JP7767964B2 - Printed matter monitoring system, wireless tag and printed matter monitoring program - Google Patents

Description

The technical field disclosed in this specification relates to a print monitoring system for monitoring printed matter, a wireless tag, and a print monitoring program incorporated into a mobile terminal.

In recent years, the spread of teleworking and other trends has led to an increasing demand for off-site printing. Off-site printing poses security issues, such as information leaks due to loss of printed materials, and one known solution is a system for managing printed materials. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a document management system that includes a multifunction peripheral, a shredder, and a server. When a document is printed, the multifunction peripheral outputs a printed material with a two-dimensional code containing a document ID, and the document ID is stored by the server. When the printed material is disposed of, the two-dimensional code is read by the shredder, after which the printed material is disposed of and the document ID contained in the read two-dimensional code is notified to the server.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-4431

In a system such as that disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, if a user prints confidential documents outside the company and then shreds and discards the printed materials in an internal shredder, the user must carry the printed materials outside the company, but there is a risk that the user may lose the printed materials during the process. Therefore, there is room for improvement in terms of the safety of users transporting printed materials.

The technology disclosed in this specification aims to realize a technology that improves the safety of printed materials when they are carried by users.

This was made with the aim of solving the above-mentioned problems,
a print monitoring program;
A wireless tag and
A server;
A print monitoring system comprising:
The server
It is possible to store printed matter information including a printed matter ID that identifies the printed matter and transport status information that indicates the transport status,
The print monitoring program
A controller of a mobile terminal in which the print monitoring program is installed,
an acquisition process for acquiring the printed matter ID, a first transmission process for transmitting a monitoring registration command to the server, and a monitoring establishment process for establishing a connection with the wireless tag to be monitored, wherein the monitoring registration command is associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process;
The server
When the monitoring registration command is received, a storage process is executed to store the printed matter information including the printed matter ID associated with the received monitoring registration command and the transport status information in which a first value indicating that transport is in progress is set;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
a confirmation process for periodically transmitting a confirmation signal to the wireless tag to be monitored while a connection is established with the wireless tag, and determining whether the wireless tag is within a predetermined range based on a response signal from the wireless tag;
The wireless tag is
When the confirmation signal is received, a response process is performed to transmit the response signal to the mobile terminal that transmitted the confirmation signal;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When it is determined in the confirmation process that the wireless tag is not within the predetermined range, the confirmation process is stopped, and a loss notification process is executed to notify a user interface of the mobile terminal that the wireless tag is lost, and a second transmission process is executed to transmit a loss command to the server, the loss command being associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process,
The server
When the loss command is received, the printed matter information corresponding to the printed matter ID associated with the received loss command is extracted from the stored printed matter information, and a loss update process is executed to rewrite the transport status information included in the extracted printed matter information to a second value indicating that the printed matter is lost.
The present invention is characterized by being configured as follows.

According to the technology disclosed in this specification, a printed matter monitoring program establishes a connection with a wireless tag and stores printed matter information on a server with a first value set to indicate that the tag is being transported. Furthermore, while the connection is established, the printed matter monitoring program periodically communicates with the wireless tag. If the program determines that the wireless tag is not within a predetermined range, it notifies the user of the loss and rewrites the printed matter information stored on the server with a second value indicating that the tag is missing. This makes it easier for a user of a mobile device incorporating a printed matter monitoring program to notice the loss of a wireless tag (printed matter) if the wireless tag is transported together with the printed matter. Furthermore, a third party other than the user of the mobile device, such as an administrator, can monitor the transport status of the printed matter by referencing the printed matter information on the server, ensuring safety when transporting the printed matter.

The print monitoring program and wireless tags that realize the functions of the above device are also new and useful.

The technology disclosed in this specification realizes a technology that improves the security of printed materials when they are carried by users.

1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the electrical configuration of a personal computer and a cloud server. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of print log information. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the electrical configuration of a management terminal device. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the electrical configuration of the monitoring device. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure of a printing process using a personal computer and a printer. (A) is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an example of an electronic tag registration screen displayed on the user IF of the monitoring device. (B) is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an example of an electronic tag name setting screen displayed on the user IF of the monitoring device. (C) is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an example of a registration screen for a printed matter displayed on the user IF of the monitoring device. (D) is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an example of a registration screen for a printed matter management system displayed on the user IF of the monitoring device. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure of the monitoring process and the search process of the print management system. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure of a monitoring process and a search request process of the print management system. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing the steps of a search process when searching for a lost bag using a smartphone or a monitoring device. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing the steps of a search process when searching for a lost bag (electronic tag) using a smartphone in silent search.

(First embodiment)
An embodiment of a print management system according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Recently, amid growing calls for work style reform aimed at securing human resources and improving productivity, the number of companies introducing "telework" has rapidly increased. Telework can be divided into "working from home," "working from a satellite office," and "mobile work" depending on the location of the work, and it is thought that many companies have introduced "telework" as a form of "telework." Incidentally, when "teleworking from home," for example, employees working from home, there is a possibility that many printed materials containing confidential company information will be printed at the employee's home, and such printed materials containing confidential company information must be properly managed until they are discarded. The print management system of this embodiment is a system for properly managing printed materials printed at, for example, an employee's home until they are discarded.

Figure 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the schematic configuration of a printed matter management system according to this embodiment, which will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. As shown in Figure 1, the printed matter management system 100 of this embodiment comprises a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "PC") 2 and printer 4 installed at a telework location, for example, an employee's home; a management terminal device 5, printer 6, and shredder 7 installed at the employee's workplace, for example, the office where the employee normally works; a cloud server 9; a monitoring device 10 carried by the employee; an electronic tag 11; and smartphones 200 carried by multiple other employees. The printed matter management system is an example of a printed matter monitoring system. The management terminal device 5 and cloud server 9 are examples of servers. The electronic tag 11 is an example of a wireless tag.

Furthermore, PC 2 is communicatively connected to cloud server 9 via, for example, internet line 12. Furthermore, management terminal device 5, printing device 6, and shredder 7 are communicatively connected to each other via a local area network (hereinafter referred to as "LAN") 13 installed in the office. Furthermore, LAN 13 is connected to internet line 12, and therefore management terminal device 5 and shredder 7 are communicatively connected to cloud server 9 via LAN 13 and internet line 12.

In this embodiment, the telework destination is the employee's home, but this is not limited to this. For example, it could be a satellite office, a hotel, or a vacation home. Also, in this embodiment, the employee's workplace, for example the office where the employee normally works, is used, but this is not limited to this. In other words, it can be anywhere as long as it is communicatively connected to the cloud server 9 and has a shredding device 7 installed, and it could be, for example, a satellite office provided by the employer. Also, in this embodiment, the cloud server 9 is connected to the Internet line 12, but this is not limited to this. For example, it could be connected to a LAN 13.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the electrical configuration of the personal computer and cloud server, which will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. As shown in Figure 2, PC 2 has a control unit 20 consisting of a CPU 21, ROM 22, and RAM 23, a storage device 24, an operation display unit 26, a network interface 27, and a USB interface 28. ROM 22 stores programs such as a startup program for starting up PC 2. RAM 23 is used as a working area when various processes are executed, or as a storage area for temporarily storing data.

The storage device 24 is composed of, for example, semiconductor memory such as flash memory or a hard disk drive (HDD). The storage device 24 also incorporates an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 30, an application program (hereinafter referred to as "app") 31, a printer driver 32, an electronic tag app 33, and a virtual driver 34. The OS 30 is, for example, Windows (registered trademark), but may also be any of MacOS (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark), or Linux (registered trademark).

App 31 is a program for executing processes for specific purposes. Specifically, it is a program that can, for example, accept images that will become image data, accept edits to those images, accept print settings, specify the printer 4 that will perform printing, and accept instructions to perform printing via the operation display unit 26. App 31 may also include various application programs such as a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, a web browser, etc.

The printer driver 32 is a program corresponding to the model of the printer 4, and communicates with the printer 4 via the USB interface 28 to control the operation of the printer 4. The printer driver 32 is started, for example, when an instruction to set the properties of the printer 4 is received while the printer 4 is specified in the app 31, etc.

When printer driver 32 receives print instruction information from OS 30, it acquires the image data specified in the print instruction information and generates print data based on the acquired image data. Then, printer driver 32 sends a print job, including the generated print data and the acquired print settings, to printer 4 via a print queue 301 and an output port (not shown) managed by OS 30.

The electronic tag application 33 is launched by an employee (user). Once launched, it constantly monitors the status of print jobs in the print queue 301, and when a print job is output from the printer driver 32 to the print queue 301, it acquires that print job.

The electronic tag application 33 also generates two-dimensional barcode print data for printing the two-dimensional barcode 16 shown in FIG. 1 on the printing paper 14 and print ID print data for printing the print ID 17 on the printing paper 14, and then inserts the two-dimensional barcode print data and print ID print data into the print data of the acquired print job.

In addition, when printing is completed by the printer 4, the electronic tag application 33 generates the print log information 18 shown in Figure 3 and uploads the generated print log information 18 to the cloud server 9.

The virtual driver 34 is activated by the electronic tag application 33 and sends the print job generated by the electronic tag application 33 to the printer 4 via the output port.

The electronic tag application 33 and virtual driver 34 are downloaded in advance by the employee (user) from the cloud server 9 to the PC 2 and stored in the storage device 24. Another possible installation method is to insert a recording medium, such as a USB memory or CD-ROM, on which the electronic tag application 33 and virtual driver 34 are stored into the PC 2, and then store the virtual driver 34 read from the recording medium in the storage device 24. When the electronic tag application 33 and virtual driver 34 are stored in the storage device 24, the user ID 181 and terminal ID 182 in the print log information 18 shown in Figure 3 are set and stored by the employee (user).

In this embodiment, the virtual driver 34 is configured as a separate entity from the printer driver 32. However, if, for example, the manufacturer of the print management system 100 is the same as the manufacturer of the printer 4, it is possible to integrate the functions of the virtual driver 34 into the printer driver 32. In this embodiment, because the manufacturer of the print management system 100 is different from the manufacturer of the printer 4, the virtual driver 34 is configured as a separate entity from the printer driver 32.

The CPU 21 executes various processes according to programs read from the ROM 22 or storage device 24.

The operation display unit 26 is integrated with the housing of the PC 2 and is composed of, for example, a display device and a keyboard. The display device displays necessary information, and the keyboard accepts input from the user. The keyboard may also be composed of a touch panel integrated with the display device.

In this embodiment, PC 2 is configured as a notebook personal computer, but it may also be configured as a desktop personal computer. In this case, PC 2 is equipped with an interface for connecting devices that realize the functions of operation display unit 26, specifically, a keyboard, mouse, display, etc. Also, PC 2 may also be configured as a smartphone, tablet, and printer 4.

The network interface 27 is an interface that includes a communication circuit for communicating with the cloud server 9 via the Internet line 12.

The USB interface 28 is an interface that includes a communication circuit for communicating with the printer 4 via a USB cable. Therefore, by connecting a USB cable between the USB interface 41 of the printer 4 and the USB interface 28, wired communication between the PC 2 and the printer 4 becomes possible.

The image forming unit (not shown) of printer 4 prints an image 15, a two-dimensional barcode 16, and a printed matter ID 17 on the printing paper 14 to be printed, as shown in FIG. 1, based on the print data, two-dimensional barcode print data, and printed matter ID print data sent from PC 2. The image forming unit may use any of the following image forming methods: thermal printing, electrophotography, inkjet printing, or other methods. The image forming unit may use an image forming method capable of color printing, or an image forming method that supports only monochrome printing.

In this embodiment, the image forming unit of the printer 4 uses, as an example, an inkjet printing method that supports color printing. Furthermore, plain paper and Photo paper are used as the printing paper 14 to be printed on.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cloud server 9 has a CPU 91, ROM 92, RAM 93, a storage unit 94, an operation display unit 96, and a network interface 95. ROM 92 stores a startup program for starting up the cloud server 9. RAM 93 is used as a work area when various processes are executed, or as a storage area for temporarily storing data. The management terminal device 5 and cloud server 9 are examples of servers.

The storage unit 94 is composed of, for example, a HDD or flash memory, and stores various processing programs and data such as the print log information 18 shown in Figure 3.

The CPU 91 executes various processes according to programs read from the ROM 92 or memory unit 94.

The operation display unit 96 is composed of, for example, a display device and a touch panel arranged on the display device. The display device displays the necessary information, and the touch panel accepts input from the user.

In addition, the configuration of the operation and display unit 96 may be such that a device for realizing the functions of the operation and display unit 96 is provided separately from the housing of the cloud server 9. In this case, the cloud server 9 has an interface for connecting devices that realize the functions of the operation and display unit 96, specifically, a keyboard, mouse, display, etc.

Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the general configuration of print log information 18. Print log information 18 is made up of one or more records, and each record is made up of a user ID 181, a terminal ID 182, a document ID 183, a page ID 184, a printing date 185, disposal/loss information 186, a disposal date 187, an electronic tag ID 188, loss time information 189, and discovery time information 190. The document ID 183 and page ID 184 make up the printed matter ID 17. The print log information 18 is also an example of printed matter information.

User ID 181 may be the employee code of the employee (user) at the company. Terminal ID 182 may be the user name or IP address of PC 2. Document ID 183 is assigned as a serial number to printed matter composed of print paper 14 printed using PC 2, in the order of printing, by file name. Page ID 184 indicates the page number of the printed matter, by file name. Printing date 185 indicates the date of printing using PC 2. Disposal/loss information 186 is information indicating, for each page of printed matter, whether the printed matter printed using PC 2 has been shredded by shredding device 7 (whether disposal has been completed), is in transport, or is lost. Disposal/loss information 186 is an example of transport status information. "In transport" is an example of a first value, and "Lost" is an example of a second value.

The disposal date 187 indicates the date on which the printed material printed using the PC 2 was shredded by the shredder 7. The electronic tag ID 188 can be set by the employee (user) when the monitoring device 10 carried by the employee (user) is connected to the electronic tag 11. The employee (user) can set any code as the electronic tag ID 188. The loss information 189 is composed of the location information of the monitoring device 10 and the time of disconnection when the connection between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 is disconnected. The discovery information 190 is composed of the finder ID, which is composed of the user ID 181 of the employee carrying the monitoring device 10 or smartphone 200 that discovered the lost electronic tag 11, and the location information and time of discovery of the monitoring device 10 or smartphone 200 at the time of discovery.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the electrical configuration of the management terminal device 5, which will be described in detail below with reference to the drawing. Specifically, the management terminal device 5 has a control unit 51 consisting of a CPU 511, ROM 512, and RAM 513, a storage device 52, a network interface 53, and a user interface 54. ROM 512 stores startup programs and the like for starting up the management terminal device 5. RAM 513 is used as a working area when various processes are executed, or as a storage area for temporarily storing data.

The storage device 52 is composed of, for example, semiconductor memory such as flash memory or a HDD. The storage device 55 also incorporates an OS 55, an electronic tag system application 56, a printing cost management application 57, and a printer driver 58. The OS 55 is, for example, Windows (registered trademark), but may also be any of MacOS (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark), or Linux (registered trademark).

The electronic tag system app 56 is a program for integrating the entire printed matter management system 100. Therefore, an administrator who is authorized to operate the management terminal device 5 can view the printing log information 18 stored on the cloud server 9 by launching the electronic tag system app 56. This allows the administrator to grasp and manage the transportation/disposal status of printing paper 14 in real time.

Furthermore, when the electronic tag system app 56 receives a request to register carried materials or lost materials from the monitoring device 10, it registers the carried materials or lost materials in the print log information 18 on the cloud server 9. Furthermore, when the bag 19 is lost, it sets the smartphone 200 to search for the bag 19. Furthermore, when it receives discovery information from the smartphone 200, it notifies the monitoring device 10 of the discovery information. Furthermore, the electronic tag system app 56 may include various application programs such as a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, a web browser program, etc.

The printing cost management app 57 can manage printing costs for each employee (user) based on the printing log information 18, corresponding to the number of sheets of printing paper 14 that the employee (user) printed at home using the printer 4 and that were shredded by the shredder 7. It can also manage payments to employees (users) for those printing costs.

The printer driver 58 is a program that corresponds to the model of the printing device 6 and communicates with the printing device 6 via the network interface 53 to control the operation of the printing device 6.

The network interface 53 is configured as an interface conforming to the wired LAN communication standard. Other network interfaces may also be, for example, an interface conforming to the wireless LAN communication standard such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or an interface conforming to the USB communication standard.

The network interface 53 is also connected to the LAN 13, and is communicatively connected to the printing device 6 and shredding device 7. The network interface 53 is also communicatively connected to the cloud server 9, monitoring device 10, and smartphone 200 via the LAN 13 and the Internet line 12. The network interface 53 may also be configured to be communicatively connected to the monitoring device 10 and smartphone 200 via a communications infrastructure (not shown) provided by a mobile phone operator.

The user interface 54 is composed of a display device, keyboard, mouse, etc. The display device displays necessary information, and the keyboard and mouse accept input from the user. The keyboard may be configured as a touch panel integrated into the display device. In this embodiment, the management terminal device 5 is configured as a desktop personal computer, but it may also be configured as a notebook personal computer.

Returning to Figure 1, the printing device 6 is composed of an image forming unit and a network interface (neither of which are shown). The image forming unit may use any of the following image forming methods: thermal printing, electrophotography, inkjet printing, or other methods. The image forming unit may also use an image forming method capable of color printing, or an image forming method that supports only monochrome printing. The network interface of the printing device 6 is composed of an interface conforming to the wired LAN communication standard. Alternatively, the network interface may be, for example, an interface conforming to the wireless LAN communication standard such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or an interface conforming to the USB communication standard. The network interface is connected to the LAN 13, and is connected to the management terminal device 5 so that they can communicate with each other.

The shredding device 7 also has a loading section 702 at an upper position within its housing 701 for loading print paper 14 (printed material) to be shredded. A shredding section (not shown) is located at a lower position within the housing 701, and a storage tray 704 for storing pieces of paper shredded by the shredding section is located below the shredding section and is removable from the housing 701. A discharge tray 714 is located on the front side of the housing 701.

The shredding device 7 also has a control unit (none of which are shown) consisting of a CPU, ROM, and RAM. The CPU is a central processing unit that executes various control programs. The ROM stores various control programs executed by the CPU and permanent data. The RAM temporarily stores the results of calculations performed by the CPU on the control programs.

The shredding device 7 also has a storage device (not shown) connected to the control unit. The storage device may be, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive).

The shredder 7 also has a communication interface (not shown) connected to the control unit. In this embodiment, the communication interface is configured as an interface conforming to a wired LAN communication standard. Alternatively, the network interface may be, for example, an interface conforming to a wireless LAN communication standard such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or a USB communication standard. The communication interface is connected to the LAN 13 and is communicatively connected to the management terminal device 5. The communication interface is also communicatively connected to the cloud server 9 via the LAN 13 and the Internet line 12. Therefore, the control unit of the shredder 7 can upload information stored in the storage device to the cloud server 9.

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing the electrical configuration of the monitoring device, which will be described in detail below with reference to the drawing. The monitoring device 10 is configured, for example, by a smartphone or tablet, and the smartphone or tablet may be owned by the employee (user) or the company where the employee works. In this embodiment, it is configured by a smartphone owned by the employee (user). Furthermore, the monitoring device 10 is an example of a mobile terminal and a first mobile terminal.

In the figure, the monitoring device 10 has a control unit 101. The control unit 101 is responsible for central control of the monitoring device 10. The control unit 101 includes a CPU 102, ROM 103, and RAM 104. The CPU 102 is a central processing unit that executes various control programs and is an example of a controller. The ROM 103 stores various control programs executed by the CPU 102 as well as permanent data. The RAM 104 temporarily stores the results of calculations performed by the control programs executed by the CPU 102. Note that the control unit 101 in Figure 6 is a general term that collectively refers to the hardware and software used to control the monitoring device 10, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware that actually exists in the monitoring device 10.

The monitoring device 10 includes a first communication interface (hereinafter referred to as the "first communication IF") 105, a camera 106, a user interface (hereinafter referred to as the "user IF") 107, a GPS receiver 108, a second communication interface (hereinafter referred to as the "second communication IF") 109, and an alarm device 110.

The first communication IF 105 is configured with an interface conforming to a wireless LAN communication standard such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark), and can be connected to the Internet line 12. Therefore, the monitoring device 10 is connected to the management terminal device 5 and cloud server 9 so that they can communicate with each other. The monitoring device 10 may also be connected to the management terminal device 5 and cloud server 9 so that they can communicate with each other via the first communication IF 105 and the communication infrastructure provided by a mobile phone operator.

The camera 106 is connected to the control unit 101 and is capable of capturing images of any subject. The camera 106 also includes hardware with an imaging function, and may be incorporated into the main body of the monitoring device 10, or may be a separate device that can be connected to the monitoring device 10.

User IF 107 is configured with a touch panel that has both display and operation reception functions, and is connected to the control unit 101. User IF 107 is an example of a display unit and an example of an input interface. Note that user IF 107 may include a combination of a display, such as an LCD display or organic EL display, that displays information, and a keyboard or mouse that receives input operations by the user.

The GPS receiver 108 receives signals from satellites and provides functions such as detecting the position of the monitoring device 10 and obtaining accurate time information. Note that "GPS" is an abbreviation for "Global Positioning System."

The second communication IF 109 is configured with an interface conforming to short-range wireless communication standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) and NFC. The second communication IF 109 is connected to the electronic tag 11 via its Bluetooth communication function so that they can communicate with each other when the electronic tag 11 approaches the monitoring device 10 within a range of approximately 10 to 20 meters. The second communication IF 109 is also connected to the shredder 7 via its NFC communication function so that they can communicate with each other when the monitoring device 10 approaches the shredder 7 within a range of several centimeters.

The alarm device 110 is typically composed of a buzzer or speaker, but it may also be composed of optical elements such as LEDs or displays, or a vibrator.

The monitoring device 10 also has a storage device 111. The storage device 111 may be, for example, a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory or an HDD. The storage device 111 stores an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 112, a monitoring application program (hereinafter referred to as "monitoring app") 113, and the like.

OS 112 is iOS (registered trademark). It may also be, for example, Windows (registered trademark), macOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), or Android (registered trademark).

The monitoring app 113 can be used by, for example, downloading it from the cloud server 9 via the Internet line 12 and installing it on the monitoring device 10. Note that the download may also be performed from the management terminal device 5 instead of the cloud server 9.

In addition, when the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 are connected via the second communication IF 109, the monitoring application 113 can set the electronic tag ID 188 of the connected electronic tag 11.

In addition, when the monitoring application 113 reads the two-dimensional barcode 16 printed on the printing paper 14 via the camera 106, it can decode the two-dimensional barcode 16 and obtain the printed matter ID 17. The monitoring application 113 also stores the set electronic tag ID 188 and the obtained printed matter ID 17 in the storage device 111.

In addition, the monitoring application 113 can upload the set electronic tag ID 188 and the acquired printed matter ID 17 to the cloud server 9 via the first communication IF 105. Therefore, the cloud server 9 updates the electronic tag ID 188 in the print log information 18 based on the uploaded printed matter ID 17.

The monitoring app 113 can also send to the management terminal device 5 a request to register carried materials when the bag 19 is transported, or a request to register lost materials when the bag 19 is lost. Furthermore, if the lost bag 19 is found by the smartphone 200, the employee (user) is notified of the discovery information via the user IF 107. The monitoring app 113 may also include various application programs such as a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, a web browser program, etc.

Furthermore, when an employee (user) brings the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 within a range of approximately 10 to 20 meters while the monitoring app 113 is running, the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 can be paired via the second communication IF 109. If the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 then move away from each other beyond the 10 to 20 meter range, communication between the electronic tag 11 and the monitoring device 10 is interrupted. The monitoring device 10 then generates an alarm via the alarm device 110. This causes the monitoring device 10 to notify the employee (user) that the electronic tag 11 has moved away from the monitoring device 10 by more than a predetermined distance, i.e., that it has been lost.

Returning to Figure 1, the electronic tag 11 is a so-called smart tag, specifically, for example, Apple's (registered trademark) "Air Tag" (registered trademark). The electronic tag 11 is equipped with an interface (not shown) conforming to the short-range wireless communication standard Bluetooth, and is configured to enable BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) communication and pairing with the monitoring device 10 and smartphone 200.

The electronic tag 11 also has a memory unit (not shown) that can store the electronic tag ID 188 and printed matter ID 17 transmitted from the monitoring device 1.

Returning to FIG. 1, smartphone 200 is configured, for example, by a smartphone (smart phone) or tablet, and the smartphone (smart phone) or tablet may be owned by the employee (user) or the company where the employee works. In this embodiment, the employee (user) who owns monitoring device 10 and the employee (user) who owns smartphone 200 work for the same company. Furthermore, smartphone 200 has the same configuration as monitoring device 10, except that it is owned by a different person, so a detailed description will be omitted, but in the following description, the same reference numerals as those used in monitoring device 10 will be used. This is an example of a second mobile terminal.

Figure 6 is a sequence diagram showing the steps of a printing process using a personal computer and a printer, which will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Note that in this specification, the operation of each program will be described without mentioning OS 30. That is, in the following description, a statement to the effect that "Program B controls Hardware C" may also mean that "Program B controls Hardware C using the API of OS 41." Furthermore, the processing of CPU 21 in accordance with instructions written in a program may be described in abbreviated terms. For example, it may be described as "performed by the CPU" or "performed by the program."

First, in Figure 6, when an employee (user) launches the electronic tag application 33 prior to printing using the printer 4, the electronic tag application 33 constantly monitors the status of the print queue 301 (step 10 (hereinafter referred to as "T10")).

Next, the employee (user) issues a print instruction to the app 31 via the operation display unit 26 of the PC 2 (T11). The app 31 then generates image data for the image 15 created by the employee (user) using the app 31 (T12), and then outputs the generated image data to the printer driver 32 (T13).

The printer driver 32 then generates print data based on the acquired image data (T14). The printer driver 32 then outputs a print job including the generated print data and the acquired print settings to the print queue 301 managed by the OS 30 (T15).

The electronic tag application 33 constantly monitors the print queue 301 (T10), so when a print job is output from the printer driver 32 to the print queue 301, the electronic tag application 33 obtains the print job from the print queue 301 (T16).

Next, the electronic tag application 33 generates a document ID 183 and a page ID 184 as the printed matter ID 17 from the file name and page information extracted from the acquired print job. Next, as shown in FIG. 1, it generates two-dimensional barcode print data for printing a two-dimensional barcode 16 encoding the printed matter ID 17 on the printing paper 14, and printed matter ID print data for printing the printed matter ID 17 on the printing paper 14, and then inserts the two-dimensional barcode print data and printed matter ID print data into the print data of the acquired print job (T17).

Next, the electronic tag application 33 starts the virtual driver 34 (T18). When the virtual driver 34 is started, it sends the print data generated by the electronic tag application 33, i.e., the print data into which the two-dimensional barcode print data and the printed matter ID print data have been inserted, and a print job including print settings, etc., to the printer 4 (T19).

Next, the printer 4 that received the print job prints on the printing paper 14, which is the printing target, based on the received print job (T20). As a result, as shown in Figure 1, the image 15, two-dimensional barcode 16, and print ID 17 are each printed on the printing paper 14.

When printing is complete, the printer 4 sends a printing completion notification to the app 31 (T21). This allows the employee (user) to recognize that printing has completed via the operation display unit 26 of the PC 2.

The printer 4 also sends a print completion notification to the electronic tag application 33 (T22). Upon receiving the print completion notification, the electronic tag application 33 generates print log information 18 (T23), and then transmits the generated print log information 18 data to the cloud server 9 via the Internet line 12 (T24).

Next, the cloud server 9, which has received the print log information 18 data, stores the received print log information 18 data in the memory unit 94 (T25). That is, the print log information 18 related to the print paper 14 (printed matter) printed this time using the printer 4 is stored in the memory unit 94. In addition, the status of the discard/loss information 186 in the currently received print log information 18 is updated to "discard not completed" (T26).

Next, in this embodiment of the print management system, printed materials printed by a printer 4 installed at a telework location, for example, an employee's home, may contain confidential company information and must be properly managed and disposed of. To do this, the employee (user) places the printed paper 14 (printed materials) in a bag 19 equipped with an electronic tag 11, and then transports the bag 19 to the office. After that, the printed paper 14 (printed materials) must be removed from the bag 19 and shredded by the shredding device 7.

Before an employee (user) transports printing paper 14 (printed matter) stored in a bag 19 to the office, the employee (user) must first pair the monitoring device 10 with the electronic tag 11, and then use the monitoring device 10 to register the printing paper 14 (printed matter) to be transported on the cloud server 9.

That is, when an employee (user) selects registration mode after starting the monitoring app 113 of the monitoring device 10, an electronic tag registration screen such as that shown in FIG. 7(A) is displayed on the user IF 107. In this state, if the employee (user) brings the monitoring device 10 and electronic tag 11 close to each other within a range of approximately 10 to 20 meters and then touches the "Start registration" button 107A, the monitoring device 10 and electronic tag 11 are connected via the second communication IF 109, and the screen then transitions to the electronic tag name setting screen shown in FIG. 7(B).

Next, on the electronic tag name setting screen shown in FIG. 7(B), the employee (user) touches the keyboard 107B displayed on the user IF 107 to input the name of the electronic tag 11, i.e., the electronic tag ID 188. The electronic tag ID 188 can be any combination of the user ID 181, the printer ID of the printer 4, the user name or IP address of the PC 2, the document ID 183, the page ID 184, the printed matter ID 17, etc. Of course, it can also be any code set by the employee (user). In this embodiment, the user ID 181 is set as the electronic tag ID 188.

Next, after entering the name of the electronic tag 11, the employee (user) touches the "Continue" button 107C, which transitions to the printed matter registration screen shown in Figure 7 (C). On this printed matter registration screen, the employee (user) touches the shutter 107D and uses the camera 106 to photograph the two-dimensional barcode 16 printed on the printing paper 14 (printed matter) that is currently being transported to the office. If there are multiple sheets of printing paper 14 (printed matter), the camera 106 is used to photograph the two-dimensional barcodes 16 on all of the printing paper 14 (printed matter). This process is an example of the acquisition process.

Next, after the image capture is complete, the employee (user) touches the "Continue" button 107E, which transitions to the registration screen for the printed matter management system shown in FIG. 7(D). Here, when the employee (user) touches the "Continue" button 107E, the monitoring device 10 decodes the read two-dimensional barcode 16 to obtain the printed matter ID 17, and then stores the printed matter ID 17 and the electronic tag ID 188 set by the employee (user) in the storage device 111. The monitoring device 10 also transmits the printed matter ID 17 and electronic tag ID 188 stored in the storage device 111 to the cloud server 9.

The cloud server 9 then receives the printed matter ID 17 and electronic tag ID 188 and stores the electronic tag ID 188 in the print log information 18 based on the printed matter ID 17. This completes the registration of the transported print sheet 14 (printed matter) in the printed matter management system 100.

The monitoring device 10 also transmits the printed matter ID 17 and electronic tag ID 188 stored in the storage device 111 to the electronic tag 11, and the electronic tag 11 stores the received printed matter ID 17 and electronic tag ID 188 in its storage unit. The monitoring device 10 may be configured to transmit all of the printed matter IDs 17 stored in the storage device 111, or it may be configured to transmit only a portion of them, for example, the printed matter ID 17 of the printing paper 14 (printed matter) photographed first.

Next, in this embodiment of the print management system 100, when an employee (user) transports a bag 19 containing printing paper 14 (printed materials) to the office, the bag 19 can be monitored for loss using the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 attached to the bag 19. Furthermore, if the bag 19 is lost, the electronic tag 11 can be used to search for the bag 19.

Figures 8 and 9 are sequence diagrams showing the steps of the monitoring process and search request process of the printed matter management system 100, and are described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Note that in the monitoring process and search process of the printed matter management system 100, processing in the monitoring device 10 is performed by the CPU 102 of the monitoring device 10 executing the monitoring app 113. Processing in the management terminal device 5 is performed by the CPU 511 executing the RFID tag system app 56. Processing in the smartphone 200 is performed by the CPU 102 of the smartphone 200 executing the monitoring app 113.

That is, in FIG. 8, when an employee (user) selects transport mode after launching the monitoring app 113 of the monitoring device 10 (T30), the monitoring device 10 sets the transport mode (T31).

The monitoring device 10 then outputs a transport material registration request to the management terminal device 5 (T32). The transport material registration request includes information indicating the transport material registration request, information indicating that the item is in transport (for example, "in transport"), the printed material ID stored in the storage device 111, and setting information for the search mode in case of loss (in this embodiment, full search mode). The transport material registration request is an example of a monitoring registration command. The processing of T32 is also an example of a first transmission process.

Furthermore, upon receiving the transport material registration request, the management terminal device 5 registers the transport material on the cloud server 9 (T33). That is, the cloud server 9 rewrites the corresponding discard/loss information 186 in the print log information 18 stored in the memory unit 94 to "in transport" based on the printed matter ID included in the transport material registration request. Note that the processing of T33 is an example of storage processing.

Next, the management terminal 5 sends a notification that the transport mode setting has been completed to the monitoring device 10 (T34). The monitoring device 10 then displays on the user IF 107 a message indicating that the transport mode setting has been completed (T35), thereby notifying the employee (user) of this fact.

Next, the monitoring device 10 searches for devices that are outputting advertising signals, and transmits a pairing connection start request to the found electronic tag 11 (T36). The processing of T36 is an example of monitoring establishment processing. Upon receiving the pairing connection start request, the electronic tag 11 stops outputting advertising signals and sets pairing information including its own electronic tag ID 188 (T37). Thereafter, the electronic tag 11 transmits a connection completion to the monitoring device 10. The connection completion includes the set pairing information. This completes pairing between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11.

Next, the employee (user) carries the bag 19 containing the printing paper 14 (printed matter) and moves toward the office (T39). During this movement, at regular intervals (e.g., every one to several seconds), the monitoring device 10 sends a connection status confirmation request to the electronic tag 11 using the pairing information including the electronic tag ID 188 of the electronic tag 11 acquired in the processing of T38 (T40). In addition, upon receiving the connection status confirmation request, the electronic tag 11 sends a confirmation response including the pairing information to the monitoring device 10 (T41).

Furthermore, upon receiving this confirmation response, the monitoring device 10 determines that the bag 19 containing the printing paper 14 (printed matter) is located near the employee (user) (within a range of approximately 10 to 20 meters). Note that the connection status confirmation request is an example of a confirmation signal, and the confirmation response is an example of a response signal. Furthermore, this determination process is an example of a confirmation process.

In this embodiment, the monitoring device 10 continues to check the connection status until the employee (user) arrives at the office carrying the bag 19 containing the printing paper 14 (printed matter), or until the employee (user) shreds the printing paper 14 (printed matter) using the shredder 7. When the employee (user) arrives at the office carrying the bag 19 containing the printing paper 14 (printed matter), or when the employee (user) has shredded the printing paper 14 (printed matter) using the shredder 7, the employee (user) inputs a disconnection command into the monitoring app 113 of the monitoring device 10. This disconnects the connection between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11, and therefore the confirmation processes of T40 and T41 also end.

Furthermore, if the employee (user) loses the bag 19 while traveling by leaving it on a moving object, such as a train (T42), the distance between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 will increase. For example, if the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 are separated by more than approximately 10 to 20 meters, the electronic tag 11 will no longer be able to receive connection status confirmation requests from the monitoring device 10, and the monitoring device 10 will no longer be able to receive confirmation responses from the electronic tag 11. Therefore, communication between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 will be cut off, and the monitoring device 10 will determine that the electronic tag 11 and the bag 19 have been lost. Furthermore, the electronic tag 11 will determine that it itself is lost.

In this embodiment, loss is determined when communication between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 is cut off, but this is not limited to this. For example, loss may be determined when the radio wave strength based on the response signals from the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 weakens below a certain value during communication between the two.

Next, the monitoring process of the electronic tag 11 when the bag 19 and electronic tag 11 are lost will be described below. When the electronic tag 11 detects a communication disconnection (T43), it switches from pairing mode to lost mode (T44). It then sets connection conditions (T45), thereby enabling the monitoring device 10 and smartphone 200 on the print management system 100 to communicate.

Next, the electronic tag 11 changes the electronic tag ID 188 included in the advertising signal to the lost electronic tag ID and resumes outputting the advertising signal (T46). In this embodiment, the lost electronic tag ID is generated according to certain rules based on the electronic tag ID 188. For example, the lost electronic tag ID is created by adding "loss" to the beginning of the electronic tag ID 188, indicating loss, but this is not limited to this. Therefore, the electronic tag 11 that detects a communication disconnection will transmit an advertising signal including the lost electronic tag ID.

In this way, in this embodiment, different processing can be easily performed in normal mode and lost mode by changing the processing depending on whether the electronic tag 11 being searched for transmits an advertisement including the electronic tag ID 188 or an advertisement including the lost electronic tag ID.

In addition, in this embodiment, when the electronic tag 11 has established a connection with the monitoring device 10, i.e., when it is being monitored by the monitoring device 10, it stops outputting advertising signals and limits the monitored object to one monitoring device 10, simplifying monitoring of the print paper 14 (printed matter). On the other hand, when it enters lost mode, it resumes outputting advertising signals, and continues to output advertising signals without stopping, even if a connection is established with a device during lost mode. In other words, by enabling the electronic tag 11 to establish connections with multiple devices (monitoring devices 10 and smartphones 200) in lost mode, it becomes possible to search from many devices, as described below, and increases the chances of finding the electronic tag 11.

Next, the monitoring process in the monitoring device 10 and management terminal 5 when the bag 19 and electronic tag 11 are lost will be described with reference to Figure 9. When the monitoring device 10 detects a communication disconnection (T50), it switches to loss information recording mode (T51). The monitoring device 10 then acquires its own location information via the GPS receiver 108 and stores this location information in the storage device 111 (T52). The monitoring device 10 also acquires time information from its built-in clock or GPS information and stores it in the storage device 111 (T53).

Next, the monitoring device 10 reads the printed matter ID 17 of the printed sheet 14 (printed matter), location information, time information, etc. from the storage device 111, and then outputs a lost material registration request to the management terminal device 5 (T54). The lost material registration request includes information indicating the lost material registration request, the printed matter ID 17 of the lost printed sheet 14 (printed matter), location information at the time of loss, and time information at the time of loss. The monitoring device 10 also displays on the user IF 107 that the electronic tag 11 (bag 19) has been lost, and notifies the employee (user) who possesses the monitoring device 10 of this (T55). This notification may be made audibly using a buzzer or speaker. The processing of T55 is an example of a loss notification process. The lost material registration request is an example of a loss command. The processing of T54 is an example of a second transmission process.

Furthermore, upon receiving the lost material registration request, the management terminal device 5 registers the lost material on the cloud server 9 (T56). That is, the cloud server 9 rewrites the discard/loss information 186 of the corresponding record to "lost" based on the printed material ID 17 in the print log information 18 stored in the memory unit 94. Furthermore, the cloud server 9 stores the location and time of loss in the loss time information 189 of the corresponding record based on the printed material ID 17. The processing of T56 is an example of a loss update process.

Next, the search request process when searching for a lost bag 19 (electronic tag 11) using a smartphone 200 will be described below with reference to Figure 9. That is, the management terminal device 5 sequentially sends a request to search for a lost electronic tag to the smartphones 200 registered in the printed matter management system 100 (T57). Note that a request to search for a lost electronic tag is an example of a search command, and the processing of T57 is an example of search transmission processing.

Then, upon receiving the request to search for the lost electronic tag, the smartphone 200 determines whether to accept or reject the search (T58). That is, for example, if the smartphone 200 determines from the GPS information (location information) that it is moving, the smartphone 200 may automatically determine to "accept." Alternatively, if the GPS information (location information) indicates that the smartphone 200 has hardly moved, the smartphone 200 may automatically determine to "reject." Alternatively, the owner of the smartphone 200 may determine whether to "accept" or "reject" and input this via the user IF 107. Note that in either case, the monitoring app 113 must be running on the smartphone 200.

Next, the smartphone 200 transmits either "accept" or "reject" to the management terminal device 5 (T59). Note that "accept" or "reject" is an example of result information, and the processing of T59 is an example of result transmission processing. In this embodiment, the processing of T59 transmits either "accept" or "reject" as result information, but this is not limited to this. For example, it may be configured to transmit only "accept" as result information. In this case, the management terminal device 5 determines that a smartphone 200 that does not transmit result information of "accept" within a certain time after transmitting a request to search for a lost electronic tag has "rejected."

In this way, in this embodiment, by having the smartphone 200 confirm whether or not the user of the smartphone 200 consents to the search for the electronic tag 11, it is possible to prevent the smartphone 200 from being overloaded by processing unintended by the user of the smartphone 200 being executed by the smartphone 200.

Next, the management terminal device 5 sends a location information request to the smartphone 200 that has replied "accepted" (T60). Then, upon receiving the location information request, the smartphone 200 transmits its own GPS information (location information) acquired via the GPS receiver 108 to the management terminal device 5 (T61).

Next, the management terminal device 5 determines whether the received GPS information (location information) is within the search range. If the received GPS information (location information) is within the search range, it transmits the search electronic tag information to the smartphone 200 (T62). The smartphone 200 then stores the received search electronic tag information in the storage device 111. The smartphone 200 also notifies the employee (user) carrying the smartphone 200 via the user IF 107 that it is in search mode for the lost electronic tag 11. The search electronic tag information includes the printed matter ID 17 of the lost printed sheet 14 (printed matter), location information at the time of loss, the lost electronic tag ID, and the like. The printed matter ID 17 may be the printed matter ID 17 of all printed sheets 14 (printed matters) being transported, or it may be configured to transmit only a portion of the printed matter ID 17, for example, the printed matter ID 17 of the first printed sheet 14 (printed matter) photographed.

In this manner, in this embodiment, the management terminal device 5 determines whether the received GPS information (location information) is within the search range, and if the received GPS information (location information) is within the search range, it transmits the search electronic tag information to the smartphone 200, thereby improving the efficiency of the search. In other words, a smartphone 200 located far from the monitoring device 10 is unlikely to find a wireless tag, and a search for the electronic tag 11 was likely to be wasted, but this can be avoided in this embodiment. Note that if the management terminal device 5 and each smartphone 200 communicate periodically and the management terminal device 5 has the location information of each smartphone 200 in advance, the lost electronic tag search request T57 may be sent only to smartphones 200 within the search range.

Next, the search process when searching for a lost bag 19 using the smartphone 200 will be described below with reference to Figure 10. The employee (user) carrying the smartphone 200 travels to search for the lost bag 19 (electronic tag 11). During this search, the smartphone 200 repeatedly attempts to receive the advertising signal transmitted from the electronic tag 11. This process is an example of the search process. The search process may be executed until a search termination notification is received in the process of T81, which will be described later, or may be executed for a certain period of time after a request to search for a lost electronic tag is received in the process of T57.

In this way, if the search process is configured to be executed immediately after receiving a request to search for a lost electronic tag in the processing of T57, it is expected that the smartphone 200 will be able to find the electronic tag 11 quickly. Furthermore, if the search process is configured to be executed until a certain amount of time has passed since receiving a request to search for a lost electronic tag, i.e., if the search period is limited, excessive burden on the owner of the smartphone 200 can be avoided.

Then, when the smartphone 200 detects an advertising signal including the lost electronic tag ID transmitted from the lost electronic tag 11 among the received advertising signals (T70), it sends a connection request to the lost electronic tag 11 (T71). Note that the employee (user) may be traveling on their way to work, while out of the office, or on a business trip.

Then, upon receiving the connection request, the electronic tag 11 establishes a provisional connection with the smartphone 200 (T72) and verifies the smartphone 200 (T73). If the verification shows that there is no problem with the smartphone 200, the electronic tag 11 sends a request for the printed matter ID 17 to the smartphone 200 (T74).

Next, the smartphone 200, which has received the request for the printed matter ID 17, transmits the printed matter ID 17 to the electronic tag 11 based on the search electronic tag information stored in the memory device 111 (T75). Next, the electronic tag 11 receives the printed matter ID 17 stored in the memory unit, and if the received printed matter ID 17 matches the printed matter ID 17, it transmits a connection permission to the smartphone 200 (T76).

Next, upon receiving the connection permission, the smartphone 200 executes a discovery process (T77). In this discovery process, the smartphone 200 acquires its own GPS information (location information) via the GPS receiver 108, acquires the user ID 181 of the employee who owns the smartphone 200, and acquires the discovery time, and stores these in the storage device 111.

Next, the smartphone 200 transmits a discovery information notification to the management terminal device 5 (T78). This discovery information notification includes the user ID 181 of the discoverer (employee), GPS information (location information) indicating the discovery location, the discovery time, the printed matter ID 17, and the like. The discovery information notification is an example of a discovery command, and the processing of T78 is an example of discovery transmission processing.

During this discovery process, the employee (user) carrying the smartphone 200 may be notified via the user IF 107. In this way, by notifying the discovery of the electronic tag 11 even from the smartphone 200 that has been given permission to search for the electronic tag 11, the user of the smartphone 200 is more likely to notice the discovery, and the user of the monitoring device 10 who has lost the electronic tag 11 can be expected to quickly find the electronic tag 11, for example by contacting the user of the monitoring device 10. The process of notifying the employee (user) carrying the smartphone 200 via the user IF 107 is an example of a third discovery notification process.

Next, the management terminal device 5, which has received the discovery information notification, transmits the discovery information notification to the monitoring device 10 (T79). The processing of T79 is an example of notification processing. The management terminal device 5 also updates the print log information 18 stored in the memory unit 94 of the cloud server 9 (T80). That is, the cloud server 9 rewrites the discard/loss information 186 of the corresponding record in the print log information 18 stored in the memory unit 94 to "in transport" based on the printed matter ID 17. At this time, it may also be rewritten to "discovered." The cloud server 9 also stores the discovery location and discovery time in the discovery time information 190 of the corresponding record based on the printed matter ID 17.

Next, the management terminal device 5 sends a search cancellation notice to all smartphones 200 that accepted the search request, including the smartphone 200 that discovered the electronic tag 11 (T81). The processing of T81 is an example of a discovery notification process. The search cancellation notice may also include the printed matter ID 17 of the search target. The smartphone 200 that receives the search cancellation notice will stop searching for the printed matter ID 17 associated with the search cancellation notice and display this fact via the user IF 107. This causes the owners of the other smartphones 200 to stop searching for the lost electronic tag 11.

In this manner, in this embodiment, once an electronic tag 11 is discovered, it is highly likely that searching for the electronic tag 11 will be futile, so it is preferable to terminate processing based on the search command for other smartphones 200.

Furthermore, upon receiving the discovery information notification, the monitoring device 10 displays on the user IF 107 that the bag 19 (electronic tag 11) has been found, thereby notifying the employee (user) of this (T82). This notification may be made by sound using a buzzer or speaker. Furthermore, at this time, the user IF 107 may display the discovery location, discovery time, and information about the finder (name, department name, and contact information of the finder) based on the discovery information notification. The processing of T82 is an example of a second discovery notification process.

In this manner, in this embodiment, after communication between the monitoring device 10 and the electronic tag 11 is interrupted, another employee's smartphone 200 can also attempt to establish a connection with the electronic tag 11 and search for the electronic tag 11, increasing the likelihood of finding the bag 19 (electronic tag 11).If the bag 19 (electronic tag 11) is found, the monitoring device 10 is notified of the discovery along with its location information, making it easier for the user of the monitoring device 10 to find the bag 19 (electronic tag 11).

Next, the search process when searching for a lost bag 19 using the monitoring device 10 will be described below with reference to Figure 10. Note that in this description, processes that are the same as the search process when searching for a lost bag 19 using the smartphone 200 will be assigned the same reference numerals and their description will be omitted.

An employee carrying a monitoring device 10 moves around in search of the lost electronic tag 11. During this search, the monitoring device 10 repeatedly attempts to receive advertising signals transmitted from the electronic tag 11. This process is an example of a connection attempt process. When the monitoring device 10 detects, among the received advertising signals, an advertising signal containing the lost electronic tag ID transmitted from the lost electronic tag 11 (T83), the monitoring device 10 sends a connection request to the lost electronic tag 11 (T84). The connection request of T84 is different from the connection request of T71, and the electronic tag 11 distinguishes between the two.

After that, when the monitoring device 10 sends the printed matter ID 17 to the electronic tag 11 in response to a request from the electronic tag 11 (T74) (T85), if the electronic tag 11 receives and finds the printed matter ID 17 to be correct, it cancels lost mode and transitions to normal mode (T86), stops outputting the advertising signal, and sends a connection completion notification to the monitoring device 10 (T87).

In this way, in this embodiment, if the confirmation signal is lost, the device goes into lost mode, and only if a printed matter ID 17 that is the same as a pre-registered printed matter ID 17 is sent will the connection with the sender be re-established.By doing this, even if a connection request is made from another device while the electronic tag 11 is lost, the electronic tag 11 will not unnecessarily establish communication with the other device, ensuring the security of the electronic tag 11.

Next, the monitoring device 10 that has received the connection permission executes a discovery process (T88). In this discovery process, the monitoring device 10 acquires its own GPS information (location information) via the GPS receiver 108, as well as the discovery time, and stores these in the storage device 111.

Next, the monitoring device 10 transmits a discovery information notification to the management terminal device 5 (T89). This discovery information notification includes the printed matter ID 17, GPS information (location information) indicating the discovery location, the discovery time, and the like. The discovery information notification is an example of a first discovery update command, and the processing of T89 is an example of a first discovery transmission process.

Furthermore, upon receiving the discovery information notification, the management terminal device 5 updates the print log information 18 stored in the memory unit 94 of the cloud server 9 (T90). That is, the cloud server 9 rewrites the discard/loss information 186 of the corresponding record in the print log information 18 stored in the memory unit 94 to "in transport" based on the printed matter ID. At this time, it may also be rewritten to "discovered." Furthermore, the cloud server 9 stores the discovery location and discovery time in the discovery time information 190 of the corresponding record based on the printed matter ID. The processing of T90 is an example of a discovery update process.

The monitoring device 10 also displays on the user IF 107 that the electronic tag 11 (bag 19) has been found, informing the employee (user) of this (T91). This process is an example of the first discovery notification process. This notification may be made by sound using a buzzer or speaker. After the electronic tag 11 has been found, the monitoring device 10 periodically checks the connection status with the electronic tag 11 again (T40, T41).

In this manner, in this embodiment, after communication with the electronic tag 11 is interrupted, repeated attempts to re-establish a connection with the electronic tag 11 immediately increase the likelihood of discovering the electronic tag 11. If the connection is successfully re-established, the discovery of the electronic tag 11 is notified and the print log information 18 stored in the cloud server 9 is updated. This makes it easy for the user of the monitoring device 10 to notice that the electronic tag 11 has been discovered, and third parties other than the user of the monitoring device 10 can also recognize the discovery of the electronic tag 11 via the management terminal device 5.

Next, silent search, which is another form of processing performed after the management terminal device 5 receives a lost document registration request from the monitoring device 10, will be described below with reference to Figure 11. In the above-mentioned form, the search using the smartphone 200 is initiated after receiving consent from the smartphone 200, but in silent search, the search is initiated without obtaining consent from the smartphone 200. Note that, throughout this description, processes that are the same as the search process when searching for a lost bag 19 using the smartphone 200 will be assigned the same reference numerals and their description will be omitted.

That is, the management terminal device 5, which receives the lost material registration request (T54) and registers the lost material on the cloud server 9 (T56), sequentially sends a request for silent search for the lost electronic tag to the smartphones 200 registered in the print management system 100 (T92). Note that silent search is a mode in which the smartphone 200 searches for the lost electronic tag 11 in the background. Therefore, the employee (user) who carries the smartphone 200 is not notified that the smartphone 200 is being searched.

The management terminal device 5 transmits a location information request to the smartphone 200 (T93). Then, upon receiving the location information request, the smartphone 200 transmits its own GPS information (location information) acquired via the GPS receiver 108 to the management terminal device 5 (T94).

An employee (user) carrying a smartphone 200 moves around during work or personal activities. When the smartphone 200 detects an advertising signal containing the lost electronic tag ID transmitted from the lost electronic tag 11 (T95), the smartphone 200 executes processes T77 to T78, the management terminal device 5 executes processes T79 to T81, and the monitoring device 10 executes process T82.

In this way, according to this embodiment, the smartphone 200 performs a search for the lost bag 19 (electronic tag 11) in the background, allowing the employee (user) carrying the smartphone 200 to carry out their activities without being aware of the search, thereby reducing the burden on the employee (user).

As described above, according to this embodiment, the monitoring application 113 establishes a connection with the electronic tag 11, stores the disposal/loss information 186 of the print log information 18, which is set to a first value indicating that the tag is being transported, in the cloud server 9, and periodically communicates with the electronic tag 11 while the connection is established. If the electronic tag 11 is not within a predetermined range, the monitoring application 113 notifies the user of the electronic tag 11 that it is lost, and rewrites the disposal/loss information 186 stored in the cloud server 9 to a second value indicating that the tag is lost. Therefore, if a user transports the electronic tag 11 together with the printing paper 14 (printed matter), the user of the monitoring device 10 incorporating the monitoring application 113 can easily notice the loss of the electronic tag 11 (printed paper 14 (printed matter)). Furthermore, by having an administrator of the management terminal device 5, for example, refer to the disposal/loss information 186 stored on the cloud server 9, a third party other than the user of the monitoring device 10 can monitor the transportation status of the printing paper 14 (printed matter), ensuring the safety of the printing paper 14 (printed matter) when it is transported.

Note that this embodiment is merely an example and does not limit the present invention in any way. Naturally, the present invention can be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, PC 2 is not limited to storage device 24, and may be equipped with any type of large-capacity storage device.

Furthermore, the communication method between the PC 2 and printer 4 is not limited to wired communication using a USB cable. For example, it may be wireless communication compliant with the Wi-Fi (registered trademark) standard, or wireless communication based on other standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark). It may also be equipped with multiple communication functions.

The two-dimensional barcode 16 and printed matter ID 17 may also be included in the header or footer of the printing paper 14, or may be superimposed on the image of the page to be printed.

In addition, the user ID 181 and electronic tag ID 188 in the print log information 18 may be updated when a connection with the electronic tag 11 is established.

Furthermore, although the monitoring device 10 is used to input the user ID 181 into the electronic tag 11, it may also be configured to be done using the electronic tag application 33 on the PC 2.

Furthermore, the processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by hardware such as a single CPU, multiple CPUs, or an ASIC, or a combination of these. Furthermore, the processes disclosed in the embodiments may be realized in various ways, such as a recording medium on which a program for executing the processes is recorded, or a method.

2 PCs
33 Electronic tag application 4 Printer 5 Management terminal device 7 Shredding device 9 Cloud server 10 Monitoring device 113 Monitoring application 11 Electronic tag 14 Printing paper 16 Two-dimensional barcode 17 Printed matter ID
18 Print log information 186 Disposal/loss information 188 Electronic tag ID

Claims (14)

a print monitoring program;
A wireless tag and
A server;
A print monitoring system comprising:
The server
It is possible to store printed matter information including a printed matter ID that identifies the printed matter and transport status information that indicates the transport status,
The print monitoring program
A controller of a mobile terminal in which the print monitoring program is installed,
an acquisition process for acquiring the printed matter ID, a first transmission process for transmitting a monitoring registration command to the server, and a monitoring establishment process for establishing a connection with the wireless tag to be monitored, wherein the monitoring registration command is associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process;
The server
When the monitoring registration command is received, a storage process is executed to store the printed matter information including the printed matter ID associated with the received monitoring registration command and the transport status information in which a first value indicating that transport is in progress is set;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
a confirmation process for periodically transmitting a confirmation signal to the wireless tag to be monitored while a connection is established with the wireless tag, and determining whether the wireless tag is within a predetermined range based on a response signal from the wireless tag;
The wireless tag is
When the confirmation signal is received, a response process is performed to transmit the response signal to the mobile terminal that transmitted the confirmation signal;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When it is determined in the confirmation process that the wireless tag is not within the predetermined range, the confirmation process is stopped, and a loss notification process is executed to notify a user interface of the mobile terminal that the wireless tag is lost, and a second transmission process is executed to transmit a loss command to the server, the loss command being associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process,
The server
When the loss command is received, the printed matter information corresponding to the printed matter ID associated with the received loss command is extracted from the stored printed matter information, and a loss update process is executed to rewrite the transport status information included in the extracted printed matter information to a second value indicating that the printed matter is lost.
A print monitoring system configured to: 2. A print monitoring system according to claim 1,
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When it is determined in the confirmation process that the wireless tag is not within the predetermined range, the confirmation process is stopped, and the loss notification process, the second transmission process, and a connection attempt process for periodically attempting to re-establish a connection with the wireless tag are executed.
When the connection attempt process is successful in re-establishing a connection with the wireless tag, a first discovery notification process is executed to notify the user interface of the mobile terminal of the discovery of the wireless tag, and a first discovery transmission process is executed to transmit a first discovery update command to the server, the first discovery update command being associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process,
The server
When the first discovery update command is received, the printed matter information corresponding to the printed matter ID associated with the received first discovery update command is extracted from the stored printed matter information, and a discovery update process is executed to rewrite the transport status information included in the extracted printed matter information to the first value.
A print monitoring system configured to: 3. A print monitoring system according to claim 1 or claim 2,
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
a registration process is executed to register the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process in the wireless tag, and in the monitoring establishment process, a search signal transmitted from the wireless tag is detected and a connection request is transmitted to the wireless tag that transmitted the detected search signal;
The wireless tag is
If the confirmation signal is not received within a predetermined period of time after the response signal is transmitted, the device goes into a lost mode.
When the connection request is received,
If the lost mode is active, the device requests the sender of the connection request to transmit the printed matter ID, and if the device receives from the sender of the connection request the printed matter ID that is the same as the registered printed matter ID, the device establishes a connection with the sender of the connection request, cancels the lost mode, and if the device does not receive from the sender of the connection request the printed matter ID that is the same as the registered printed matter ID, the device does not establish a connection with the sender of the connection request,
If the device is not in the lost mode, the device does not request the sender of the connection request to transmit the printed matter ID, and establishes a connection with the sender of the connection request.
A print monitoring system configured to: 4. A print monitoring system according to claim 3,
The server
When the loss command is received, the loss update process and a search transmission process are executed to transmit a search command to a second mobile terminal that is a mobile terminal different from a first mobile terminal that is the mobile terminal that transmitted the loss command, the search command being associated with the printed matter ID associated with the received loss command, and the second mobile terminal also having the printed matter monitoring program installed therein;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When the search command is received, the search signal is detected, the connection request is transmitted to the wireless tag that transmitted the detected search signal, and a search process is executed to attempt to establish a connection with the wireless tag using the printed matter ID associated with the received search command.
When the connection with the wireless tag is successfully established in the search process, a discovery transmission process is executed to transmit a discovery command to the server, and the discovery command is associated with the printed matter ID associated with the received search command and location information indicating the location where communication with the wireless tag was successful;
The server
When the find command is received, a notification process is executed to send a notification command to the first mobile terminal that sent the lost command, and the notification command is associated with the location information associated with the find command;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
executing a second discovery notification process for notifying the user interface of the mobile terminal of the location information associated with the received notification command and the discovery of the wireless tag when the notification command is received;
A print monitoring system configured to: 5. A print monitoring system according to claim 4,
The wireless tag is
When a connection with the first mobile terminal is established, a connection with another mobile terminal is not established;
if the confirmation signal is not received within a predetermined period of time after the response signal is transmitted, the mobile terminal enters a lost mode, and in the lost mode, the mobile terminal is enabled to establish connections with a plurality of mobile terminals.
A print monitoring system configured to: 6. A print monitoring system according to claim 4 or claim 5,
The server
When the discovery command is received, the notification process and a discovery notification process are executed to transmit a discovered command to the second mobile terminal that transmitted the search command in addition to the second mobile terminal that transmitted the discovery command, and the discovered command is associated with the printed matter ID that was associated with the received discovery command,
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When the found command is received, the search process executed based on the search command associated with the same printed matter ID as the printed matter ID associated with the received found command is terminated.
A print monitoring system configured to: A print monitoring system according to any one of claims 4 to 6,
The server
When the loss command is received, the loss update process and an authorization transmission process of transmitting an authorization confirmation command to the second mobile terminal are executed;
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When the permission confirmation command is received, a result transmission process is executed to transmit result information indicating whether or not the search for the wireless tag is permitted to the server;
The server
executes the search transmission process when the result information indicating that the search for the wireless tag is permitted is received, and does not execute the search transmission process when the result information indicating that the search for the wireless tag is permitted is not received.
A print monitoring system configured to: 8. A print monitoring system according to claim 7,
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When the connection with the wireless tag is successfully established in the search process, the mobile terminal executes the discovery transmission process and a third discovery notification process for notifying the user interface of the mobile terminal that the wireless tag has been found.
A print monitoring system configured to: A print monitoring system according to any one of claims 4 to 8,
The print monitoring program
The controller of the mobile terminal
When the search command is received, the search process is periodically executed until a certain period of time has elapsed since the search command was received.
A print monitoring system configured to: A print monitoring system according to any one of claims 4 to 9,
The server
In the search transmission process, location information indicating a location of the first mobile terminal and location information indicating a location of the second mobile terminal are acquired, and based on the acquired location information of each mobile terminal, the search command is transmitted to the second mobile terminal located within a predetermined range from the location of the first mobile terminal, and the search command is not transmitted to the second mobile terminal not located within the predetermined range.
A print monitoring system configured to: A wireless tag having a lost mode indicating that communication from a monitored mobile terminal has been lost, and a normal mode indicating that communication is not in the lost mode,
Register a print ID that identifies the print to be monitored;
In the case of the normal mode,
When a connection request is received, the mobile terminal that sent the connection request responds with a connection completion, thereby establishing a connection with the mobile terminal that sent the connection request;
When a connection with the mobile terminal that is the source of the connection request is established, if a connection request is received from another mobile terminal, the mobile terminal does not establish a connection with the other mobile terminal, and when a confirmation signal transmitted from the mobile terminal that is the source of the connection request is received, the mobile terminal transmits a response signal to the mobile terminal that is the source of the connection request, and when the confirmation signal is not received from the mobile terminal that is the source of the connection request within a predetermined period of time after transmitting the response signal, the mobile terminal transitions to the lost mode;
In the case of the lost mode,
When a connection request is received, the device requests the mobile terminal that is the sender of the connection request to transmit the printed matter ID, and if the device receives the printed matter ID that is the same as the registered printed matter ID from the mobile terminal that is the sender of the connection request, the device establishes a connection with the mobile terminal that is the sender of the connection request and cancels the lost mode, and if the device does not receive the printed matter ID that is the same as the registered printed matter ID from the mobile terminal that is the sender of the connection request, the device does not establish a connection with the mobile terminal that is the sender of the connection request.
A wireless tag configured to: 12. The wireless tag according to claim 11,
Register the device name
In the normal mode, a search signal is transmitted with a first device name based on the registered device name;
In the lost mode, the search signal is transmitted with a second device name based on the registered device name;
the connection request is associated with either the first device name or the second device name;
When the connection request associated with the first device name is received, the connection request is regarded as having been received in the normal mode, and a connection completion is responded to the mobile terminal that transmitted the connection request, thereby establishing a connection with the mobile terminal that transmitted the connection request, and while the connection with the mobile terminal that transmitted the connection request is established, the transmission of the search signal is stopped;
When the device has entered the lost mode, the device resumes transmitting the search signal.
When the connection request associated with the second device name is received, the connection request is considered to have been received in the lost mode, a request is made to the mobile terminal that has sent the connection request to transmit the printed matter ID, and if the same printed matter ID as the registered printed matter ID is received from the mobile terminal that has sent the connection request, a connection is established with the mobile terminal that has sent the connection request, the lost mode is cancelled, and if the same printed matter ID as the registered printed matter ID is not received from the mobile terminal that has sent the connection request, a connection is not established with the mobile terminal that has sent the connection request.
A wireless tag configured to: On the mobile device controller,
executes an acquisition process for acquiring a printed matter ID, a first transmission process for transmitting a monitoring registration command to a server, and a monitoring establishment process for establishing a connection with the wireless tag to be monitored, the monitoring registration command is associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process, the server is capable of storing printed matter information including the printed matter ID and transport status information indicating a transport status, and when the monitoring registration command is received, stores the printed matter information including the printed matter ID associated with the received monitoring registration command and the transport status information in which a first value indicating that transport is in progress is set,
The controller of the mobile terminal further comprises:
When a connection is established between the wireless tag and the mobile terminal, a confirmation signal is periodically transmitted to the wireless tag to be monitored, and a confirmation process is executed to determine whether the wireless tag is within a predetermined range based on a response signal from the wireless tag, and when the wireless tag receives the confirmation signal, the wireless tag transmits the response signal to the mobile terminal that transmitted the confirmation signal;
The controller of the mobile terminal further comprises:
When it is determined in the confirmation process that the wireless tag is not within the predetermined range, the confirmation process is stopped, and a loss notification process is executed to notify a user interface of the mobile terminal that the wireless tag is lost, and a second transmission process is executed to send a loss command to the server, the loss command being associated with the printed matter ID acquired in the acquisition process, and when the server receives the loss command, it extracts the printed matter information corresponding to the printed matter ID associated with the received loss command from the printed matter information stored, and rewrites the transport status information included in the extracted printed matter information to a second value indicating that the wireless tag is lost.
A print monitoring program configured to: 14. A print monitoring program according to claim 13,
In the acquisition process, a code printed on the printed matter is read by a camera of the mobile terminal, and the printed matter ID encoded in the code is acquired.
A print monitoring program configured to: