JP6051973B2 - Image forming apparatus, image forming system, image forming method, and image forming program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, an image forming method, and an image forming program for forming an advertisement image on a printed matter output by a printing or copying service.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a system that allows a user to print and copy using a storefront image forming apparatus to create a printed matter has become widespread. In such a system, when a user performs printing or copying, the advertising image of the advertiser is printed on the paper in addition to the image that the user wants to print, and the printing fee is reduced by an amount equivalent to the advertising fee. There is. In such a system, various proposals have been made so that the user can better recognize the advertisement without reducing the appearance of the image that the user intends to print.
Patent Document 1 discloses an image forming system that reads an advertisement image from an advertisement management server via a network and synthesizes and outputs the advertisement image to a detected blank area in order to efficiently distribute the advertisement image in the print result. Have been described. In this image forming system, a search key is extracted from character information of print contents, and an advertisement is selected based on the search key.

Further, Patent Document 2 describes an image forming system that provides an advertisement satisfying an advertiser's needs quickly and efficiently using a remote management system of a copying machine. In this image forming system, an advertising image is added to the edge of the paper based on information such as the location of the printing apparatus, and the advertising fee is charged to the advertiser.
Patent Document 3 describes an image forming system that reads an advertisement image from an advertisement management server via a network, and synthesizes and outputs the advertisement image in a detected blank area. In this image forming system, various types of advertising images and various sizes of advertising images are stored in advance, and advertising images that match the detected margin area are selected evenly using pseudo-random numbers or past printing counts. The selected advertisement image is combined with the document image and output.

However, the conventional image forming system does not consider that the user can visually recognize the printed advertisement image even during the image forming operation, and the timing during the image forming operation is efficiently utilized for advertisement distribution. There is a problem that it is not done.
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to more efficiently deliver an advertisement when a user can visually recognize an advertisement image during an image forming operation.

  The present invention for solving the above problems is an image forming apparatus including an image forming processing unit that forms an image on a recording medium based on input data including print data set by a user and advertisement data set by an advertiser. And a user detecting means for detecting whether or not the user is present in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus, and a print for determining a printing method for forming an advertisement image based on the advertisement data on the recording medium. System determining means, wherein the printing method determining means changes the printing method of the advertisement image according to the presence or absence of the user detected by the user detecting means.

  According to the present invention, when the user can visually recognize the advertisement image during the image forming operation, the advertisement image can be formed in a specific manner, so that the advertisement image that can be easily recognized by the user can be presented, and the advertisement can be distributed. Can be implemented more effectively.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the advertisement server of the image forming system. It is a figure which shows the structure of the advertisement database of the image forming system. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an MFP of the image forming system. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an image forming unit of the MFP. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the MFP. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a printing method determination unit of the MFP. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an advertisement image printed by the MFP. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an advertisement image printed by the MFP. FIG.

  An image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and an image forming program according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. An image forming system according to the present invention includes an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium based on input data including print data set by a user (user) and advertisement data set by an advertiser. The advertisement data is stored in an advertisement information database, and the image forming apparatus and the advertisement database are connected via a network. An image forming apparatus includes a user detection unit that detects whether or not a user is present in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus, and a printing method when an advertisement image based on advertisement data among input data is formed on the recording medium And a printing method determining means for determining. The printing method determination unit changes the printing method of the advertisement image according to the presence or absence of the user detected by the user detection unit. Thereby, the advertisement printing method is appropriately changed according to the print mode and the information on whether the user is in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus, and the advertisement is distributed more effectively.

Hereinafter, an image forming system according to an embodiment will be described. First, a schematic configuration of the image forming system will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming system 100 according to the embodiment includes an advertisement server 200 connected to a network 110 such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or a public line network. The image forming system 100 also includes a multifunction peripheral device (MFP) 300 that is connected to the network 110 and can be operated by a user.
The MFP 300 is disposed in a store such as a convenience store, and is used for a copy service and a print service. The MFP 300 is operated by the user U to perform a copying process and a printing process based on the print data prepared by the user. The advertisement server 200 includes an advertisement database to be described later. In the image forming system 100, when the MFP 300 performs the printing process, the advertisement image is printed on the recording medium based on the advertisement data from the advertisement server 200 in addition to the print image based on the print data of the user U, and the printed material D Output as. At this time, the moving image or still image of the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 304 (FIG. 4) of the MFP 300. As a result, the user U receives a discount for the advertising fee from the usage fee for the printing service.

An advertisement registration terminal 120, a billing server 130, and an authentication server 140 are connected to the network 110. The advertisement registration terminal 120 is used by an advertiser to register advertisement contents in the advertisement server 200. The billing server 130 stores billing reduction information for advertisement printing. The authentication server 140 stores user information. The user information is information for specifying the user U of the MFP 300, and stores an account / password pair and a user ID. The authentication server 140 authenticates the individual user based on such information. In the image forming system 100, the advertisement server 200, the MFP 300, the advertisement registration terminal 120, the billing server 130, and the authentication server 140 use the image forming program according to the present invention. To implement the image forming method and implement the image forming system 100.

Next, the advertisement server 200 will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the advertisement server of the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The advertisement server 200 includes a control unit 201, a main storage unit 202, a display advertisement information database 203, a print advertisement information database 204, a communication control unit 205, an operation unit 206, and a display unit 207.
The control unit 201 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and executes a program. The main storage unit 202 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory), and is used as another work memory for storing a program. The display advertisement information database 203 is composed of a hard disc drive, and accumulates and manages advertisement data displayed as a moving image or a still image on the display unit 304 (FIG. 4) of the MFP 300.

The print advertisement information database 204 is configured by a hard disc drive, and stores and manages advertisement image data to be printed on the printed matter D output from the MFP 300. The display advertisement information database 203 and the print advertisement information database 204 constitute an advertisement database 210.
The communication control unit 205 controls communication with the MFP 300, the advertisement registration terminal 120, the billing server 130, and the authentication server 140 via the network 110 such as a public network or LAN. The operation unit 206 includes a keyboard, a touch panel, a mouse, and the like. The display unit 207 includes a liquid crystal monitor or the like.

Next, advertisement data stored in the advertisement database 210 will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an advertisement database of the image forming system. In the advertisement database 210, advertisement information 220 and 230, display advertisement data 221 and 231, and print advertisement image data 222 and 232 are associated and registered in advance through the advertisement registration terminal 120. In the advertisement information 220 and 230, information such as an identifier (ID) indicating the advertisement, an advertiser name, the last posting date and time, the number of times of insertion, a publication priority, a discount amount, and a publication region are registered.
Here, the display advertisement data 221 and 231 is displayed on the display unit 304 (see FIG. 4) of the MFP 300, and it does not matter whether it is a moving image or a still image. The print advertisement image data 222 is a still image printed on a recording medium by the MFP 300, and may have the same content as the display advertisement data or different content. For example, a coupon or a map may be used.

Next, the MFP 300 will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multifunction peripheral device of the image forming system. The MFP 300 includes a control unit 301, a main storage unit 302, an image processing unit 303, a display unit 304, a communication control unit 305, a reading unit 306, and an image formation processing unit 307 including a printing method determining unit, A user detection unit 308 serving as a user detection unit and an input unit 309 are provided.
The control unit 301 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and executes a program. The main memory 302 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory), and is used as another work memory for storing programs.
The image processing unit 303 creates print data for printing on a recording medium based on the print data and the advertisement data. The display unit 304 includes a liquid crystal monitor and displays an advertisement image composed of moving images and still images from the print information and the display advertisement information database 203. The communication control unit 305 controls communication with the advertisement server 200 connected via the network 110 such as a public line network or a LAN. A reading unit 306 reads an original image with the MFP 300, and includes a charge-coupled device (CCD), a contact image sensor (CIS), and the like, and converts the original image into an electrical signal.

When forming the print image and the advertisement image on the recording medium, the image formation processing unit 307 determines the format in which the advertisement image is printed, and executes the printing. User detection unit 308 detects whether user U is in the vicinity of MFP 300. Here, the vicinity of the MFP 300 is a range where the user can visually recognize the recording medium discharged from the MFP 300 to the discharge tray. The user detection unit 308 includes a proximity sensor, an infrared sensor, and the like. Note that the MFP 300 can include a charging device. The fee is received from the user U by the charging device. Fees are paid using cash, prepaid cards, key counters, credit cards, etc.
The input unit 309 is used to input a print instruction and print data to the MFP 300. The input unit 309 includes an input numeric keypad and a touch panel. The input unit 309 includes a memory card slot 309a for inputting data from a memory card storing print data, a mobile terminal connection unit 309b for receiving print instructions and print data from mobile terminals such as mobile phones, tablet terminals, and computers. Is connected. The portable terminal connection unit 309b is connected to the portable terminal via infrared rays or radio waves. Note that an application for sending and receiving commands and print data is installed in the mobile terminal.

Next, the image formation processing unit 307 of the MFP 300 that sets the print format on the recording medium will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an image forming processing unit of a multifunction peripheral device used in the image forming system according to the embodiment. The image formation processing unit 307 includes a print command processing unit 310, a print data acquisition unit 320, a print data analysis unit 330, an advertisement determination unit 340, an image formation unit 350, a print result determination unit 360, and an advertisement count unit. 370.
The print command processing unit 310 receives a print command and print data from the user U. The print data acquisition unit 320 receives a print command from the print command processing unit 310 in the image formation processing unit 307. Here, the print command and the print data are input to the print command processing means 310 by the following two methods. First, when operating the MFP 300 directly, a print command is input from the input key of the input unit 309. Then, a data card is connected to the memory card slot 309a, and print data is input. On the other hand, when the MFP 300 and the mobile terminal are connected via the mobile terminal connection unit 309b, the print data is transferred from the mobile terminal and a print command is issued using the application of the mobile terminal. Along with this print command, the user selects whether or not to print the advertisement image.
The print command processing unit 310 passes, to the print data acquisition unit 320, any one of print file information, command unit information, and user information that issued the print command in addition to the print contents. The print file information is, for example, a file type or meta information. The information on the command means is, for example, ID information of a copying machine in the case of copying, information such as density, color, and aggregation. Further, the user information that has issued the print command is, for example, ID information or a field desired by the user.

The print data acquisition unit 320 outputs the information received from the print command processing unit 310 to the print data analysis unit 330. The print data analysis unit 330 performs an analysis for printing an advertisement on the second surface of the paper from the received information.
The print data analysis unit 330 includes a keyword / image analysis unit 331, a file information extraction unit 332, a command device information extraction unit 333, and a user information extraction unit 334. The keyword / image analysis unit 331 extracts a keyword group from the character string included in the received print data. The file information extraction unit 332 extracts file information. The command device information extraction unit 333 extracts information on a device that has issued a print command. For example, the type of mobile terminal, carrier, etc. are extracted. Further, the user information extraction unit 334 extracts information about the user. For example, information such as a field in which a gender or an advertisement selected by the user himself / herself is desired or a field not desired is extracted from the user ID information.

The advertisement determination unit 340 includes an advertisement selection unit 341, an advertisement information storage unit 342, and an advertisement information update unit 343. Note that these may be arranged in the MFP 300 or distributed among the devices connected to the network. Further, when the image forming system is configured by operating the MFP 300 alone, it can be manually updated by the user himself / herself or a service person via an advertising memory device without being connected to the network.
In the advertisement determination unit 340, the advertisement selection unit 341 selects an optimal advertisement to be formed on a recording medium from a plurality of information extracted by the print data analysis unit 330 such as a keyword, a field, user information, and a device installation location. . That is, the advertisement selection unit 341 reads out the printing advertisement image data that is optimal for forming on the recording medium from the printing advertisement information database 204. A plurality of advertisements may be selected at this time. In addition, when the user selects aggregate printing or the like, the user can also select to aggregate advertisement printing. The selected advertisement is stored in the advertisement information storage unit 342.

The image forming unit 350 includes an electrophotographic color image forming unit that can perform printing on both sides of a recording medium. Further, the image forming unit 350 includes a printing method determining unit 351. In the image forming unit 350, the printing method determining unit 351 determines the printing method so that the advertisement data from the advertisement determining unit 340 and the print data set by the user are printed on different surfaces. That is, one recording medium based on the print data, a print image based on the print data on the first surface, and an advertisement image based on the advertisement data on the second surface are printed. For this reason, an advertising image can be printed without destroying the layout of the printed image on the first surface.
For this reason, the user can obtain the printed matter on which the target print image is printed without being bothered by the advertisement image. Further, since the advertisement image is not printed with an unintended size and layout, the advertisement effect expected by the advertiser can be obtained. Then, when discharging from the MFP 300, the printed matter is discharged in a state in which the user U can view the advertisement image with the second side facing upward. For this reason, the printing method determination unit 351 determines an appropriate advertising image printing method according to the printing mode such as the sorting mode or the non-sorting mode.

Next, the operation of the image forming system 100 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the multifunction peripheral device in the image forming system according to the embodiment. When the user U generates a print command, first, the presence / absence of advertisement printing is determined (step ST1). This determination is based on user designation. If there is no desire for advertisement printing (NO in step ST1), printing based on the print data is performed without performing processing for advertisement printing (step ST9). That is, the image forming unit 350 prints only the print image on the first surface and does not print the advertisement image.
When advertisement printing is selected (YES in step ST1), output information from the user U is acquired by the print data acquisition unit 320 (step ST2). The output information here is data including at least one of character data and image data of print contents, and information such as file type and meta information to be printed, device information of command means, and user information. .
The information acquired by the print data acquisition unit 320 is analyzed by the print data analysis unit 330 (step ST3). The print data analysis unit 330 performs analysis for printing the advertisement on the second side of the paper from the received information. Analysis can be done by extracting a keyword group from the character string in the printed content, extracting a high-frequency one from the extracted keyword group, extracting a related word from the extracted keyword group, This is done by selecting a field. Further, the print data analysis unit 330 analyzes information such as the gender of the user, the field in which the user himself / herself wants the advertisement and the field in which he / she does not want the advertisement, from the user ID information. Further, the print data analyzing unit 330 analyzes information such as the installation location of the device and an assumed user from the device ID information.

Next, advertisement information is acquired based on a plurality of data analyzed by the print data analysis means 330 (step ST4). Further, the printing method is determined by the printing method determination means 351 (ST5), and the advertisement is printed and output on the second surface of the recording medium by the image forming means 350 based on the determined printing method (step ST6).
When printing is determined after printing (step ST7) and it is determined that the printing operation has been normally performed (YES in step ST7), the printed advertisement is counted (step ST8). If it is determined that the printing operation has not been performed normally (NO in step ST8), the advertisement is not counted.

  Next, the operation of the printing method determination unit 351 will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the printing method determining means of the multifunction peripheral device. The printing method determination unit 351 analyzes the printing form (step ST11), and determines an advertisement to be printed based on this analysis (step ST12). Then, the printing destination page is determined (step ST13), and the print layout of the advertisement is determined (step ST14). The advertisement having the content determined by this processing is printed on the designated page with the designated layout.

A specific example of the advertisement image printing method will be described below. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an advertisement image printed by the multifunction peripheral device, and FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing an advertisement image printed by the multifunction peripheral device. When the user detection unit 308 detects that the user is in the vicinity of the MFP 300, the printing method determination unit 351 restricts the number of characters of the advertisement when the number of characters of the advertisement that fits on one page exceeds the specified value. To do. Also, even an advertisement that fits on one page is divided into multiple pages and printed.
For example, as shown in FIG. 8, even when four types of advertisements 410, 420, 430, and 440 can be printed on one recording medium 400, the user detection unit 308 detects that the MFP 300 is in the vicinity. If so, one type of advertisement is printed on each page. At this time, each advertisement is divided so as to be printed on separate pages, and the advertisement image is enlarged (edited). That is, as shown in FIG. 9, one advertisement 510 is enlarged and laid out on one recording medium 500. It is assumed that the user U is in the vicinity of the MFP 300 waiting for the end of printing, so that the user U waiting for the end of printing can understand the contents of the advertisement image at a glance. Because.

Moreover, when printing the advertisement selected by the advertisement determining means, it is desirable that the printed material D is output in a direction in which the advertisement image can be read by the user U. For this reason, the printing method determination unit 351 rotates and prints the advertisement image in a predetermined direction. This is to make it easier to read advertisements on paper ejected while the user U is waiting for printing.
Furthermore, the MFP 300 includes a speed changing unit, and the discharge speed of the printed matter D can be changed based on the number of characters and the character size of the advertisement image. The change of the discharge speed is performed so that the advertisement of the discharged paper can be read by the user.
Further, the printing method determining means 351 calculates and prints the number of printed advertisements repeatedly from the number of characters of the advertisement image to be printed on one recording medium, the character size, and the discharge speed. This is to prevent the advertisement effect from being reduced because the next advertisement image is presented before the user U understands the advertisement when the MFP 300 outputs the advertisement image with a large number of characters at high speed. When the discharge speed is fast, instead of changing the advertisement image for each sheet, the user U can understand the contents of the advertisement by printing the same content advertisement repeatedly on multiple pages. , Can increase the advertising effect.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Image formation system, 110 ... Network, 200 ... Advertising server, 210 ... Advertisement database, 220, 230 ... Advertisement information, 300 ... MFP, 307 ... Image formation process part, 308 ... User detection part, 309 ... Input part, 310 ... Print command processing means, 320 ... Print data acquisition means, 330 ... Print data analysis means, 340 ... Advertisement determination means, 350 ... Image formation means, 351 ... Print method determination means

Japanese Patent No. 4783802 Japanese Patent No. 3851079 Japanese Patent No. 3470444 JP 2002-108578 A

Claims (10)

An image forming apparatus including an image forming processing unit that forms an image based on input data including print data set by a user and advertisement data set by an advertiser on a recording medium,
User detecting means for detecting whether or not the user exists in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus;
A printing method determining means for determining a printing method for forming an advertisement image based on the advertisement data on the recording medium,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the printing method determination unit changes a printing method of the advertisement image according to the presence or absence of the user detected by the user detection unit.   The image forming processing unit forms a print image based on the print data on a first surface of the recording medium, and forms the advertisement image on a second surface of the recording medium. Image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an advertisement selection unit that selects advertisement data of the advertisement image to be formed on the recording medium from a plurality of the advertisement data.   The printing method deciding means detects a plurality of advertisement images to be printed when the user detecting means detects the user and the number of characters of the advertisement image formed on one sheet of the recording medium exceeds a prescribed value. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement image is divided and formed on each page in an enlarged manner. 5.   5. The print method determination unit according to claim 1, wherein when the user detection unit detects the user, the printing method determination unit changes a layout of characters printed on the advertisement image. 6. The image forming apparatus described.   When the user detection unit detects the user, the user detection unit includes a speed change unit that changes a discharge speed of the recording medium in the image forming apparatus based on the number of characters and the character size of the advertisement image. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1. The printing method determining means, when the user detecting means detects the user,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an advertisement having the same content is repeatedly formed on the number of recording media calculated based on the number of characters and the character size of the advertisement image. . An advertisement information database storing the advertisement data;
An image forming system comprising: the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an advertisement image based on the advertisement data read from the advertisement information database is formed on the recording medium. . An image forming method for forming an image based on input data including print data set by a user and advertisement data set by an advertiser on a recording medium using an image forming apparatus,
A user detection step of detecting whether or not the user exists in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus;
A printing method changing step for changing a printing method for forming an advertisement image based on the advertisement data on the recording medium in accordance with the presence or absence of the user detected by the user detection step. Image forming method. An image forming program for forming an image based on input data including print data set by a user and advertisement data set by an advertiser on a recording medium with an image forming apparatus,
A user detection step of detecting whether or not the user exists in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus;
Causing the processor to execute a printing method change step for changing a printing method for forming an advertisement image based on the advertisement data on the recording medium according to the presence or absence of the user detected by the user detection step. A characteristic image forming program.

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