JP2007243319A - Terminal device and notifying method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To promote image printing by informing a user that unprinted image data exist at the place where immediate printing can be made, if there are unprinted data. <P>SOLUTION: In order to solve the problem, a terminal device performing communication with at least one or more image processing devices via a network, has: a personal information reading means for reading personal information; and an informing means for informing a user that the unprinted image exists when an image management means for managing an image per user includes the unprinted image of the user corresponding to the personal information read by the personal information reading means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device and a notification method.

  In recent years, there is a network print service for printing digital photo data taken using a digital camera or the like. The system in the network print service includes a terminal (such as a personal computer) used by a customer (print service user). In addition, the system includes a plurality of printing terminals (such as kiosk terminals installed in convenience stores) to which printing apparatuses are connected. Further, the system includes an image server connected to the customer terminal and the print terminal via a network.

  In the network print service, a customer uploads image data taken with a digital camera from a customer terminal to an image server. Next, the customer obtains a print output of the image data uploaded from an arbitrary print terminal. In the network print service, image data is stored in a server on the Internet, and a print request is made there, so that a customer can receive a print image by courier at a later date. Furthermore, an image service (site) that can be received by a customer at a designated convenience store is also provided.

  The advantage of the network print service is that the customer can output the image stored on the home personal computer with a high-performance printer installed in a nearby convenience store or print shop.

  As a development of the network print service, Patent Document 1 proposes a print system and a print order receiving system. In the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, first, image data taken by a customer with a digital camera or the like is uploaded to an image server. Next, any recipient designated by the customer can download the image data from the image server and print it.

  In this system, image data input by an image input terminal is transmitted to a print terminal designated by an image input person together with an identifier, a password, and the like for the image. The print recipient obtains a print of the image data input by the image input person by inputting the ID and password to the print terminal. A notification server is connected to the network, and when the phone number / email address / address of the print recipient is registered in advance when inputting an image, the notification server can identify the ID, It is possible to notify a password or the like.

JP 2001-290619 A

  However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the recipient is notified when an image is input regardless of the location of the printer. Therefore, in order to print, the printing device such as a convenience store or a print shop is used. I have to find a service store. There was a problem that it was not convenient for customers when they wanted to obtain print output immediately.

  In addition, if the customer cannot secure time to go to the service base or the customer forgets that there is print data, the print data may remain unprinted. In this case, there is a problem that service usage fees such as printing fees cannot be collected.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has an object of promoting printing of an image by notifying a user at a place where printing can be performed immediately when there is unprinted image data. To do.

  In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides a terminal device capable of communicating with at least one image processing apparatus via a network, a personal information reading means for reading personal information, and an image for each user. The image management means to be managed has a notifying means for notifying the user that there is an unprinted image when there is an unprinted image related to the user corresponding to the personal information read by the personal information reading means. It is characterized by.

  Moreover, in order to solve the said problem, this invention is good also as a notification method, a program, and a storage medium.

  According to the present invention, when there is unprinted image data, printing of an image can be promoted by notifying the user at a place where printing can be performed immediately.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a print notification service system according to the first embodiment. The print notification service system includes a store terminal 110, printing apparatuses 120 to 12n, networks 130, 140, and 150, a portable terminal 160, and an image server 170. The print notification service system includes an authentication database 171, an image database 172, and a customer terminal 180.

  The store terminal 110 is a terminal having a communication unit and a personal information reading unit, such as an ATM installed in a bank or an electronic register installed in a convenience store.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the internal structure of the store terminal 110. The store terminal 100 includes a CPU 201 and executes device control software (device control program) stored in the ROM 202. A RAM 203 functions as a main memory and work area of the CPU 200. A wireless communication unit 204 performs wireless communication.

  A network interface card (NIC) 205 bi-directionally exchanges data with a network printer, another network device, or another PC via a LAN. A display unit 206 such as an LCD notifies the customer. Reference numeral 207 denotes a touch panel. The personal information reading unit 208 is a device that reads information written in the mobile terminal 160, an IC card, a magnetic card, or the like.

  Each of the printing apparatuses 120 to 12 n has a unit that prints digital image information, and one or a plurality of the printing apparatuses exist in the same store A as the store terminal 110. In FIG. 1, three printing apparatuses 120 to 12n are illustrated, but the number is not limited to three.

  Each of the networks 130 to 150 is a short-range communication network such as a LAN, a wireless communication network, and a wide area network such as the Internet.

  The portable terminal 160 has a wireless communication function and an electronic money function, and has a function of performing electronic payment and personal authentication with the store terminal 110 placed at the store. The personal authentication information is, for example, a customer ID, IC card information, a telephone number, a mail address, or the like. The mobile terminal 160 is a mobile terminal that is always turned on and carried, and indicates a mobile phone terminal capable of wireless communication.

  The image server 170 has a communication unit with the Internet and has an authentication database 171 and an image database 172. The authentication database 171 includes a customer management table, and manages an area accessible to the image database 172 for each customer.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a customer management table. As shown in FIG. 3, the customer management table includes at least a customer ID, customer authentication information, and a reference image management table ID. The customer authentication information includes information including a password, name (customer name), address, mobile phone number, e-mail address, magnetic card information such as a credit card or cash card, and / or IC card information such as Suica. It is.

  The image database 172 is a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk and has an area for holding image data and an image information management table for each customer. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the image management table. As shown in FIG. 4, the image management table is a data structure having a data format. The image management table has image management information for each of the table ID and the held image. The table ID corresponds to the reference destination image management table ID in FIG. The image management information includes an image name, an address where the image data is stored (image data storage address), an image data size, and a print status indicating whether printing has already been performed.

  The image management table is newly registered by the image server 170 when the image is uploaded to the image database 172, and the print status becomes unprinted. The print status of the image is changed to a printed status by the image server 170 when the image is printed. An image whose print status is unprinted is hereinafter referred to as an unprinted image.

  The authentication database 171 and the image database 172 are not particularly limited in the capacity of the storage device, but preferably have a large capacity in units of GB (gigabytes) and TB (terabytes).

  The customer terminal 180 is a general personal user terminal device (PC) having an Internet communication unit. The customer can use the customer terminal 180 to access the image server 170 and input customer authentication information, thereby registering authentication data as initial registration by the user in the authentication database 171. Further, the customer can upload the image to the image database 172 by inputting customer authentication information at the customer terminal 180.

  Next, the flow of processing of this system in the first embodiment will be described using a sequence diagram and a flowchart. FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a calling procedure for the store terminal 110, the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n, the portable terminal 160, and the image server 170. In FIG. 5, S501 to S504 indicate processing in each device, and (1) to (4) indicate data communication between the devices. Further, a sequence portion indicated by P1 in FIG. 5 is an unprinted image data reading process, and a sequence portion indicated by P2 is a print notification process.

  First, the customer causes the personal information reading unit 208 of the store terminal 110 to read the customer authentication information of the portable terminal 160 (step (1)). The shop terminal 110 transmits the read customer authentication information to the image server 170 (step (2)). The customer means a user who receives a print notification service.

  The authentication server 170 searches the customer management table shown in FIG. 3 from the authentication database 171 based on the customer authentication information sent from the store terminal 110. Next, the authentication server 170 searches the image management table shown in FIG. 4 from the image database 172 based on the corresponding reference image management table ID in the customer management table. This process can be realized by searching for a table ID that matches the reference image management table ID.

  Next, the authentication server 170 reads an unprinted image from the image database 172 from the image management table and transmits it to the store terminal 110 (step (3)). When the corresponding data cannot be searched by the database search, or when the unprinted image cannot be searched, the authentication server 170 sends, for example, NULL to the store terminal 110 in step (3), and confirms that there is no image data. Show.

  Next, the store terminal 110 performs a print notification process based on the data received from the image server 170 (step S503). FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing of the store terminal 110 in step S503.

  First, the store terminal 110 reads data received from the image server 170 (step S601), and determines whether an unprinted image exists (step S602). If there is an unprinted image, the store terminal 110 acquires the operating status of the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n (step S603), and determines whether it is busy (step S604). For example, the store terminal 110 makes an inquiry about the operating status to the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n via the network 130, and acquires the operating status from the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n.

  Here, the busy state indicates a case where the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n are in operation or a print job is accumulated in the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n. When all the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n are busy, the store terminal 110 does not notify. If there is a printing apparatus that is not busy, the store terminal 110 notifies the customer that there is an unprinted image by the notification unit 206 (step S605).

  Notification to the customer can be realized, for example, by displaying on the screen of the store terminal 110 as shown in FIGS. Such a customer can perform printing by operating the touch panel of the store terminal 110. First, when the customer presses an image selection button 701 as shown in FIG. 7, the shop terminal 110 changes the screen to a screen as shown in FIG.

  In the screen of FIG. 8, unprinted image data is displayed on a 9-divided multi-screen as in 801. A button 802 is pressed by the customer when displaying the previous page to be printed, and a button 803 is pressed by the customer when displaying the next page to be printed. If there is no data to be displayed, the store terminal 110 invalidates the button 802 and the button 803.

  The customer can specify printing by pressing the screen portion on which the desired image is displayed in the 9-divided multi-screen 801. A plurality of images can be selected. When the OK button 804 is pressed by the customer, the store terminal 110 changes the screen to a screen as shown in FIG.

  Next, the customer performs print settings on the screen shown in FIG. A button 901 represents a type of printing, and the customer can specify either color or monochrome. The default is color. A dialog 902 indicates the number of printed sheets. The customer can change the number of sheets by operating buttons 903 to 906.

  The button 903 is a button for minus 10 sheets, the button 904 is a minus number for printing 1, the button 905 is a plus number for printing 1, and the button 906 is a button for incrementing the number of printing sheets to 10. The default number of prints is 1, and 1 or more and 99 or less can be specified. Similarly, the customer sets the type of printing and the number of prints on the screen of FIG. 9 for all the selected images.

  When the customer sets the type of printing and the number of copies for the last image and presses the button 907, the print information and the designated image data are transmitted to the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n that are not busy. ((4) in FIG. 5). Then, printing is started by the printing apparatus (step S504). Here, the print information indicates the designated print type and the number of prints. When the button 702, the button 805, or the button 908 is pressed, the print service is stopped. Also, when electronic payment by the next customer is started, the print service is stopped.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a print notification service system according to the second embodiment. The difference from the configuration of the first embodiment is that an image storage area 1001 inside the portable terminal 160 and an authentication server 1002 are provided instead of the image database 172 and the image server 170 in FIG. .

  The image storage area 1001 indicates a mass storage device such as a hard disk or a removable solid-state memory such as a compact flash (registered trademark) memory card. The image storage area 1001 has an area for holding image data and an image management table. The image management table is, for example, a data format as shown in FIG. The image management table has image management information for each of the table ID and the held image.

  The table ID corresponds to the reference destination image management table ID in FIG. The image management information includes an image name, an address where the image data is stored (image data storage address), an image data size, and a print status indicating whether printing has already been performed. When a new image is created in the image storage area 1001 at the time of shooting or when an image is received from another information device, the portable terminal 160 creates an image management table and the print status becomes unprinted. The print status of the image is changed to printed by the portable terminal 160 when the image is printed or when the image is downloaded to an information device terminal (PC or the like).

  The authentication server 1002 has a communication unit with the Internet and has an authentication database 171. The customer can register the authentication data as the initial registration by himself / herself in the authentication database 171 by accessing the authentication server 170 using the customer terminal 180 or the portable terminal 160 and inputting the customer authentication information.

  Only differences from the operation in the first embodiment will be described below. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram regarding a calling procedure of the store terminal 110, the printing devices 120 to 12n, the portable terminal 160, and the authentication server 1102 according to the second embodiment. The difference from the sequence of FIG. 5 is the unprinted image data reading process part of P1. The operation in the unprinted image data reading process P1 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  When the authentication server 1102 receives the customer authentication information, the authentication server 1102 searches the authentication database 171 for portable terminal information (step S1101). Here, the mobile terminal information is information necessary for establishing a wireless communication connection such as a mobile phone number and a mail address. The authentication server 1102 transmits the retrieved mobile terminal information to the store terminal 110 (step (5)).

  The shop terminal 110 starts a wireless communication connection with the mobile terminal 160 based on the received mobile terminal information (step S1102). Wireless connection can be realized by using a conventional technique such as connection by confirming a Beacon signal or connection through a public line terminal. When the connection is established, the portable terminal 160 reads an unprinted image from the image management table in the image storage area 1001 (step S1103) and transmits it to the store terminal 110 (step (6)). If the corresponding data cannot be searched by the database search, or if the unprinted image cannot be searched, the portable terminal 160 sends, for example, NULL to the store terminal 110 in step (6), indicating that there is no image data. Show. Thereafter, the store terminal 110 performs a print notification process. Processes after the print notification process are the same as those in the first embodiment.

(Embodiment 3)
This embodiment is applied to the first embodiment. In the first embodiment, the store terminal 110 performs the print notification process. However, in the present embodiment, the portable terminal 160 performs the print notification process, which is different from the first embodiment.

  Only differences from the operation in the first embodiment will be described below. FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram regarding a calling procedure of the store terminal 110, the printing devices 120 to 12n, the portable terminal 160, and the image server 170 in the third embodiment. The difference from the sequence of FIG. 5 is the print notification processing part of P2. Hereinafter, the operation in the print notification process P2 will be described with reference to FIG.

  After retrieving the print status from the image database 172 (step S502), the image server 170 transmits unprinted image data and portable terminal information to the store terminal 110 (step (7)). Next, the store terminal 110 performs wireless communication determination based on the data received from the image server 170 (step S1201). FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the processing of the store terminal 110 in step S1201.

  First, the store terminal 110 reads the data received from the image server 170 (step S1301), and determines whether an unprinted image exists (step S1302). If there is an unprinted image, the operating status of the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n is acquired (step S1303), and it is determined whether the printing apparatus is busy (step S1304). When all the printing apparatuses 120 to 12n are busy, the store terminal 110 does not perform wireless communication and ends the print notification service. If there is a printing device that is not busy, the store terminal 110 starts wireless communication with the portable terminal 160 (step S1305).

  When the store terminal 110 establishes wireless communication with the mobile terminal 160, the store terminal 110 transmits unprinted image data to the mobile terminal 160 (step (8)). Next, the mobile terminal 160 notifies the customer that unprinted image data exists (step S1202). In addition to the notification by the vibration of the mobile terminal 160, the ring tone, or the like, the notification is also performed by a screen display. The screen display can be realized by, for example, incorporating an application for displaying screens as shown in FIGS.

  In FIG. 14, reference numeral 1401 denotes a 9-division multi-display screen for unprinted image data. Reference numeral 1402 denotes an OK button displayed on the mobile terminal. Reference numeral 1403 denotes a cross button for performing a UI operation. Reference numeral 1404 denotes a determination button. Reference numeral 1405 denotes a clear button for canceling. Reference numeral 1406 denotes a numeric button.

  The customer operates the cross button 1403 of the portable terminal 160, moves the cursor to the image that the person wants to print, and presses the enter button 1404. By this operation, the image can be designated for printing. The customer can select a plurality of images until the cursor is placed on the OK button 1402 and the enter button 1404 is pressed. When the customer presses the enter button 1404 on the OK button 1402, the mobile terminal 160 changes the screen to the screen shown in FIG. When the customer presses the clear button 1405, the portable terminal 160 ends without printing.

  In the screen shown in FIG. 15, the customer designates the print type and the number of prints. Reference numeral 1501 represents the type of printing, and the customer can specify either color or monochrome. Reference numeral 1502 denotes an edit box indicating the number of printed sheets. The customer can designate the number of printed sheets by inputting a number. The default number of prints is 1, and it is possible to specify 1 or more and 99 or less.

  Similarly, the customer sets the type of printing and the number of prints on the screen of FIG. 15 for all the selected images. For the last image, the customer designates the print type and the number of prints, moves the cursor to 1503, and presses the enter button 1403. Then, the print information and the designated image data are sent from the portable terminal 160 to the store terminal 110, and sent from the store terminal 110 to any of the printing devices 120 to 12n (step (9)). The printing apparatuses 120 to 12n perform printing based on the received data (step S504).

(Embodiment 4)
This embodiment is applied to the second embodiment. In the second embodiment, the store terminal 110 performs the print notification process. However, the present embodiment is different from the second embodiment in that the portable terminal 160 performs the print notification process.

  Only differences from the operation in the second embodiment will be described below. FIG. 16 is a sequence diagram regarding a calling procedure of the store terminal 110, the printing devices 120 to 12n, the portable terminal 160, and the authentication server 1102 according to the fourth embodiment. The difference from the sequence of FIG. 11 is the print notification processing part of P2. Hereinafter, the operation in the print notification process P2 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the store terminal 110 receives the mobile terminal information from the authentication server 1102 (step (5)), the store terminal 110 confirms the state of the printing device, and if all the printing devices are busy, the print notification service is terminated. If there is even one printing device that can be operated, the shop terminal 110 starts a wireless connection with the portable terminal 160 (step S1602).

  When the wireless connection with the store terminal 110 is established, the portable terminal 160 searches for an unprinted image from the image management table in the image storage area 1001 (step S1603). If there is an unprinted image, the mobile terminal 160 performs a print notification process (step S1604). In addition to the notification to the portable terminal 160 by vibration or ringtone, the notification is also performed by a screen display. As shown in the third embodiment, the screen display can be realized by, for example, incorporating an application for displaying screens as shown in FIGS. Note that the operation method of the mobile terminal 160 (or screen) is the same as that described in the third embodiment.

  In FIG. 15, when the determination button 1403 is pressed by the customer, the print information and the designated image data are sent from the portable terminal 160 to the store terminal 110, and any one of the printing devices 120 to 12 n from the store terminal 110. (Step (10) in FIG. 16). The printing apparatuses 120 to 12n perform printing based on the received data (step S504).

  According to each embodiment described above, it is possible to make a customer aware that there is unprinted image data. In particular, it is very useful when the customer forgets that there is print data because the customer cannot secure time to go to the service base.

  In addition, when the notification is made, since the printing device that can print is in the vicinity of the customer, the customer can print immediately. For this reason, when the customer remembers that there is unprinted image data, the customer can determine whether to print on the spot or not, and the customer does not have the trouble of spending time searching for the service base again.

  Furthermore, since printing can be promoted for image data that the customer originally did not plan to print, there is also an effect that the print service provider can make a profit from the printing fee.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims.・ Change is possible. In addition, you may implement combining each embodiment mentioned above.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a print notification service system according to a first embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the internal structure of the shop terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of a customer management table. It is a figure which shows an example of an image management table. It is a sequence diagram of an example regarding a calling procedure of the store terminal 110, the printing devices 120 to 12n, the portable terminal 160, and the image server 170. It is the flowchart which showed the process of the shop terminal 110 in step S503. FIG. 10 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the store terminal 110; It is FIG. (2) which shows an example of the screen displayed on the shop terminal. FIG. 10 is a diagram (No. 3) illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the store terminal 110; FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a print notification service system according to a second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram relating to a calling procedure for a store terminal 110, printing devices 120 to 12n, a portable terminal 160, and an authentication server 1102 according to the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram relating to a calling procedure for a store terminal 110, printing devices 120 to 12n, a portable terminal 160, and an image server 170 in the third embodiment. It is the flowchart which showed the process of the shop terminal 110 in step S1201. FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the mobile terminal 160; FIG. 10 is a second diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the mobile terminal 160; FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram regarding a calling procedure of a store terminal 110, printing devices 120 to 12n, a portable terminal 160, and an authentication server 1102 according to a fourth embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

110 store terminal 120 printing device 170 image server 160 portable terminal 201 CPU
202 ROM
203 RAM
204 Wireless communication unit 205 NIC
206 Display unit 207 Touch panel 208 Personal information reading unit

Claims (10)

A terminal device capable of communicating with at least one image processing device via a network,
Personal information reading means for reading personal information;
Notification means for notifying the user that there is an unprinted image when there is an unprinted image related to the user corresponding to the personal information read by the personal information reading means in the image management means for managing images for each user When,
The terminal device characterized by having. In the case where there is an unprinted image relating to the user corresponding to the personal information, the image processing apparatus further includes inquiry means for inquiring whether image processing is possible,
The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the notification unit notifies the user that there is an unprinted image when the image processing apparatus capable of image processing exists as a result of the inquiry in the inquiry unit. apparatus.   The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the personal information reading unit reads personal information from a portable terminal device.   The terminal device according to claim 3, wherein the notification unit transmits information indicating that there is an unprinted image to the mobile terminal device, and notifies the user that there is an unprinted image. It further has screen display means for displaying a screen,
The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the notification unit notifies the user by displaying that there is an unprinted image on the screen. The image management means is connected via a network,
Reception of receiving the unprinted image from the image management unit via the network when the management unit includes an unprinted image relating to the user corresponding to the personal information read by the personal information reading unit. The terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising means. The image management means is connected via wireless communication,
When there is an unprinted image related to the user corresponding to the personal information read by the personal information reading unit in the management unit, the unprinted image is received from the image management unit via the wireless communication The terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a receiving unit. A notification method in a terminal device capable of communicating with at least one image processing device via a network,
A personal information reading step for reading personal information;
A notification step of notifying the user that there is an unprinted image when there is an unprinted image related to the user corresponding to the personal information read in the personal information reading step in the image management means for managing images for each user When,
A notification method characterized by comprising:   A program causing a computer to execute the notification method according to claim 8.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 9.

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