JP6230314B2 - Printing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system including a printer and a host device.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, printing systems that require authentication at the time of printing and permit printing only to users registered in advance have been known for the purposes of printer accounting management and billing management. There are various apparatuses as authentication apparatuses depending on the system configuration, such as a print server connected to the printer or inside the printer.

  In such a print system, authentication processing may be performed at a plurality of timings in order to improve usability and ensure security. Some printers have a function of directly connecting an external external storage device (such as a USB memory) and printing image data in the external storage device. In the case of such a printer, user registration information is generally held in the printer. When user authentication is performed, user authentication is performed by comparing the account information input by the user with the user registration information in the printer.

  Further, a system is known in which user registration information is transferred to the host side and user authentication is performed within a printer driver (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 4226929

  However, the conventional example has the following problems. In the case of the print system described in Patent Document 1, since user registration information is transferred to the host side every time a print job is generated, there is a problem that extra communication time is required. In particular, as the number of user registrations increases, the capacity of user registration information also increases, and the communication time increases accordingly.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a print system that can simplify user authentication.

Printing system of the present invention is a printing system including a host device and a printer, the host device comprises a transmitting means for transmitting input by the user, an account corresponding to the user on the printer, said printer is storage means and, determining means or corresponding to the account information account transmitted by said transmitting means is stored by said storing means for storing account information for authentication processing of a user who uses the printer when, if the account sent by the transmission means is determined by said determining means and corresponding to said account information, and printing means for printing an image based on print data transmitted from the host device, the determination by the determining means the results and a notifying means for notifying said host device, said host instrumentation , When already determined within the predetermined time period by the determination means and account input by the user corresponding to the account information, based on the notification by the notification unit, the transmission of the inputted account by the transmitting means omitted to, and transmits the print data to the printer.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that user authentication can be simplified.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an outline of a print system. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a print system. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an entire operation of sending print data by the host 1. It is a flowchart which shows the inquiry process operation implemented by S302. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the authentication process implemented by S407. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of print data control performed in S304. It is a figure which shows an example of an input screen. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the account database. It is a figure which shows an example of authentication performance information.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described specifically and in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Configuration of print system (Fig. 1)>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a printing system including a host computer (hereinafter referred to as “host”) 1 and an inkjet printer (hereinafter referred to as “printer”) 2 as a host apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. is there.

  The host 1 and the printer 2 are connected to each other via a predetermined bidirectional interface 3 (for example, USB, IEEE 1394, TCP / IP, etc.). A typical example of the host 1 is a personal computer (PC).

  The host 1 includes a main board 100 including a CPU 101, a keyboard (KB) 105, a display (DISPLAY) 107 such as an LCD, and an external storage device 109 such as a hard disk (HDD) and a flexible disk (FDD). The main board 100 further includes a RAM 102, a ROM 103, a keyboard controller (KBC) 104, a display controller (DISPC) 106, a disk controller (DKC) 108, and a printer controller (PRTC) 110.

  The CPU 101 comprehensively controls the above components connected to the system bus 111 and executes various programs. A keyboard controller (KBC) 104 controls input from a keyboard 105 and a pointing device (not shown). The keyboard controller 104 is also referred to as an operation unit or an input unit. A display controller (DISPC) 106 controls display on the display 107. The RAM 102 functions as a main memory or work area for the CPU 101. The ROM 103 stores an operating system, a program for executing each function according to this embodiment, a boot program, various applications, a printer control command generation program (hereinafter referred to as “printer driver”), and the like.

  A disk controller (DKC) 108 controls access to an external storage device 109 such as a hard disk or a flexible disk. A printer controller (PRTC) 110 is connected to the printer 2 via the bidirectional interface 3 and controls data and command communication processing with the printer 2.

  The printer 2 includes a controller 121, a printer engine 122, an operation panel 12, and a nonvolatile storage device 133, and is connected to the host 1 via the bidirectional interface 3. The non-volatile storage device 133 includes a hard disk (HDD) 128 or an EEPROM 129. The nonvolatile storage device is sometimes called a nonvolatile memory.

  The controller 121 includes a CPU 124, ROM 125, RAM 126, interface controller (I / FC) 123, disk controller (DKC) 127, panel interface (I / FP) 130, and engine interface (I / FE) 132.

  The CPU 124 executes various programs. The ROM 125 receives print image data and commands from the host 1 and stores programs and various data for controlling the printer engine 122 to realize optimum recording. The RAM 126 is used as a work area for temporarily storing various data and various programs.

  An interface controller (I / FC) 123 is connected to the host 1 via the bidirectional interface 3 and controls communication processing of data and commands with the host 1. A hard disk (HDD) 128 stores a large amount of data such as data from the host 1 and attached information related to the data. The EEPROM 129 stores information unique to the recording device used during the recording operation. A disk controller (DKC) 127 controls access to the nonvolatile storage device 133. A panel interface (I / FP) 130 controls display on the operation panel 12 and input from the operation panel 12. An engine interface (I / FE) 132 controls the printer engine 122 that directly controls hardware to realize optimal printing.

  In this embodiment, a printer engine using an ink jet recording method is used as the printer engine 122. However, a printer engine or an offset printing machine according to an electrophotographic method may be used.

<Block diagram in this embodiment (FIG. 2)>
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the print system according to the embodiment of the present invention. Portions common to FIG. 1 are denoted by the same symbols.

  Here, the printer 2 used in the printing system of the present invention can be printed only by a specific user registered in advance. The user needs to input information to identify the user at the time of printing, and the printer permits printing only to registered users.

  The host 1 has a printer driver 201, and the printer driver 201 has several function units and information storage units. The account information input unit 202 is means for inputting account information for identifying a user.

  The authentication result confirmation unit 203 confirms the authentication result of the input account information using the authentication result 207 of the printer driver 201 according to the processing flow described later. The authentication result update unit 204 updates the authentication result 207 based on the authentication result received from the printer 2. A print data generation unit 205 generates print data to be sent to the printer as a print job. In this print data generation unit 205, in order to print various documents prepared by the user with the printer 2, the print data generation unit 205 converts the image data into a print image data format that can be interpreted by the printer 2, and generates control commands for controlling the printer. To do.

  The communication processing unit 206 has a communication function for sending various data to the printer 2 and acquiring various information from the printer 2.

  On the other hand, the printer 2 has the following configuration. The communication processing unit 208 has a communication function for receiving various data sent from the host 1 and returning information of the printer 2 to the host 1 in response to a request from the host 1. The authentication processing unit 209 confirms whether the account information has been registered by comparing the input account information with the account database 211 of the printer 2. The print control unit 210 governs overall control within the controller 121.

<Overall Flow in Sending Print Data from Host (FIGS. 3, 7, and 8)>
Hereinafter, the processing operation when the host 1 causes the printer 2 to perform printing will be described using the functional blocks shown in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the entire operation in which the host 1 sends print data in the first embodiment. A program corresponding to the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 described later is stored in the ROM 103, and the processing shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is realized by the CPU 101 executing the program on the RAM 102. The

  First, in response to a print request from a user, the printer driver 201 uses the account information input unit 202 to present a screen for inputting user identification information to the user (S301).

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the input screen.

  The input screen includes an input area for user ID 702 and an input area for password 703. Here, in this embodiment, in the following description, account information is composed of a user ID and a password. However, this is merely an example, and any configuration may be adopted as the account information.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the account database 211 that stores registered user information.

  The account database 211 is a table having user IDs 802 and passwords 803 for the number of registered users. In the present printing system, printing is permitted when the combination of the user ID 702 and the password 703 input by the user matches any combination of the user ID 802 and the password 803 in the account database 211. Furthermore, the account database 211 includes header information 801. As the header information 801, in this embodiment, the last update date and time of the account database is described.

  Subsequently, an inquiry process is performed as to whether the account information input by the user is a user registered in the printer 2 (S302). The details will be described later based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

  In step S303, it is determined whether the account information is correct, and the process is switched according to the determination result. That is, if it is determined that the account information input by the user is valid, print data control is performed (S304), and the process ends. Details of the processing in the print data control (S304) will be described later based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S303 that the account information input by the user is not correct, the authentication result confirmation unit 203 presents that the account information input to the user is incorrect (S305), and ends the processing. To do.

<User input information inquiry flow (FIGS. 4 and 5)>
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the inquiry processing operation performed in S302.

  First, the authentication result confirmation unit 203 searches the authentication result 207 of the printer driver 201 based on the account information input by the user from the authentication result 207 of the printer driver 201 (S401).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of authentication result information.

  The authentication result information includes “user ID” 901, “password” 902, “date and time of authentication” 903, and “database attribute at the time of authentication” 904 as information at the time of authentication execution in the account. . Furthermore, it has an “expiration date” 905 for authentication results.

  In S 401, the authentication record 207 is searched for an authentication record in which the user ID 702 and the password 703 entered by the user match. If the authentication result is successfully detected, the process proceeds to S402. If not detected, the process proceeds to S407.

  Next, the authentication result confirmation unit 203 compares the “expiration date” 905 of the authentication result detected in S401 with the current time, and confirms whether the authentication result is within the expiration date (S402).

  In the example of the authentication record information shown in FIG. 9, since the current time is “20xx / 03/02/12: 00.00”, the authentication record of the user “AAA” and the user “DDD” is within the expiration date. To be judged. On the other hand, the user “BBB” is determined to have expired.

  If the authentication result is within the validity period, the process proceeds to S403, and the header information 801 of the account database 211 is acquired using the communication processing unit 206/208 including the host 1 and the printer 2 (S403). If the expiration date has expired, the process proceeds to S406.

  Next, the authentication record confirmation unit 203 compares the “database attribute at the time of authentication” 904 described in the authentication record detected in S401 with the header information 801 acquired in S403 (S404). If both values match, it is determined that the authentication result is a result of proper authentication based on the current account database, and the user ID 702 and password 703 are determined to be valid (S405). On the other hand, if both values do not match, it is determined that the authentication result is a result of performing authentication based on an account database different from the current one, and the authentication result is deleted from the authentication result 207 in S406. In the example of the authentication record information illustrated in FIG. 9, it is determined that the values of the authentication record of the user “DDD” do not match. On the other hand, it is determined that the user “AAA” has the same value.

  Next, when it is determined that the authentication record is invalid in any of the determinations of S402 and S404, the authentication record update unit 204 deletes the authentication record from the authentication record 207 as the next process (S406). In the example of the authentication results shown in FIG. 9, the authentication results of the user “DDD” and the user “BBB” are deleted. Subsequently, an authentication process is performed (S407).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the authentication process performed in S407. It should be noted that a program corresponding to the processing by the printer in the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. When the CPU 124 executes the program on the RAM 126, processing by the printer in FIGS. 5 and 6 is realized.

  First, the printer driver 201 uses the communication processing unit 206 to transmit the user ID 702 and the password 703 input by the user to the printer 2 (S501). Next, the printer 2 uses the authentication processing unit 209 to perform user authentication based on whether or not the received user ID 702 and password 703 exist in the account database 211 (S502).

  Subsequently, the printer 2 transmits the authentication result performed in S502 and the header information 801 of the account database 211 to the printer driver 201 via the communication processing unit 208 (S503). Subsequently, the printer driver 201 that has received the authentication result branches the process according to the authentication result (S504).

  When information indicating that the authentication is successful is received as the received authentication result, the authentication result update unit 204 is used to update the authentication result 207. In this update process, the authenticated user ID 702 and the password 703 are described for the authentication record 207. Further, the header information 801 received together with the authentication result is described as “database attribute at the time of authentication” 904. In accordance with these, the current time is described as “authentication execution date and time” 903, and the time 48 hours after the current time is described as “expiration date” 905 (S505). Subsequently, it is determined that the user ID 702 and the password 703 are valid (S506), and the process ends.

  On the other hand, if information indicating that the authentication was not successful is received in S504, it is determined that the user ID 702 and the password 703 are not correct (S507), and the process is terminated.

<Print Data Control Flow (FIG. 6)>
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the print data control operation performed in S304.

  First, the printer driver 201 sends the print data generated by using the print data generation unit 205 and the authentication result in the account information input by the user to the printer 2 as a print job (S601).

  Here, the authentication record attached to the print data is the authentication record detected in S401 for the account information input by the user in S301. The print control unit 210 of the printer 2 that has received the print job confirms whether the print job includes an authentication record (S602). If the authentication result is included, the printer engine 122 is used to perform the printing process (S603), and the process ends.

  On the other hand, if the authentication result is not included, it is processed as a printing error (S604). At this time, the user may be notified of a printing error through any means. With the process described above, the user authentication in the printer 2 is omitted for a user who has a valid authentication record. As described above, the user authentication in the printer is omitted for a user who has a proven record of user authentication and whose user registration information has not been updated for a predetermined period. That is, since communication between the host and the printer for user authentication can be omitted, the processing time required for user authentication processing can be shortened. That is, since the response waiting time at the time of the account information inquiry is reduced, the user operability is improved. In the above embodiment, in order to confirm the validity of the authentication results, the information transferred from the printer to the host is only the attribute information of the user registration information, so the transfer time is short.

  Further, in this embodiment, the validity of the authentication record is determined by comparing the update date / time of the account database described in the authentication record with the update date / time of the current account database. However, the determination method is not limited to this, and other attribute information may be used as long as the information can represent the uniqueness of the account database at a certain time. For example, if the hash value of the account database is used, the same result as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  Furthermore, it is not necessary to set a fixed period as the expiration date of the authentication result, and a system administrator or the like may set an arbitrary period as the expiration date of the authentication result.

  Note that the functions of this embodiment can also be realized by the following configuration. That is, it is also achieved by supplying a program code for performing the processing of the present embodiment to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus executing the program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code also realizes the function of the present embodiment.

  Further, the program code for realizing the function of the present embodiment may be executed by one computer (CPU, MPU), or may be executed by a plurality of computers cooperating. Also good. Further, the program code may be executed by a computer, or hardware such as a circuit for realizing the function of the program code may be provided. Alternatively, a part of the program code may be realized by hardware and the remaining part may be executed by a computer.

1 ... Host computer,
2. Printer,
204 ... authentication result update part,
207 ... certification results,
211 ... Account database.

Claims (9)

A printing system including a host device and a printer,
The host device is
A transmission unit configured to transmit an account corresponding to the user input by the user to the printer;
The printer is
Storage means for storing account information for authentication processing of a user who uses the printer;
A determination unit that determines whether the account transmitted by the transmission unit corresponds to the account information stored by the storage unit;
A printing unit that prints an image based on print data transmitted from the host device when the determination unit determines that the account transmitted by the transmission unit corresponds to the account information;
Notification means for notifying the host device of the determination result by the determination means;
The host device, when the determination unit has already determined that the account input by the user corresponds to the account information within a predetermined period, based on the notification by the notification unit, the input account by the transmission unit The print system is characterized in that the print data is transmitted to the printer without transmitting the print data. The host device is
By transmitting the account input by the user by the transmission unit, the notification unit notifies that the determination unit determines that the input account corresponds to the account information stored in the storage unit. A second transmission unit configured to transmit predetermined information and print data to the printer;
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit prints an image based on the print data when the predetermined information and the print data are transmitted by the second transmission unit.   The second transmission means transmits the print data based on the fact that the input account has been transmitted by the transmission means, and the transmission of the input account by the transmission means is omitted. 3. The print system according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined information and the print data are transmitted in any case of transmitting the print data. The host device is
Based on the notification by the notifying means, there is further provided a storing means for storing information for specifying a predetermined account determined within the predetermined period by the determining means when corresponding to the account information stored by the storing means. And
The host device transmits the newly input account on condition that the account newly input by the user is included in the predetermined account specified by the information stored in the storage unit. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein print data is transmitted to the printer by omitting the print data.   The transmitting unit transmits the newly input account to the printer when the newly input account is not included in the predetermined account, and the determining unit is configured to transmit the newly input account to the printer. The printing system according to claim 4, wherein it is determined whether a newly input account corresponds to account information stored in the storage unit. The host device is
When the notifying means notifies that the account input by the user corresponds to the account information stored in the storage means, the input account remains in the predetermined period. The printing system according to claim 4 , further comprising an updating unit that updates the information stored in the storage unit so that the information is specified as the predetermined account. The host device is
When an account is newly input by the user, the information processing apparatus further includes an acquisition unit that acquires first information based on a first time that is an update time of the storage unit,
The notification means further notifies the second information based on the second time corresponding when it is determined by the determination means that the account input by the user corresponds to the account information stored in the storage means. ,
The update means updates the information stored in the storage means so that the predetermined account and the second information are specified,
Based on the first information and the second information, the host device includes the newly input account in the predetermined account, and the first time and the second time are The printing system according to claim 6, wherein when it corresponds, the transmission of the newly input account is omitted and the print data is transmitted to the printer.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the account includes a user ID and a password. A control method of a printing system including a host device and a printer,
A transmission step of transmitting an account corresponding to the user input by the user from the host device to the printer;
A determination step in which the printer determines whether the account transmitted in the transmission step corresponds to account information for authentication processing of a user who uses the printer;
A printing step in which the printer prints an image based on the print data transmitted from the host device when it is determined in the determination step that the account transmitted in the transmission step corresponds to the account information;
A notification step in which the printer notifies the host device of the determination result in the determination step;
The host device omits the transmission of the account in the transmission step based on the notification in the notification step when it has already been determined in the determination step that the account input by the user corresponds to the account information. Then, a printing system control method for transmitting print data to the printer.

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