JP7283147B2 - Information processing device, program, electronic device registration method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a program, and an electronic device registration method.

Printing systems have also been introduced into the OS (Operating System) of information processing devices such as smartphones, and users can easily print on electronic devices such as printers from the print preview screen by executing the print menu of application software. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1.). In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-100001, since printing is performed even from an application that is not compatible with the printing system and there is no print application that can be used, a print service that can be added in to the printing system on the mobile OS can receive print data from another application. A print service is disclosed that receives and prints print data that has been received and converted to PDF by a printing system.

However, the conventional technique has a problem that the user's operation to set the default printer that is first selected on the print preview screen is complicated. That is, when printing is performed using a print service, the OS displays a list of printers supported by the print service, and the OS displays the printer list in a predetermined order determined by the OS. The first one in the display order is displayed as being selected as the default printer. In many cases, the user wants to set a printer different from the default printer as the default printer, but the operation of setting the default printer by the user is not easy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus that allows a user to easily set a default electronic device.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus comprising a screen display unit that displays one or more electronic devices to be selected, an operation reception unit that receives selection of the electronic device, and the information processing apparatus. and a registration unit for registering the electronic device accepted by the operation acceptance unit as a default electronic device, wherein the deletion unit and the registration unit are: The process is separate from the process of displaying electronic devices that have been used in the past, and the deletion unit requests the process of displaying electronic devices to delete electronic devices that have already been registered in the information processing apparatus. , wherein the registration unit requests the process of displaying electronic devices to register the electronic device selected by the user as a default electronic device.

To provide an information processing device with which a user can easily set a default electronic device.

3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating examples of a list screen of print services installed in an information processing apparatus, an operation screen of an application, or a menu screen; FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a print preview screen; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an All printers screen; FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a printer list screen displayed when a print service icon is pressed on the print service list screen. 1 is an example of a schematic configuration diagram of a printer system having a printer and an information processing device; FIG. 1 is an example of a hardware configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus; FIG. 1 is an example of a hardware configuration diagram of a printer; FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print execution flow of a certain OS; It is an example of the functional block diagram which shows the function of an information processing apparatus in block form. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a default printer selection screen displayed by the screen display unit of the print service; FIG. 10 is an example of a flowchart illustrating an example procedure for setting a default printer by a user; FIG. 4 is a flowchart diagram of an example procedure for a print service to designate a default printer;

Hereinafter, an information processing apparatus and an electronic device registration method performed by the information processing apparatus will be described as an example of a mode for carrying out the present invention, with reference to the drawings.

<Display example of conventional default printer>
First, a display example of a default printer displayed by an information processing apparatus such as a smartphone will be described with reference to FIG. 1 to 4 show some examples of screens displayed by the information processing apparatus 10 during printing. FIG. 1A shows a list screen 101 of print services installed in the information processing apparatus 10. FIG. A print service is software that executes printing from a menu of application software (hereinafter referred to as an application). It corresponds to a printer driver of a general PC (Personal Computer).

A "Default Print Service" 102 is a print service provided by the OS, and is pre-installed together with the OS. A user can arbitrarily install a print service developed by a printer maker or the like. The installed print service is displayed on the list screen 101 of FIG. 1(a).

FIG. 1B is an example of an operation screen 110 of an application that can execute printing. In this example, the application displays the document P.pdf111, but the specific text is omitted ("P01" is substituted). When the user wishes to print the document, the user presses (tap) the upper right three-point menu 112 .

FIG. 1C shows an example of the menu screen 120 displayed when the three-point menu 112 is pressed. Pressing the Print button (or Share button) 121 opens a screen related to printing. For example, a print preview screen opens.

FIG. 2A is an example of a print preview screen 130 displayed by the OS. A printer list 131 is displayed at the top of the print preview screen 130 . "10.60.98.112" indicates the IP address of the printer 30; Although only one printer 30 is displayed in FIG. 2(a), when the user presses the pull-down button 132, a printer list 131 shown in FIG. 2(b) is displayed.

This printer list 131 has the following rules.
(i) Printers 30 that have successfully printed even once in the past are stored by the OS and are displayed in this printer list 131 .
(ii) Printers 30 not currently found by the print service are displayed at half brightness and cannot be selected by the user. The OS manages the printer list 131, but the printer is found by the print service. The printer 30 at 10.60.98.112 (reference numeral 134) in FIG. 2(b) has not been found by the print service and cannot be selected by the user. This is also described in FIG. 2(a) as "This printer isn't available right now."
(iii) Printers 30 currently found by the print service are displayed in normal brightness and can be selected by the user.
(iv) Immediately after the print preview screen 130 of FIG. 2A is displayed, the printer 30 with the largest number of successful prints is selected as the default printer (displayed at the top). It is irrelevant whether the printer 30 is currently found by the print service.
(v) The printer list 131 in FIG. 2B is managed by the OS, and the user or print service cannot manually change the order of the printer list.

When the user presses "All printers" 133 in FIG. 2(b), an All printers screen 140 in FIG. 3(a) is displayed. The All printers screen 140 is a screen for the user to make settings regarding the printer 30 . On the All printers screen 140, the user selects the printer 30 and presses and holds the target printer 30 (10.60.98.112) (reference numeral 134) to display a pop-up "Forget printer" button 141 as shown in FIG. 3(b). can be made By pressing the "Forget printer" button 141, this printer 30 can be deleted from the print history.

FIG. 3C also shows the "Forget printer" button 141 popped up by pressing and holding the printer 30 (10.60.98.102) (reference number 135). A "Select printer" button 142 is also displayed. A "Select printer" button 142 is a button for using this printer for printing.

Only printers 30 that have printed once in the past can press the "Forget printer" button 141 . The All printers screen 140 is the only screen that allows the user to delete the printers 30 that have printed once in the past and are managed by the OS. If the print history of the printer 30 in half brightness display is deleted, it is completely removed from the printer list, but even if the print history of the printer 30 in brightness display is deleted, it is not deleted from the printer list.

As shown in FIG. 2A, even if the printer cannot be found by the print service, it is displayed as the default printer, and the user needs to select another printer 30 . The default printer can be changed to reduce the user's need to select another printer 30 .

A case where the user wants to set the printer 30 of "10.60.98.102" (reference numeral 135) as the default printer on the All printers screen 140 will be described. In order to set the printer 30 of "10.60.98.102" (reference numeral 135) as the default printer, "10.68.98.112" (reference numeral 134), which has a higher priority (more successful printing times) than "10.60.98.102" (reference numeral 135) ) and "10.60.98.144" (reference numeral 136) must be manually deleted by the user, and the print preview screen 130 must be reopened. Thus, the operation of changing the default printer is not so intuitive and troublesome.

FIG. 4 shows a printer list screen 150 displayed when a print service icon is pressed on the print service list screen 101 of FIG. Only the printers 30 supported by the pressed print service are displayed. Conventional print services do not have a user interface for selecting a default printer or changing the priority of printers 30 .

Regarding the inconvenience of not being able to easily change the default printer, the print service of the present embodiment provides a user interface that allows the user to easily set the default printer on the printer list screen 150, allowing the user to change the default printer with an intuitive operation. can be set. Specifically, the print service performs printing once in the past managed by the OS so that the printer 30 set in the user interface is first in the printer list displayed by the OS (selected as the default printer). Each printer that has been used is temporarily deleted, and the printer 30 set by the user interface is first registered in the OS.

<Terms>
A default printer is a printer that can be printed without being selected because it is selected even if the user does not select it.

A printer already registered in the information processing apparatus is, for example, a printer that has printed at least once in the past, but may also be a printer that has been manually registered by the user.

The electronic device is of a type that requests processing from a service operating in the information processing apparatus, and may be any electronic device that is in a state selected based on the concept of default. In this embodiment, a printer will be described as an example, but a FAX transmission device or the like may also be used.

<System configuration example>
FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a printer system having the printer 30 and the information processing device 10. As shown in FIG. The printer 30 is a device that forms an image on a sheet-like member such as paper. Sometimes called a printing device or an image forming device. Examples include laser printers, inkjet printers, thermal transfer printers, and dot impact printers. Also, a handy printer that does not have a paper transport mechanism may be used. Alternatively, a 3D printer that forms a three-dimensional object may be used. The printer 30 may have functions other than printing. Such a device is called an MFP. A multifunction device is a device having multiple functions such as a scanner function, a print function, a copy function, and a FAX transmission/reception function. It is sometimes called MFP (Multi-Function Printer/Product/Peripheral), SPC (Scan Print Copy), or AIO (All In One). In this embodiment, it is not required that the printer 30 have multiple functions, and the printer 30 only needs to have the function of printing an image on a sheet-like member.

The information processing device 10 may be a general-purpose device that has a communication function, a display (or a projector, etc.), and the like, and that runs an application. For example, it may be a PC (Personal Computer), a mobile phone, a smart phone, a tablet terminal, a game machine, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a digital camera, or a wearable PC.

In FIG. 5, the information processing apparatus 10 and the printer 30 are connected by a communication path N. As shown in FIG. The communication path N may be wireless communication (Wi-Fi/Wi-Fi Direct/Bluetooth (registered trademark)) such as a wireless LAN, or wired such as a USB cable or LAN cable. Although the information processing apparatus 10 and the printer 30 are generally located inside a firewall, the information processing apparatus 10 and the printer 30 may communicate with each other via the Internet.

<Hardware configuration example>
<<Information processing device>>
FIG. 6 is a hardware configuration diagram of the information processing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. Note that a smart phone is assumed as the information processing device 10 in FIG. 6 . As shown in FIG. 6, the information processing apparatus 10 includes a CPU 401, a ROM 402, a RAM 403, an EEPROM 404, a CMOS sensor 405, an image sensor I/F 406, an acceleration/azimuth sensor 407, a media I/F 409, and a GPS receiver 411. I have.

Among these, the CPU 401 controls the operation of the information processing apparatus 10 as a whole. The ROM 402 stores programs used to drive the CPU 401 such as the CPU 401 and IPL. A RAM 403 is used as a work area for the CPU 401 . The EEPROM 404 reads or writes various data such as smartphone programs under the control of the CPU 401 . A CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor 405 is a type of built-in imaging means for capturing an object (mainly a self-portrait) and obtaining image data under the control of the CPU 401 . Note that imaging means such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor may be used instead of the CMOS sensor. An imaging device I/F 406 is a circuit that controls driving of the CMOS sensor 405 . The acceleration/direction sensor 407 is various sensors such as an electronic magnetic compass, a gyro compass, and an acceleration sensor for detecting geomagnetism. A media I/F 409 controls reading or writing (storage) of data to a recording medium 408 such as a flash memory. The GPS receiver 411 receives GPS signals from GPS satellites.

The information processing apparatus 10 also includes a long-distance communication circuit 412 , a CMOS sensor 413 , an image sensor I/F 414 , a microphone 415 , a speaker 416 , a sound input/output I/F 417 , a display 418 , an external device connection I/F (Interface) 419 . , a short-range communication circuit 420 , an antenna 420 a of the short-range communication circuit 420 , and a touch panel 421 .

Among these, the telecommunications circuit 412 is a circuit that communicates with other devices over a communication network. The CMOS sensor 413 is a type of built-in image pickup means that picks up an image of a subject and obtains image data under the control of the CPU 401 . An imaging device I/F 414 is a circuit that controls driving of the CMOS sensor 413 . Microphone 415 is a built-in circuit that converts sound into an electrical signal. The speaker 416 is a built-in circuit that converts electrical signals into physical vibrations to produce sounds such as music and voice. A sound input/output I/F 417 is a circuit for processing input/output of sound signals between the microphone 415 and the speaker 416 under the control of the CPU 401 . A display 418 is a kind of display means such as liquid crystal or organic EL (Electro Luminescence) that displays an image of a subject, various icons, and the like. The external device connection I/F 419 is an interface for connecting various external devices. The short-range communication circuit 420 is a communication circuit such as NFC (Near Field Communication) or Bluetooth (registered trademark). The touch panel 421 is a kind of input means for operating the information processing apparatus 10 by the user pressing the display 418 .

The information processing device 10 also includes a bus line 410 . A bus line 410 is an address bus, a data bus, or the like for electrically connecting each component such as the CPU 401 shown in FIG.

<<Printer>>
FIG. 7 is a hardware configuration diagram of the printer 30. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, an MFP is assumed as the printer 30 . As shown in FIG. 7, the printer 30 includes a controller 910, a short-range communication circuit 920, an engine control section 930, an operation panel 940, and a network I/F 950.

Among these, the controller 910 includes a CPU 901, a system memory (MEM-P) 902, a north bridge (NB) 903, a south bridge (SB) 904, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 906, a storage unit, which is the main part of the computer. A local memory (MEM-C) 907 , an HDD controller 908 , and an HD 909 as a storage unit, and the NB 903 and ASIC 906 are connected by an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) bus 921 .

Among these, the CPU 901 is a control unit that performs overall control of the printer 30 . The NB 903 is a bridge for connecting the CPU 901, the MEM-P 902, the SB 904, and the AGP bus 921, and is a memory controller that controls reading and writing with respect to the MEM-P 902, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) master, and an AGP target. have

The MEM-P 902 is composed of a ROM 902a, which is a memory for storing programs and data for realizing each function of the controller 910, and a RAM 902b, which is used as a drawing memory for expanding the programs and data and for memory printing. The program stored in the RAM 902b is configured to be provided by being recorded in a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD, etc. as a file in an installable format or an executable format. You may

SB 904 is a bridge for connecting NB 903 with PCI devices and peripheral devices. The ASIC 906 is an image processing IC (Integrated Circuit) having hardware elements for image processing, and serves as a bridge that connects the AGP bus 921, PCI bus 922, HDD controller 908, and MEM-C 907, respectively. This ASIC 906 includes a PCI target and AGP master, an arbiter (ARB) that forms the core of the ASIC 906, a memory controller that controls the MEM-C 907, and multiple DMACs (Direct Memory Access Controllers) that rotate image data using hardware logic. , and a PCI unit that transfers data between the scanner unit 931 and the printer unit 932 via the PCI bus 922 . Note that the ASIC 906 may be connected to a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface or an IEEE 1394 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1394) interface.

MEM-C 907 is a local memory used as an image buffer for copying and an encoding buffer. The HD 909 is a storage for accumulating image data, accumulating font data used for printing, and accumulating forms. The HD 909 controls reading or writing of data to or from the HD 909 under the control of the CPU 901 . The AGP bus 921 is a bus interface for graphics accelerator cards proposed to speed up graphics processing, and can speed up the graphics accelerator card by directly accessing the MEM-P 902 with high throughput. .

The near field communication circuit 920 also includes a near field communication circuit 920a. The short-range communication circuit 920 is a communication circuit for NFC, Bluetooth (registered trademark), or the like.

Furthermore, the engine control section 930 is configured by a scanner section 931 and a printer section 932 . The operation panel 940 displays a current setting value, a selection screen, and the like, and a panel display unit 940a such as a touch panel for receiving input from an operator, and setting values for image forming conditions such as density setting conditions. An operation panel 940b is provided which includes a numeric keypad for accepting a copy start instruction, a start key for accepting a copy start instruction, and the like. The controller 910 controls the entire printer 30, such as drawing, communication, input from the operation panel 940, and the like. The scanner unit 931 or printer unit 932 includes an image processing part such as error diffusion and gamma conversion.

Note that the printer 30 can switch and select the document box function, the copy function, the print function, and the facsimile function in sequence using the application switching key on the operation panel 940 . The document box mode is set when the document box function is selected, the copy mode is set when the copy function is selected, the printer mode is set when the print function is selected, and the facsimile mode is set when the facsimile mode is selected.

A network I/F 950 is an interface for data communication using a communication network. A short-range communication circuit 920 and a network I/F 950 are electrically connected to the ASIC 906 via a PCI bus 922 .

<Print flow>
FIG. 8 is an example of a print execution flow in the OS. In FIG. 8, Android OS (registered trademark) is assumed as the OS. In FIG. 8, PrintManager 31 and PrintJob 32 are functions of the OS and cannot be changed by developers. The PrinterDiscoverySession class 33 and PrintService class 34 can be optionally implemented by the developer.
1. The PrintManager 31 displays a print dialog according to a print instruction from the user (for example, pressing the Print button 121 in FIG. 2). In FIG. 8, a print preview screen 130 is displayed.
2. The PrintService class 34 is requested by the PrintManager 31 to start a printer detection session. That is, the OS requests that the printer be found.
3. The PrintService class 34 creates an instance of the PrinterDiscoverySession class 33 and returns it to the PrintManager 31 .
4. The PrinterDiscoverySession class 33 updates the printer information for the PrintManager 31, such as adding the found printer 30 and deleting the missing printer 30. FIG.
5. When the user selects the printer 30 for printing and presses the print button 137, the OS generates a PrintJob 32 and printing starts.
6. When PrintJob 32 issues onPrintJobQueued, PrintJob 32 is passed to PrintService class 34 .
7. The PrintService class 34 performs print processing based on the information of the PrintJob 32 (document data and print settings such as paper size, color/monochrome, number of copies, and print direction).

The PrintService class 34 and the PrinterDiscoverySession class 33 are print service areas in the OS print framework, and can be freely implemented by developers. On the other hand, the PrintManager 31 and PrintJob 32 are areas of the OS and cannot be freely implemented by developers. The print preview screen 130 displayed on the right side of FIG. 8 is a screen displayed by the print framework of the OS, and operates on the print spooler (OS) process, not on the print service process. . A process is a program execution unit viewed from the OS. Since the processes are located in different memories, they do not communicate directly with each other.

Therefore, the list of printers displayed on the print preview screen 130 displays those added/deleted/updated by the print service, but the display order is managed by the print spooler. The order cannot be freely changed. Also, as described above, no user interface is provided for changing the default printer initially selected in print preview screen 130 . Since the list of printers displayed on the print preview screen 130 is saved in the save area of the print spooler, it remains without being deleted even if the information processing apparatus 10 is restarted or the print service is uninstalled. there is

<About functions>
FIG. 9 is an example of a functional block diagram showing functions of the information processing apparatus 10 in block form. An OS is pre-installed in the information processing apparatus 10 . Android OS (registered trademark) is assumed as the OS, and the printing system 11 has been introduced to Android OS (registered trademark) from version 4.4 (KitKat). When the information processing apparatus 10 downloads the print service 12 from the program distribution server and installs it, the print system 11 and the print service cooperate and print applications 1 to N (hereinafter, any print application is denoted by 21 ), you will be able to print.

The print application 21 is an application that has a function of printing using the print service 12 . The print application 21 requests the print system 11 to display a print preview, and transfers print data that the print service 12 supports to the print service 12 .

A print system 11 manages a print service 12 . Since multiple print services 12 can be installed, the printing system 11 can enable/disable each print service 12 . The printing system 11 receives a display request for the print preview screen 130 from the print application 21 or the print service 12 and displays the print preview screen. On the print preview screen 130, it is possible to select the printer 30 as the print destination and change the print settings. The printing system 11 also performs job management during printing, and can update and display the status of the job being printed until the end of printing when the user starts printing.

The print service 12 is software that can be installed in the information processing apparatus 10, and is developed by developers such as printer manufacturers and business partners. The print service 12 mainly has a function of receiving print settings and a function of converting data of the print application 21 into an image. The print service 12 executes printing upon request from the print application 21 . Note that the print service 12 may be called a print plug-in.

The print service 12 in FIG. 9 has a print processing unit 13 , a screen display unit 14 , a communication processing unit 15 , a registration unit 16 , an operation reception unit 17 , a printer list operation unit 18 and a deletion unit 19 . The print processing unit 13 converts the PDF file received from the print system 11 into data in a format printable by the printer 30 if necessary, and transmits the data to the printer 30 .

The screen display unit 14 displays the print setting screen when receiving a print setting change notification from the print preview screen 130 (that is, from the OS side that manages the print preview screen). Alternatively, a user interface for setting the print service 12 is displayed. One of these user interfaces is a screen for setting a default printer.

The communication processing unit 15 searches for a printer 30 that can currently print. For example, the printer 30 broadcasts a response request to the network to which the information processing apparatus 10 is connected, and communicates with the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), for example, a MIB that is published to inform the outside of the status of the printer 30. (Management Information Base). If the printer 30 is compatible with the print service 12, the MIB information can be obtained by searching.

The operation reception unit 17 receives a user's operation on the user interface displayed by the screen display unit 14 .

One of the features of this embodiment is that the print service 12 has a registration unit 16 , a printer list operation unit 18 and a deletion unit 19 .

The printer list operation unit 18 detects that the print preview screen 130 is displayed in the foreground. Further, the printer list operation unit 18 acquires each printer 30 displayed on the print preview screen 130 from the print preview screen 130 (printing system 11).

The deletion unit 19 instructs the printing system 11 to delete each printer 30 displayed on the print preview screen 130 . After doing this, the registration unit 16 registers the printer 30 in the printing system 11, so that the printer 30 selected by the user on the user interface displayed by the screen display unit 14 can be added from an empty printer list. It can be registered as the default printer at the top of the printer list. Further, the registration unit 16 registers the currently printable printer 30 with the printing system 11 .

The registration unit 16 also notifies the printing system 11 of the capabilities of the printer 30 currently selected on the print preview screen 130 . The capabilities of printer 30 are exposed in the MIB. The registration unit 16 notifies the printing system 11 of the status of the job being printed.

<Select default printer>
FIG. 10 shows an example of the default printer selection screen 210 displayed by the screen display unit 14 of the print service 12. As shown in FIG. The default printer selection screen 210 is the home screen of the print service 12 . For example, it is displayed when the print service 12 is selected on the list screen 101 of the installed print services 12 in FIG. The home screen is the screen that is minimally displayed after the software is started. The user can intuitively select the default printer on the home screen of the print service.

A default printer selection screen 210 displays a printer list 212 that can be printed by the print service 12 . A printer that can be printed by the print service 12 is a printer that is selected as a default printer. The user presses the ☆ mark 213 of the printer 30 to be set as the default printer from the printer list 212 . The operation accepting unit 17 accepts the operation, and the screen display unit 14 changes to the star mark 214 . Thus, the user can intuitively select the default printer.

Since only one printer 30 can be set as the default printer, only one * mark 214 is displayed, and the remaining * marks 213 are displayed. In the example of FIG. 10, the printer 30 of "10.60.98.102" (reference number 135) is selected as the default printer.

Note that the method of setting the default printer is not limited to pressing the ☆ mark 213 . For example, the user may drag up a favorite printer 30 and change the order of each printer 30 to change the priority of the printers 30 and set the printer 30 on the top row as the default printer.

<Operation procedure>
FIG. 11 is an example of a flow chart showing an example procedure for setting a default printer by a user. The processing in FIG. 11 will be described, for example, with the home screen of the print service 12 opened.

The user opens the default printer selection screen 210 (home screen) of the print service 12 at arbitrary timing (S1).

The communication processing unit 15 communicates with the printer 30 and acquires a list of printers that are currently printable (S2). “Printable” means that communication is possible. Furthermore, the conditions may be that there is no failure or that printing is not in progress.

The screen display unit 14 displays a list of currently printable printers acquired by the communication processing unit 15 (S3). Steps S2 and S3 are performed in real time, and as the number of available printers 30 increases or decreases over time, the list of printers increases or decreases accordingly.

The screen display unit 14 selects the printer 30 at the top of the printer list as the default printer when the user has not selected a default printer so far or when the default printer previously selected by the user cannot be found. (S4). For example, the printer 30 with the largest number of successful printing times, the printer 30 with the fastest response, or the ascending or descending order of IP addresses may be used. If the default printer selected by the user cannot be found, a predetermined default printer is selected, so that printing by the default printer that cannot be found by the user can be suppressed.

The user selects the printer 30 to be set as the default printer from the list of currently printable printers (S5). The operation accepting unit 17 accepts the operation, and the screen display unit 14 changes the ☆ mark 213 to the ★ mark 214 .

The screen display unit 14 stores the default printer selected by the user in the non-volatile memory (S6). Since the default printer is stored, there is no need for the user to set the default printer once again.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart diagram of an example procedure for print service 12 to designate a default printer.

The printing system 11 calls an API (Application Interface) called PrinterDiscoverySession.onStartPrinterDiscovery( ) when searching for the printer 30 (S11). This API is an API that the print service 12 must support, and is called from the print system 11 when searching for the printer 30 . When this API is called, the communication processing unit 15 of the print service 12 searches for printers that are currently printable.

In this embodiment, the registration unit 16 temporarily saves the list of currently printable printers acquired in step S11, and executes PrinterDiscoverySession.addPrinters(), which is an API for adding printable printers 30 to the OS. It is not used and registered immediately (S12). That is, step S12 is an inaction process for explanation.

The printer list operation unit 18 confirms whether or not the print preview screen 130 is active (displayed in the foreground) (S13). That is, it is confirmed whether or not the screen that the user is currently operating is the print preview screen 130 .

If the print preview screen 130 is not active (No in S13), the registration unit 16 registers the currently printable printer list temporarily saved in step S12 in the OS using PrinterDiscoverySession.addPrinters( ) (S14 ). Since the print preview screen 130 is not in the foreground, the print service 12 does not need to indicate to the print system 11 the default printer set by the user. The printer 30 registered in the OS can be confirmed on the print preview screen 130 or the system screen of the OS.

If the print preview screen 130 is active (Yes in S13), the print service 12 can instruct the print system 11 to use the default printer set by the user. Since the print preview screen 130 is active, the operation to the print preview screen 130 can be reliably performed.

The screen display unit 14 acquires the default printer selected and stored by the user from the non-volatile memory (S15).

Next, the printer list operation unit 18 acquires the printer list displayed on the print preview screen 130 from the printing system 11 (S16). Printers 30 that have printed at least once in the past are displayed.

The deletion unit 19 instructs the printing system 11 to delete all the printers 30 in the printer list (S17). As a result, all past print histories are deleted. Since the print service 12 (printer list operation unit 18 and deletion unit 19) and the process (print system 11) that displays the print preview screen 130 are separate processes, the mechanism of Android (registered trademark) Intent is used for inter-process communication. do. As a result, it is possible to issue the same command to the process of the print preview screen 130 that is different from the print service 12 as if the user had manually operated the screen.

The registration unit 16 registers the default printer selected by the user in the OS using PrinterDiscoverySession.addPrinters( ) (S18). As a result, the default printer selected by the user is registered first from the empty printer list. Conventionally, print services are registered in the order in which printers are found, but in this embodiment, a printer selected by the user can be registered as a default printer.

Also, the registration unit 16 uses PrinterDiscoverySession.addPrinters( ) to register the printer 30 found other than the default printer selected by the user in the OS (S19). As a result, the printer 30 that is not the default printer can also be registered as a printer that is not the default printer, so that the user can easily change the printer 30 .

<Summary>
As described above, the print service of this embodiment is included in the list of printers held by the OS so that the set printer 30 is first in the list of printers displayed by the OS (selected as the default printer). Each printer 30 is temporarily deleted, and the designated printer 30 is first registered in the OS. This allows the user to set the default printer with an intuitive operation.

<Other application examples>
Although the best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described above using examples, the present invention is by no means limited to such examples, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. and substitutions can be added.

In the present embodiment, a printer is used as an example, but in a FAX service having similar functions to a FAX transmission device, the user can arbitrarily select a default FAX transmission device as in the print service. Printers and FAX transmission devices are called electronic devices.

Further, although the Android OS (registered trademark) has been described as an example in the present embodiment, the OS may be iOS (registered trademark) or the like.

Further, the configuration examples shown in FIG. 9 and the like shown in the above embodiment are divided according to main functions in order to facilitate understanding of the processing of the information processing apparatus 10 . However, the method of dividing each processing unit and the names thereof do not limit the present invention. The information processing apparatus 10 can also be divided into more processing units according to the processing content. Also, one processing unit can be divided to include more processing.

Each function of the embodiments described above may be implemented by one or more processing circuits. Here, the "processing circuit" in this specification means a processor programmed by software to perform each function, such as a processor implemented by an electronic circuit, or a processor designed to perform each function described above. devices such as ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), DSPs (digital signal processors), FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and conventional circuit modules.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 information processing device 12 print service 16 registration unit 18 printer list operation unit 19 deletion unit 30 printer

JP 2017-168028 A

Claims (7)

An information processing device,
a screen display unit that displays one or more electronic devices to be selected;
an operation reception unit that receives selection of an electronic device;
a deletion unit that deletes an electronic device that has already been registered in the information processing device;
a registration unit that registers the electronic device accepted by the operation accepting unit as a default electronic device ;
The deletion unit and the registration unit are separate processes from the process of displaying electronic devices that have been used in the past,
The deletion unit requests a process for displaying electronic devices to delete electronic devices already registered in the information processing device,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the registration unit requests a process for displaying electronic devices to register the electronic device selected by the user as a default electronic device. The deletion unit deletes an already registered electronic device when a screen displaying a list of electronic devices is being displayed in the foreground,
2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a screen displaying a list of electronic devices is not being displayed in the foreground, electronic devices that have already been registered are not deleted. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the screen on which the screen display unit displays one or more electronic devices to be selected is a home screen of a print service that executes printing in response to a request from an application. information processing equipment. Further, the information processing device
function as a communication processing unit that searches for one or more electronic devices to be selected via a communication path;
4. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the registration unit registers an electronic device that is not registered as a default electronic device after registering the electronic device as a default electronic device. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said electronic device is a printer. information processing equipment,
a screen display unit that displays one or more electronic devices to be selected;
an operation reception unit that receives selection of an electronic device;
a deletion unit that deletes an electronic device that has already been registered in the information processing device;
functioning as a registration unit for registering the electronic device accepted by the operation accepting unit as a default electronic device;
The deletion unit and the registration unit are separate processes from the process of displaying electronic devices that have been used in the past,
The deletion unit requests a process for displaying electronic devices to delete electronic devices already registered in the information processing device,
The program, wherein the registration unit requests a process for displaying electronic devices to register the electronic device selected by the user as a default electronic device. An electronic device registration method performed by an information processing device,
a screen display displaying one or more electronic devices to be selected;
a step in which the operation receiving unit receives a selection of the electronic device;
a step in which a deletion unit deletes an electronic device that has already been registered in the information processing device;
a registering unit registering the electronic device accepted by the operation accepting unit as a default electronic device;
The deletion unit and the registration unit are separate processes from the process of displaying electronic devices that have been used in the past,
The deletion unit requests a process for displaying electronic devices to delete electronic devices already registered in the information processing device,
The electronic device registration method, wherein the registration unit requests a process for displaying the electronic device to register the electronic device selected by the user as a default electronic device.

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