JP7326784B2 - Information processing device and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and program.

Patent Document 1 describes a printing system in which a plurality of printers installed at a plurality of installation locations, a terminal device carried by a user, and a management device are connected to each other via a network. The terminal device has an operation unit that accepts instructions from the user to print image data on a medium, a location information generation unit that generates location information representing the current location, and a print instruction from the image data and location information to the management device via the network. a printer information storage unit that stores installation location information representing the installation location of the printer and specific information for specifying the printer on the network in association with each other; Based on the management reception unit that receives the print instruction via the network, the print reception information storage unit that stores the image data and position information of the print instruction, and the position information of the print instruction, the user is expected to use an expected usage range determination unit for determining an expected usage range; a selection unit that selects a printer included in the expected usage range as a target printer based on installation location information stored in a printer information storage unit; a management transmission unit for transmitting image data to the target printer via the network using specific information stored in association with the target printer in the information storage unit, and the printer receives the image data from the management device via the network. It is described to have a printer communication unit for receiving data and a printing unit for printing an image based on image data on a medium based on a user's operation instruction.

JP 2018-097523 A

If image data is transferred in advance to printers within the user's expected range of use based on the location information in the print instruction, only the current location and printers that have been used in the past are candidates, so the user can move to an arbitrary location. There is a limit to shortening the waiting time when moving.

According to the present invention, when a user moves to an arbitrary point, the time required to obtain an image is reduced compared to the case where an image output is requested in front of an image forming apparatus and the image output by the image forming apparatus is obtained. An object of the present invention is to provide a technology capable of shortening the waiting time.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an acquisition unit acquires information about a travel route of a user; and transmitting means for transmitting all image information to be output in advance to the image forming apparatus.

The invention according to claim 2 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising deletion means for outputting an instruction to delete the image information to the image forming apparatus when a specific condition is satisfied.

The invention according to claim 3 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the specific condition is that the user outputs the image information from one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses.

The invention according to claim 4 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the specific condition is that the user has reached the destination of the movement route.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the specific condition is that the user has passed through on the moving route, and the deleting means selects an image forming apparatus, among the plurality of image forming apparatuses, through which the user has passed. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said deletion instruction is output to said.

The invention according to claim 6 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the specific condition is that the user has changed the moving route.

The invention according to claim 7 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition means acquires information about the movement route using the user's schedule.

The invention according to claim 8 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition means acquires information about the moving route using the image information.

A ninth aspect of the present invention is the first aspect, wherein the transmission means transmits the image information to an image forming apparatus in operation among the plurality of image forming apparatuses present on the moving route. is an information processing device.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the transmission means further transmits the image information to an image forming apparatus in operation among a plurality of image forming apparatuses existing within a certain range from the moving route. An information processing apparatus according to claim 9 .

The invention according to claim 11 is the information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission means sets an expiration date corresponding to an estimated travel time of the user on the travel route to the image information and transmits the image information. be.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, a computer comprises an acquisition means for acquiring information about a user's movement route, and a plurality of image forming apparatuses that are expected to be used by the user using the information. and a program for operating as transmission means for transmitting all image information to be output in advance to the plurality of image forming apparatuses.

According to the first and twelfth aspects of the present invention, when a user moves to an arbitrary point and requests image output in front of an image forming apparatus and acquires an image output by the image forming apparatus, In comparison, the waiting time to acquire an image can be shortened.

According to the second to sixth aspects of the present invention, leakage of image information is further prevented.

According to the seventh and eighth aspects of the invention, it is possible to reliably acquire information on the user's moving route.

According to the ninth and tenth aspects of the present invention, it is possible to reliably output image information transmitted in advance.

According to the eleventh aspect of the invention, leakage of image information is adaptively prevented according to movement on the movement route.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment; FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of print job download to the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment; FIG. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram (part 1) of a print job deletion instruction to the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment; FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram (part 2) of a print job deletion instruction to the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment; 1 is a sequence diagram (part 1) of an embodiment; FIG. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram (part 2) of the embodiment; FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram (part 3) of the embodiment; FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram (part 4) of the embodiment; FIG. 11 is a screen display explanatory diagram of Modification 1; FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a print job deletion instruction to an image forming apparatus according to Modification 2;

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of the present embodiment. The system of this embodiment includes an image forming apparatus 10 installed in a store, a mobile terminal 12, a cloud server 14, a personal computer (PC) 16 in an office, and a gateway device 18. FIG.

The PC 16 in the office is a computer operated by a user working in the office, and may be a smart phone, a tablet, or the like. The office may be an office where employees belonging to a specific company work, or a shared office where a plurality of employees belonging to a plurality of companies or freelancers work. PC 16 is connected to cloud server 14 via a communication network. The user operates the PC 16 to transmit a print job including image information to be output by the image forming apparatus 10 installed outside the office to the cloud server 14 . The PC 16 may also transmit the user's schedule data to the cloud server 14 .

The cloud server 14 includes a control device 14a, a program memory 14b such as a ROM, a communication interface (I/F) 14c, and a storage device 14d. The control device 14a is composed of one or more processors, and realizes each process by reading and executing a processing program stored in the program memory 14b. Some of the functions of the control device 14a may be realized by hardware processing instead of software processing by executing a program. Hardware processing may be performed using circuits such as ASIC and FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). The control device 14a has, as functional modules, a moving route acquisition module, a selection module, and a download/deletion control module in order to execute each process. Here, "module" means a component such as software or hardware that can be logically separated. Modules may correspond to functions on a 1:1 basis, but one module may be composed of one program, or a plurality of modules may be composed of one program. Also, multiple modules may be executed by one processor or by multiple processors in a distributed or parallel environment. In the processing by each module, target information is read, processed by a processor such as a CPU, and then the processing result is output.

The movement route acquisition module functions as acquisition means and acquires information on the movement route for the user in the office to reach the destination. Information about travel routes can be obtained using the user's schedule data. Also, it can be obtained from the attribute data included in the print job sent from the PC 16 .

The selection module selects an image forming apparatus 10 that satisfies a certain condition from among the plurality of image forming apparatuses 10 existing along the movement path acquired by the movement path acquisition module as a print job download destination. The constant condition is
・Existing on the moving route ・Existing within a certain range from the moving route ・In an operating state, etc. The selection module determines whether or not a certain condition is satisfied by using the store information about the store where the image forming apparatus 10 is installed and the status information of the image forming apparatus 10 stored in the storage device 14d. An image forming apparatus 10 is selected.

The download/deletion control module transmits the print job in advance via the communication network to the image forming apparatus 10 selected by the selection module. “Preliminarily” means the period from when the user transmits a print job from the PC 16 to the cloud server 14 until the user actually arrives at the installation location of the image forming apparatus 10 and operates the image forming apparatus 10 . For example, it is the timing when the user leaves the office. The selection module and the download/deletion control module function as sending means. The download/deletion control module stores information on the image forming apparatus that has sent the print job in the storage device 14d.

Further, after the print job is transmitted to the selected image forming apparatus 10, the download/deletion control module executes the print job in any of the selected image forming apparatuses 10 to output an image. An instruction to delete the print job is transmitted to the image forming apparatuses other than the image forming apparatus that has output the image among the image forming apparatuses 10 . That is, the download/deletion control module identifies the transmission destination of the deletion instruction using the information of the image forming apparatus that transmitted the print job, stored in the storage device 14d, and transmits the deletion instruction. The download/deletion control module also functions as a deletion means.

The image forming apparatus 10 is installed in stores such as convenience stores, drug stores, stationery stores, and print service stores. The image forming apparatus 10 is, for example, a multifunction device that realizes multiple functions such as scanner, FAX, print, and copy. When a print job is transmitted from the cloud server 14, the image forming apparatus 10 receives and holds the print job. Upon receiving an output instruction from the user, the image forming apparatus 10 executes the held print job and outputs an image. The executed print job is deleted after image output. Further, when the image forming apparatus 10 receives and holds a print job from the cloud server 14 and then receives a deletion instruction from the cloud server 14, the image forming apparatus 10 executes the held print job in response to the deletion instruction. Delete without

The mobile terminal 12 is a terminal carried by a user who moves from an office to a destination, such as a smart phone, a tablet terminal, or a notebook computer. The mobile terminal 12 appropriately acquires information on the image forming apparatus 10 set in the store, and transmits the information to the cloud server 14 via the gateway device 18 . The information of the image forming apparatus 10 acquired by the mobile terminal 12 is store information about the store and status information of the image forming apparatus 10 , and is used for selecting the image forming apparatus 10 in the cloud server 14 .

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the image forming apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. The image forming apparatus 10 includes, as functional blocks, a device information management section 10a, a display control section 10b, a storage device 10c, a printer control section 10d, a printer engine 10e, a scanner control section 10f, a scanner 10g, and a communication control section 10h.

The device information management unit 10 a manages transmission and reception of device information with the mobile terminal 12 . The device information includes store information and status information as described above.

The display control unit 10b displays various types of information on the liquid crystal display of the image forming apparatus 10 and receives operations from the user. User operations include print instructions.

The communication control unit 10 h controls communication with the cloud server 14 and communication with the mobile terminal 12 . Communication with the cloud server 14 includes receiving a print job from the cloud server 14 and receiving a print job deletion instruction from the cloud server 14 .

The storage device 10c includes a print job storage unit that stores print jobs received from the cloud server 14, and a store information storage unit that stores store information. The store information includes location information of the store where the image forming apparatus 10 is installed, business hours, and status information of the image forming apparatus 10 . The status information may include the operating status of the image forming apparatus 10 as well as the types of images that can be output by the image forming apparatus 10 (black and white/color, paper size, etc.).

The printer control unit 10d executes a print job stored in the storage device 10c according to a user operation accepted by the display control unit 10b, drives the printer engine 10e, and uses image information included in the print job. Output the image. After reading and executing the print job stored in the storage device 10c, the printer control unit 10d deletes the print job from the storage device 10c. Further, when the printer control unit 10d receives a deletion instruction from the cloud server 14 for a print job that is stored in the storage device 10c and has not yet been executed by the printer engine 10e, the printer control unit 10d performs the deletion according to the deletion instruction. The print job is deleted from the storage device 10c.

The scanner control unit 10f drives the scanner 10g according to the user's operation received by the display control unit 10b to execute scanning processing.

In this embodiment, a control device that controls the entire image forming apparatus 10 stores a print job received from the cloud server 14 by the communication control unit 10h in the storage device 10c, and receives the print job from the cloud server 14 by the communication control unit 10h. The print job stored in the storage device 10c may be deleted according to the print job deletion instruction. A print job is assigned an ID for uniquely identifying the print job, and the cloud server 14 designates the ID and transmits a print job deletion instruction to the image forming apparatus 10 . The printer control unit 10d or a control device that controls the whole identifies the print job using the ID included in the deletion instruction and deletes it from the storage device 10c.

Next, selection processing in the cloud server 14 will be described.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a user's moving route 50 from an office (for example, a shared office) to a destination (for example, a client), and a plurality of image forming apparatuses C1 existing on this moving route 50 and near the moving route 50. ~C4 are shown schematically.

The cloud server 14 acquires the moving route 50 of the user moving from the office to the destination, for example, from the user's schedule data. The user's schedule data may be obtained from the PC 16 or from a server computer in the office. For example, if the user's schedule data indicates a briefing session at ○○ Co., Ltd. from 10:00 am on April 1, 2019, the travel route 50 of the user on April 1, 2019 is from the office to ○○ stock. It is presumed to be the travel route to the company. If there is past movement route data for the user, the specific movement route from the office to ○○ Co., Ltd. is specified based on the past movement route data, and if there is no past movement route data, the shortest route or A route that can reach the destination in the shortest time is searched for and used as a movement route. The moving route 50 includes a moving means (walking, car, railroad, etc.) and an estimated moving time.

Assume that the user is traveling from the office to the destination by car, the image forming apparatus C2 is present on the travel route 50 by car, and the image forming apparatuses C1, C3, and C4 are present in the vicinity of the travel route 50. . Here, "nearby" means within a certain range from the movement route 50, which may be a certain distance such as within 50 m from the movement route, or within 10 minutes on foot from the movement route 50. A certain period of time may also be used. The fixed range may be changed as appropriate depending on the moving means. In the case of railroad, it is within the station premises, in the case of walking, within 10 minutes on foot, and in the case of car, within 1 km.

Image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 are in operation, but image forming apparatus C4 is out of order and is not in operation (not in operation is indicated by a cross in the figure).

In this case, the cloud server 14 selects the image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 as the image forming apparatuses to which the print job is transmitted in advance, based on the movement route 50 and the status information. Upon receiving the print job from the user's PC 16, the cloud server 14 transmits the print job to the selected image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3. The image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 receive the print job transmitted from the cloud server 14 and store it in their respective storage devices 10c.

Note that when the cloud server 14 selects the image forming apparatuses 10 to which the print job is to be transmitted, the score is calculated by a certain calculation formula, and a predetermined number of image forming apparatuses 10 are extracted from those with the highest scores. You can pick up at The closer the distance from the moving route 50 is, the higher the score is, and the higher the number of past uses is, the higher the score is. Also, if the destination is the same but is different from the past travel route, the score is calculated by reducing the score of the past travel route, etc., assuming that the past travel route has some trouble.

Further, the cloud server 14 may estimate the user's destination by analyzing the image information included in the print job transmitted from the PC 16 instead of or together with the user's schedule data. Specifically, the destination is estimated from the company name, person in charge, telephone number, project name, e-mail address, etc. included in the image information.

Further, when information about the destination is transmitted from the PC together with the print job, the cloud server 14 may determine the destination using the information.

When the cloud server 14 previously transmits a print job to the selected image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3, the information of these selected image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 is sent to the PC 16 or the mobile terminal 12. You may send. This allows the user to know in advance which image forming apparatus 10 stores the print job.

FIG. 4 shows that after the cloud server 14 has sent a print job to the selected image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3, the user actually leaves the office carrying the mobile terminal 12 and travels to the destination along the movement route 50. 4 schematically shows a case where the image forming apparatus C2 moves on the moving path 50 and outputs an image.

The image forming apparatus C2 reads out and executes the print job stored in the storage device 10c according to user operations including user authentication, and outputs an image. The user operation includes information transmission from the mobile terminal 12 as well as the user operating the display device of the image forming apparatus C2. The image forming apparatus C2 or the mobile terminal 12 transmits to the cloud server 14 that the print job has been executed and the image has been output. When the cloud server 14 receives that the print job has been executed, it transmits a deletion instruction to the image forming apparatuses C1 and C3 that have transmitted the print job in advance but have not executed the print job. Image forming apparatuses C<b>1 and C<b>3 delete print jobs stored in respective storage devices 10 c in response to deletion instructions from cloud server 14 . This prevents leakage of image information included in the print job.

In the example of FIG. 4, the cloud server 14 transmits the deletion instruction at the timing when the user executes the print job with the image forming apparatus C2, but the cloud server 14 transmits the deletion instruction at the timing when the user reaches the destination. You may

FIG. 5 schematically shows the processing in this case.

The image forming apparatus C2 reads out and executes the print job stored in the storage device 10c according to user operations including user authentication, and outputs an image. After that, the user reaches the destination. When the cloud server 14 receives the position information from the mobile terminal 12 and detects that the user has arrived at the destination, the cloud server 14 sends a print job to the image forming apparatuses C1 and C3, which have previously transmitted a print job but have not executed the print job. send a delete instruction to Image forming apparatuses C<b>1 and C<b>3 delete print jobs stored in respective storage devices 10 c in response to deletion instructions from cloud server 14 . This also prevents leakage of image information included in the print job.

In FIG. 4, the cloud server 14 transmits the deletion instruction at the timing when the print job is executed by the image forming apparatus C2. 5, the cloud server 14 issues a deletion instruction at the timing when the user reaches the destination. is transmitted, the image forming apparatus C3 also holds the print job until the user reaches the destination. Therefore, in FIG. 5, even if the image is output by the image forming apparatus C2, and it becomes necessary to output the image also by the image forming apparatus C3 for some reason (for example, the required number of copies of the image is suddenly increased), this also applies. can cope.

FIG. 6 shows a detailed sequence diagram of this embodiment. This is processing between the image forming apparatus 10 , the mobile terminal 12 , the cloud server 14 and the PC 16 .

The image forming apparatus 10 transmits the store information and device status information stored in the storage device 10c to the mobile terminal 12 (S101). The device status information is information about the operation status of the image forming apparatus 10, and can take two states, for example, in operation and in operation stop. An example of a transmission method from the image forming apparatus 10 is BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Advertise communication, but is not limited to this.

Upon receiving the store information and device status information (S201), the mobile terminal 12 adds its own terminal information and transmits the store information and device status information to the cloud server 14 via the gateway device 18 (S202). The mobile terminal 12 may add its own terminal information and transmit the store information and the device status information to the cloud server 14 when a preset condition is satisfied.
- The number of image forming apparatuses 10 that have received information has reached a certain number. The mobile terminal 12 continues to collect information from the image forming apparatus 10 and transmit information to the cloud server 14 until it enters a predesignated office. As the mobile terminal 12 continuously collects and transmits information, store information and device status information about many image forming apparatuses 10 are accumulated in the cloud server 14, and these are used as learning data for the movement route. .

The cloud server 14 receives the store information and device status information transmitted from the mobile terminal 12 (S301), and stores them in the storage device 14d. Then, using the stored information as learning data, the moving route of the mobile terminal 12 is analyzed, and among the plurality of image forming apparatuses present on and near the moving route, the image forming devices that are in operation are extracted. (S302). Note that the image forming apparatus 10 extracted at this time is not the image forming apparatus selected as the destination of the print job. This is because the user's destination has not yet been determined. That is, the image forming apparatuses that are in operation on and near the travel routes to a plurality of destinations are extracted. This moving route analysis can be said to be pre-processing of the selection processing of the image forming apparatus 10 .

Next, the user operates the PC 16 to send a print job including image information to the cloud server 14 (S401).

When the cloud server 14 receives the print job from the PC 16, it holds it in the storage device 14d (S303) and prepares for the print job transmission process.

After that, when the user leaves the office carrying the mobile terminal 12 and heads for the destination (S203), the cloud server 14 uses the location information from the mobile terminal 12 to detect movement of the mobile terminal 12 (S304). ), the image forming apparatus 10 is selected as the destination device of the print job when the mobile terminal 12 moves, that is, when the user leaves the office and heads for the destination (S305).

That is, the cloud server 14 acquires the user's schedule data from the PC 16 or a server computer in the office, determines the user's destination using the schedule data, and determines the user's destination on or near the destination. An image forming apparatus that is in operation is selected from among the image forming apparatuses. If the operating state differs depending on the time period, image forming apparatuses that are not expected to be in the operating state at the expected travel time on the travel route may be excluded from the selection. Further, when the cloud server 14 cannot acquire the user's schedule data, the cloud server 14 determines the user's destination from the image information of the print job received in S303 and held in the storage device 14d, and selects the image forming apparatus. . If the user's destination information is added to the print job, the destination information may be used to select the image forming apparatus.

After selecting a plurality of image forming apparatuses, the cloud server 14 transmits the print job held in the storage device 14d to the selected image forming apparatuses. (S306). Note that if there is only one image forming apparatus that satisfies the conditions, the print job is transmitted to the image forming apparatus. Also, if there is no image forming apparatus that satisfies the conditions (for example, there is no image forming apparatus on or near the travel route), the cloud server 14 notifies the PC 16 or mobile terminal 12 of the fact. for example,
"There is no image forming device that can output images to the destination."
etc. and send a message. In this case, the user can respond by, for example, outputting the image in the office.

The selected image forming apparatus 10 receives the print job from the cloud server 14 (S102) and stores it in the storage device 10c. Then, when the user moves along the movement route and transmits information from the mobile terminal 12 to one of the selected image forming apparatuses 10 (S204), the image forming apparatus 10 User authentication is performed using information from the mobile terminal 12 (S103), and if the user authentication is successful, a print job related to the user is read from the storage device 10c, executed, and an image is output (S104). After executing the print job and outputting the image, the image forming apparatus 10 notifies the cloud server 14 that the print job has been executed.

When the cloud server 14 receives a notification that the print job has been executed from any of the selected image forming apparatuses 10, the image forming apparatuses 10 that have not yet executed the print job among the image forming apparatuses 10 that have transmitted the print job. (S307). The image forming apparatus 10 that has received the deletion instruction deletes the print job from the storage device 10c.

In FIG. 6, whether or not the mobile terminal 12 has left the office is detected not only by location information from the mobile terminal 12, but also by Wi-Fi installed in the office, BLE installed at the office gate, etc. can.

FIG. 7 shows another detailed sequence diagram of this embodiment. This is processing between the image forming apparatus 10 , the mobile terminal 12 , the cloud server 14 and the PC 16 .

The difference from FIG. 6 is that after the image forming apparatus 10 outputs the print job (S104), when the mobile terminal 12 reaches the destination (S205), the cloud server 14 uses the location information from the mobile terminal 12 to The point is that the movement of the terminal 12 is detected (S307), and the arrival at the destination is used as a trigger to transmit an instruction to delete the print job (S308). The sequence in FIG. 7 corresponds to the schematic diagram in FIG.

In FIG. 7, whether or not the mobile terminal 12 has reached the destination can be determined by location information from the mobile terminal 12, Wi-Fi installed at the destination, BLE installed at the gate of the destination, etc. can also be detected by

FIG. 8 shows still another detailed sequence diagram of this embodiment. This is processing between the image forming apparatus 10 , the mobile terminal 12 , the cloud server 14 and the PC 16 .

The difference from FIG. 6 is that after the image forming apparatus 10 receives the print job (S102), the image forming apparatus 10 detects the proximity of the mobile terminal 12, there is no image output operation from the mobile terminal 12, and the user can directly print the image. When the image forming apparatus 10 passes the forming apparatus 10 (S105), the image forming apparatus 10 detects that the user has passed without outputting an image, and transmits to the cloud server 14 that the user has passed. (S307), and the image forming apparatus 10 passed by the user deletes the print job in the storage device 10c according to the deletion instruction from the cloud server 14. It is a point to do.

In this sequence, among a plurality of image forming apparatuses 10 holding print jobs in advance, only the image forming apparatus 10 that the user has passed without outputting an image deletes the print job. keeps the print job intact. This sequence can also reduce the waiting time until the image is acquired while preventing leakage of image information included in the print job.

In FIG. 8, it is detected that the user has passed through the image forming apparatus 10 without outputting an image using the position information transmitted from the mobile terminal 12. It may be determined that the user has passed based on the estimated movement time of , and may be transmitted to the cloud server 14 to receive a print job deletion instruction.

Also, in FIG. 8, when the user passes the image forming apparatus 10 without outputting an image, the image forming apparatus 10 transmits a message to that effect to the cloud server 14, and prints according to a deletion instruction from the cloud server 14. Although the job is deleted, the print job may be deleted without being sent to the cloud server 14 .

FIG. 9 shows still another detailed sequence diagram of this embodiment. This is processing between the image forming apparatus 10 , mobile terminal A and mobile terminal B as mobile terminals 12 , cloud server 14 , and PC 16 . Mobile terminal A and mobile terminal B are mobile terminals carried by users belonging to the same group.

The image forming apparatus 10 transmits the store information and device status information stored in the storage device 10c to the mobile terminal A (S101). Upon receiving the store information and the device status information (S201), the mobile terminal A transmits its own terminal information to the image forming apparatus 10 (S205).

The image forming apparatus 10 receives the information of the mobile terminal A (S107), and stores the information in the storage device 10c as a passage history. At this time, the user name included in the information of the mobile terminal A and the user information stored in the image forming apparatus 10 are compared, and if they match, they are also stored as a group identifier of the company or organization to which they belong. Then, the image forming apparatus 10 periodically transmits the passage history of the mobile terminal A, the store information, and the device status information to the cloud server 14 (S108). The cloud server 14 receives the passage history, store information, and device status information transmitted from the image forming apparatus 10, and stores them in the storage device 14d.

The cloud server 14 analyzes the moving route of the mobile terminal A, and extracts the image forming apparatuses that are in operation from among the plurality of image forming apparatuses existing on and near the moving route (S302).

Next, the user operates the PC 16 to send a print job including image information to the cloud server 14 (S401).

When the cloud server 14 receives the print job from the PC 16, it holds it in the storage device 14d (S303) and prepares for the print job transmission process.

After that, when a user belonging to the same group as the user carrying mobile terminal A leaves the office carrying mobile terminal B and heads for the destination (S501), the cloud server 14 The movement of mobile terminal B is detected using position information from terminal B (S304), and the movement of mobile terminal B, that is, the movement of mobile terminal B, that is, the user leaving the office and heading to the destination as a trigger, determines the destination device of the print job. The image forming apparatus 10 is selected as (S305).

That is, the cloud server 14 acquires the user's schedule data from the PC 16 or a server computer in the office, determines the user's destination using the schedule data, and determines the user's destination on or near the destination. An image forming apparatus that is in operation is selected from among the image forming apparatuses.

After selecting a plurality of image forming apparatuses, the cloud server 14 transmits the print job held in the storage device 14d to the selected image forming apparatuses. (S306).

The selected image forming apparatus 10 receives the print job from the cloud server 14 (S102) and stores it in the storage device 10c. Then, when the user moves along the moving route and transmits information from the mobile terminal B to one of the selected image forming apparatuses 10 (S502), the image forming apparatus 10 User authentication is performed using information from the mobile terminal B (S103), and if the user authentication is successful, a print job related to the user is read out from the storage device 10c, executed, and an image is output (S104). After executing the print job and outputting the image, the image forming apparatus 10 notifies the cloud server 14 that the print job has been executed.

When the cloud server 14 receives a notification that the print job has been executed from any of the selected image forming apparatuses 10, the image forming apparatuses 10 that have not yet executed the print job among the image forming apparatuses 10 that have transmitted the print job. (S307). The image forming apparatus 10 that has received the deletion instruction deletes the print job from the storage device 10c.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications are possible. Modifications will be described below.

<Modification 1>
In the embodiment, the image forming apparatus 10 deletes the print job stored in the storage device 10c in response to a deletion instruction from the cloud server 14, but the image forming apparatus 10 does not respond to an explicit deletion operation from the user. The print job may be deleted accordingly.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a screen displayed on the display device 10i of the image forming apparatus 10 on which the user has output the image.
"Are you sure you want to delete the print jobs downloaded to other MFPs?"
message is displayed. When the user operates the “yes” button, the image forming apparatus 10 transmits the user's deletion operation to the cloud server 14 . Upon receiving the deletion operation from the user, the cloud server 14 transmits a print job deletion instruction to the other image forming apparatuses 10 that are not outputting images. Thereby, the user can clearly recognize that the print job has been deleted from the image forming apparatuses other than the image forming apparatus 10 to which the user has output the image.

<Modification 2>
In the embodiment, it is assumed that the user moves from the office to the destination along the movement route, but the user may deviate from the initial movement route for some reason. It is necessary to return to the office due to urgent business, or the destination has been changed suddenly. In this case, the cloud server 14 may transmit a print job deletion instruction to all of the image forming apparatuses 10 that have transmitted the print job in advance.

FIG. 11 schematically shows the processing in this case. This is the case where the user has moved along a moving route 52 different from the initial moving route 50 .

The mobile terminal 12 receives location information from the mobile terminal 12 via the gateway device 18 and tracks movement of the mobile terminal 12 . If the mobile terminal 12 is moving along the initial movement route 50, the process is executed according to the embodiment, and the print job deletion instruction is transmitted after the image is output by any of the image forming apparatuses 10. When it is detected that the mobile terminal 12 has deviated from the moving route 50, at that timing, a print job deletion instruction is transmitted to all the image forming apparatuses 10 that have previously transmitted the print job. The image forming apparatus 10 deletes the print job stored in the storage device 10 c in response to the deletion instruction from the cloud server 14 . This prevents leakage of image information when the user's schedule is changed.

Note that when the mobile terminal 12 deviates from the movement route 50, the cloud server 14 acquires new destination information for the new movement route 52, selects the image forming apparatus 10 again based on the movement route 52, and prints. You can submit the job.

<Modification 3>
In the embodiment, the estimated travel time of the user is calculated, and the cloud server 14 transmits the deletion instruction to the image forming apparatus 10 assuming that the user has passed the image forming apparatus 10 using the expected travel time. However, instead of this, when the cloud server 14 transmits the print job in advance, the print job may be transmitted after setting an expiration date according to the estimated travel time of the user.

For example, image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 are selected in FIG.
Image forming apparatus C1: April 1, 2019 11:00
Image forming apparatus C2: 12:00 on April 1, 2019
Image forming apparatus C3: April 1, 2019 14:00
, the cloud server 14 sets the expiration date of the print job to be transmitted to the image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 to: Expiration date of the print job of the image forming apparatus C1: Until 11:15 on April 1, 2019 Image Expiration date of the print job of the forming apparatus C2: Until 12:15 on April 1, 2019 Expiration date of the print job of the image forming apparatus C3: Until 14:15 on April 1, 2019 are set and transmitted. The expiration dates of the print jobs sent to the image forming apparatuses C1, C2, and C3 are not uniform and differ from each other. The image forming apparatus 10 deletes the print job if the print job is not executed within the expiration date. In this case, the expiration date of the print job set by the cloud server 14 can be regarded as the deletion instruction output from the cloud server 14 .

<Modification 4>
In the embodiment, the print job stored in the storage device 10c of the image forming apparatus 10 is deleted by outputting a deletion instruction from the cloud server 14. 10c to invalidate the print job stored in 10c. Therefore, a method for invalidating the print job may be employed, for example, the data of the print job may be left in the storage device 10c and at least part of the data may be damaged, or the data of the print job may be encrypted.

10 image forming apparatus, 12 mobile terminal, 14 cloud server, 16 PC (personal computer).

Claims (12)

Acquisition means for acquiring information about the movement route of the user;
a transmitting means for selecting a plurality of image forming apparatuses expected to be used by the user using the information, and transmitting all image information to be output in advance to the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses;
Information processing device. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising deleting means for outputting an instruction to delete said image information to said image forming apparatus when a specific condition is satisfied. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the specific condition is that the user has output the image information from one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the specific condition is that the user has reached the destination of the travel route. The specific condition is that the user has passed on the movement route,
3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said deletion means outputs said deletion instruction to an image forming apparatus, among said plurality of image forming apparatuses, through which said user has passed. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the specific condition is that the user has changed the moving route. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition means acquires information about the movement route using the user's schedule. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition means acquires information about the moving route using the image information. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transmission unit transmits said image information to an image forming apparatus in operation among a plurality of image forming apparatuses present on said moving route. 10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said transmission unit further transmits said image information to an image forming apparatus in operation among a plurality of image forming apparatuses existing within a certain range from said moving route. . 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transmission means sets an expiration date corresponding to an estimated travel time of said user on said travel route to said image information and transmits said image information. the computer,
Acquisition means for acquiring information about the movement route of the user;
Acts as transmission means for selecting a plurality of image forming apparatuses expected to be used by the user using the information and transmitting all image information to be output in advance to the selected image forming apparatuses. program to make

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