JP7714331B2 - Image management system, image management method, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image management system, an image management method, and a program.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an information processing system that executes a process in which a computer that records transactions using a blockchain in response to a request from a terminal registers a key that identifies one transaction out of a series of multiple transactions and transaction identification information corresponding to that key outside the blocks that make up the blockchain, and registers trace information indicating the content and order of multiple transactions or a hash value of that trace information, the key, and a key indicating the immediately preceding transaction and/or transaction identification information indicating the immediately preceding transaction within the block.

Patent Document 2 also discloses an electronic document system in which a user terminal 12 authenticates a scanner 13 or the like using an authentication device 11, the scanner 13 acquires image data of a paper document, generates digital watermark data and embeds it in the image data, the scanner 13 performs a hash calculation on the image data and generates an electronic document containing the obtained hash value, the scanner 13 generates a digital certificate and attaches the generated digital certificate to the electronic document, the user terminal 12 transmits the electronic document generated by the scanner 13 to an originality assurance storage device 2 via a LAN 9, and the electronic document with the attached digital certificate is stored in an original document management DB 22.

Patent Publication No. 2020-035214 JP 2003-296742

We provide an image management system that improves the traceability of digitized documents, etc.

The image management system of the present invention includes an image reading device that generates image data and a reading management device connected to the image reading device. The reading management device has an acquisition unit that acquires the image data generated by the image reading device, and a writing unit that writes information indicating that the image data was generated by the image reading device to the blockchain, in association with the image data acquired by the acquisition unit.

Preferably, the reading management device further has a user identification unit that identifies the user of the image reading device, and the writing unit writes at least one of the date, time and location at which the image reading device was operated and the identification information of the user identified by the user identification unit into the blockchain, associating them with each other.

Preferably, the reading management device further includes a hash value generation unit that calculates a hash value for the image data acquired by the acquisition unit, and the writing unit writes at least one of the date, time, and location at which the image reading device was operated, the identification information of the user identified by the user identification unit, and the hash value calculated by the hash value generation unit into the blockchain.

Preferably, the image reading device is a scanner, and the reading management device further has a display unit that displays an image code containing information for identifying the scanner, and is connected to the scanner by wire.

Preferably, the reading management device further has an editing monitoring unit that monitors editing of the image data generated by the image reading device, and when editing of the image data is detected by the editing monitoring unit, the writing unit adds the hash value of the edited image data to the blockchain.

Preferably, the system further includes a notification unit that notifies the user associated with the image data as the holder of the original based on the information written to the blockchain.

The image management method according to the present invention also includes a step in which an image reading device generates image data, and a step in which a computer writes information indicating that the image data was generated by the image reading device to the blockchain, in association with the image data generated by the image reading device.

The program of the present invention also causes a computer to execute the steps of causing an image reading device to generate image data, and writing information indicating that the image data was generated by the image reading device to a blockchain, in association with the image data generated by the image reading device.

Improve traceability of electronic documents, etc.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an image management system 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a reading management device 4. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the functional configuration of a reading management device 4. 1 is a diagram illustrating the functional configuration of the web application server 70, focusing on the part related to editing monitoring. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an overview of editing monitoring. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a digitization process.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a specific example will be described in which the image reading device is a scanner, but the image reading device is not limited to this, and may be a photographing device such as a digital camera. In addition, in this embodiment, a specific example will be described in which a paper document is converted into an electronic document by a scanner 2, but the object of digitization is not limited to a document.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an image management system 1. As shown in FIG.
As illustrated in Figure 1, the image management system 1 includes a scanner 2 shared by multiple users, a user terminal (smartphone 3) operated by the user, a reading management device 4 connected to the scanner 2, a blockchain 6, a web application server 70, a scanner cloud manager 72, and a service 74 operated by a third party.
The smartphone 3, the reading management device 4, the blockchain 6, the web application server 70, the scanner cloud manager 72, and the service 74 operated by a third party are connected to each other via the Internet 8.

The scanner 2 is an image reading device that converts a paper document into an electronic document (such as a PDF file).
The smartphone 3 is a mobile terminal operated by a user and has a function of reading QR codes.
The reading management device 4 is a computer terminal connected to the scanner 2. For example, the reading management device 4 is a computer terminal directly connected to the scanner 2 via a wire, and performs tasks such as authenticating the user of the smartphone 3, controlling the scanner 2, transferring scanned data, and referencing and writing to the blockchain 8. The wired connection between the scanner 2 and the reading management device 4 is realized by, for example, a USB cable.
Blockchain 6 is an open distributed ledger.

The web application server 70 is a web server that accepts a request to use the scanner from the smartphone 3. Furthermore, the web application server 70 verifies and monitors the editing of electronic documents in response to a request from a user.
The scanner cloud manager 72 is a cloud service that manages image data (scanned data) transferred from the reading management device 4, and transfers the image data to a service 74 operated by a third party, for example.
The service 74 operated by a third party is a web service provided by a third party on the Internet, and is, for example, a service that stores image data of receipts and the like and supports accounting processing. The third party service 74 may also be a service that stores and manages electronic data of business cards.

In the image management system 1, converting a paper document into an electronic document changes the ease of duplication and editing. For example, electronic documents are easier to duplicate than paper documents, and even if an electronic document is edited, it is difficult to detect the traces of the edits and distinguish them. This makes it difficult to identify the owner of the original paper document. Furthermore, because it is relatively easy to perform high-resolution editing on an electronic document, it also becomes difficult to distinguish between a scanned electronic document and an electronic document that has been edited after scanning.
Therefore, the reading management device 4 of this embodiment writes information regarding the scanning process by the scanner 2 (e.g., user, scan date and time, scan location, etc.) to the blockchain 6, making it possible to verify the fact that the scanning process was performed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of the reading management device 4.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the reading management device 4 includes a CPU 400, a memory 402, a HDD 404, a network interface 406 (network IF 406), a display device 408, and an input device 410, and these components are connected to each other via a bus 412.
The CPU 400 is, for example, a central processing unit.
The memory 402 is, for example, a volatile memory, and functions as a main storage device.
The HDD 404 is, for example, a hard disk drive device, and serves as a non-volatile storage device for storing computer programs (for example, the reading management program 5 in FIG. 3) and other data files.
The network IF 406 is an interface for wired or wireless communication, and realizes, for example, communication with the scanner 2 and connection to the Internet 8 .
The display device 408 is, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD panel).
The input device 410 is, for example, a touch panel.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the functional configuration of the reading management device 4.
3, a reading management program 5 is installed and operates in the reading management device 4 of this example. The reading management program 5 is stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, and is installed in the reading management device 4 via this recording medium.
The reading management program 5 includes a user authentication unit 500 , a control unit 510 , a writing unit 520 , a display unit 530 , an image transfer unit 540 , a hash value generation unit 550 , and an editing monitoring unit 560 .
The reading management program 5 may be partly or entirely implemented by hardware such as an ASIC, or may be implemented by borrowing some of the functions of an OS (Operating System).

In the reading management program 5, the user authentication unit 500 authenticates the user regarding the image reading device that digitizes documents. For example, the user authentication unit 500 authenticates the user based on the usage authority information written in the blockchain 6. In this example, the user authentication unit 500 verifies whether the user has permission to use the scanner 2 based on the signature data received from the user's smartphone 3 and the license information written in the blockchain 6.

The control unit 510 controls the image reading device (scanner 2) in accordance with the authentication result by the user authentication unit 500, and acquires the image data read by the image reading device. The control unit 510 is an example of an acquisition unit according to the present invention. For example, the control unit 510 operates the scanner 2 in accordance with the usage authority and acquires the electronic document read by the scanner 2 only if the user authentication unit 500 determines that the user has usage authority.

The writing unit 520 writes information indicating that the image reading device (scanner 2) was operated under the control of the control unit 510, associating it with the image data, into the blockchain 6. For example, when the control unit 510 operates the scanner 2 in response to a user request, the writing unit 520 writes at least one of the date, time, and location at which the scanner 2 was operated, and the user's identification information, associating it with the hash value of the image data, into the blockchain 6. In this example, the writing unit 520 writes the date and time (year, month, day, hour, minute, and second) at which the scan by the scanner 2 was completed, the scanner 2's ID information, the user's ID information, and the hash value of the scanned image data, associating them with each other, into the blockchain 6.

In addition, when the editing monitoring unit 560 detects editing of an electronic document, the writing unit 520 adds the edit date and time, the editor's ID information, and the hash value of the edited image data to the blockchain 6 for the edited image data.

The writing unit 520 may write to the blockchain 6 that the image data has been transferred to the server of another service by the image transfer unit 540. In other words, the writing unit 520 may write to the blockchain 6 the name of another service 74 to which the image data scanned by the scanner 2 has been distributed. This makes it possible to trace the distribution destination of the electronic document.

The display unit 530 displays an image code that includes information for identifying the scanner 2. In this example, the display unit 530 displays a QR code that includes the ID of the reading management device 4 (i.e., the ID information of the scanner 2) and the URL of the web application server 70 on the display device 408.

The image transfer unit 540 transfers image data scanned by the scanner 2 to the server of another service provided on the network. In this example, the image transfer unit 540 sends the image data scanned by the scanner 2 to the scanner cloud manager 72, and then transfers it to a third-party service 74 via the scanner cloud manager 72.

The hash value generating unit 550 calculates a hash value of the image data scanned by the scanner 2 .
Furthermore, when the editing monitoring unit 560 detects that the image data has been edited, the hash value generating unit 550 calculates a hash value of the edited image data.

The editing monitoring unit 560 monitors editing of the image data generated by the scanner 2, and when editing of the image data is detected, it causes the hash value generation unit 550 to calculate a hash value of the edited image data and causes the writing unit 520 to write the hash value of the edited image data to the blockchain 6.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the functional configuration of the web application server 70, focusing on the part related to editing monitoring.
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an outline of editing monitoring.
As illustrated in FIG. 4 , a server program 700 is installed and operates on the web application server 70 of this example. The server program 700 includes an edit monitoring unit 702, a hash value generation unit 704, a writing unit 706, and a notification unit 708. Note that the edit monitoring unit 702, hash value generation unit 704, and writing unit 706 of the server program 700 are substantially the same as the edit monitoring unit 560, hash value generation unit 550, and writing unit 520 of the reading management program 5. That is, as illustrated in FIG. 5 , the edit monitoring unit 702, hash value generation unit 704, and writing unit 706 of the server program 700 monitor edits to image data, and when an edit (update) to the image data is detected, calculates a hash value of the edited image data and adds the calculated hash value to the blockchain 6. In FIG. 5 , when the image data is revised (version 01 → version 02), a hash value 02 is written to the blockchain 6.

In response to a request, the notification unit 708 notifies the user associated with the image data as the holder of the original based on the information written to the blockchain 6. Furthermore, in this example, the notification unit 708 verifies whether the image data has been tampered with based on the hash value written to the blockchain 6, as illustrated in Figure 5.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the process of digitizing a document, focusing on the operation of the reading management device 4.
As shown in FIG. 6 , in step 100 (S100), the display unit 530 ( FIG. 3 ) of the reading management device 4 displays a QR code (including the URL of the Web application server 70 and the ID of the connector device) on the display device 408 (LCD panel). The user operates the smartphone 3 to read the displayed QR code and access the Web application server 70. In response to the access, the Web application server 70 starts an application on the smartphone 3 and instructs the smartphone 3 to transmit authentication information (signature data) to the reading management device 4.

In step 110 (S110), the user authentication unit 500 receives the user authentication information (signature data) from the smartphone 3.
In step 120 (S120), the user authentication unit 500 verifies the license information written in the block chain 6 based on the received signature data.
In step 130 (S130), if the user authentication unit 500 has succeeded in the verification, the reading management program 5 proceeds to the processing of S140, and if the user authentication unit 500 has failed in the verification, the reading management program 5 ends the processing.

In step 140 (S140), the user authentication unit 500 notifies the web application server 70 that the verification was successful (i.e., that the user has permission to use the scanner 2). The web application server 70 then displays a list of services available to the user on the user's smartphone 3, allowing the user to select the service they wish to use.

In step 150 (S150), when the user places an original on the scanner 2 and selects the service he or she wishes to use, the control unit 510 of the reading management device 4 controls the scanner 2 to start the scanning operation.
In step 160 (S160), the hash value generating section 550 calculates a hash value of the image data (scanned data) scanned by the scanner 2.
In step 170 (S170), the image transfer unit 540 transfers the image data (scanned data) generated by the scanner 2 to the Web application server 70, and allows the scanned image data to be confirmed on the smartphone 3.
When the user confirms that there is no problem with the image data, the image transfer unit 540 transfers the image data to the scanner cloud manager 72 .

In step 180 (S180), at the same time that the image transfer unit 540 transfers the image data, the writing unit 520 writes the scan completion date and time of the scanner 2, the ID information of the scanner 2 (i.e., the ID information of the reading management device 4), the user's ID information, and the hash value calculated by the hash value generation unit 550 into the blockchain 6, associating them with each other.
In addition, the scanner cloud manager 72 sends the transferred image data to a third-party service 74 (such as an accounting service) in response to an instruction from the image transfer unit 540, thereby realizing service collaboration.

As described above, according to the image management system 1 of this embodiment, the reading management device 4 connected to the scanner 2 controls the operation of the scanner 2 and associates the fact of scanning with the scan data and writes it into the blockchain 6, thereby making it possible to manage the facts at the time the scan data was generated (user, date and time, location, etc.) in a highly transparent manner.
Furthermore, by presenting this ID information (QR code) while the reading management device 4 is connected to the scanner 2 by wire, the relationship between the reading management device 4 and the scanner 2 being used can be clearly indicated to the user.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The above embodiments can be implemented in a variety of other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. The above embodiments and their variations are within the scope and spirit of the invention, as well as the inventions set forth in the claims and their equivalents.

1 Image management system 2 Scanner 4 Reading management device 5 Reading management program

Claims (7)

an image reading device that generates image data;
a reading management device connected to the image reading device,
The reading management device
an acquisition unit that acquires image data generated by the image reading device;
a hash value generation unit that calculates a hash value for the image data acquired by the acquisition unit;
a writing unit that writes information indicating that the image data was generated by the image reading device into the blockchain in association with the image data acquired by the acquiring unit ;
an editing monitoring unit that monitors editing of the image data generated by the image reading device;
and
When the editing monitoring unit detects editing of image data performed outside the editing monitoring unit without using a blockchain, the writing unit adds a hash value of the edited image data to the blockchain.
Image management system. The reading management device
a user identification unit for identifying a user of the image reading device,
The image management system of claim 1 , wherein the writing unit writes at least one of the date, time, and location at which the image reading device was operated and the identification information of the user identified by the user identification unit in association with each other into the blockchain. The image management system of claim 2 , wherein the writing unit writes at least one of the date, time, and location at which the image reading device was operated, the identification information of the user identified by the user identification unit, and the hash value calculated by the hash value generation unit into the blockchain. the image reading device is a scanner,
The reading management device
a display unit that displays an image code including information for identifying the scanner;
The image management system according to claim 3 , which is connected to the scanner by wire. The image management system according to claim 2 , further comprising a notification unit that notifies a user associated with image data as the holder of the original based on information written in the blockchain. a generating step of causing the image reading device to generate image data;
The computer
an acquiring step of acquiring image data generated by the image reading device;
a calculation step of calculating a hash value for the image data acquired in the acquisition step;
a writing step of writing information indicating that the image data was generated by the image reading device into the blockchain in association with the image data acquired in the acquisition step ;
an editing monitoring step of monitoring editing of the image data generated by the image reading device;
Including,
The writing step adds a hash value of the edited image data to the blockchain when the editing monitoring step detects an edit of the image data performed in a step different from the editing monitoring step without using the blockchain.
Image management methods. a generating step of causing the image reading device to generate image data;
an acquiring step of acquiring image data generated by the image reading device;
a calculation step of calculating a hash value for the image data acquired in the acquisition step;
a writing step of writing information indicating that the image data was generated by the image reading device into the blockchain in association with the image data acquired in the acquisition step ;
an editing monitoring step of monitoring editing of the image data generated by the image reading device;
on the computer ,
The writing step adds a hash value of the edited image data to the blockchain when the editing monitoring step detects an edit of the image data performed in a step different from the editing monitoring step without using the blockchain.
program.