JP6749065B2 - Printing control device and printing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention, for the control relating to printing, relates to print control apparatus and printing system.

2. Description of the Related Art Multifunction printers (MFPs) having the functions of devices such as copiers, image scanners, and facsimiles are widely used in offices, convenience stores, and the like.

It is general that a plurality of users jointly use a multifunction peripheral installed in such a place. In this case, it is desired to prevent the printed matter printed by the plurality of users from being mixed and discharged.

For example, after a part of the printed matter printed by the first user is ejected, the printed matter printed by the second user is ejected at the same time, and the remaining printed matter printed by the first user is discharged. It is not preferable that the paper is discharged. In this case, it is preferable that all the printed matter printed by the first user is discharged, and then the printed matter printed by the second user is discharged.

An example of a technique for preventing such a mixture of printed matter is described in Patent Document 1. The technique described in Patent Document 1 proposes a method in which a user issues a save instruction and then a print instruction to prevent one's printed matter from being mixed with another person's printed matter.

Specifically, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, the user A first transmits a reserve instruction from the host terminal to the printing device that is the printing destination. Following this instruction, user A will instruct printing multiple times. It should be noted that, together with this print instruction, print data related to the instruction will be sequentially sent to the printing apparatus. However, in the case of pool printing, printing is not started immediately and execution of printing is suspended.

When the print instruction is finished, the user A sends a paper discharge instruction to the printing apparatus. Along with this, the printing apparatus continuously prints the print data relating to the print instruction given by the user A a plurality of times. That is, the printing instructed in plural times is continuously executed.

In the technique described in Patent Document 1, a plurality of print data in a plurality of print jobs are held in this way, and the held print data is printed at one time. Therefore, when performing printing in multiple times, It is possible to prevent the prints from being mixed with the prints of others.

JP, 2008-59139, A

By the way, as described above, the multifunction peripheral is also installed in a convenience store or the like. In this case, the multifunction peripheral is installed in a printable state for the customer to use, but there is a demand that the employee of the convenience store also uses the multifunction peripheral.

However, as in the normal office, if the employee is allowed to print at any time, the employee's printed matter may be discharged during the operation of the customer. In order to prevent such a situation from occurring, it is necessary to prohibit employees from printing while the customer is operating the multifunction peripheral.

Therefore, it is conceivable to apply the technique described in Patent Document 1. For example, when an employee tries to print, a hold job is transmitted from the terminal used by the employee to the multi-function peripheral. Then, when the data analysis is performed by the multi-function peripheral and it is found that the job is the hold job, the multi-function peripheral saves (fils) the hold job data without printing.

After that, when the customer operates the multifunction peripheral while the customer is not operating the multifunction peripheral, the filed data is printed.

By doing so, it is possible to prevent the printed matter of the employee from being discharged during the operation of the customer.

However, if the filing is always performed in this way, it is necessary to perform the reprinting operation of the filing job every time even when there is no customer, and the convenience of the employee is reduced.

Accordingly, the present invention is capable of conducting the control of printing depending on the situation, and an object thereof is to provide a print control apparatus and printing system.

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A print control apparatus for transmitting a print job including a job ID, a job mode, and image data to a printing apparatus,
By analyzing an image of a predetermined area captured by the image capturing device, image analysis means for determining whether or not there are a predetermined number of people or more in the predetermined area,
Wherein when receiving a print request based on the image data, on condition that the predetermined number or more human in the predetermined area is determined not to exist in the determination by the image analysis means, said image image send print instruction data and as the job mode the print job including the job ID to the printing apparatus, the predetermined number or more people located in the predetermined area in the determination by the image analysis unit Then the condition that it is determined, the print control unit configured to transmit a print job including the job ID and storage instruction as the job mode and the picture Zode over data to the printing apparatus,
Equipped with
The print control means,
When a print request based on the image data is received, the image data is conditioned on the condition that it is determined by the image analysis unit that there are no more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area. The print instruction for instructing to print based on the above is selected as the type of the job mode, and it is determined by the determination by the image analysis unit that there are more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area. On the condition that the image data is stored on the printing device side, a selection unit that selects a storage instruction as a type of the job mode,
Transmitting means for transmitting the print job including the job ID, the job mode of the type selected by the selecting means, and the image data to the printing apparatus;
Print control apparatus according to claim Rukoto equipped with is provided.

According to a second aspect of the invention,
The above print control device,
When a print job including the image data, the print instruction as the job mode, and the job ID is received from the print control device, printing based on the image data is immediately executed, and the image data is output from the print control device. and when receiving a print job including the job ID and storage instruction serving as the job mode is a printing apparatus that perform printing based on the image data after there is an operation for printing by the user,
The printing system comprising: a provided.

According to a third aspect of the invention,
The above print control device,
A printing interruption means for interrupting the printing if there is an operation for interrupting the printing by the user during the printing based on the image data included in the print job received from the print control device; ,
Notification means for notifying the print control device that the printing has been interrupted, together with the job ID,
And the printing device Ru with a,
There is provided a printing system comprising:

According to the present invention, it is possible to perform control related to printing depending on the situation.

It is a figure showing the basic composition of each embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart showing an image analysis process in each embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a print instruction start process according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart showing a job execution process in the first and second embodiments of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart showing a storage job execution process in the first and second embodiments of the present invention. 9 is a flowchart showing a print instruction start process in the second and third embodiments of the present invention. It is a flow chart showing job execution processing in a 3rd embodiment of the present invention. 9 is a flowchart showing a save/suspend job execution process according to the third embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure showing an example of the popup screen display of the employee terminal in each embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure showing an example of a user interface screen display of the printing device in each embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing device according to each embodiment of the present invention.

First, an outline of an embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the embodiment of the present invention, the presence or absence of a person (for example, a customer) who operates the printing apparatus other than the employee is determined by using the camera that photographs the installation place of the printing apparatus, and the job mode of the printed matter of the employee is automatically determined. Control with. As a result, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to print the printed matter of the customer or the like and the printed matter of the employee without being mixed, and it is possible to improve the convenience of the printing for the employee. This is a summary of the embodiments of the invention.

Then, three embodiments will be described below as embodiments of the present invention.

First, in the first embodiment, which is a basic embodiment, the number of customers in the convenience store is counted in cooperation with the camera installed in the convenience store. Then, the job mode is controlled according to the counted number of customers. Specifically, if there is a customer, the job mode is filing, and if there is no customer, the job mode is printing without filing. When printing is performed, the employee is notified of the job mode using the terminal used by the employee.

Next, the first embodiment is modified into a second embodiment. In the second embodiment, it is assumed that the customer comes to the store during the paper discharge. In preparation for this case, not only the job mode is controlled according to the number of customers as in the first embodiment, but also the job mode is controlled according to the number of pages. For example, a one-page original can be printed immediately, but if the number of pages is large, there is a possibility that a customer will come in the middle of printing. Therefore, filing is performed when the number of sheets is large, and printing is possible without filing when the number of sheets is small. It should be noted that it is possible to arbitrarily set how many sheets should be determined to be large.

Furthermore, the second embodiment is modified to form a third embodiment. In the third embodiment, in addition to performing the same processing as in the first and second embodiments, even if a small number of pages are printed, a customer can come to the store during printing. Consider that there is a property. Specifically, when a customer arrives in the middle of printing, the printing is stopped at an intermediate page, and after the customer is gone, the employee can restart from the intermediate page. Note that the stop or the like may not be manually performed by the employee as described above, but the stop or the like may be automatically performed based on the presence or absence of the customer in conjunction with the camera. Further, the manual method and the automatic method may be combined.

As described above, by controlling the job mode in each embodiment, it is possible to improve the convenience of printing by the employee.

Next, each embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As described above, the three embodiments will be described below, but the basic configuration of each embodiment is common. Therefore, first, the configuration of each of the common embodiments will be described, and then the operation of each of the different embodiments will be described. And finally, the display content displayed to the user during the operation in each embodiment will be described.

<Structure of each embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a print control system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present exemplary embodiment includes a printing device 100, an employee terminal 200, and a camera 300. Then, these three devices are communicably connected to each other via a LAN (Local Area Network) 400.

The printing apparatus 100 is an apparatus that executes printing, and is realized by, for example, a multi-function peripheral having a communication function. The printing apparatus 100 also includes a job control unit 110, an input/output unit 120, a storage unit 130, a user interface control unit 140, an engine control unit 150, a data analysis unit 160, and an image generation unit 170. Each unit included in the printing apparatus 100 will be described in detail below.

The job control unit 110 manages jobs from reception of jobs and generation of jobs to completion of printing. Specifically, the job information acquired by the data analysis unit 160 performing analysis and the image data generated by the image generation unit 170 are included in the engine control unit 150, the storage unit 130, and other printing devices 100. By controlling the printing hardware or the like (not shown) for printing, job management from job reception and job generation to printing completion is performed.

The input/output unit 120 is an interface for connecting the printing apparatus 100 and the LAN 400. The printing apparatus 100 communicates with other devices via the input/output unit 120 and the LAN 400. The LAN 400 in the present embodiment may be partially or entirely realized by a wireless network. Further, the printing apparatus 100 and other devices may be connected by wire, for example, by a LAN cable or a cable compliant with the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard.

The storage unit 130 is configured by a storage device such as a hard disk drive or a memory. The storage unit 130 stores data necessary for printing, such as image data generated by the image generation unit 170 and job information acquired by the data analysis unit 160. The storage unit 130 also manages the storage capacity including the work area. Further, the storage unit 130 also stores employee jobs that are not printed immediately.

The user interface control unit 140 controls the user interface displayed on the operation panel, which is a display unit (not shown) of the printing apparatus 100. Specifically, it displays a message on the operation panel, analyzes the content of the operation received on the operation panel, and the like. The operation panel is realized by, for example, a touch panel.

The engine control unit 150 controls the drive of the engine for printing the image data generated by the image generation unit 170.

The data analysis unit 160 includes jobs included in “employee job”, which is print data transmitted from the employee terminal 200, and “printing device job”, which is print data generated by the printing apparatus 100 based on user operation. Analyze information. Based on this analysis, the type of job mode, the number of copies specified in the job, the paper size of the paper to be printed in the job, the paper type of the paper to be printed in the job, the tray designation of the discharge destination of the paper printed in the job, Get job information required for printing. The acquired job information is transmitted to the job control unit 110. The specific content of the job mode type will be described later.

The image generation unit 170 generates image data used for printing. For example, the image data used for printing is generated by acquiring the image data included in the employee job transmitted from the employee terminal 200 from the employee job. In addition, for example, an image reading unit (not shown) mounted on the printing apparatus 100 converts an image read from a paper medium into a format of image data used for printing, and then uses the image for printing. Generate image data. The generated image data used for printing is transmitted to the job control unit 110.

The camera 300 is a device that captures an image of a predetermined area in which the printing apparatus 100 is installed. For example, if the printing apparatus 100 is installed in a convenience store, the predetermined area is the convenience store.

The camera 300 is communicatively connected to the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 via the LAN 400. Then, the camera 300 converts the image captured by itself into captured data and transmits it to the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200. The camera 300 is installed, for example, at a position where the entire store can be photographed or a position where a doorway in the store can be photographed. Although only one camera 300 is shown in the figure, a plurality of cameras 300 may be installed. Further, as the camera 300, for example, if a camera installed in advance in a store for crime prevention is used, it is not necessary to newly install the camera 300 for the present embodiment.

The employee terminal 200 is a device capable of issuing a job execution instruction. The employee terminal 200 includes an image analysis unit 210 and a printer driver 220.

The image analysis unit 210 receives image data generated based on the image captured by the camera 300 from the camera 300 via the LAN 400. Then, the image analysis unit 210 analyzes the received image data to count the number of customers existing in the store. Then, the image analysis unit 210 transmits the counted number of customers in the store to the printer driver 220.

The printer driver 220 is a printer driver 220 corresponding to the printing apparatus 100, and generates an employee job for instructing the printing apparatus 100 to print or the like. Specifically, the printer driver 220 generates an employee job based on the number of customers in the store received from the image analysis unit 210, in addition to the image data and the number of sheets that the employee has instructed to print. The generated employee job is transmitted to the printing apparatus 100 via the LAN 400.

The employee terminal 200 can be implemented by incorporating software for implementing the image analysis unit 210 and the printer driver 220 into a general-purpose personal computer, for example. More specifically, the arithmetic device in the personal computer performs arithmetic processing based on such software or operating system, and controls the hardware and the like (not shown) in the personal computer based on the result of the arithmetic processing. Thereby, the employee terminal 200 is realized.

<First Embodiment>
Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation when the image analysis unit 210 performs an analysis process of an image captured by the camera 300. As a premise of the operation, the face information of the employee is registered in advance in the employee terminal 200 or a storage device with which the employee terminal 200 can communicate. Then, the image analysis unit 210 can refer to the face information of the registered employee. The employee face information can be generated by photographing the employee's face and analyzing the image.

First, the image analysis unit 210 acquires, from the camera 300, image data obtained by converting an image captured by the camera 300 installed in the store (step S501).

Next, the image analysis unit 210 performs face recognition processing on the acquired image data (step S502). Then, when the face is recognized, that is, when the camera 300 is photographing the person, the recognized face is compared with the face information of the employee stored in advance. By performing such comparison, it is determined whether the person having the recognized face is a customer or an employee (step S503).

If the result of determination in step S503 is that the person with the recognized face is an employee (NO in step S503), the image analysis unit 210 continues the next face recognition process without doing anything (step S502). ..

On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S503, if the person having the recognized face is a customer (YES in step S503), the image analysis unit 210 proceeds to step S505.

In step S505, the image analysis unit 210 further analyzes the image, and determines whether the person identified as the customer in step S503 has entered the store in which the printing apparatus 100 is installed or has left the store. (Step S504).

As a result of the determination in step S503, if the person having the recognized face has entered the store in which the printing apparatus 100 is installed (“enter” in step S505), the image analysis unit 210 counts. The value of the number of customers in the open store is incremented by 1 (step S506).

On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S503, if the person with the recognized face has exited the store in which the printing apparatus 100 has been installed (“exit” in step S505), image analysis is performed. The value of the number of customers in the store counted by the unit 210 is decreased by one (step S507).

After performing the operations of step S506 and step S507, the process returns to step S501 and the same process is repeated thereafter to continuously count the number of customers in the store.

By the operation described above, the employee terminal 200 can grasp the number of customers currently in the store. Further, if the number of people currently in the store is zero, that is, it is possible to understand that there are no customers in the store.

Next, another operation will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation when the employee terminal 200 issues a print instruction to the printing apparatus 100. Such an operation is started when the employee performs an operation for printing on the employee terminal 200. The operation for printing is an operation such as selection of an image to be printed, designation of the number of prints, and printing paper.

First, at the start of a print instruction, the value of the number of customers currently in the store is acquired from the image analysis unit 210 (step S601).

If the value of the acquired number of customers is zero (YES in step S602), that is, if there are no customers currently in the store, the process proceeds to step S603.

Then, the printer driver 220 generates an employee job in which the type of job mode is "print mode" (step S603). In addition, the generated employee job also includes job information such as the number of prints and designation of printing paper, and information such as image data of an image to be printed.

If the value of the acquired number of customers is not zero (NO in step S602), that is, if there are customers currently in the store, the process proceeds to step S604.

Then, the printer driver 220 generates an employee job in which the job mode is set to "save mode" (step S603). In addition, the generated employee job also includes job information such as the number of prints and designation of printing paper, and information such as image data of an image to be printed.

When the employee job is generated in either step S603 or step S604, the employee terminal 200 transmits the generated employee job to the printing apparatus 100 via the LAN 400 (step S605).

By the operation described above, an employee job having a job mode of "print mode" can be created if no customer currently exists in the store. On the other hand, if there are customers currently in the store, it is possible to create an employee job in which the job mode is “save mode”. That is, it is possible to automatically switch the job mode according to the situation in which the printing apparatus 100 is present, that is, whether or not there are customers in the store.

Next, another operation will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when the printing apparatus 100 that receives the employee job transmitted in FIG. 3 prints the received employee job.

First, it waits to receive an employee job from the employee terminal 200 (NO in step S701).

When the employee job is received (YES in step S701), the analysis process of the received employee job is started (step S702). Then, the job information such as the number of prints and the image data of the image to be printed are extracted from the employee job. The type of job mode is also extracted as a part of the job information.

If the type of the job mode extracted by the analysis of step S702 is a save job ("save job" in step S703), various information such as the image data and the job information extracted by the analysis of step S702 are used as print data. The data is saved in the storage unit 130 of the printing apparatus 100 (step S704). That is, the image data is filed. At the time of saving, the ID for identifying each print data and the print data are linked and saved.

After the storage is completed, the employee terminal 200 of the transmission source is notified of the end of the storage, and the processing ends (step S705). The notification includes the ID associated with the printing when the print data is stored. The employee terminal 200 that has received the notification notifies the employee of the content of the notification by displaying on the screen of the employee terminal 200 that the storage has been completed and the notified ID.

On the other hand, if the type of the job mode extracted by the analysis in step S702 is a print job (“print job” in step S703), various information such as the image data and the job information extracted by the analysis in step S702 are to be printed. As the print data, the respective units of the printing apparatus 100 cooperate to execute the print processing (step S706). In addition, the user interface control unit 140 displays the printing message on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100 (step S707). Then, the process waits until the printing process ends (NO in step S708).

When the print processing is completed (YES in step S708), the display of the in-printing message is cancelled, and the print execution processing of the saved job ends.

Then, the end of printing is notified to the employee terminal 200 that is the transmission source, and the process ends (step S709). The employee terminal 200 that has received the notification notifies the employee of the content of the notification by displaying the fact that printing has been completed on the screen of the employee terminal 200. The employee refers to this and goes to the printing apparatus 100 for the discharged printed paper.

By the operation described above, it is possible to perform processing according to the type of job mode set for each employee job. In particular, when the customer is not in the store and the job mode type is a print job, it is not necessary for the employee to issue a reprint instruction for the filed job, which improves the convenience of the employee. ..

The above-described operation of FIG. 4 is performed for the employee job, and the above-described operation of FIG. 4 is performed for the printing apparatus job generated by the printing apparatus 100 when the customer operates the printing apparatus 100. Instead, the same process as the process in the general printing apparatus 100 is performed.

Next, another operation will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation during the print execution process of the stored job stored in the storage unit 130 of the printing apparatus 100 in step S704 described above.

It is the employee, not the customer, who performs the operations to perform the printing of the stored job. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the customer from performing an operation to execute printing of the stored job. Therefore, in this embodiment, an employee-only mode for executing the printing of the stored job is provided. Then, when the employee performs a predetermined operation, the printing apparatus 100 is switched to the employee-dedicated mode for executing printing of the stored job.

The predetermined operation for switching may be any operation method. For example, if the customer performs an operation that is not normally performed, the mode may be switched to the employee-only mode. The operation that the customer does not normally perform is, for example, an operation of pressing a plurality of operation buttons at the same timing, or an operation of pressing a certain operation button for a long time. In addition, the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 may cooperate with each other, and when the image analysis unit 210 analyzes that there is no customer in the store, the mode may be switched to the employee-only mode.

Then, the user interface control unit 140 of the printing apparatus 100 displays the employee-dedicated screen when the printing apparatus 100 is switched to the employee-dedicated mode.

Since the employee refers to the employee screen and performs an operation for executing printing of the stored job, the employee accepts the operation (step S801).

Next, the employee inputs the ID issued in step S704 and accepts it. Since the employee refers to the ID issued in step S704 together with the storage end notification on the employee terminal 200, the employee knows the ID (step S802).

Next, if the employee job corresponding to the ID input in step S802 is stored in storage unit 130 (YES in step S803), print data corresponding to the employee job is acquired from storage unit 130. .. Then, using the acquired print data, the respective units of the printing apparatus 100 cooperate to execute the print processing (step S804).

In addition, the user interface control unit 140 displays the printing message on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100 (step S805). Then, the process waits until the printing process ends (NO in step S806).

If the printing process is completed (YES in step S806), the display of the in-printing message is cancelled, and the print execution process for the saved job ends.

On the other hand, if the employee job corresponding to the ID input in step S802 is not saved in the storage unit 130 (NO in step S803), the print execution process of the saved job ends.

By the operation described above, the employee job in which the presence of the customer in the store is stored in the storage unit 130 can thereafter execute the printing based on the operation of the employee.

<Second Embodiment>
Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the following description, differences between the second embodiment and the first embodiment will be described, and descriptions of other differences will be omitted.

As described above at the beginning of the description of each embodiment, in the second embodiment, it is assumed that the customer comes to the store while the paper is being discharged. Then, in preparation for this case, not only the job mode is controlled according to the number of customers as in the first embodiment, but also the type of job mode is changed depending on the number of pages. For example, if one page is printed, it can be printed immediately, but if the number of pages to be printed is large, a customer may come in the middle of printing. Therefore, when the number of pages to be printed is large, the job type is set to "save mode". On the other hand, when the number of pages to be printed is small, the job type is set to “print mode”.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, step S610 is further added to the operation of the first embodiment shown in FIG. This is the difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment.

Then, in step S610, the number of pages of the document is determined (step S610). The threshold value for this determination can be set by the user. Here, if the threshold value is 1, it is determined that the number of pages is small if the original is one page or less (YES in step S610). In this case, the process proceeds to step S603 to set the job mode to "print mode". Then, as described in the first embodiment, the processing from step S603 is executed.

On the other hand. If the original has two or more pages, it is determined that the number of pages is large (NO in step S610), and the process proceeds to step S604 to set the job mode to the "save mode". Then, as described in the first embodiment, the processing from step S604 is executed.

By the operation described above, in the second embodiment, it is possible to change the job mode type according to the number of pages to be printed, assuming that the customer comes to the store during the paper discharge.

<Third Embodiment>
Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. In the following description, differences between the third embodiment and the first and second embodiments will be described, and descriptions of other differences will be omitted.

As described above at the beginning of the description of each embodiment, in the third embodiment, even if a small number of pages are printed, the customer may come to the store during printing. Specifically, when a customer arrives in the middle of printing, the printing is stopped at an intermediate page, and after the customer is gone, the employee can restart from the intermediate page.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, steps S710 to S713 are further added to the operation of the first embodiment shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, steps S811 to S913 are further added to the operation of the first embodiment shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, step S801 in the operation of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is replaced with step S810. These are the differences between the first and second embodiments and the third embodiment.

First, differences from other embodiments will be described with reference to FIG. 7.

In another embodiment, when the printing process is started in step S705, the process waits until the printing is completed in step S707.

However, there is a possibility that a customer may come to the store before printing is completed and the customer desires to use the printing apparatus 100. In such a case, in order to be able to deal with such a case, in step S706, not only a message indicating that printing is in progress is displayed on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100, but also a print interruption key is displayed.

If printing has not been completed (NO in step S707), the flow advances to step S710 to determine whether the print interrupt key has been pressed (step S710).

If the print interruption key is not pressed (NO in step S710), the determination in step S707 is performed again.

On the other hand, if the employee presses the print interruption key before the end of printing (YES in step S710), printing is stopped. Then, the print data that has not been printed yet and has not been ejected is stored in the storage device of the printing apparatus 100 (step S711).

After the storage is completed, the print interruption message is displayed on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100 together with the ID of the employee job whose print processing is interrupted (step S712). Also, the employee terminal 200 that is the transmission source is notified of the interruption of printing, and the process ends (step S713). Note that the notification may be included in the ID of the employee job whose print processing is interrupted. Upon receiving the notification, the employee terminal 200 can grasp the content of the job by referring to the fact that the printing is interrupted and the ID of the employee job whose printing is interrupted. For example, when an employee tries to print using the employee terminal 200, but another employee notices the visit of a customer and interrupts the printing, the employee prints. It is possible to know that the interruption has been made.

Next, differences from other embodiments will be described with reference to FIG.

In another embodiment, in step S801, the employee refers to the employee screen and performs an operation for executing printing of the stored job, and thus accepts this.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, either the operation for executing the printing of the stored job or the operation for executing the printing of the interrupted job is accepted from the employee who referred to the employee screen. Here, the interrupted job is an employee job whose printing has been interrupted in step S710 or step S811 described later.

Here, the process when the operation for executing the printing of the stored job is accepted is the same as that of the first embodiment.

On the other hand, when the operation for executing the printing of the interrupted job is accepted (step S810), the employee inputs the ID issued in step S712 or step S813, and thus accepts this. Since the employee refers to the ID issued in step S712 or step S813 on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100, the employee knows the ID (step S802). The subsequent processing is the same as when the operation for executing the printing of the stored job is accepted.

Next, as in step S706, in step S805, not only a message indicating that printing is in progress is displayed on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100, but also a print interruption key is displayed.

If printing has not been completed (NO in step S806), the flow advances to step S811 to determine whether the print interrupt key has been pressed (step S811).

If the print interrupt key is not pressed (NO in step S811), the determination in step S806 is performed again.

On the other hand, if the employee presses the print interruption key before the end of printing (YES in step S811), printing is stopped. Then, the print data that has not been printed yet and has not been ejected is stored in the storage device of the printing apparatus 100 (step S812).

After the storage is completed, the print interruption message is displayed on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100 together with the ID of the employee job whose print processing is interrupted (step S813).

By the operation of the present embodiment described above, the printing of the employee job started when the customer does not exist in the store can be interrupted when the customer comes to the store. Further, if there is no customer in the store after that, it becomes possible to print the print data for the undischarged part of the interrupted employee job.

<Screen display example>
Next, in each embodiment, the user interface displayed on the display unit of the employee terminal 200 or the display unit of the printing apparatus 100 will be described.

First, FIG. 9 is an example of a pop-up screen displayed on the display unit of the employee terminal 200 that executed printing.

As described above, when the printing instruction is issued from the employee terminal 200, the operation described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 is performed.

Since there are customers in the store, NO in step S602, and when an employee job in which the job mode type is the save mode is generated and transmitted to the printing apparatus 100 (steps S604 and S605). , (A-1) in FIG. 9 is displayed on the display unit of the employee terminal 200 to notify the employee that the saving to the main body has started.

After that, the employee terminal 200 that receives the save completion notification in step S705 pops up a message indicating that the save is completed and the ID corresponding to the saved employee job on the display unit, as shown in (A-2) of FIG. Will be notified. When printing with the printing apparatus 100 after that, the employee inputs this ID in step S802.

On the other hand, since there are no customers in the store, YES is determined in step S602, and when an employee job in which the job mode type is print mode is generated and transmitted to the printing apparatus 100 (steps S603 and S605). ), by displaying the popup of (B-1) in FIG. 9 on the display unit of the employee terminal 200, the employee is notified that printing has been executed.

After that, the employee terminal 200, which has received the print completion notification in step S705, notifies the display unit by pop-up that the printing has been completed as shown in (B-2) of FIG.

On the other hand, the printing is interrupted in step S710, and the employee terminal 200 having received the printing interruption notification in step S713 indicates that the printing has been interrupted and has been interrupted, as shown in (B-3) of FIG. Pop-up notification of ID corresponding to employee job. When printing with the printing apparatus 100 thereafter, the employee inputs this ID in step S802.

Next, FIG. 10 is an example of a screen displayed as a user interface on the display unit of the printing apparatus 100.

Normally, buttons for the customer to use each function of the printing apparatus 100 are displayed on the user interface as shown in (D-1) of FIG.

When printing is executed because there are no customers (step S707 and step S804 in the third embodiment), as shown in (D-2) of FIG. 10, a message indicating that an employee is printing and a print interruption are displayed on the user interface. Display the key.

When printing is completed, this message disappears (YES in step S708 and YES in step S806 in the third embodiment).

When the customer comes to the store during printing, the employee can stop the printing at the halfway page by operating the print interruption key of (D-2) in FIG. When the printing is interrupted (YES in step S710 or YES in step S811 in the third embodiment), the data of the pages that have not been discharged is stored in the printing apparatus 100, and the data of (D-2) in FIG. Thus, the fact that printing has been interrupted and the ID of the interrupted employee job are displayed (YES in step S713 and step S813 in the third embodiment). After that, the screen shifts to (D-1) in FIG. 10, which is a screen that can be used by normal customers.

The next time the employee wants to restart this printing, he switches to employee mode. Then, the employee-dedicated screen as shown in FIG. 10D-4 is displayed (step S810), and the employee presses the interrupted job restart on the screen and inputs the ID to print from the intermediate page. (Processing after step S810).

When the employee job is saved because there are customers in the store, when the employee wants to print the saved employee job, the employee mode is switched to. Then, similarly, the employee-dedicated screen as shown in (D-4) of FIG. 10 is displayed (steps S801 and S810), and the employee presses the interrupted job restart on the screen and inputs the ID. Printing is performed from the page (processing after step S801 and processing after step S810). However, as in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, when there is no processing for interrupting printing of the employee job being printed, only the saved job print is displayed, and the interrupted job restart is displayed. You don't have to.

<Other explanation>
The three embodiments have been described above. Although the above-described embodiments are preferred embodiments of the present invention, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the embodiments are combined without departing from the scope of the present invention. It is possible to carry out the present invention in a form or a form in which various changes are made.

For example, a part of the functions of the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 may be realized by another device such as an external server connected via the Internet or the like. For example, in each of the above-described embodiments, an image captured by the camera 300 is analyzed by the image analysis unit 210 on the employee terminal 200. However, image analysis processing is performed on an external server and the result is analyzed by the employee terminal. 200 may acquire.

In addition, for example, the printing apparatus 100 may realize functions other than the function of accepting a print request from an employee in the functions of the employee terminal 200. Then, the employee terminal 200 that receives the print request from the employee transmits the image data to the printing apparatus 100 as an employee job. Then, the printing apparatus 100, which has received the employee job, performs the operations described with reference to the above-described flowcharts in cooperation with the camera 300 to set the job mode of the employee job to the “print mode”. It may be possible to determine whether to use the “save mode” or the “save mode”.

In addition, in step S602, the determination is made based on whether or not the number of customers existing in the store is zero. However, a threshold may be set for the number of customers existing in the store. For example, the threshold value is 2. If the number of customers existing in the store is two or less, YES may be determined in step S602. On the other hand, if the number of customers existing in the store is three or more, NO may be determined in step S602.

Besides, the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 installed in the convenience store have been described, but the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 installed in a store of another business category may be targeted.

In addition, the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 installed in a place other than the store may be targeted. In this case, instead of the employee and customer classification methods, other classification methods may be used to distinguish the users and perform the above operations. For example, the printing device 100 and the employee terminal 200 installed in the government office are targeted. In this case, the classification method is used to classify the officials of government offices and the residents who visit the public offices. Then, the staff may be treated as an employee in each of the above-described embodiments, and the inhabitants may be treated as customers in each of the above-described embodiments.

In addition, the interruption of printing in step S710 or step S811 is not performed by the employee's operation of pressing the print interruption key as a trigger, but the printing apparatus 100 and the employee terminal 200 cooperate with each other, and the image analysis unit The analysis of 210 may be performed in response to the customer visiting the store.

In addition, in order for the employee to know whether or not there is a customer in the store before performing the printing operation at the employee terminal 200, the image analysis unit 210 counts in the store in the employee terminal. The number of existing customers may be displayed.

Alternatively, the instruction to execute the saved or interrupted employee job in step S801 or step S810 may be performed by operating the employee terminal 200.

Next, a configuration example for realizing the printing apparatus 100 will be described.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the printing apparatus 100 includes a sheet feeding unit 51 that feeds a sheet, a manual feeding unit 61 that can manually feed the sheet, and a sheet feeding unit 51 or the manual feeding unit 61. An image forming unit 31 that forms an image on a fed sheet, a sheet discharge unit 80 that discharges the image-formed sheet to the outside of the apparatus, and a control unit 90 that controls these. The control unit 90 realizes each functional block inside the printing apparatus 100 described with reference to FIG. 1 by controlling the hardware inside the printing apparatus 100.

Further, a front door (not shown) that can open the inside is provided on the front surface of the printing apparatus 100. By opening the front door, the above-described image forming unit 31 and the like disposed inside is exposed. It is possible. Further, an operation panel for performing various operations is provided above the front door, and the operation panel is provided with a display unit for displaying various information and an operation unit having various input keys. ing. The display unit and the operation unit may be integrated in the form of a touch panel or the like.

The sheet feeding unit 51 includes a feeding sheet stacking unit 52 that stacks and stores sheets, and a separation feeding unit 53 that separately feeds the sheets stacked on the feeding sheet stacking unit 52 one by one. .. The fed sheet stacking unit 52 includes an intermediate plate 55 that rotates about a rotation shaft 54. The intermediate plate 55 is biased upward and rotates when a sheet is fed. The sheet is lifted up (state of the chain double-dashed line shown in FIG. 11). The separation feeding unit 53 includes a pickup roller 56 that feeds the sheet lifted by the intermediate plate 55, and a separation pad 57 that is in pressure contact with the pickup roller 56.

The manual sheet feeding unit 61 includes a manual sheet feeding tray 62 on which sheets can be stacked, and a separation sheet feeding unit 63 that can separate and feed the sheets stacked on the manual sheet feeding tray 62 one by one. The manual feed tray 62 is rotatably supported by the printing apparatus casing 101, and when manually fed, the sheets can be stacked by rotating (the state of the two-dot chain line shown in FIG. 11). .. The separating/feeding unit 63 includes a feeding roller 64 that feeds the sheets stacked on the manual feed tray 62, and a separation pad 65 that is in pressure contact with the feeding roller 64.

The image forming unit 31 includes four process cartridges (image forming units) 30B to 30Y that form images of black (B), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), and the photosensitivity contained in each of them. The laser unit 20 that exposes the surfaces of the body drums 310B to 310Y, the transfer unit 33 that transfers the toner images formed on the surfaces of the photoconductor drums 310B to 310Y to the sheet, and the unfixed toner image transferred to the sheet is fixed. And a fixing unit 34 for allowing the fixing unit 34 to operate. The alphabets (B, C, M, Y) added to the end of the reference numerals indicate the toner colors (black, cyan, magenta, yellow).

The process cartridges 30</b>B to 30</b>Y are configured to be attachable to and detachable from the printing apparatus casing 101, and are replaceable. The process cartridge 30B includes a photoconductor drum (image carrier) 310B on which a monochrome toner image is formed, a charging device 301B that charges the photoconductor drum 310B, and an electrostatic device formed on the photoconductor drum 310B by the exposure device 200. A developing device 302B for developing the latent image with black toner, and a cleaner unit 303B for removing the residual toner remaining on the surface of the photoconductor drum 310B even after transferring the toner image obtained by the development to the intermediate transfer belt are provided. ing. The same applies to the process cartridges 30C, 30M and 30Y.

The developing device 302B includes a developing device main body 304B that develops an electrostatic latent image with black toner, and a toner cartridge 305B that replenishes the developing device main body 304B with black toner. The toner cartridge 305B is configured to be attachable to and detachable from the developing device main body 304B, and when the stored black toner runs out, it can be removed from the developing device main body 304B and replaced.

The exposure apparatus 200 includes a laser oscillator 201 that emits laser light, a plurality of mirrors 221 that guide the laser light to the photoconductor drums 310B to 310Y, and the like.

Each of the printing device and the employee terminal described above can be realized by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. The printing control method performed by the printing device or the employee terminal described above can also be realized by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Here, “implemented by software” means realized by a computer reading and executing a program.

The program can be stored using various types of non-transitory computer readable media and supplied to the computer. Non-transitory computer readable media include various types of tangible storage media. Examples of the non-transitory computer-readable medium include a magnetic recording medium (eg, flexible disk, magnetic tape, hard disk drive), magneto-optical recording medium (eg, magneto-optical disk), CD-ROM (Read Only Memory), CD- It includes R, CD-R/W, and semiconductor memory (for example, mask ROM, PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (random access memory)).

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to control of printing in a printing apparatus, and is particularly suitable for control when an employee uses the printing apparatus installed in a store or the like.

20 Laser unit 30B, 30C, 30M, 30Y Process cartridge 31 Image forming unit 33 Transfer unit 34 Fixing unit 51 Sheet feeding unit 52 Feeding sheet stacking unit 53 Separation feeding unit 54 Rotating shaft 55 Middle plate 56 Pickup roller 57 Separation Bad 61 Manual feeding section 62 Manual feeding tray 63 Separation feeding section 64 Feeding roller 65 Separation pad 100 Printing device 101 Printing device housing 110 Job control section 120 Input/output section 130 Storage section 140 User interface control section 150 Engine control section 160 Data analysis unit 170 Image generation unit 200 Employee terminal 210 Image analysis unit 220 Printer driver 201 Laser oscillator 221 Mirror 300 Cameras 310, 310B, 310C, 310M, 310Y Photosensitive drums 301B, 301C, 301M, 301Y Charging devices 302B, 302C, 302M, 302Y developing device 303B, 303C, 303M, 303Y cleaner unit 304B, 304C, 304M, 304Y developing device main body (developing section)
400 LAN

Claims (6)

A print control apparatus for transmitting a print job including a job ID, a job mode, and image data to a printing apparatus,
By analyzing an image of a predetermined area captured by the image capturing device, image analysis means for determining whether or not there are a predetermined number of people or more in the predetermined area,
When a print request based on the image data is received, the image data is conditioned on the condition that it is determined by the image analysis unit that there are no more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area. A print job including the print instruction as the job mode and the job ID is transmitted to the printing apparatus, and it is determined by the image analysis unit that there are more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area. Print control means for transmitting a print job including the image data, a storage instruction as the job mode, and the job ID to the printing apparatus,
Equipped with
The print control means,
When a print request based on the image data is received, the image data is conditioned on the condition that it is determined by the image analysis unit that there are no more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area. The print instruction for instructing to print based on the above is selected as the type of the job mode, and it is determined by the determination by the image analysis unit that there are more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area. On the condition that the image data is stored on the printing device side, a selection unit that selects a storage instruction as a type of the job mode,
Transmitting means for transmitting the print job including the job ID, the job mode of the type selected by the selecting means, and the image data to the printing apparatus;
A print control device comprising: The print control device according to claim 1,
Even if it is determined in the determination by the image analysis unit that there are no more than the predetermined number of people in the predetermined area, if the number of printed sheets based on the image data is a predetermined number or more, A print control apparatus, wherein a storage instruction is selected as the type of the job mode. The print control apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
When a notification regarding the operation of the printing apparatus regarding the print job is received from the printing apparatus together with the job ID, a display unit that displays the content of the notification regarding the operation together with the job ID is further provided. Control device. A print control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
When a print job including the image data, the print instruction as the job mode, and the job ID is received from the print control device, printing based on the image data is immediately executed, and the image data is output from the print control device. and when receiving a print job including the job ID and storage instruction serving as the job mode is a printing apparatus that perform printing based on the image data after there is an operation for printing by the user,
A printing system comprising: A print control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
A printing interruption means for interrupting the printing if there is an operation for interrupting the printing by the user during the printing based on the image data included in the print job received from the print control device; ,
Notification means for notifying the print control device that the printing has been interrupted together with the job ID,
And the printing device Ru with a,
A printing system comprising: The printing system according to claim 5, wherein
The printing apparatus, if there is an operation for printing resumes with the designation of the job ID of the print was interrupted, the printing system characterized by further comprising resuming resuming means the printing with the interruption.

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