provide a printing function desired by the user. The mobile terminal 410 includes an audio I / F 411, a control unit 412, and a storage unit 413. The audio I / F 411 has a function of applying the voice function of the mobile terminal 410 to the access protocol of this embodiment, and operates hardware including a microphone 411a, a speaker 411b, a D / A / A / D converter, and the like. It is a software function part for making it happen. The control unit 412 includes a connection / authentication control unit 412a and a print data generation unit 412b.

  The connection / authentication control unit 412a on the mobile terminal 410 side generates a connection request to the image forming apparatus 401, processes an audio response from the image forming apparatus 401, and the target image forming apparatus is the user's It is possible to determine whether or not to provide a function that functions. The print data generation unit 412b has a function of generating data to be printed by the image forming apparatus 401, and provides functions such as various word processor applications and file conversion functions.

  The storage unit 413 stores user information for authenticating the user of the mobile terminal 410, and has a function of receiving a connection request and passing the user information to the connection / authentication control unit 412a. The sound control unit 414 includes a sound analysis unit 414a that analyzes a response sound from the image forming apparatus 401, and a sound generation unit 414b that generates a drive pulse train for generating a signal sound from a binary signal to be sent as a connection request. These functions will be described later in more detail.

  Furthermore, the mobile terminal 410 includes a communication control unit 415 and a user I / F control unit 416, enabling voice calls and data communication, and enabling input / output between the user and the mobile terminal 410. Note that the sound control unit 414 on the mobile terminal 410 side, like the sound control unit 314 of the image forming apparatus 310, generates an incoming signal and a transmission signal so that the incoming sound signal and the outgoing sound signal do not interfere with each other. Transaction control can be performed so as not to overlap in time. Note that the acoustic communication of the present embodiment is preferably performed at a frequency at which directivity can be imparted, and therefore, the acoustic signal from the image forming apparatus 310 is exclusively sent to the mobile terminal 410. Therefore, on the mobile terminal 410 side, the control unit 412 or the sound control unit 414 can control not to start a new transaction until a response to the request is received.

  FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of a sound signal 500 transmitted and received between the mobile terminal and the image forming apparatus in this embodiment. In FIG. 5, it is assumed that the binary signal to be transmitted is “10111011011100111”. The connection request from the mobile terminal starts with a start signal 502 having a time width T1. After the end of the start signal 502, a connection request payload pulse 503 is transmitted at time T3. The payload pulse 503 determines that the signal is significant when a sound wave is detected over a bit length T2 that is a set duration. In the embodiment to be described, the duty ratio of the sound signal 510 is 50%. Hereinafter, the bit length T2 is referred to as a bit length.

  In the present embodiment, the period of the bit length T2 is divided into a plurality of subbit pulses at the time interval of the acoustic frequency of the sound used for communication, and the speaker is driven with the subbit pulses. That is, the sub-bit pulse described above corresponds to the driving pulse of the speaker. In this embodiment, when a waveform corresponding to the number of drive pulses 505 is not detected during the bit length T2, it is determined that no significant sound signal has been detected. In addition, in order to improve the detectability, an appropriate error correction method can be adopted. In addition, a checksum or the like can be added as transmission information, and the quality of communication can be ensured by using a deviation amount from the checksum. In the sound signal 510 of FIG. 5, at the timing when the time width T3 has elapsed, the mobile terminal 410 creates a drive pulse train 520 for driving the speaker from the user information to be transmitted, and the time width T3 has elapsed from the start signal 502. In this case, the driving pulse train 520 is supplied to the speaker to operate the speaker, and the sound signal 510 is generated.

  The sound signal can be generated by driving a speaker for a PCM sound source through an appropriate amplifier or a class D amplifier. Furthermore, the sound signal of the present embodiment can be configured to generate a sound signal having a bit length T2 with a plurality of drive pulse trains. FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the sound signal 510 and the drive pulse train 520, where the frequency (communication frequency) of the sound wave to be used is f and the number of drive pulses 505 included in the bit length T2 is n. = N * (1 / f).

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, four periods of the drive pulse are defined as the unit length of the sound signal. The number n of drive pulses 505 constituting the bit length T2 and the communication frequency are not particularly limited. However, if the bit length T2 is too small with respect to the drive pulse frequency, the robustness to noise tends to be reduced. Since the data communication speed is lowered, it is preferable to set n = 1 to 100. Further, the frequency of the sound signal 510 can be set to 1 kHz or more from the viewpoint of the data transfer rate so that noise and the voices of other people around it do not cause noise, and preferably from 1.5 kHz to It can be about 30 kHz.

  The data transfer rate will be considered below. For example, when the communication frequency is 15 kHz and n = 1, the data transfer rate by the sound signal is 15 kbps. Further, when n = 4 is set in the embodiment of FIG. 5, a transfer rate of 3.75 kbps can be obtained, and a sufficient data transfer rate for securing user information and device information described later is ensured. be able to. The device information means information created so as to indicate a function that can be used by the user, among information related to hardware settings stored in the image forming apparatus.

  In addition, a delimiter signal 504 is arranged at the end of the sound signal 510 in FIG. 5 so that it can be identified that a series of connection requests has been completed. Although the delimiter signal 504 shown in FIG. 5 is described as being “01”, it may be designated as a bit string, or may be used as a delimiter signal 504 by controlling a pulse length or a pulse interval.

  FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of data 600 transferred in a voice transaction transmitted and received by a connection request and response established between the mobile terminal and the image forming apparatus in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, the mobile terminal uses an identification value (user ID) that uniquely designates the user as a connection request (sound signal) in order to determine whether the image forming apparatus is suitable for the user's purpose. It is sent to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus receives the connection request 610 from the mobile terminal and acquires the user ID.

  In another embodiment, a password is acquired in addition to a user ID. The image forming apparatus decodes the received sound signal into a binary signal, searches the storage unit 313 of the image forming apparatus, and extracts a user's access authority to the image forming apparatus specified by the received user ID and password. The image forming apparatus searches the storage unit 313 using the extracted user information, creates response information notifying the access authority and device settings corresponding to the user information, and sends the response signal 620 from the audio I / F 311 to the mobile terminal. Send to etc.

  Hereinafter, a process in which the mobile terminal decodes the response information from the response signal 620 sent from the image forming apparatus 401 will be described with reference to FIG. When the mobile terminal 410 receives the response signal 620, the audio I / F unit 411 performs D / A conversion on the sound signal, and passes the converted digital signal to the sound control unit 414. The sent digital signal is sent to the sound analysis unit 414a. In a preferred embodiment, after processing such as noise removal and signal waveform recovery, 1 / n pulse decoding is applied, and the image forming apparatus 401 sends it. Response information is played back.

  The generated response information is sent to the control unit 412, and the connection / authentication control unit 412a determines the processing permitted by the image forming apparatus 401, and the series of access protocols ends. In order to improve the security of transmitted / received data, the connection request 610 and the response signal 620 may be subjected to FM modulation, or encrypted using key information, and the encrypted information is encoded into sound information. You can also

  In FIG. 6, the hexadecimal number registered in the transmission data line in the response signal 620 is a code for uniquely specifying an available function, print information, and resource saving mode setting. The image forming apparatus 401 stores the information in the storage unit 413 as a format such as 630, 640, or 650.

  FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of information 700 managed by the mobile terminal 410 and the image forming apparatus 401 that can be used in this embodiment. The mobile terminal 410 stores authentication information 710 including a user ID and a password in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 as connection information. On the image forming apparatus 401 side, a user name is managed as an address book 720a and a list in which a user ID and a password are associated with each other. The image forming apparatus 401 manages access information 720a. Hardware information 720b is managed in association with a user name as hardware information 720b. After decoding the connection information, the image forming apparatus 401 uses the acquired user ID and password to extract authority information permitting use for the user ID, and creates response information.

  7 shows the address book 720a and the hardware information 720b as irreducible tables. As shown in FIG. 3, they are managed as separate tables or data as device information 313a and authentication information 313b, respectively. You can also. The address book 720a is not stored in the image forming apparatus 401, but is managed by, for example, an LDAP server remotely connected via a network, and downloaded from the server in response to a request from the image forming apparatus 401. It may be configured.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a sequence when the mobile terminal 410 such as the smart phone 301 and the tablet PC 302 sends a connection request to the image forming apparatus 401 using the functional blocks shown in FIG. The sequence in FIG. 8 starts when the user I / F control unit 416 of the mobile terminal 410 receives a connection command with the image forming apparatus 401 in step S800. Upon receiving the connection command, the user I / F control unit 416 instructs the connection / authentication control unit 412a to acquire the user information held by the mobile terminal 410 from the storage unit 413 in step S801. When the connection / authentication control unit 412a acquires the user information of the mobile terminal 410 from the storage unit 413 in step S801, the connection / authentication control unit 412a passes the user information to the sound control unit 414, and the start signal 502 and delimiter signal 504 corresponding to the connection request from the user information. The generation of the drive pulse train 520 including

  When the generation of the pulse train is completed, the sound control unit 414 notifies the connection / authentication control unit 412a of the completion of the pulse train generation, and instructs the generation of a connection request (sound) signal in step S803.

  Thereafter, the connection / authentication control unit 412a supplies the sound generation unit 414b with a pulse train and instructs the sound control unit 414 to generate the drive pulse train 520. The sound generator 414b encodes the pulse train in step S804 to generate a drive pulse train. When the drive pulse train 520 is generated, the sound generation unit 414b passes the drive pulse train 520 to the speaker 411b of the audio I / F unit 411, generates a connection request signal as an analog sound signal in step S805, and the image forming apparatus 401. Wait for a response from.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a sequence when the image forming apparatus 310 processes the connection request signal generated in FIG. 8 using the functional blocks in FIG. Upon receiving the sound in step S900, the image forming apparatus 310 performs A / D conversion on the received sound, passes the received sound to the sound control unit 314, and starts decoding processing. This decoding process can be performed using the process described in FIG. Thereafter, the sound control unit 314 determines whether or not a connection request is started in step S901. The connection request can be started by determining whether or not the start signal 502 and the payload pulse 503 shown in FIG. 5 are present in the set protocol. If it is determined in step S901 that the sound is noise (No), the process returns to step S900 to wait for the start of a connection request.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S901 that the sound is a connection request (sound) signal (Yes), the received signal is decoded in step S902 to obtain user information. The decoding process at this time can also be executed using the process described with reference to FIG. After decoding, the sound control unit 314 notifies the connection / authentication control unit 312a of the user information, and instructs the storage unit 313 to search in step S903. The storage unit 313 searches the address book and returns the search result to the connection / authentication control unit 312a.

  In step S905, the connection / authentication control unit 312a acquires device information as a search result, creates response information, and instructs the sound control unit 314 to generate a response signal. When the sound control unit 314 obtains response information from the connection / authentication control unit 312a, the sound control unit 314 adds a start signal 502 and a delimiter signal 504, and sends the response signal to the sound control unit 314. When the sound control unit 314b sends the response signal to the sound generation unit 314b in step S906, the sound generation unit 314b encodes the response signal into a drive pulse train. In addition, the sound generation unit 314 additionally sends to the sound generation unit 314b information indicating whether the sound analysis unit 314a is processing the received sound at that time or not.

  In step S908, the sound generation unit 314b determines whether or not the sound signal is currently being received from the sound control unit 314. If the sound is being received (Yes), the sound control unit 314 notifies the reception end. The driving pulse train is held or latched until the information to be received is received. The sound generation unit 314b receives information from the sound control unit 314 that the reception of the acoustic signal is completed, and when the acoustic signal is not being received (No), sends the held drive pulse train to the speaker 311b. In step S909, the speaker 311b is driven according to the drive pulse train 520 to generate a response signal.

  FIG. 10 illustrates a processing sequence executed by the mobile terminal 410 that has received a response signal from the image forming apparatus 401 after the processing in FIG. 9, according to the functional blocks in FIG. 4. When the audio I / F unit 411 of the mobile terminal 410 receives the sound in step S1000, the received sound is A / D converted, and then passed to the sound control unit 414. In step S1001, the response start, the start signal 502, and the payload are transmitted. Judgment is made based on whether or not the pulse 503 has the set protocol. When it is determined in step S1001 that the response is not started (No), the process is returned to the audio I / F unit 411 and the start of the response signal is awaited.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1001 that the response has started (Yes), in step S1002, the response signal is decoded to extract device information. The device information can be included in the response signal in a format separated from the access authority information, and as the device information reflecting the access authority, in addition to the device setting, the function that the user can use for the access authority cannot be used. It is also possible to extract the function as device information and generate response information.

  Thereafter, in step S1003, the connection / authentication control unit 412a decodes the response signal to the connection request, determines the result of the connection request, and registers the device information in the storage unit 413 in association with the device identification value. To command. In step S1004, the storage unit 413 registers device information, passes the device information list to the user I / F control unit 416, and causes the result to be displayed as a list on the user I / F in step S1005.

  With the above transaction sequence, the access protocol between the mobile terminal using the sound signal and the image forming apparatus is completed. The mobile terminal 410 can then issue a connection request to another image forming apparatus in response to the result, or if the result can be printed by the image forming apparatus as a target by the user, ad hoc or Printing data can be sent to the image forming apparatus on a P2P basis and printing can be started. In another embodiment, print data can be sent to the image forming apparatus via another router device such as the Internet or a LAN to execute printing.

  FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of the device information list 1100 generated according to this embodiment. The device information list 1100 registers device information such as a color mode and a printing surface mode in association with a device identification value for uniquely identifying an image forming apparatus. As the device identification value, any information such as a model name, a model name / installation location, an IP address, and a URL can be used as long as the image forming apparatus can be uniquely identified. The function mode designates the operation mode of the image forming apparatus, such as whether the function provided by the device is copying, printer, or facsimile.

  The color mode indicates a color attribute of printing that can be supported by the image forming apparatus, and specifies whether both color / monochrome can be supported or only one of them can be performed. In the printing surface mode, information indicating whether double-sided / single-sided printing is possible is registered. In addition, for example, information for notifying the function of the image forming apparatus such as the aggregate print setting, the staple function, the OCR function, and the like can be included in the device information list 110.

  Note that the device information list 1100 in FIG. 11 is configured to be displayed in the newest order from the newly registered device information, and the image formation currently inquired by the user without scrolling the screen of the mobile terminal 410. The performance of the device 310 can be configured to be intuitively recognized.

  FIG. 12 shows an embodiment 1200 when the mobile terminal 1210 displays the device information list 1100 on the user I / F. In response to the connection request from the mobile terminal 1210, the image forming apparatus 1220 creates response information 1230 and returns it to the mobile terminal 1210 as a response (sound) signal. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the image forming apparatus 1220 displays response information that specifies that the copy / printer function can be used and single-sided / double-sided printing is possible, but the print color mode is only monochrome. The response signal is encoded and returned to the mobile terminal 1210.

  Upon receiving this response signal, the mobile terminal 1210 displays the device information list 1100 shown in FIG. 11 on the user I / F, and displays the latest device information as the top row 1211. The user refers to the user I / F in FIG. 12 and determines whether or not the printing desired by the user can be performed. When the user can perform desired printing, the user can access the user I / F for executing printing by clicking a “print” button 1212.

  In addition, if the user I / F in FIG. 12 cannot set the print setting desired by the user, the user understands that the desired print cannot be performed implicitly, so click the “Cancel” button 1213 at that time. Further, it is possible to make an inquiry about another image forming apparatus.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, it is possible to expand the availability of the image forming apparatus from the mobile terminal without the user performing unnecessary printing.

  FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of an information processing system 1300 according to this embodiment. In the information processing system 1300, a network 1310, image forming apparatuses 1301a to 130c, 1302a, and b that function as external devices connected to the network 1310, a tablet PC 1303 and a smartphone 1304 that are mobile terminals are connected. Sending print data and executing printing by mutual communication. The tablet PC 1303 and the smart phone 1304 can access the network 1310 via a wireless access point 1305 by so-called Wi-Fi and perform various data communications. The smart phone 1304 can also perform data communication using a so-called 900 MHz band.

  In addition, the image forming apparatuses 1301a to 1302, 1302a, b, the tablet PC 1303, and the smart phone 1304 according to the present embodiment can communicate with each other by using an access protocol that uses sound waves with adjacent image forming apparatuses. It is said that. For example, the smartphone 1304 acquires user information and device information using a proximity access protocol using a sound signal with the image forming apparatus 1301b.

  When the user of the smart phone 1304 determines that the desired printing can be executed by the image forming apparatus 1301b, in the first embodiment, print data is transferred to the image forming apparatus 1301b by an ad hoc or P2P method as indicated by an arrow A in FIG. Printing can be executed by sending directly. In another embodiment, as shown by the arrow B, using the network address acquired as the device information, the print data is transferred to the image forming apparatus 1301b beyond the network device such as a router configuring the network 1310. Can be sent to and executed.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a new proximity access protocol using a sound signal in order to execute printing from a mobile terminal to an image forming apparatus. It is possible to perform printing desired by the user by using the target image forming apparatus without using a device, and it is possible to expand the usability of the image forming apparatus such as a smartphone or a tablet PC.

  The above functions of the present invention can be executed by a device described in an object-oriented programming language such as C ++, Java (registered trademark), JavaBeans (registered trademark), Java Applet (registered trademark), JavaScript (registered trademark), Perl, or Ruby. It can be realized by a simple program and can be stored and distributed in a device-readable recording medium such as an i-αppli (registered trademark) transmission medium, CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, or MO that can be distributed via a network.

  Although the present invention has been described with the embodiments so far, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and other embodiments, additions, modifications, deletions, and the like can be changed within a range that can be conceived by those skilled in the art. Any embodiment is included in the scope of the present invention as long as the operations and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Hardware block 101 Hardware function part 102 Operation panel 103 Sound module 104 Print engine 105 Network 110 Control part 111 ROM
112 (Network interface card) NIC
113 Panel I / F section 114 Font ROM
115 HDD
116 CPU
117 RAM
118 NVRAM
120 Internal bus 200 Hardware block 201 ROM
202 NIC
204 Sound module 205 Non-volatile memory 206 CPU
207 RAM
208 Internal Bus 300 Information Processing System 301 Smartphone 310 Image Forming Apparatus 311 Audio I / F Unit 311a Microphone 311b Speaker 311c D / A / A / D Converter 312 Control Unit 312a Connection / Authentication Control Unit 312b Print Data Processing Unit 313 Storage Unit 313a Hardware information 313b Authentication information 314 Sound control unit 314a Sound analysis unit 314b Sound generation unit 315 Communication control unit 316 Engine control unit 318 User I / F control unit 400 Information processing system 401 Image forming apparatus 410 Mobile terminal 411 Audio I / F
411a Microphone 411b Speaker 412 Control unit 412a Connection / authentication control unit 412b Print data generation unit 413 Storage unit 414 Sound control unit 414a Sound analysis unit 414b Sound generation unit 415 Communication control unit 416 User I / F control unit 500 Sound signal 502 Start signal 503 Payload pulse 504 Delimiter signal 505 Drive pulse 510 Sound signal 520 Drive pulse train

JP 2008-123058 A JP 2007-079639 A

Claims (17)

An information processing apparatus connectable to an electronic device that outputs electronic data,
A receiving means for receiving input of user information;
Transmitting means for converting user information received by the receiving means via the first interface by a predefined sound signal that performs direct communication between the devices into a sound signal and transmitting the sound to the electronic device;
Receiving means for receiving a sound signal of information related to a function that can be used by the user related to the user information in the electronic device, transmitted from the electronic device that has transmitted the user information by the transmitting means;
Display control means for displaying a screen for controlling the electronic device on the display unit of the information processing device based on information about the function that can be used by the user received by the receiving means;
The transmission means so that the information about the function available to the user transmitted from the electronic device via the first interface and the user information transmitted via the first interface by the transmission means do not interfere with each other. And an information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising electronic device control means for controlling the electronic device based on an operation by a user on the screen displayed on the display unit. The receiving means receives information related to a function that can be used by a user related to the user information and information related to the position of the electronic equipment from the electronic equipment that has transmitted user information by the transmitting means;
The electronic device control unit controls the electronic device based on information on the position of the electronic device received by the receiving unit based on an operation by a user on the screen displayed on the display unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2. 4. The information according to claim 2, wherein the electronic device control means controls the electronic device via a second predefined interface different from the first predefined interface. 5. Processing equipment. An electronic device that can be connected to an information processing device and outputs electronic data,
Receiving means for receiving the user information included in the connection request signal sent from the information processing apparatus as a sound signal via the first interface based on a predefined sound signal for direct communication between the devices; ,
Search means for searching for information related to a function that can be used by a user related to the user information, transmitted from the information processing apparatus that has transmitted user information, via the first interface;
Based on the information related to the functions that can be used by the information processing device that is sent as a sound signal via the first interface to the information processing device that is the transmission source of the user information as the response signal. Transmitting means for displaying a screen for controlling the electronic device on a display unit of the information processing apparatus;
An electronic device comprising: control means for controlling the connection request signal and the response signal so as not to interfere with each other. The electronic device according to claim 5, further comprising a control unit that controls a function of the electronic device based on an operation by a user on the screen displayed on the display unit. The transmission means transmits information on a function that can be used by a user according to the user information and information on a position of the electronic device to the information processing apparatus,
The said control means controls the said electronic device based on the information regarding the position of the said electronic device by operation by the user on the said screen displayed on the said display part. Electronic equipment.   The electronic device includes means for making a hard copy of print data to be processed, and receives the print data as a sound signal from the information processing apparatus via the first interface or via a second interface. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the electronic device is received and executed to execute a hard copy.   The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein a network address of the electronic device is acoustically transmitted as the device information. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
An information processing system comprising: the electronic device according to claim 5. A method in which an information processing device executes proximity communication via sound, and the information processing device
Reading identification information for identifying a user of the information processing apparatus from storage means;
Acoustically modulating user identification information into a connection request signal to obtain device information of the electronic device,
Acoustically analyzing an incoming sound signal and identifying a response signal to the connection request signal from the sound signal to extract device information;
Acquiring the function of the electronic device available to the user using the extracted device information, and storing the function as a list in a storage unit;
Controlling the connection request signal and the response signal so as not to acoustically interfere with each other;
Displaying the function of the electronic device available to the acquired user via user interface means;
Run
A method of acquiring the device information for printing from the electronic device by proximity communication via the sound signal. The step of acoustically modulating the user identification information into a connection request signal and sending the connection request signal creates binary data from the connection information including the user identification information, and a plurality of bits of the binary data corresponding to an acoustic frequency Encoding as a set of subbits of
The method of claim 11, wherein identifying a response signal to the connection request signal and extracting device information includes extracting the device information by decoding bits of the binary data from the sub-bits. .   The method further includes the step of generating print data to be processed by the electronic device, and the print data is acoustically sent to the electronic device or sent from the wireless communication means to the electronic device via a network. 13. A method according to claim 11 or 12, comprising the step of performing a hard copy.   14. A method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, comprising acoustically obtaining a network address of the electronic device.   An apparatus-executable program for causing an information processing apparatus to function as the functional unit according to any one of claims 1 to 4.   The program according to claim 15, wherein the information processing apparatus is a smartphone or a tablet PC. 17. A device-readable recording medium on which the device-executable program according to claim 15 or 16 is recorded.