JP7059534B2 - Image processing device and image processing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in information security. In particular, there is a problem of so-called information leakage and information leakage risk, in which an unauthorized person obtains information. For example, Non-Patent Document 1 reports that the breakdown of media / routes for information leakage and information leakage is 67.7% for paper media, 8.6% for e-mail, and 7.8% for portable storage media such as USB. The media and routes handled by these multifunction devices account for 84.1% in total, so it is necessary to deal with the risk of information leakage and information leakage even in multifunction devices. Against this background, for the purpose of suppressing information leakage and information leakage, a technology for suppressing duplication of manuscripts and tracking duplicators by mounting visible / invisible embedding technology in the manuscript on the multifunction device is already known. ing.

For example, in a system using a conventional digital watermark embedding technique, when a document in which a digital watermark is embedded is duplicated, the embedded information is detected at the time of scanning by a scanner, and whether or not the reproduction is possible is determined from the embedded information.

In Patent Document 1, when a manuscript containing embedded information is optically read and copied, if the embedded information has restrictions on duplication, whether or not the duplicator has proper duplication authority prior to duplication. The technology for certifying the above is disclosed.

However, even in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to change the setting of the device or the system itself in order to temporarily allow a person who does not have the copying authority to copy. Further, when a person having duplication authority executes duplication on behalf of the person, management of the duplication history becomes complicated.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 is an image forming unit that forms a duplicated image of a manuscript on a recording medium and embedded information embedded in the manuscript, and approves the duplication of the manuscript. The embedded information extraction unit that extracts the email address and the identification information from the embedded information including the possible approver's email address and the identification information that identifies the manuscript, and the embedded information extraction unit that extracts the identification information from the external device via a web browser. As the approval request including the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the web page in which the identification information extracted from the embedded information is displayed, which is a web page that receives the approval notification for the approval request for duplicating the manuscript. The web has an approval request unit for transmitting the mail to the destination indicated by the mail address extracted from the embedded information, and a web server unit for receiving the approval notification via the web page. The image forming unit is an image processing apparatus characterized in that when the server unit receives the approval notification via the web page, the image forming unit forms a duplicate image of the original document.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a mechanism for obtaining the approval of a predetermined approver at the timing of executing duplication based on the information embedded in the manuscript, and eliminate the complexity of system change and duplication history management. ..

It is a hardware block diagram of the image processing apparatus 100 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a software block diagram of the image processing apparatus 100 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the image processing apparatus 100 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the manuscript in which information is embedded. This is an example of information embedded in a manuscript. It is a processing flow of the image processing apparatus 100 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is an approval request sequence diagram of the image processing apparatus 100 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. There is an example of a login screen to the approval request screen according to the first embodiment. This is an example of an approval request screen according to the first embodiment. It is the schematic of the system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the image processing apparatus 100 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a hardware block diagram of the terminal apparatus 300 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the terminal apparatus 300 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. FIG. 3 is an approval request sequence diagram according to the second embodiment. This is an example of an approval request email screen according to the second embodiment. This is an example of an approval request screen web page according to the second embodiment. It is the schematic of the system which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. It is a hardware block diagram of the management server apparatus 400 which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the management server apparatus 400 which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. It is the schematic of the system which concerns on 4th Embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In each drawing for explaining the embodiment of the present invention, components such as members and components having the same function or shape are once described by assigning the same reference numerals as much as possible. Then, the explanation is omitted.

With reference to FIG. 1, the hardware configuration of the image processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment will be described. The image processing apparatus 100 of the present embodiment stores data of a copy function, a fax function, a printer function, a scanner function, and an input image (an image read by the scanner function or an image input by the printer or the fax function). It is a so-called MFP (Multifunction Peripheral / Product / Printer) that combines functions for distribution and the like. In the present embodiment, the various image data processed by the image processing apparatus 100 includes data that does not include an image, that is, data that contains only text information.

As shown in FIG. 1, the image processing apparatus 100 has a main body 110 capable of realizing various functions such as a copy function, a scanner function, a fax function, and a printer function, and an operation unit 120 that accepts a user's operation. It should be noted that accepting a user's operation is a concept including accepting information input in response to a user's operation. The main body 110 and the operation unit 120 are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate with each other via a dedicated communication path 130. As the communication path 130, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard can be used, but any standard may be used regardless of whether it is wired or wireless.

The main body 110 can perform an operation according to the operation received by the operation unit 120. Further, the main body 110 can also communicate with an external device such as a PC (Personal Computer), and can perform an operation according to an instruction received from the external device.

First, the hardware configuration of the main body 110 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the main body 110 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 111, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 112, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 113, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 114, and a communication I / An F (Inter Face) 115, a connection I / F 116, and an engine unit 117 are provided, and these are connected to each other via a system bus 119. The HDD 114 reads or writes data to the HD 118, which is a data storage medium, under the control of the CPU 111.

The CPU 111 controls the operation of the main body 110. The CPU 111 controls the operation of the entire main unit 110 by executing a program stored in the ROM 112 or HD 118 with the RAM 113 as a work area (work area), and has the above-mentioned copy function, scanner function, fax function, printer function, and the like. Realize various functions. The operation contents (hereinafter sometimes referred to as jobs) of these various functions can be saved in the HD 118 or the like as an operation log of the image processing apparatus 100 each time.

The communication I / F 115 is an interface for connecting to the network 1000. The connection I / F 116 is an interface for communicating with the operation unit 120 via the communication path 130. The engine unit 117 is hardware that performs general-purpose information processing and processing other than communication in order to realize a copy function, a scanner function, a fax function, and a printer function. For example, it includes an image reading unit 1171 as a scanner that optically reads an image printed on a storage medium such as paper and creates image data, and an image forming unit 1172 as a plotter that prints on a recording medium such as paper. .. The plotter can adopt an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or a method capable of printing on paper or the like, but is not limited to this. In addition, specific options such as a fax unit for fax communication, a finisher for sorting printed recording media, and an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) for automatically feeding a storage medium such as paper on which an image is printed can be provided. .. Hereinafter, a storage medium such as paper on which an image is printed may be referred to as a manuscript.

Next, the hardware configuration of the operation unit 120 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the operation unit 120 includes a CPU 121, a ROM 122, a RAM 123, a flash memory 124, a communication I / F 125, a connection I / F 126, an operation panel 127, and an external connection I / F 128. These are interconnected via the system bus 129.

The CPU 121 comprehensively controls the operation of the operation unit 120. The CPU 121 controls the operation of the entire operation unit 120 by executing a program stored in the ROM 122 or the flash memory 124 using the RAM 123 as a work area, and displays various information (images) according to the input received from the user. Realize the function.

The communication I / F 125 is an interface for connecting to the network 1000. The connection I / F 126 is an interface for communicating with the main body 110 via the communication path 130. Here, the network 1000 is a concept including a LAN (Local Area Network), the Internet, the Internet via a LAN, and the like.

The operation panel 127 accepts various inputs according to the user's operation and also various information (for example, information according to the accepted operation, information indicating the operating status of the image processing apparatus 100, information indicating the setting state, etc.). Is displayed. The operation panel 127 is configured by a liquid crystal display device (LCD) equipped with a touch panel function as an example, but is not limited thereto. For example, it may be configured by an organic EL display device equipped with a touch panel function. Further, in addition to or in place of this, an operation unit such as a hardware key and a display unit such as a lamp may be provided. Further, the operation panel 127 may be a portable information terminal that can be used even if it is removed from the image processing device 100. The external connection I / F 128 is an interface for connecting to an IC card reader 1001 for reading an IC card used when a user logs in to the operation panel 127.

Next, the software configuration of the image processing apparatus 100 will be described. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the software configuration of the image processing apparatus 100. As shown in FIG. 2, the main body 110 has an application layer 1101, a service layer 1102, and an OS layer 1103. The substance of the application layer 1101, the service layer 1102, and the OS layer 1103 is various software stored in the ROM 112, the HDD 118, and the like. By executing these software, the CPU 111 provides various functions.

The software of the application layer 1101 is application software for operating hardware resources to provide a predetermined function (in the following description, it may be simply referred to as an "application"). For example, examples of the application include a copy application for providing a copy function, a scanner application for providing a scanner function, a fax application for providing a fax function, a printer application for providing a printer function, and the like.

The software of the service layer 1102 is software that intervenes between the application layer 1101 and the OS layer 1103 to provide the application with an interface for using the hardware resources included in the main body 110. More specifically, it is software for providing a function of accepting an operation request for a hardware resource and arbitrating the operation request. As the operation request received by the service layer 1102, a request such as reading by a scanner or printing by a plotter can be considered.

The interface function by the service layer 1102 is provided not only to the application layer 1101 of the main body 110 but also to the application layer 1201 of the operation unit 120. That is, the application layer 1201 of the operation unit 120 can also realize a function using the hardware resources of the main body 110 (for example, the engine unit 117) via the interface function of the service layer 1102.

The software of the OS layer 1103 is basic software (OS: operating system) for providing basic functions for controlling the hardware included in the main body 110. The software of the service layer 1102 converts the usage request of the hardware resource from various applications into a command that can be interpreted by the OS layer 1103 and passes it to the OS layer 1103. Then, when the command is executed by the software of the OS layer 1103, the hardware resource operates according to the request of the application.

Similarly, the operation unit 120 has an application layer 1201, a service layer 1202, and an OS layer 1203. The application layer 1201, the service layer 1202, and the OS layer 1203 included in the operation unit 120 also have the same hierarchical structure as the main body 110 side. However, the functions provided by the application of the application layer 1201 and the types of operation requests that the service layer 1202 can accept are different from those of the main body 110 side. The application of the application layer 1201 may be software for operating the hardware resource provided in the operation unit 120 to provide a predetermined function, but the function mainly provided in the main body 110 (copy function, scanner function, fax function). , Printer function) is software for providing UI (User Interface) functions for performing operations and displays.

In this embodiment, the software of the OS layer 1103 on the main body 110 side and the software of the OS layer 1203 on the operation unit 120 side are different from each other in order to maintain the independence of the functions. That is, the main body 110 and the operation unit 120 operate independently of each other in different operating systems. For example, it is also possible to use Linux (registered trademark) as the software of the OS layer 103 on the main body 10 side and Android (registered trademark) as the software of the OS layer 1203 on the operation unit 120 side.

As described above, in the image processing device 100 of the present embodiment, since the main body 110 and the operation unit 120 operate on different operating systems, the communication between the main body 110 and the operation unit 120 is a process in a common device. It is not communication between devices, but communication between different devices. This includes the operation of transmitting the information received by the operation unit 120, that is, the content of the instruction from the user to the main unit 110 (hereinafter sometimes referred to as command communication), and the operation of the main unit 110 notifying the operation unit 120 of an event. Applicable. Here, the function of the main body 110 can be used by the operation unit 120 performing command communication to the main body 110. In addition, the events notified from the main body 110 to the operation unit 120 include the execution status of the operation in the main body 110, the contents set on the main body 110 side, and the like.

Further, in the present embodiment, since the power supply to the operation unit 120 is performed from the main body 110 via the communication path 130, the power control of the operation unit 120 is separate from the power control of the main body 110, that is, independent. Can be done.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the image processing device 100. As shown in FIG. 3, the image processing apparatus 100 reads and reads data input unit 140, data output unit 150, input reception unit 160, basic function unit 170, approval request unit 180, storage unit 190, and so on. It includes a writing processing unit 200 and a communication processing unit 210.

The data input unit 140 is an input unit for inputting an electronic document, a manuscript, or the like as image data. For example, there are scanning, file transfer from an external device, printing instruction, and the like. This data input unit 140 is realized by processing the image reading unit 1171 of FIG. 1, communication I / F 115, and connection I / F 116 (file transfer and print instruction), and has a function of inputting an electronic document, a manuscript, or the like as image data. To execute.

The data output unit 150 is an output unit that outputs image data as an electronic document, a manuscript, or the like. For example, printing, file transfer, fax transmission, etc. The data output unit 150 is realized by processing the image forming unit 1172 of FIG. 1 and the communication I / F 115 and the connection I / F 116, and executes a function of outputting image data as an electronic document, a manuscript, or the like.

The input receiving unit 160 is realized by the processing of the operation panel 127 of FIG. 1, displays information necessary for the operation to the operator, and executes a function of receiving various inputs by the operator.

The basic function unit 170 is realized by the CPU 111 of FIG. 1 executing a program stored in the HD 118 to control the engine unit 117, and has at least the copy function, the scanner function, the fax function, and the printer function, which are the functions of the MFP. By executing one, the function of creating image data that can be output by the data output unit 150 is executed based on the image data input from the data input unit 140. Further, the basic function unit 170 executes a function of controlling the output from the data output unit 150.

The basic function unit 170 has a replication control unit 171 as an example of the control unit. The duplication control unit 171 is realized by the CPU 111 of FIG. 1 executing a program stored in the HD 118 to control the image reading unit 1171 and the image forming unit 1172, and in particular, by executing the copy function, the data input unit Based on the image data obtained by scanning input from 140, the data output unit 150 realizes a function of creating image data that can be printed out. Further, the duplication control unit 171 realizes a function of controlling image formation as an output from the data output unit 150.

The approval requesting unit 180 is realized by the CPU 111 of FIG. 1 executing the program stored in the HD 118, and as described later, approves / permits the formation of the duplicated image by the duplication control unit 171 performed by the image processing apparatus 100. Execute the function to output the approval request to the approver.

The storage unit 190 is realized by the processing of the HD 118 of FIG. 1, and executes a function of storing programs, data, various setting information necessary for the operation of the image processing device 100, an operation log of the image processing device 100, and the like. Of these, various setting information is stored in the setting information storage unit 191 and the operation log is stored in the log information storage unit 192.

The read / write processing unit 200 is realized by the processing of the HDD 114 of FIG. 1, and executes a function of storing various data in the storage unit 190 and reading various data stored in the storage unit 190.

The communication processing unit 210 is realized by the processing of the communication I / F 115 of FIG. 1, and if it is possible to send image information by e-mail to the outside or set various setting information from an external device, the communication processing unit 210 is via the external device and the network 1000. Performs functions such as communication.

The approval request unit 180 described above further includes a display processing unit 181 and an embedded information processing unit 182.

The display processing unit 181 is realized by the CPU 111 of FIG. 1 executing a program stored in the HD 118, and executes a function of controlling a display screen displayed on the input reception unit 160.

The embedded information processing unit 182 is realized by the CPU 111 of FIG. 1 executing a program stored in the HD 118, and reads the embedded information embedded in the image data input to the device by scanning, file transfer, or the like. Executes the function that performs processing related to embedded information. Further, the embedded information processing unit 182 functions by processing the application layer 1101 or the service layer 1102 in FIG.

Here, the embedded information is information that identifies a user who has instructed to execute a print job of a manuscript, information that can trace the source of the manuscript such as a job execution date and time and a device that has executed the manuscript. Further, the embedded information is embedded in the manuscript as visible or invisible information by a known method.

The embedded setting items, which are items to be embedded as embedded information, include the above-mentioned user identification information, job execution date and time, job execution device identification information, job identification information assigned each time a job is executed, and security. Document identification information assigned to each manuscript to be managed, expiration date of manuscript contents, affiliation of company organization of job execution instructor, installation location of equipment that executed the job, number of times the manuscript was duplicated, etc. good. Of these items, the item to be actually created as embedded information can be set in advance by the administrator.

The input receiving unit 160 receives the setting or change of the embedded setting item by the administrator. The read / write processing unit 200 stores in the setting information storage unit 191 the settings and changes of the embedded setting items by the administrator received by the input reception unit 160. Further, the communication processing unit 210 can also accept the setting or change of the embedded setting item by the administrator by communication. The read / write processing unit 200 also stores in the setting information storage unit 191 the settings and changes of the embedded setting items by the administrator received by the communication processing unit 210. The read / write processing unit 200 writes out the embedded setting items of the setting information storage unit 191 and the log information of the log information storage unit 192, and provides the log information to the administrator via the input reception unit 160 or the communication processing unit 210. The administrator can track the source of the managed document by referring to the embedded setting items and log information.

Here, the embedded information processing unit 182 will be further described. As shown in FIG. 3, the embedded information processing unit 182 includes an embedded information reading unit 1821, an embedded information extraction unit 1822, an embedded information setting unit 1823, an embedded information creating unit 1824, and an embedded information reflecting unit 1825. Have.

The embedded information reading unit 1821 reads the embedded information from the input image data. The embedded information extraction unit 1822 extracts and analyzes the contents of the embedded information, particularly the embedded setting items. The embedded information setting unit 1823 accesses the read / write processing unit 200, and reads out the embedded setting items set / saved at this point from the setting information storage unit 191. The embedded information creation unit 1824 collects the embedded setting items read from the setting information storage unit 191 by the embedded information setting unit 1823. Then, the embedding information creation unit generates the embedding information to be combined with the image data according to the read embedding setting items.

The embedded information reflection unit 1825 creates composite data in which information such as a digital watermark generated by the embedded information creation unit 1824 is combined with the input image data. Further, the embedded information and the synthetic data are stored as log information by the log information storage unit 192 of the storage unit 190, and as a result, the embedded information and the synthetic data are stored in association with each other. The duplication control unit 171 forms an image as image data to be output by the data output unit 150 from the composite data created by the embedded information processing unit 182.

The method of synthesizing the embedded information with the image data and tracking the original is not limited to the invisible digital watermark. For example, a dot pattern or a barcode, which is visible but difficult for humans to recognize as meaningful information, may be used, and a known method may be used.

The processing of the approval request of the image processing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7. First, as shown in FIG. 4, a digital watermark is invisiblely printed on the manuscript 1103 to be duplicated by the administrator himself or under the control of the administrator. This digital watermark contains the following information as embedded information. That is, the document identification information unique to the manuscript 1003, the duplication possibility information of the manuscript 1103, and the approver information regarding the formation of the duplicate image. Of course, information other than these may be included. For illustration purposes, a digital watermark is shown as a set of dots in FIG.

As an example of the document identification information, the administrator can assign one serial number to each manuscript to be managed, as in the document ID “1234567890123456” in FIG. The document identification information is not limited to the serial number as long as the manuscript can be identified. For example, use information that appropriately combines the creator / creation date / time / save date of the electronic data that is the source of the manuscript, the creation date / creation date / time of the manuscript, and the identification information unique to the device that output the manuscript. Is also possible.

As shown in FIG. 4, the duplication availability information includes a flag indicating whether the manuscript to be managed is "possible" or "impossible" to be duplicated, and "required" or "unnecessary" when the original is duplicated "possible". Is embedded. Further, as an example, the approver's name (○○ △△) and the approver's e-mail address (xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.xx) are embedded in the approver information.

5 (a), (b), (c), and 5 (d) are examples of different embedded information. The example of FIG. 5A is the same as the duplication possibility information described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5B is an example of information embedded in a manuscript that is not permitted to be duplicated. That is, the manuscript with the document ID "1234567890234567" does not include the information of the approver because the possibility of copying is "No". FIG. 5C is an example of information embedded in a manuscript that can be duplicated without approval. That is, the manuscript with the document ID "1234567890345678" is "possible" for duplication and "unnecessary" for approval. No approval is required, so no approver information is included. In FIG. 5 (c), the information of "OK" is not essential.

FIG. 5D is an example of information embedded in a manuscript that requires approval for reproduction, as in FIG. 5A. In FIG. 5A, only one approver is designated, whereas in FIG. 5D, another approver is designated. For example, the administrator himself "○○ △△" is designated as the approver, and the non-administrator "□□ ××" is the approver and the email address "yyy.yy@yyy.yyy.yy.yy". Is included in the information.

Next, the operation of the image processing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the original 1003 is duplicated by the image processing apparatus 100, a person who executes the duplication (hereinafter referred to as a duplicater) logs in from the operation panel 127 (S1). At this time, the login is to input the information registered in advance from the input reception unit 160 of the image processing device 100, for example, input the user name and password, or read the IC card by the IC card reader 4. Is possible.

When the duplicater sets the original 1003 in the image reading unit 1171 and presses the start button or the like, or executes an operation related to the duplication instruction on the operation panel 127, the duplication control unit 171 starts scanning the image of the original. (S2). That is, the image processing device 100 of FIG. 1 starts an operation for scanning the document 1003 by the image reading unit 1171.

The embedding information reading unit 1821 extracts the embedding information from the data obtained by scanning the document 1003. If there is no embedded information, it is judged that the manuscript is not the target for duplication management. In that case, the duplication image of the image read by the duplication control unit 171 is formed on the recording medium, and the process ends (S3). If there is embedded information, the embedded information extraction unit 1822 extracts the contents of the embedded information. The embedded information extraction unit 1822 first extracts copyability information from the embedded information and determines whether or not it is “possible” (S3).

If the copyability information is "impossible", that is, in the case of FIG. 5B as an example, the process ends without performing image formation, and if the copyability information is "possible", further information on approval is provided. Extract and determine whether approval is "required" (S4). When the approval is "unnecessary", for example, in the case of FIG. 5 (c), the image formation is executed on the recording medium and the process is completed (S5), and when the approval is "necessary", the approver Output the approval request to the approver based on the information. (S6). When the denial is notified as a result of the approval and denial determination of the approver, that is, when the image processing apparatus 100 accepts the denial, the image is not formed on the recording medium and the process ends (S7). At this time, it is also possible to display on the operation panel 127 that the image formation is denied and notify the duplicater. When the approval is notified as a result of the approval and denial determination of the approver, that is, when the image processing apparatus 100 accepts the denial, the duplication control unit 171 forms an image of the duplication image and ends (S8).

The approver may be the administrator himself or not. It is also possible to specify a plurality of items including the administrator and non-administrators, as shown in FIG. 5D as an example. In this case, the approval request is sent to both the designated administrator and non-administrators, and the duplicate image is formed if the approval is notified by the input other than the administrator.

The output of the approval request will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 7. When approval is required in S5 of FIG. 6, the duplication control unit 171 instructs the display processing unit 181 to create an approval request screen (S6-11), and waits for an approval reply (S6-12). The display processing unit 181 instructs the input reception unit 160 to display the approval screen (S6-13). When the approver inputs approval or denial from the screen, the input receiving unit 160 notifies the duplication control unit 171 (S6-14).

8 and 9 show an example of an approval request screen displayed on the operation panel 271 based on the approval request. As shown in FIG. 8, the user identification information input field 161 and the password input field 162 are displayed. When an approver registered as a user in the image processing device 100 inputs in each field and logs in, the approval input screen of FIG. 9 is displayed.

As shown in FIG. 9, the approval content display field 163 and the image data display field 164 are displayed. In the approval content display field 163, the name "△ □ △ □" of the approval requester, that is, the duplicater who is trying to copy, the e-mail address "zzz.zzz@zzz.zzz.zz.zz", and the document ID are displayed. ing. In the image data display field 164, thumbnails of image data read from the original 1103 are displayed. The approver decides approval or denial with reference to the approval content display field 163 and the image data display field 164, and can respond to the approval request by pressing the approval button 165 or the denial button 166.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. In the description of the second embodiment, the same components and functions as those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description may be omitted.

In FIG. 10, the image processing device 100 and the terminal device 300 such as a PC are connected by the network 1000.

The hardware configuration and software configuration of the image processing device 100 are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, and are therefore omitted.

Next, the functional block of the image processing apparatus 100 in the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. A part of the approval requesting unit 180 is different from FIG. That is, in FIG. 11, instead of the display processing unit 181 of FIG. 3, a web server unit 183 and a mail unit 184 are provided.

The web server unit 183 is realized by the CPU 111 of FIG. 1 executing a program stored in the HD 118, and can view the operating status of the image processing device 100, operate the image processing device 100, give instructions, change settings, and the like. Executes the function of accepting from an external device via a web browser. The web server unit 183 has a creation request processing unit 1831 and an input reception unit 1832. The creation request processing unit 1831 executes a function of creating a web page creation in which an operation to the image processing device 100 can be input in response to a request. Further, the creation request processing unit 1831 executes a function of returning the information of the created web page and the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the created web page as an example. The input reception unit 1832 executes a function of accepting an operation input from the created web page.

The hardware configuration of the terminal device 300 will be described with reference to FIG. The terminal device 300 includes a CPU 301, a ROM 302, a RAM 303, an HDD 304, a display 305, a communication I / F 306, a keyboard 307, a mouse 308, a storage medium drive 309, and an HDD 304, which form a system bus 310. They are connected to each other via. The HDD 304 reads or writes data to the HD311 which is a data storage medium under the control of the CPU 301.

The CPU 301 controls the operation of the terminal device 300. The CPU 301 controls the operation of the entire terminal device 300 by executing the program stored in the ROM 302 or HD311 using the RAM 303 as a work area, and realizes various functions according to the input received from the user.

FIG. 13 shows a functional block of the terminal device 300.

The input receiving unit 320 is realized by the processing of the keyboard 307 and the mouse 308 of FIG. 12, and executes the function of receiving the input instruction of the operator of the terminal device 300.

The communication processing unit 330 is realized by the processing of the communication I / F 306 of FIG. 12, and executes a function of transmitting and receiving data, mail, and the like to and from an external device.

The display processing unit 340 is realized by the CPU 301 of FIG. 12 executing a program stored in the ROM 302 or HD311, and has a function of controlling a display screen to the operator according to an operation input from the input reception unit 320. Run.

The mail unit 350 is realized by the CPU 301 of FIG. 12 executing a program stored in the ROM 302 or HD311, and has a function of transmitting mail to an external device and expanding the contents of the received mail to the terminal device 300. To execute.

The flowchart showing the processing of the image processing apparatus 100 of the second embodiment is described with reference to FIG. 6 as in the first embodiment. FIG. 14 is a sequence diagram in the second embodiment when approval is required at the time of duplication, that is, when S5 in FIG. 6 is Yes. When approval is required in S605 of FIG. 6, the duplication control unit 171 of the image processing device 100 requests the web server unit 183 to create a web page (S6-21).

The web server unit 183 returns the created web page (S6-22). The duplication control unit 171 passes information such as the above-mentioned web page and the name and e-mail address of the approver included in the embedded information to the mail unit 184, and requests the approver to create an approval request mail (S6- 23), wait for a reply from the approver (S6-24). The mail unit 350 of the terminal device 300, which is the destination of the mail address, receives the mail and notifies the display processing unit 340 of the URL of the web page described in the mail according to the operation of the operator on the terminal device 300 (S6). -26).

The display processing unit 340 displays a web page on the display 305 according to the operation of the operator. The operator inputs approval or denial from the web page by operating the input reception unit (S6-28). The web server unit 183 accepts the input of approval or denial and notifies the replication control unit 171 (S6-29).

15 and 16 show an example of an approval request mail screen displayed on the display 305 of the terminal device 300. When the approver opens the mail on the terminal device 300, the destination field 321 and the subject field 322 and the text 323 are displayed as shown in FIG. In this case, the address field is the email address of the approver. The name "△ □ △ □" of the approval requester, that is, the duplicator who is trying to perform duplication, the document ID "1234567890123456", and the URL of the web page created by the web server unit 183 of the image processing device 100 are displayed in the text 323. There is. The approver operates the input receiving unit 320 to execute the web browser application of the terminal device 300, and the web page shown in FIG. 16 is displayed on the display 305.

As shown in FIG. 16, a URL display unit 324 for displaying the URL of the web page, a message field 325 for displaying the approval request message, and an image data display field 326 are displayed. In the image data display field 326, thumbnails of image data read from the original 1103 are displayed. The approver can determine approval by referring to the message field 325 and the image data display field 326, and can respond to the approval request by pressing the approval button 327 or the denial button 328.

Next, a third embodiment will be described. In the description of the third embodiment, the same components and functions as those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description may be omitted.

FIG. 17 shows a configuration when the image processing apparatus 100 applicable to the third embodiment of the present invention is incorporated into a network environment. A plurality of image processing devices 100 and a management server device 400 such as a PC are connected by a network 1000.

The hardware configuration and software configuration of the image processing device 100 are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively, and are therefore omitted. Further, as the functional blocks of the plurality of image processing devices 100 of FIG. 17, any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 11 can be applied.

The hardware configuration of the management server device 400 will be described with reference to FIG. The management server device 400 includes a CPU 401, a ROM 402, a RAM 403, an HDD 404, a display 405, a communication I / F 406, a keyboard 407, a mouse 408, and a storage medium drive 409, which are via the system bus 411. Are interconnected. The HDD 404 reads or writes data to the HD410, which is a data storage medium, under the control of the CPU 401.

The CPU 401 controls the operation of the management server device 400. The CPU 401 controls the operation of the entire management server device 400 by executing the program stored in the ROM 402 or HD410 using the RAM 403 as a work area, and realizes various functions according to the input received from the user.

The functional block diagram of the management server apparatus 400 will be described with reference to FIG. The management server device 400 includes an input reception unit 420, a log information reading unit 430, a log information storage unit 440, a log information writing unit 450, a log information acquisition unit 460, a setting information rewriting unit 470, and communication processing. It has a portion 480 and.

The input receiving unit 420 is realized by the processing of the keyboard 407 and the mouse 408 of FIG. 18, and executes a function of receiving the input of the operator who operates the management server device 400.

The log information reading unit 430 is realized by the CPU 401 of FIG. 18 executing a program stored in the ROM 402 or HD410, and executes a function of reading the log information stored in the log information storage unit 440.

The log information storage unit 440 is realized by the HD processing of FIG. 18 and executes a function of storing the log information of each image processing device 100.

The log information writing unit 450 is realized by the CPU 401 of FIG. 18 executing a program stored in the ROM 402 or HD 410, and executes a function of writing the log information of each image processing device 100 to the log information storage unit 440.

The log information acquisition unit 460 is realized by the CPU 401 of FIG. 18 executing a program stored in the ROM 402 or HD 410, and the log information of the log information storage unit 192 of each image processing device 100 via the communication processing unit 480. Perform the function to get. The log information may be acquired based on an instruction input from the input receiving unit 420 by the administrator, or may be executed based on a program automatically acquired from each image processing device 100 after a predetermined time. good.

The communication processing unit 480 is realized by the processing of the communication I / F 406 of FIG. 18 and executes a function of transmitting / receiving data, mail, etc. to and from an external device.

The setting or change of the embedded setting item by the administrator received by the input receiving unit 420 is received by the communication processing unit 210 of the image processing device 100 through the network 1000. The read / write processing unit 200 stores the received settings and changes of the embedded setting items in the setting information storage unit 191. In this way, the administrator can rewrite the embedded setting items of the setting information storage unit 191 of the image processing apparatus 100 through the network 1000.

Further, the log information acquisition unit 460 can request log information from the log information storage unit 192 of the image processing device 100 through the network 1000, and acquire the log information from each image processing device 100. The log information writing unit 450 can store the acquired log in the log information storage unit 440. The log information reading unit 430 reads the log information acquired from the plurality of image processing devices 100 in response to the input of the administrator received by the input receiving unit 420, and provides the log information to the administrator. By referring to the log information provided, the administrator can track and manage the managed document for the plurality of image processing devices 100. Further, the server device 400 can also issue document identification information and job identification information in response to a request from each image processing device 100.

Further, as a fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 20, a plurality of image processing devices 100, a terminal device 300, and a management server device 400 can be connected by a network 1000. By appropriately selecting an approver as the embedded information and designating it as the embedded information, it is possible to output an approval request from each image processing device 100 to the terminal device 300, the management server device 400, or both. Is. It is also possible to realize the terminal device 300 and the management server device 400 with the same device.

In the above embodiment, the approval of duplication has been described, but the printing of the data in which the embedded information input from the data input unit 140 is embedded, the transmission / reception of the fax in which the embedded information is embedded, and the embedded information are embedded. It may be approval such as printing of the fax.

100 Image processing device 171 Replica control unit 180 Approval request unit 1821 Embedded information reading unit 1822 Embedded information extraction unit

NPO Japan Network Security Association Security Damage Investigation Working Group Information Security Graduate University Harada Laboratory Hiromatsu Laboratory, "2013 Information Security Incident Investigation Report-Personal Information Leakage Edition-February 23, 2015 Revised 1.2th Edition", p .19, [online], [Search on July 5, 2017], Internet <URL: http://www.jnsa.org/result/incident/data/2013incident_survey_ver1.2.pdf>

JP-A-2004-72343

Claims (7)

An image forming unit that forms a duplicate image of a manuscript on a recording medium,
From the embedded information embedded in the manuscript, including the e-mail address of the approver who can approve the duplication of the manuscript and the identification information for identifying the manuscript, the e-mail address and the identification information The embedded information extraction unit that extracts and
A web page that receives an approval notification for an approval request for duplicating the manuscript from an external device via a web browser, and the URL (Uniform Address) of the web page that displays the identification information extracted from the embedded information. An approval request unit that sends an e-mail as an approval request including a URL to the destination indicated by the e-mail address extracted from the embedded information, and an approval request unit.
The web server unit that accepts the approval notification via the web page,
Have,
When the web server unit receives the approval notice via the web page, the image forming unit forms a duplicate image of the manuscript.
An image processing device characterized by this. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further
It has an embedded information reading unit that reads the embedded information from the document.
An image processing device characterized by this. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the embedded information includes information about a plurality of different approvers. One of claims 1 to 3, wherein the embedded information extraction unit further extracts duplication possibility information, which is information on whether or not a duplicate image of the manuscript can be formed on the recording medium, from the embedding information. The image processing apparatus according to. When the duplication possibility information is information that prohibits duplication of the manuscript, the image forming unit is characterized in that it does not perform approval request processing for requesting approval for duplicating the manuscript and formation of the duplicated image. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4. When the duplication possibility information is information that does not require approval for duplicating the manuscript, the image forming unit may form a duplicate image of the manuscript without sending an e-mail as an approval request. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4. From the embedded information embedded in the manuscript, including the e-mail address of the approver who can approve the duplication of the manuscript and the identification information for identifying the manuscript, the e-mail address and the identification information Embedded information extraction process to extract
A web page that receives an approval notification for an approval request for duplicating the manuscript from an external device via a web browser, and displays the identification information extracted from the embedded information by the embedded information extraction step. An approval request step of transmitting an e-mail as an approval request including a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a web page to a destination indicated by the e-mail address extracted from the embedded information by the embedded information extraction step.
The reception process for receiving the approval notice via the web page,
When the approval notice is received by the reception step, an image forming step of forming a duplicate image of the manuscript on a recording medium and an image forming step.
An image processing method that performs a process that includes.

Images